Startup, Scaleup, Screwup.

21Spheres of Influence

Get insights into the creation of a Pitch Deck and learn about the essential and the optional slides.

 

I looked at the cards on the Kanban Board for our Pitch Deck. All my slides were ready for Review. Only the Fundraising slide was staring at me impatiently in the Working column. I had some decisions to make. How much money did we want this time? What were we going to do with it? And how far were these funds going to take us?

We had a few months left before we would run out of funds and dozens of questions were still unresolved in my mind. The meetings I had with a few investors the week before only added more questions to the list. Was our burn rate really too high? Did we indeed need a narrower focus? Which funding options were we going to use at which point? And when would we finally switch from business exploration to business execution? I needed to have some answers soon because many screwups of young companies can be attributed to financial troubles, such as a lack of funds, a lack of cash flow, and a lack of interest among investors.

Many entrepreneurs and founders raise money for their businesses. Whether it’s for starting up or scaling up, it is common for young companies to try and get funded. This requires expanding their spheres of influence, convincing other people to part with their money by showing them a significant return on their investment ...