Storytelling & Pitch Deck.wav

Speakers: Jai Malik (GP of Countdown Capital) & Willy Schlacks (Co-Founder & Co-CEO of EquipmentShare)

Key Points

• Your pitch deck and story will resonate with investors if it is authentic and true to who you are. Do not craft a pitch that you are not just because you think you need to add or alter something due to investors. The cliff notes in the deck are what matters (i.e. problem, solution, who you are, traction). Keep your story simple, punchy, and powerful. The deck is just to get a conversation started.
• Do not sell. Investors are not customers. The strongest pitches do not entail a deck. It’s the founders being authentic and successfully articulating their story. Being able to paint a picture and articulate a defensible story is more important than a deck.
• Starting your deck, make sure to show we are solving a big f@#$ing problem. Approach the deck as problem, solution, and no more than 3 or 4 evidentiary slides. A big failure a lot of founders make is pitching before going deep into product discovery. Investors will quickly notice that you do not understand the product at intricate level.