Pitch Deck Coach

I help founders build concise, compelling pitch decks that help them get meetings and funding. More at pitchdeckcoach.com.

Certemy

CMO for venture-backed provider of Workforce Compliance software. We helped employers reduce employee credentialing costs and minimize compliance risk.

Chief Marketing Officer

Pitch deck coach for early-stage startups. Clients included:

• Web3 investment company focused on businesses built on the blockchain and related technologies including cryptos, NFTs, and smart contracts. 

• Provider of bitcoin mining equipment and managed mining services. 

• Provider of cryptocurrency banking services. 

• Provider of US marketplace connecting professional investors with homeowners looking for a sell-to-rent option.

• Provider of global marketplace for last-minute deals on luxury vacation rentals.

• Provider of device verification and testing services to government agencies.

• Provider of ecommerce platform for commercial and consumer upload-and-print customers in the UK and North America.

• Provider of SaaS software platform for commercial property managers and tenants.

• Provider of HIPAA-secure telemedicine app that allows patients to video chat and message with their preferred doctors when an in-person office visit is not possible or convenient.

• Provider of hardware and SaaS software solution for connected personal fitness.

• Provider of leadership assessment and coaching tools and services to F1000 companies.

• Provider of asset planning SaaS solution for commercial and clinical stage biopharma companies.

• Provider of IP project estimation and management SaaS platform for law firms and corporate IP teams.

• Provider of InsureTech SaaS platform for the commercial insurance industry.

• Provider of cloud-native, mobile-first, digital financial services delivery platform for financial institutions.

WorkWave

COO report following WorkWave's acquisition of RefGo. Led the expansion of WorkWave’s flagship SaaS Field Service Management (FSM) solution for SMBs into the front office with new products for Reputation Management, Lead Management, Sales Automation, and Email Marketing. WorkWave was subsequently acquired by IFS (a multinational $500M leader in ERP, EAM, and FSM) in late 2017.

• Grew new product revenue contribution from zero to $1.5M+ in 2 years.

• Led the integration of the acquired RefGo product into WorkWave’s core FSM product, generating sales within 3 months of the acquisition.

• Led the design, development, and launch of 3 new sales and marketing products in 2 years.

• Co-led the design of native iOS and Android apps for new products.

• Worked closely with Corporate Marketing, Product Marketing, Sales and Support teams on Go-To-Market planning and execution including extensive sales enablement.

• Traveled the country to personally present and sell our front-office solution to senior executives at WorkWave's largest accounts.

SVP, Marketing Solutions

RefGo

Founded and funded a mobile-first SaaS Reputation Management solution for local service providers. Sold to WorkWave in 2015. 

• Identified and verified the market opportunity for native SMB reviews. 

• Led the design, development, and testing of the MVP and confirmed product-market fit. 

• Negotiated the sale of the business to WorkWave, the leading provider of Field Service Management (FSM) software to the Pest Control and adjacent industries.

Founder & CEO

Local Corporation

COO report. Established the Spreebird Daily Deals business unit to help SMBs generate new customer trials via daily deals. Led a team of 70+ inc. Marketing, Sales, Operations, Customer Service and Product Development.

• Identified acquisition target and worked with Corporate Development to drive M&A process.

• Integrated 70-person product development, sales, support and operations team into Local.

• Managed acquired team as an independent P&L and grew annualized revenue to $12M before consumer interest in daily deals began to wane.

SVP & GM

COO report. Established the Private Label Local Search business unit following Local's acquisition of PremierGuide and made it Local's most profitable business unit within 6 months.

• Led the integration of PremierGuide into Local Corp’s flagship local search platform. 

• Renegotiated revenue share agreements with publishers to expand gross margin from 50% to 80%. 

• Managed P&L, growing annual revenue 10x to $10M, and annual EBIT 16x to $7M, in 2 years.

PremierGuide

Founded, funded (with angels) and built from the ground up into the leading private-label local search solution for newspaper publishers and local broadcasters. One of the first companies to put a what/where search box on top of an indexed database of local business listings and use local SEO to capture and monetize consumer local search traffic. Led the business from concept to revenue to acquisition, running all aspects of marketing, sales and finance along the way. Sold to Local Corp in 2007. 

We quickly became the market leader by positioning ourselves to newspapers as "Free traffic, free money, zero effort, zero risk." 

