@brendanbaker | March 2015

Brendan Baker

Today

Brendan Baker

•  How it works•  How Investors Think•  Traction•  Pitch Improvement•  Avoiding Douchiness•  Fundraising is a process

Founder

Brendan Baker

Investor

Building a narrative. How venture investing is changing. AngelList. What it’s like to be employee 2. De-MBAifying myself. How to communicate traction to investors. The 4 companies I’d leave Greylock for.

How reference points have changed my life. How seed fundraising actually works. Strong opinions on

accelerators. The pace of true creators. The magic of rapid prototyping. Data in VC. The most interesting

companies I saw at AngelList. The strategy to building a great early network. Who actually changes

an industry (or company) from within? Why it’s an amazing time to start a tech company. Productive life as a series of rounds in a game. Focus, low ego, and other life experiments. How I got my jobs at AngelList

and Greylock. What’s in a great fundraising pitch? How to find a great job in Silicon Valley. What a

fundraising process looks like.

How Investors Think.

Brendan Baker

Green is good.

Brendan Baker

Problem Solution Product

Roadmap

Market Distribution

Story

RaiseTeam

Model / BusinessTraction

Unit economics

Expect the basics.

Credible < Notable

Brendan Baker

Friendly meeting Funded

Team

Trac

tion

Mar

ket

Prod

uct

Team

Trac

tion

Mar

ket

Prod

uct

+

-

+

-

Excitement > Hesitation

Brendan Baker

Derisking.

Brendan Baker

Risk

Progress

Can they build the product?

Will people use it?

Will people pay for it?

Will people come in mass?

Brendan Baker

Compare vs the market.

Brendan Baker

Finding Matches

20 / 80Don’t MatchMatch

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Think at 30,000 Feet

Execution  

Vision  

How the world will be  

Brendan Baker

Momentum

Traction is your story of momentum, told through

quantified evidence of market demand for your

product.

Brendan Baker

“quantified evidence”

Brendan Baker

ProfitsRevenues

Active usersEngagement

Customers/clientsRegistered Users

DownloadsPartnerships

Traffic

Yes MaybeCohort progress

Engagement progressProduct velocity

NoPress

Testimonials

* This isn’t a set list. Use evidence that makes sense for you.

Brendan Baker

“They’re super early, but they build and learn fast. They’re worth betting on.”

story

traction

Brendan Baker

“They’re creating a marketplace. That’s hard, but they know it. They knew they had to build the supply side first, and they

nailed it. Now they’re tackling the demand side. Early indications are good, and I think they know how to ramp it up.”

Launched in November 2014:-  25,000 vendors, with avg 25 items (growing 20-30%/month)-  110K uniques (growing 40%/month), with 3% conversion -  avg purchase of $45 (growing 5%/month)-  $120,000 revenue run rate (increasing 30%/month)-  Just signed partnership with Yahoo! And ramping up ads.

story

traction

Traction Techniques

Brendan Baker

•  Compress the X axis•  Choose your X axis•  Bracket your progress (lower their

expectations)•  Choose your Y axis•  Absolute + growth numbers•  B2B or enterprise storytelling (rollout)•  Annotate a graph•  No testimonials or press mentions!

Pitch Improvement

Brendan Baker

Practice Meetings with ‘Team’, and then 2nd

choice investors

CEO (+1?) Founding Team Real pitches with investors

WHAT

WHO

Pitch Improvement

Brendan Baker

Why?

Why do you care? Why are you doing this? Why are you creating this?Why?

Pitch Improvement

Brendan Baker

Value Proposition

Pitch Improvement

Brendan Baker

Now Statement

Why is now the only time that this could be created?

Why are you the only team who could create this?

Pitch Improvement

Brendan Baker

Storyboarding

http://www.quora.com/Brendan-Baker/Posts/Startups-How-to-Storyboard-your-Pitch-Deck-in-10-Steps

Pitch Improvement

Brendan Baker

Fat and Formatting

Cut fat•  Max 3-4 bullet points•  Max a few words•  Remove ineffective images

Formatting•  All titles and body copy in same position, same color•  White space•  De-pixelate images•  Clean up diagrams

Pitch Improvement

Brendan Baker

Excitement and Hesitation Game

Excitement•  …•  …•  …•  …

Hesitation•  …•  …•  …•  …

Pitching like a non-douche

Brendan Baker

•  Capture their attention•  Be concise and focused•  Use evidence (gamechanger rule)•  Show conviction (strong wording, etc)•  Make it easy (screenshots, logins, etc)•  Build momentum by QBing your team•  Reflect offline success on AL

Brendan Baker

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9(Example only. Others may apply)

Fundraising is a Process