Companion pages listed at right and in this blog's nav bar compile readings on other topics relevant to startup management.
Designing Investor Pitches
- The book, Get Backed, by entrepreneurs Baehr and Loomis, provides guidance on designing and delivering investor pitches
- I helped the team at DocSend analyze 200 startup pitch decks to identify best practices for deck design
- Jay Acunzo of NextView Ventures summarizes best practices gleaned from reviewing lots of decks
- Dashboard breaks down a startup pitch deck; Christopher Mirable does the same
- Bessemer's Dave Cowan on slides to include in a VC pitch deck
- Mayfield's Raj Kapoor on elements of a great pitch deck
- NextView Ventures offers different pitch deck templates and advice on when to use them
- Alex Iskold, MD of TechStars NYC describes the perfect pitch deck
- Iskold makes the case for replacing pitch decks with pitch videos; Mark Suster emphasizes the power of video and narrative for explaining your startup; Bill Gurley "In Defense of the Deck"
- Elizabeth Yin on the differences between and in-person and email pitch deck; NextView's Rob Go expands on how to structure email and in-person presentations
- John Greathouse makes the case for skipping a product demo in your pitch to VCs
- Kevin Hale shares the advice he gives to YC startups for designing pitch decks
- My post on designing pitch decks, which includes advice from Cloudflare co-founder Matthew Prince
- Robin Wauters/TechCrunch describes Adeo Ressi's one-sentence approach for pitching a startup
- Sim Simeonov offers guidance on what to include in executive summaries
- Brendan Baker on how to communicate traction to investors
Delivering Investor Pitches
- NextViewVentures' David Beisel on how to choose which GP to target when pitching a VC firm
- A list of pitching resources from Adeo Ressi's Founder Institute
- Alex Taussig of Lightspeed on the importance of pitching yourself, not just your venture
- Seed VC Charlie O'Donnell on why you shouldn't email your pitch deck before a first meeting with a potential investor
- Reid Hoffman on what he wished he knew before pitching LinkedIn to VCs and his annotated LinkedIn pitch deck
- How to pitch VCs by Venrock’s David Pakman
- Mark Suster's primer on how to pitch to VCs and his thoughts on how/why to pitch to VCs without a deck
- Entrepreneur and startup mentor David Rose explains how to pitch a VC in this TED Talk
- Atlas VC Fred Destin on what not to disclose to a VC when raising money
- Paul Graham on how to convince investors
- Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman on best questions he was asked during fundraising
- Blake Masters' summary of Peter Thiel's Stanford CS183 lecture on how to pitch VCs
- Tips on pitching your firm from Jason Calacanis and Eric Ries
- Andrew Fife offers guidance on designing and delivering elevator pitches
- Matt Rosoff summarizes a panel with five VCs describing best practices for pitching
- Jason Baptiste on best practices for demo day pitches; Jason Cooper on the downside of demo days
- Media trainer Hans Rosling provides tips for presenters
- Andy Smith on attributes of great startup storytelling
- Andy Raskin on the elements of a compelling pitch; Jason Shellen on the same theme; Michael Wolfe on the same theme
- Mark Suster shares advice on what and how to present and shares practical presentation tips, e.g., where to position yourself at a table
Product Demos
- How to deliver a product demo, by Steli Efti; Robert Falcone on the same topic; Kathy Sierra on why your product demo should not look "done"
- Tami Reiss video on how to deliver a product demo
- Corey Pemberton on how to create a product demo video; Techsmith offers practical tips for creating a screencast; Derek Halpern on the same topic; Megan Marrs on how/why to create great explainer videos
- Brad Feld on how to do effective product demos
