Today I'm gonna show you exactly how to build a killer pitch in fact in this video
I'm gonna show you exactly the methods
I used to raise fifty seven million dollars for Vivino the world's largest wine app with 32 million users
interestingly enough
Funding and pitching it's very much about one single word one single four-letter word
And if you master that four-letter word, you might just get funded so stay tuned for that
This is Raw Startup
Look
Fundraising can be rough and I have some true true horror stories and always remember that
Even people that are very successful in fundraising will get more No's than Yes'
So you have to get through all those No's to get going. I have a story from a couple years ago
I'd secured a meeting with Google Ventures
Amazing Google Ventures. Yes
So they're about an hour from my house
Yeah, so I thought you know, I'll leave two hours before did that on the freeway off we go
stuck on the freeway
Major traffic jam I was going nowhere
So I was sitting there for an hour sweating knowing that four people were waiting for me and just couldn't do anything about it
When I got there, I was 15-20 minutes late. Nothing worked couldn't plug it in
My computer couldn't get on the big screen ended up showing the presentation on my laptop and it all went horribly bad
So obviously we never raised any money from Google Ventures, but that's life that's life, you know
You will get No's and move on get over it. There'll be other investors in order to learn from the mistakes
I've made in the past and the lessons I've learned in racing 57 million for Vivino
I've made a six step guide to build an amazing pitch deck and also to give you the right
mindset when going into a pitch
Step one win the first 30 seconds
a lot of people have a great story to tell when they start a pitch, but they make the mistake of
Building it up over a long time. You cannot do that
You got to go straight to the point you
I win them in the first 30 seconds. If you lose them there you might lose them for good
They may never never come back so you can't do that in a pitch
first
Tell a story tell a story about the problem and tell a story about how you're gonna change that for me at Vivino
I always told a story about how I walk into a supermarket. Look at this wall of wine
Don't know what I'm gonna buy and then needed help for that
After that to hit them in the face and tell them how massively big this can be in the Vivino's case
It wasn't that hard wine is a three hundred billion dollar industry
Nobody has really conquered yet. No, real tech player dominates that they really like that
We now set the stage for the investors to be really really interested for the rest of the pitch
So let's move on to step number two
Step number two
percent the problem and a solution
This is the basic premise of any startup and it never gets enough attention in a pitch
I think the reason is there were so much into our problem and solution that we forget to tell the story
There is a problem and this is the solution
If you lose the investor at this point if they don't understand what you're doing the entire premise of the pitch is gone
You cannot lose them here. You have to do it thoroughly and make sure they're with you. This is probably the most
important part of the pitch
the problem explained thoroughly what the problem is and how the
Solutions out there don't solve the problem then show your solution show them what you're building and how that is better
This varies quite a bit on how far you are
If you're a very early stage
Show them mock-ups
If you you build something show that either way be very visual show them what it looks like
It looks like investors want to see what you're building
So be very visual whatever you have show it. Maybe it's a mock-up
Maybe it's screenshots. Whatever it is. You might even have a live product and want to do a demo
Live demos are very compelling
But when you do them plan it down to the smallest detail and practice it no improvisation
When you do a live demo, you know exactly what you're doing. They're compelling but they can easily go wrong
The objective here is for the
investors to understand the problem and the solution that you're building if they have faith in that the rest is going to be
Do they have faith in you actually pulling this off on that note. Let's move on to step number three
step number three
Make sure your investable the mistake that a lot of founders do is they think that a great product
Even a great product with traction makes a great investment
It does not a great product a great market a great team does not guarantee a great investment
For the investors. The premise is pretty simple
They want to put him some money and get more money back when it comes to startups
They need to get a lot of money back. They're not looking to double their money in five years
They are looking to get their money back five ten times maybe even more
That does not make them greedy investors
they have to do this because it's so high risk a
Lot of startups will disappear and the ones that do well will need to make the money for those startups
So put yourself in the head of the investor. This has to be a great investment with a lot of upside
Now, what does that mean for your pitch?
But it means you have to think big you have to tell the investors that whatever you have now
Can become five times ten times maybe a hundred times or even more of what you see today?
So think big in order to be big you have to be scalable
The investors will look for that in your pitch
You have to have something that can be sold again
And again, and usually the investment is spent on building something that you could keep selling
Let's say you do consulting you sell services to your clients by the hour and charge them by the hour
Even if you work really really hard
There are only 24 hours in a day that by definition is not scalable
It's really really hard for investors to invest in that type of business on the other hand
You have a mobile game you build it once and you can keep selling it that by definition is very very scalable
so scalability is about building something once and
Selling it again and again like a certain software or a service something like that
Something where every time you sell it. There's very little extra cost
Being scalable is a requirement for getting an investment. So you have to make that very clear in your pitch
Most important takeaway is think big be scalable. Let's move on to step number four
step number four make sure you cover everything it is very important that you cover everything because if you forget something
The investor will probably ask about it and when they ask about it, you won't be really about prepared to answer
So I've made a checklist of what needs to be in a pitch. So let's go through that
Motivation - why are you doing this problem?
