Welcome to the Dreamit Dose. In the next 5 minutes we'll talk about
if you've got traction, an extremely compelling and unique way to pitch your startup.
And how to make sure you stand head and shoulders above every
other startup that's out there pitching today. Let's dive in.
You may not know this, but you only have a few minutes to catch an investor's attention
otherwise they just tune out and they've already made up their mind.
You probably are aware of the 10 to 15 standard slides
you should have in your pitch deck.
But if you've got traction, I want you to add another slide in there
and it's all about doing a flashback pitch.
What do I mean by a flashback?
It's just like when you see a movie that's got a flashback format to it.
You know, movies that are dramas, like Titanic or Social Network
that start with the end of the movie in the beginning.
And then the rest of the movie is the journey that builds to that ending.
If you've got traction, that's what you should do in your pitch deck.
Use this flashback technique and give highlights of what you're going to talk about in your deck.
The key essential items of what you're going to talk about your pitch deck
right up front in the first couple of minutes and grab that investors attention.
So how do you do it?
You have your cover slide of your deck
and your next slide is going to be your snapshot slide.
And in one slide you're going to cover all of the key points
and you're going to be able to deliver that in about one minute.
In that one minute, you're going to give really compelling information.
And if the investors don't find it compelling, you probably have much bigger issues going on
with your pitch deck and how that meeting is going to go.
Now, what you cover on that snapshot slide, because it's very condensed
and you only have a minute to get through it, is really important.
We're going to get to that in a moment.
I know I'm going quickly, so please make sure
to leave your questions in the comments section and subscribe.
We have a lot more coming.
So, you're on the 2nd slide of your pitch deck, probably entitled snapshot.
What are you going to include on there?
All of the key items from your pitch deck with really succinct answers and definitions.
Almost like Twitter posts about these key items.
Things like, what's the problem you're solving,
what's the solution, and what's unique about it?
How big is the market size? What's your revenue model?
How much traction do you have to date? Like number of customers,
ARR, MRR, trials, and growth.
How much have you raised in the past? How much you're raising going forward,
and what are the goals of that raise?
Those are pretty much the key items you can include in a snapshot
on one page that you can deliver in one minute.
Let's kind of fill in the blanks and see what one looks like.
The problem that we're solving is we stop prescription errors in hospitals.
You may not know this, but about 3 percent of all prescriptions
written to patients in hospitals, when they're inpatient, are in error.
Our solution takes a unique big data approach,
almost like the way credit card fraud is detected,
to stop prescription errors in hospitals.
The market is huge.
There's 6 thousand hospitals in the market today.
And I can say that we generally charge about 2 hundred thousand dollars a year
so our total addressable market is x.
Today our traction is we have 3 hospitals using the system already.
We have 6 more under trial.
In the past we've raised 2 million dollars to get us to where we are to date.
Going forward, we're raising another 5 million dollars
to get ourselves to a 10 million dollar ARR within the next 1 to 2 years.
See how that works. In less then 2 minutes you've set the hook.
You've really set yourself apart because upfront you're talking about
the traction that you have, what you've de-risked, how much you're raising,
and the goals you have for that raise. It's really really unusual.
So you're giving them the compelling information,
that's most interesting to them while they're still listening and haven't tuned you out.
As Andrew Akerman from Dreamit likes to say,
If I don't hear a startup talking about traction in the first few minutes,
I assume it's because they have none.
Otherwise, why wouldn't they talk about that? It's what we're most interested in hearing.
So make sure, hit that traction hit those key points right up front
in a snapshot slide then you're going to transition to the rest of your deck.
But you've got the investors attention. They're fully listening,
and now they want to hear your full story and the full journey.
So, what do you need to remember?
Use it if you've got traction.
Second slide of your deck is entitled something like snapshot.
Then you have all the key items from your pitch deck.
One sentence on each.
What's the problem? What's the solution?
What's your revenue model? What's the market size?
Who are your key customers? What traction do you have to date?
Maybe your ARR or MRR is listed in there.
How much have you raised? How much are you raising?
What are the goals of that raise?
That' it. That's what goes in that snapshot summary.
Then from there, just resume your normal pitch deck.
That's your Dreamit Dose in about 5 minutes.
I look forward answering your questions in the comments section.
See you next time.