Though decks can be a good resource, I find talking through a deck easy. I'd be keen to see the email versions that got the meetings.
Yes, I know, most meetings are going to come from warm intros, but it's still good to have an emailable deck from what I understand. I'm really unhappy with mine, but it hasn't stopped me from getting any meetings.
The meetings we've had have gone well. Some very well. Most of the VCs we've talked to were low on our list to feel out the market (they don't do deep-tech/hardware/health-tech).
We're not actively raising yet, but having early conversations to gauge interest. We've had direct interest from Angels as well.
This is always the part I'm interested in too, and can't help but believe the initial user base is always faked with a few hundred bots, and slowly phased out as real people stumble in. There's no way anything starts just with 10 people or family and friends using it. The common person will immediately back out on suspicion.
My (unsolicited) advice that I followed after hearing it from somewhere else (HN probably). Get customers first, build later.
If I don’t already have a line of people ready to put money down for the product (or even pre-ordered), it’s not going to be any easier after I take the time to build it. If I can’t get customers before I build it, I’d seek out different problems to solve.
I am not a serial entrepreneur or someone who has created large businesses like others here, so take what I say with a huge grain of salt, but it’s how I’ve chosen to pursue projects going forward.
I looked at maybe a dozen of these decks. The only one that made any kind of sense to me was AirBnB's.
I've never raises funds, or even watched it happen. But given how these decks are so varied, how important are they? Is there any kind of rhyme and reason to the art of deck building?
If any thing, each seems to be a one-off meant for a very narrow audience.
If so, then the takeaway lesson is "Know your audience"?
Are you sure all these are billion-dollar companies? I highly doubt that. This is just a collection of startup pitch decks, some of which are unicorns.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 43.0 ms ] threadYes, I know, most meetings are going to come from warm intros, but it's still good to have an emailable deck from what I understand. I'm really unhappy with mine, but it hasn't stopped me from getting any meetings.
We're not actively raising yet, but having early conversations to gauge interest. We've had direct interest from Angels as well.
If I don’t already have a line of people ready to put money down for the product (or even pre-ordered), it’s not going to be any easier after I take the time to build it. If I can’t get customers before I build it, I’d seek out different problems to solve.
I am not a serial entrepreneur or someone who has created large businesses like others here, so take what I say with a huge grain of salt, but it’s how I’ve chosen to pursue projects going forward.
For instance, Airbnb slide 7 says $84M trips with Airbnb (they should not have had the $ as it was number of trips).
I've never raises funds, or even watched it happen. But given how these decks are so varied, how important are they? Is there any kind of rhyme and reason to the art of deck building?
If any thing, each seems to be a one-off meant for a very narrow audience.
If so, then the takeaway lesson is "Know your audience"?