• Led SaaS product from concept through MVP to $1M+ ARR. 

• Powered local search for 400+ local media sites including The Sacramento Bee, The Dallas Morning News, and The Washington Post. 

• Negotiated a $MM sale of the business to Local Corp in 2007.

Vayusphere

CEO report. Consulting marketing executive for Enterprise Instant Messaging startup. Repositioned company from consumer to enterprise messaging. Clients included Deutsche Bank, Barclays, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Intuit, Chevron, EMC, Kimberly Clark, NBC and Telemundo.

VP of Product Marketing

Vitria Technology, Inc.

CMO report. Product marketing executive for Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and Business Process Management (BPM) software startup that enjoyed a $1B IPO and $11B secondary in the heady days of 1999/2000. Managed all aspects of product marketing inc. positioning and messaging, market research, customer segmentation, competitive analysis, win-loss analysis, product launches, collateral development, sales tools, sales training, partner training, pricing, PR, analyst relations and investor relations.

• Worked closely with Sales and Business Development to drive revenue from $0 to $150M+ as the company grew from a 30-person startup to a 1,200-employee publicly traded company. 

• Managed S-1 prospectus and roadshow pitch deck for $1B IPO (Q4 1999) and $11B secondary (Q1 2000).

• Managed financial analyst relations with CEO and CFO to grow institutional investor interest and drive an 11x increase in market cap in first 6 months of trading.

Pitch Deck Coach ✦ Startup Advisor ✦ Oracle + 8 startups, 6 exits, $1B IPO ✦ Book a free pitch deck audit at PitchDeckCoach.com

Pitch deck coach for early-stage startups. 

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BEFORE

I cut my story-telling teeth as a product marketing leader for Oracle’s ERP suite in the early 90s. I then spent 25 years as marketing leader or founder/CEO at 8 software startups. Those startups produced 6 exits including a $1B IPO and an $11B Secondary. 

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NOW

I use my operating experience and pitching expertise to help founders build clear, concise pitch decks that get them meetings and funding. To get meetings, your deck must help investors: 1) Understand your idea; 2) Love your idea; 3) Love your team. It sounds simple, but the devil's in the details.

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SERVICES & PRICING

> Pitch deck narratives
> Pitch deck builds

Details, samples, and pricing at pitchdeckcoach.com

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TESTIMONIALS

pitchdeckcoach.com/testimonials


How to nail 'use of proceeds' on your pitch deck Funding slide.

Use of proceeds is something many founders get wrong on their Funding (aka Ask) slide. Here's a bad example followed by a good example.

Notice how the good example references information that you should have shared prior to your Funding slide on your GTM, Product Roadmap, and Financials slides. A great pitch deck builds a pitch slide by slide rather than presenting each slide as an island of information.

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BAD EXAMPLE:
"We need $2M to extend our runway."

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GOOD EXAMPLE:
"We need $2M to grow customers and revenue 10x over the next 24 months per our financial model. We'll use the proceeds to staff and execute our product development and customer acquisition/retention plans."

Note that the good example lists specific, measurable outcomes with a timeline.

All other things being equal, growing revenue 10x means growing the value of your startup 10x. So you're basically saying "I'll grow the value of your investment by 10x in 24 months."

>> Customer and revenue growth come from the revenue line and revenue drivers presented in your P&L model shared (or summarized) on your Financials slide.

>> Your product development plan is presented on your Product Roadmap slide and should include clear, measurable deliverables with expected release dates.

>> The folks required to staff and execute your product development plan should be listed by role (and fully-loaded cost per head) in the Product OpEx section of your P&L model.

>> Your customer acquisition and retention plan is presented on your Go To Market (GTM) slide and should include clear, measurable tactics with expected conversion and retention rates.

>> The folks required to staff and execute your customer acquisition and retention plan should be listed by role (and fully-loaded cost per head) in the Market, Sales & Support OpEx section of your P&L model.

GET MY FINANCIALS MODEL TEMPLATE
I have a Google Sheet with a simple P&L model you can copy and edit for your startup. Just plug in your numbers for revenue and opex assumptions.

Comment 'P&L model' below and I'll DM it to you.

The basic structure is as follows. I recommend a 2 or 3-year plan with one column per year.