Solution /Product
traction market business model revenue team
Fundraising plan and objectives. Now, let's go through every single one and make sure we put the right stuff in there. Boom
the first three
motivation problem and solution we've already covered
So let's move on to traction traction means how's your startup doing?
How many users are you getting how many users do you have?
How much revenue do you have and so on the objective here is pretty simple
Put whatever makes you look the best out there what ever graph?
Whatever it is that makes you look amazing show them that next up is the market
This is important because startup is only investable if the market is big enough
So the primary thing here is to show this is a massively big market and we can get a piece of it
Next up is business model and revenue if you have it show it and show how it's growing
Startups are all about growth growth growth now
You may very well be pre revenue too - that's fine startups have built in many different ways
Vivino took a very long time before we started doing revenue. So if you're pre-revenue
Keep the slide in there, but show them how you think you're gonna make money once you get there
What is the business model that you see for this startup next up? There's the team the team is incredibly
Important especially in the early stages very often. There's a very little product maybe no traction at all
So everything is about the faith in the team actually making this happen, finally
There's the fundraising plan and objectives investor will need to know. Hey, how are you gonna spend this money?
How are you gonna invest this money?
So on top of that they will want to know what are the objectives. What goals do you want to reach with the money?
That's now being invested in
step number five
Understanding the psychology of a pitch. So now it's gonna get deep
We're gonna talk about psychology when pitching we're getting back to the word that I mentioned in the beginning
the four-letter word that most people don't know but actually
Determines whether investors will invest now or not
That word is FOMO fear of missing out
So the primary reasons why they invest is FOMO and more importantly creating FOMO
So they invest right now always remember that investors look at multiple companies at all times
They might be interested. But is there a sense of urgency to invest right now?
And that's where FOMO comes in. If you don't create FOMO, they won't have to invest right now
They'll wait it might never happen. So no FOMO investment
So with everything you do try and build the FOMO
for instance if you show a graph of
Of your attraction right now, make sure hey it takes up a little bit right now and tell the story. Look at this
It's happening right now. It's gonna explode from here
So always build and create FOMO be nice be polite, but don't flatter the investor
Don't tell them that the greatest investor ever because if they're the greatest investor ever and they're the only investor you want
There's gonna be no fear of missing out and no FOMO no investment. Don't ask the investor directly
What do you think do they want to invest and so on it makes you look desperate and kills FOMO
You always need to look like you have plenty of options that creates FOMO always remember money is just money
There's plenty of it out there and there are a lot of investors looking for great startups
Some money is just money the other way around
There's only one you there's only one startup like this particular one
That's really what creates FOMO is the fact that hey guys you have an opportunity to invest in this startup
right
now that opportunity may never come back what I did with Vivino when it comes to FOMO was always
Selling what's right around the corner for instance
If you have a graph of growth, maybe there's a little bit of a jump in the numbers last month
You show it to them say hey guys. This is happening right now. There's clearly a new trend. It's gonna blow up from here
So sell them that it's gonna explode. This is your chance that creates a lot of FOMO
So finally they're just an investor like a lot of other investors, but there's only one you that's important. So
Create FOMO create lots of FOMO and never kill FOMO that's important.
Think I've said FOMO enough by now
That's a lot of FOMOs-- step number six use very very simple slides
You don't have to be a designer to create a very efficient pitch deck
Always remember you're not a designer
You shouldn't be designing whatever you consider
Great design might not be amazing design take a look at these two slides
Both from a Vivino deck first our mission to build the world's largest wine marketplace
simple logo white text on black background nothing fancy
But it works second one is about showing the product simple
Just you showing a few slides to show the product works also very very efficient
so keep the slides very
Simple and here's some easy to apply advice when you build your deck very little text on each slide if there is a bullet list
Do three four five maximum five bullets and short text?
You do not want your audience to read if they read off your screen. You'll lose them
I generally don't recommend video if they want to see a video they can see it on YouTube or something
They're here to meet you and see you if a video is very very important to the pitch for some reason
Then that's fine. But keep it in seconds. Not minutes
Keep it consistent don't change the colors every other slide find a style and keep it that way
Keep one font maximum too, but try and stay in one font and only a few sizes
Keep it clean. The main purpose here is to communicate a message
And if that message doesn't come through clearly you certainly have failed
So keep a big font
Make sure it's easy to read no text on top of pictures
Every single slide must be easy to read even by people
Pretty far away and with a poor eyesight make sure there's enough contrast between the text and whatever's behind
generally white text on black background works the best and
never ever use Comic Sans Comic Sans is
ugly
Everybody hates it if you want to be disqualified right away, please do use Comic Sans, but don't do it
You won't be taken seriously ever after that day, finally
Here's a pro tip for you whenever you show a graph the supposed to show growth make it tall not wide
Definitely not rocket science, but here's how it works
If you have text put it next to it on the side
Never under look at this. It looks a lot steeper these small things. They do matter
Okay, there you have it my six step process to building an amazing pitch deck
Hope it makes you feel a little bit more confident helps you build an amazing pitch deck
So if you like this content, if you want to see more like this, please do subscribe to my channel
Finally, I definitely want to hear from you. I want to hear about what kind of content you would like me to cover
If you have questions, let me know in the comment section. Thank you very much for watching see you soon!
You