10 points to think about when presenting to a VC

Having raised more than $300 million in numerous financings, and listened and reveiwed in excess of 600 pitches, I have found that there are 3 things that will get a VC  to meet with you.

• an idea
• top people. passionate and ability to work together 
• a big market for the product and service.

 In your presentation, make sure these each get a slide.

Your presentation goal is to get a second meeting – not to get the money at that meeting!!-  give them an overview on the investment opportunity and show how you will make money for them.

1. Do your homework:

ensure that the VC is interested in your space and is prepared to invest the money needed… Often VCs are only inteested in investing 10m + , it is a waste of time presenting a pitch asking for $1m.

2.Ten slides: limit the number of slides in your venture capital presentation to ten. – a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal.
If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business.

The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:

1.The problem you are solving and industry context

2.Your solution

3.Business model

4.Underlying magic/technology

5.Marketing and sales

6.Competition

7.Team

8.Projections and milestones

9.Status and timeline

10.Summary and call to action

3.Less is more on slide content: Each slide should contain one, clear point

 
4.Start with the big picture: Avoid being bogged down in details at the beginning of your venture capital presentation. Start with the industry trends and why your idea will fit well with the indsutry and where it is going.

5.KISS – Keep it simple —- no jargon or technical terminology that might not be clear to your entire audience

6.Use graphics: A picture is worth a thousand words. Graphics are especially important in conveying new ideas and concepts – make them clear and relevant

7.Readable font size: dont read your slides and make the font big…

8.20 Minutes – spare them the details: it is a venture capital presentation, not a white paper! In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.

9.Clear financial model – Have a clear financial model that shows how your business makes money

10.Use “bottom line” conclusions on your slides the venture capital presentation should focus on your bottom line only.

 Remember some of the ideas above using the 10/20/30 rule of a PowerPoint presentation. It’s simple to remember: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.

Posted on April 10, 2012