Raising capital sucks. It's a black box with little to no feedback loops. I want to change that.
👋 I've reviewed thousands of #startup pitch decks and met with countless founders seeking funding. And while the journey to raising capital can be challenging, I want to share my five reasons why founders fail to secure that first meeting with investors and what you can do to fix it.
1. 🥱 Your pitch deck isn't grabbing attention in the first 5 seconds:As an investor, I receive dozens of pitch decks daily. And those that don't grab my attention in the first few seconds get tossed & forgotten. Give investors the meat of what you have to offer upfront, loud, and clear. Don’t get too clever to where I have to hunt for answers. In the first few slides pique my interest, establish credibility, and get me excited enough to review the rest of the deck.
2. 🙃 You didn't follow that VC's specific process for submitting your deck to them:Some VCs have their process for submitting pitch decks, and not following it can be a deal breaker. Make sure you understand each VC's process and follow it.
3. 😵 VCs are confused: When I'm confused by any aspect of your deck, it's usually a deal breaker:
There are plenty of other startups that aren’t confusing so I’ll focus on those instead. They won't give you a shot if you don’t already have an existing relationship. If you can’t explain your idea clearly in 30-60 seconds to a person on the street, then you’re doing something wrong.
4. 🤕 Maybe what you're building simply isn't interesting, or you're not solving a big enough problem, or you’re not in a hot trending sector:
This is a hard pill to swallow, but it's a reality for many founders. Not every idea is meant to be funded by VCs. And if you're not solving a big enough problem, it's unlikely that you'll secure funding. So, consider if you should be pursuing VC capital in the first place. Maybe your time is best spent pursuing profitability.
5. 🧐 Not targeting the right investors:
The spray-and-pray approach isn’t working these days for founders. Impersonal, mass emails to investors convert about <1% into meetings and almost 0% into getting funded. It’s difficult to find the right investors to target, but you’re better off hyper-targeting 10 investors, instead of relentlessly spamming 1,000.
If you want to skip the guesswork and know exactly who to target, check out Thunder - we recently launched Premium Access which provides you the exact list, in order of priority, of which investors to focus your efforts. If you want a 20% discount, DM me or comment below—link in the comments.
If you found this helpful, please give it a like or share your thoughts in the comments if you feel I missed something.
