This is Alejandro Cremades, and today we’re going to be talking about how to position
the team in a pitch deck. Before we get started, make sure that you hit that subscribe button,
and this way, you will never miss out on any of the videos that we roll out every week.
You’ve probably heard investors that invest in startups say all the time when they’re
asked, “What do you look for the most in startups before you make an investment?”
they always say, “Team, team, team.” Team is absolutely everything. In today’s video,
we’re going to really explain, break it down for you so that you understand how to
convey this, whether it’s in your presentation or in your narrative. So with that being said,
let’s get into it. What’s the most important slide in your
pitch deck? Some investors may think it’s the financials. Some investors think it’s
probably the problem or the solution. But the team has to be one of the most important
slides. In fact, there are studies that were conducted that determined that investors,
on average, spend 2 minutes, 41 seconds per presentation, and out of those 2 minutes,
41 seconds, the two slides that they spend the most amount of time on are the financials
and also the team. So the team is a critical component of it because it’s going to allow
for the investor to know what kind of background, what kind of expertise, and how well those
founders or that team are going to be able to steer the ship into the right path, into
the right journey. When it comes to understanding what the investor
is going to look for when they’re looking at the team, when they’re looking at maybe
making an investment, doing the due diligence, or reviewing your slide, they want to come
across two things: 1) The ability to execute because as they say, “5% is the idea; 95%
is the execution.” They want to know that over the course of time, whatever promises
that you and your team are making, you’re actually delivering over the course of time.
So, that’s for the ability of execution. 2) Now, the other thing is the commitment.
When you’re, for example, putting in your team slides, make sure that you can put your
hands on the fire that those individuals are going to be sticking around for at least six
months or more. Otherwise, what you’re doing is you’re adding more concerns rather than
removing concerns. Remember that in fundraising, it’s all about removing concerns because
the concerns that you’re going to encounter are what separate you and the money. That’s
why you want to remove those concerns, and you do not want to add more.
When it comes to the commitment, you want people that are going to be sticking around
for the long run. One of the things that you can do and that you can convey is essentially
that you’ve put together a plan or an equity incentive plan where you are rewarding your
employees over the course of the long run in the event that certain milestones or perhaps
a certain period of time that they stick around. That unlocks certain equity that would be
assigned to them. That also creates the commitment for these people to stick around.
When it comes to the capabilities, in terms of the capabilities, the investor is going
to want to know what is the domain expertise that you have and that your team has and for
how long have you been involved in this space, in this segment? What have you done in the
past? Perhaps when you’re there looking at your team, they’re going to want to know
what other companies have they been at? What kind of networks have you been able to build
around you, whether that is advisors, former colleagues, former classmates, whatever that
is? But that you’ve been involved in the space.
Typically, one great thing that you can do on the team slide of the pitch deck is to
put the logos of the different companies that the management has been working at. And, perhaps,
even the years of experience that they have in this specific segment. That conveys the
experience, and the domain authority that you have, and the leadership approach, and
that’s something that you really want to have coming across as a point.
Who is going to count as part of the team on the pitch deck? Here, you’re going to
have three key areas. You’re going to have on one end, the cofounders. You’re going
to have the executives, and you’re going to have the advisors, and perhaps members
of the board of directors, obviously, depending on your stage and in which lifecycle you are
in, in the execution of the business. The cofounders are who created this business,
whether it was you or whether it was you and your partners. Basically, this is what you’re
going to be outlining. You can either create the founding team type of slide, or you can
perhaps create the leadership team type of slide where you are putting yourself and your
partners with your title and also the fact that you are a founder.
Now, the executives, essentially what you want to do is, you want to include the C-suite.
You want to avoid including your intern or including this person that just started as
a super junior because it’s, as we said, all about the expertise and the authority
that you have in the space. So, with this in mind, what you want is to put the top as
C-level executives that are actually part of the leadership team of the business.
On the advisors, you do not want to put the executives and then also the advisors in one
single slide because that could be overwhelming. So break it out where you have the executives
and the founders on one slide and then the advisors or the board members on another slide.
Here, on the advisors, you want to put people that have the expertise, the type of advice
that they’re providing to you. Then, also, on the board members, more of the same. Maybe
it could be an investor that has invested in your business.
Going back to the executives and the founding team, what you want to do is avoid putting
a long format of bios on the presentation. What you want to do is include two bullet
points: What is the biggest accomplishment of that
individual to date? The previous companies that they have worked
at and the number of years that they have executing in this specific space.
What if you’re not sure about your team? What you can do is go out and hire people
that could be great fits for the executive team. You can also use equity to incentivize
them. You can go and get another cofounder. Maybe you’re technical, or someone on the
business side. Or maybe you’re on the business side, and you need someone on the technical
side. There are always incentives that you can use and use that equity approach.
Remember to hit a Like on this video. Leave a comment and let me know what you’re up
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rolling out every week. Then, also, if you’re raising capital, feel free to shoot me a note
at alejandro@pantheraadvisors.com. We’d love to help out. Thank you so much for watching.