REVENUE
> Revenue driver 1 (eg customer count)
> Revenue driver 2 (eg average ARR per customer)
> Gross Revenue

COST OF REVENUE (if any)
> Net Revenue

OPERATING EXPENSES (OPEX)

> Product Development OpEx
>> Headcount per role
>> Fully loaded cost per head per role
>> Total Product Development OpEx

> Marketing, Sales & Support OpEx
>> Headcount per role
>> Fully loaded cost per head per role
>> Programs (Advertising, events, etc.)
>> Total Marketing, Sales & Support OpEx

> Other
>> Exec payroll, Legal, etc.

Total OpEx
>> Net Income (Net Revenue - Total OpEx)

Hope that helps you level up your Funding slide. Book a free call on pitchdeckcoach-dot-com if you think I can help.

Let me know below if there's anything you'd add or change.

#founders #startups

Malcolm Lewis

Forget TAM/SAM/SOM in your pitch deck *unless* you're going to develop them empirically, from the bottom up.

The easiest and most credible way to size your initial market is to use simple math that any investor can understand:

Initial Market Size = Average ARR per customer x Total number of potential customers

That's it.

Be sure to use the ARR and total customer count for your initial product and use case only.

For extra credibility, provide a credible source for your total potential customer count.

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EXAMPLE

You average $5K ARR per customer for your initial product.

There are 200,000 potential customers in your initial target market.

Your initial market size (ARR) = $5K x 200,000 = $1.25B

I.e., If you captured 100% of the market for your initial product, you’d make $1.25B a year in ARR. 

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BOTTOM-UP TAM/SAM/SOM

You can apply TAM/SAM/SOM segmentation if you assume TAM = 100% market share = the number you calculated above. $1.25B in our example.

With this more rigorous approach, you derive your SAM and SOM by segmenting your total customer count by e.g. size, geographic location, industry, or use case.

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DON'T PANIC IF...

Your initial market size feels small. That's only a problem if you don't have adjacent product/market combos that you can easily expand into.

Your long-term market size is the sum of your initial product/market combo plus all easily addressable adjacent product/market combos.

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THE MARKET OPP CHECKERBOARD

Think of your long-term market opportunity like a checkerboard. The first square is your initial product/market combo. Adjacent squares represent adjacent product/market combos.

Note that each product/market combo can itself be segmented by product use case and/or market segment. 

So each square on your product/market checkerboard represents an even smaller checkerboard. 

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HUBSPOT MARKET OPP EXPANSION EXAMPLE

Using HubSpot as an example, their initial product/market combo was Inbound Marketing Automation + US.

Over the last decade or so they've added more products (Outbound Marketing Automation, Sales Automation, Customer Service Automation) and expand into more geographic markets (Europe, South America, Asia, etc.)

🚀 I hope that helps. Follow me for pitch deck insights and tips.


#founders #startups

Let's talk pitch deck Team slide best practices. 

Remember, to get a follow-up request from investors you need to have successfully:

1) Explained your IDEA (what you do and who you help)

2) Sold your OPPORTUNITY (big market, market leader = unicorn potential)

3) Sold your TEAM (right experience to turn idea into market leadership)

Assuming you've addressed (1) and (2) with Cover and Investment Highlights slides respectively, your third slide needs to sell your Team. 

Let's dive in.

TEAM SLIDE BEST PRACTICES

Your Team slide is a critical slide that often gets insufficient attention. It speaks to execution risk. Investors want to see experience and expertise in as many of the following areas as possible:

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Similar Startups: 

E.g., Founders or early/key employees in a similar startup. Bonus points for a startup that became a market leader or achieved a successful exit.

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Similar Technology: 

E.g., Built a similar product for another company or startup.

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Similar Markets: 

E.g., Successfully marketed and sold products solving a similar problem into the company's current target market.

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Business owner + Tech/Product leader

Your team must include a business leader who owns and drives the company and product visions. 

And it must include a technology leader who owns and drives product delivery. 

Investors also like to see brand-name startups on a team member's resume. 

And they also like to see team members who have worked together before, ideally for another startup, especially if that startup was successful.

Include every member of your extended team on your team slide. Your extended team includes founders, key employees, advisors, and any existing investors. 

You only need to list current titles and current and former companies on the Team slide. You can provide detailed bios in your appendix.

Creating an advisory board is a simple way to add industry expertise to your "team." 

