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How to Present to Investors

sequoiacap.com

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Re: How to Present to Investors

#11

Post by Patrick_Devine »

hansy wrote: post #5
dheer01 wrote: post #2

Too boilerplate to be worth anything. Bet exactly zero companies got funded this way.

I think the most compelling point about the article is the emphasis on stacking your cards for the first 5 minutes. I've seen many entrepreneurs approach pitching like a rolling boulder, where they think they gain momentum as more time goes on. More often than not, this isn't the case.

I agree. It's kind of like interviewing a candidate. Typically you know in the first five minutes if they're going to work out or not. Put your good stuff up front. I'm not convinced most investors are necessarily going to be able to "tease out" that your company is great.

Of course, take this with a grain of salt, as I haven't raised a round yet (we haven't yet started). Even when I do, a sampling size of one is hardly empirical evidence either way.

Re: How to Present to Investors

#12

Post by dheer01 »

ahilaly wrote: post #7
dheer01 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If its good business the right investors will poke 'through' your presentation to find the right answers. No good investor will skip on a break-through business because of a shoddy presentation. It might seem that from the authors prose that they belive that their presentation skills got them funding - which is why this is all wrong and sends exactly the wrong message out. Most first time entrepreneurs who raise fund…

I don't think our presentation skills got us funded. But I do think our ability to persuade investors, recruits, partners etc to work with us -- even though we had no relevant experience -- was critical to our success. To do that, you have to communicate with your audience in a compelling way. Everyone has their own style and way of doing it. I'm just sharing what worked for me.

I am sure you guys are super smart and persuasion skills to match. The point that I am trying to make is that, maybe so are a lot from the other 99.9% of entrepreneurs who did not get funded by sequoia.

The lines of causation that we hold dear to us most of our professional lives somehow break down when we talk about startups. Maybe the simple reason that you got funded was that one of the partners thought that your market is going to be big (because of his specific personal background) and you were just another good team which just happened to focus on the exact same market - maybe also because of one of your founders background.

I understand sequoia motivation to start something like this. Even though they have a clear vested interest, I would like to believe that this was born out of an altruistic pursuit. The entrepreneurs though, are best served to take all this advise with bucketloads of salt.

Re: How to Present to Investors

#13

Post by nswanberg »

minimaxir wrote: post #9

It appears that Sequoia's new Grove system doesn't allow user commenting. Which is somewhat of a shame, as it makes the posts very one-sided and unopen to debate, which is what appears to be happening here in the HN comments.

Most likely Sequoia wants debate on its pages as much as Disney wants protests in its theme parks. Hosting constructive debate takes additional effort, so it is a valid choice. Those looking for places to debate VC fundraising and other topics have other places to go, like Fred Wilson's blog avc.com, Union Square Ventures (usv.com), and of course here, among other places.

What about the comments here do you think is useful to them? The orignal post was about how to deliver a useful presentation, presumably to them but probably to a more general audience, but the comments here appear to go off on a tangent about selection bias.

Re: How to Present to Investors

#14

Post by acgourley »

Great advice - investors see so many deals and believe in the perfect market hypothesis. They need to know what changed to break their default cynicism.

Note it's different from their advice on business plans / decks: http://www.sequoiacap.com/grove/posts/6bzx-writing-a-busines...

The link above basically says: purpose, problem, solution, why now...

The article today says: why now, solution, facts

Re: How to Present to Investors

#15

Post by [deleted] »

acgourley wrote: post #14

Great advice - investors see so many deals and believe in the perfect market hypothesis. They need to know what changed to break their default cynicism. Note it's different from their advice on business plans / decks: http://www.sequoiacap.com/grove/posts/6bzx-writing-a-busines... The link above basically says: purpose, problem, solution, why now... The article today says: why now, solution, facts

[deleted]

Re: How to Present to Investors

#16

Post by drusenko »

dheer01 wrote: post #12
ahilaly wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think our presentation skills got us funded. But I do think our ability to persuade investors, recruits, partners etc to work with us -- even though we had no relevant experience -- was critical to our success. To do that, you have to communicate with your audience in a compelling way. Everyone has their own style and way of doing it. I'm just sharing what worked for me.

I am sure you guys are super smart and persuasion skills to match. The point that I am trying to make is that, maybe so are a lot from the other 99.9% of entrepreneurs who did not get funded by sequoia. The lines of causation that we hold dear to us most of our professional lives somehow break down when we talk about startups. Maybe the simple reason that you got funded was that one of the partners thought that your…

All advice should be taken with a bucketload of salt (Limited life experiences + Over-generalization = Advice -- Paul Buchheit).

That doesn't mean advice is pointless though.

Re: How to Present to Investors

#17

Post by benworthen »

minimaxir wrote: post #9

It appears that Sequoia's new Grove system doesn't allow user commenting. Which is somewhat of a shame, as it makes the posts very one-sided and unopen to debate, which is what appears to be happening here in the HN comments.

I'm the editor of Grove. First, thanks for checking it out and for talking about it here. Our initial goal was to create some compelling pieces that the entrepreneur community would find helpful. To that end, we took the advice we got from the founders we worked with to build the site, which is launch and improve over time. The ability to comment is certainly one of the things we'd like to add going forward, but we feel we have to earn the right to be a community site first. We're hosting a drinkup next month, which hopefully will be a start. In the meantime, forums like HN where there is already a big community are a great place to discuss the site.

FYI here's a link to the drinkup: https://sequoia.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_dpzD7CVJ0DtTwgd

Re: How to Present to Investors

#18

Post by verticalflight »

dheer01 wrote: post #2

Too boilerplate to be worth anything. Bet exactly zero companies got funded this way.

I think you are wrong. The entrepreneurs that intuitively knew this, without reading a blog post about it, were the ones that also got funded.

So hopefully others that don't know this, can adjust their behavior, and possibly have a chance at getting funded.

Re: How to Present to Investors

#19

Post by mathattack »

acgourley wrote: post #14

Great advice - investors see so many deals and believe in the perfect market hypothesis. They need to know what changed to break their default cynicism. Note it's different from their advice on business plans / decks: http://www.sequoiacap.com/grove/posts/6bzx-writing-a-busines... The link above basically says: purpose, problem, solution, why now... The article today says: why now, solution, facts

I like the "What's changed" bit too.

The other good thing is the James Bond analogy. My eyes glaze over on any presentation that doesn't tell me the punchline in 5 minutes, and VCs see a lot more of them than me.

Re: How to Present to Investors

#20

Post by beat »

benworthen wrote: post #17
minimaxir wrote: post #9

It appears that Sequoia's new Grove system doesn't allow user commenting. Which is somewhat of a shame, as it makes the posts very one-sided and unopen to debate, which is what appears to be happening here in the HN comments.

I'm the editor of Grove. First, thanks for checking it out and for talking about it here. Our initial goal was to create some compelling pieces that the entrepreneur community would find helpful. To that end, we took the advice we got from the founders we worked with to build the site, which is launch and improve over time. The ability to comment is certainly one of the things we'd like to add going forward, but we f…

Aw c'mon, it's the internet! You don't need to "earn the right to be a community site". You just swagger on in, set up comments, filter the spam, and see if enough others show up to make a flamewar. :) Sink or swim, just like a startup!

(That said, I totally understand getting content rolling before adding comments)

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