Over the course of working with 128 founders who've collectively raised $1.5B in Series As from 100 different investors over the past 2 years, I found I was giving a lot of the same advice - especially it came to how to most effectively tell the stories of their companies. I've decided to open source that advice - hoping any company looking to go down the venture capital route and raise an A will find it helpful!
It feels very helpful, thanks. It's good to have things informed by lots of deals as opposed to speculation.
In my experience the conversation eventually has to be about the product you're selling at the moment - preferred shares in a private company. It may be that for the founders you work with, your role is to sell the actual financial product.
"This is how your preferred shares will increase the fund's IRR and fit with the investment themes and click for LPs" is really all people who actually write checks need to hear.
To some extent the preponderance of rich fools is the ultimate refutation of the very idea of a deck. You're really selling a high-risk, high-reward opportunity via a financial instrument your buyer will repeat-buy, and you should focus on communicating these fungible aspects of what you do instead of what makes you special.
