Get Your Business Funded: Creative Methods for Getting the Money You Need

The Pitch

There really are two sorts of pitches, and they are similar to the pitches discussed earlier in the chapter on angel investors. Re-read that chapter. In addition, previously I mentioned two well-known VCs who had advice on VC funding—Guy Kawasaki and Jeffrey Bussgang. Both have something valuable to add here as well.

When it comes to the pitch, Kawasaki says that entrepreneurs should try to stick to what he calls the “10-20-30” rule:

• The PowerPoint presentation should be 10 slides.
• The slides enable you to speak for 20 minutes.
• Thus, you should use a font size that is no smaller than 30 points.

The reasoning behind this rule is that it forces you to be succinct and to the point. Kawasaki even suggests how you should organize your slides:

1. Contact info/title

2. The problem

3. Your solution

4. Business model/how you plan on making money

5. Underlying magic—patents, trademarks, something new, your unique value proposition

6. Marketing

7. Sales

8. Competition—what can you do that they cannot?

9. The team

10. Conclusion

It may be hard to get everything you want to say into 10 slides and 20 minutes, but his point is well taken. A 60-slide PowerPoint deck that you hope to use for an hour will get tuned out, pronto.

Similarly, Jeffrey Bussgang has some valuable insights with regard to the sorts of questions you should expect from the VC in an article from Inc. magazine (May 1, 2010), such as:

• “Why are you uniquely positioned to succeed?”
• “Why couldn't three people from ...