For example, being able to say, "We have the CMO of the largest real estate brokerage in the world on our advisory board," boosts your credibility if you're focusing on a real estate opportunity. 

Advisors can also help you refine your business and product vision and connect you to others who can do the same. 

You can also use advisors to add technology and startup experience and expertise to your team.

Hope this helps you take your Team slide to the next level.

Let me know if you think I missed something.

#founders #startups

The ideal startup process: Ideate > Validate > Iterate

Forget validation and iteration at your peril. Few ideas are right first time. 

For your own sanity, don't quit your day job until you have strong problem-solution fit and have a robust pipeline of willing-to-pay customers clamoring for your product.

#founders #startups

Is your pitch deck signal-to-noise ratio too low?

Too much noise, not enough signal?

Investors hate noise, love signal.

What's signal?

Clear, concise, compelling answers to 3 gating questions:

1. Is your market big and growing?

2. Does your product have what it takes to become the market leader?

3. Does you team have what it takes to become the market leader?

Most decks spend too much time talking about the market and not enough time talking about product (compelling, enduring advantages vs. competitors) and team (relevant experience and expertise vs. the opportunity).

Review your current deck to make sure your pitch is all signal, no noise. 

Cut out anything that doesn't support and amplify your answers to the 3 questions above.

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GET MY HELP

I'm a pitch deck coach. I can improve your signal-to-noise ratio. Book a free chat.

#founders #startups

One way to stand out in your pitch deck is to provide examples of out-of-the-box thinking for building strong long-term relationships with your customers.

Grammarly is hardly a startup pitching for an investment, but their weekly Grammarly Insights report is a great example of how to engage and retain customers. Full article in the comments. H/t Failory.

Your pitch deck is a 'bridge' that spans the common questions and objections that lie between you and follow-up requests from investors. To cross the bridge, your deck must answer every question and objection in a way that makes investors smile and nod.

Here they are:

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SLIDE: Cover

Qs:
What does your product do (category)?
Who does your product help (target customer)?

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SLIDE: Team

Qs:
Why is your team the best team to turn this idea into a $100M+ business?
What experience do you have solving problems like the one you're solving?
What experience do you have building products like the one you’re building?
What experience do you have with startups?

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SLIDE: Problem

Qs:
What problem do you solve?
Who has this problem?
How does this problem hurt them?
What limitations of current solutions allow this problem to persist?
Why can’t current solutions solve this problem?

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SLIDE: Solution

Qs:
What’s your solution?
How’s your solution different from prior solutions?
How does your solution overcome the limitations of current solutions?
Why hasn’t anyone built a solution like yours before?
Why is now the right time to build a solution like yours?

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SLIDE: Product

Qs:
How does your product work?
What does your product look like?
Where does you product fit with other systems?

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SLIDE: Competition

Qs:
How will you dominate your market?
Who do you compete with?
What about your product will compel customers to choose you over competitors?
What about your product is hard for competitors to copy?

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SLIDE: Business Model

Qs:
How do you make money?
What does a typical transaction or deal look like?

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SLIDE: Market Sizing

Qs:
How big is your market?
How much money can you make with reasonable market share?

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SLIDE: Traction

Qs:
What’s the status of your product?
Have you got any customers?
What does your pipeline look like?
What does your organization look like?
What do your customer acquisition and retention metrics look like?

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SLIDE:
Growth Strategy

Qs:
How will you acquire and retain customers?
What are your primary marketing and sales channels?
What are your primary marketing and sales strategies and tactics?
How will you support customers?

SLIDE:
Growth Strategy

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SLIDE: Product Roadmap

Qs:
How will you maintain and extend your product lead?

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SLIDE: Financials

Qs:
How big will you get over the next 2-3 years?

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SLIDE: Funding

Qs:
How much have you raised in the past?
What did you accomplish with those prior investments?
How much are you raising now?
How will you spend the money?
What will you accomplish with the money?

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SLIDE: Contact

Qs:
Who should we follow up with for more info?

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HOW TO USE THIS: 

Validate your current pitch deck by making sure each slide answers all of the common investor questions for that slide. This will ensure your deck is complete and balanced.

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Did I miss a question? Let me know.

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Follow me for regular pitch deck tips.

#founders 
#startups 
#fundraising
#pitchdeck

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