The pitch deck, as investors like to see it

The location will not be lacking: the Nienoord estate, the garden room of the atmospheric borg café. A place brimming with history, ideal for an afternoon of forging the future according to the latest insights. How? A master class led by expert Alain Le Loux, as a fascinating and instructive prelude to more expertise of this kind! So keep following us.

The master class

If there is anyone in the Netherlands who has rigorously but fairly judged many business plans and tightly intended pitch decks around the world - someone who also has a lot of stage experience, it is Alain Le Loux. Among other things, he is a partner in the renowned fund Cottonwood Technology Fund. Equally important: he can tell extraordinarily to-the-point and entertaining stories about pitching. First, the difference between the 'big four' tools on the way to funding: business plan-teaser-pitchdeck-powerpoint on screen at stage presentation. Moreover, everyone knows the concept of the elevator pitch. Alain once experienced it actually being organized in an elevator on the way up.

The participants

The invitation to the master class on June 19 in Leek was subject to two conditions: already be able to show a concept pitch deck and need a (next) investment round within 12 months. Quite logical, given NOM's core task: to strengthen start-ups and scale-ups in the region, not only financially. Doing everything together to promote the quality of a new contribution to the northern 'ecosystem' of a start-up or scale-up from the very beginning. Thanks to increasing the (practical) knowledge - and thus the chance of an investment.

The participants: a diverse group. About 30 enthusiastic listeners, summer-business dressed. It may have to do with our Midsummer Festival, which began immediately after the meeting, just down the road on the estate, anyway: variety in attire and background. One participant appears in (extremely neat!) shorts. With nice noisy hawaii shirt, tasteful retro sports socks, color hops custard. Handsome sneakers with - it may be a coincidence - a nod to perhaps the most profitable marketing idea ever, Nike's partnership with basketball great Michael Jordan as far back as 1985. Talk about successfully raising millions!

Who else are there? The inventors of wildly clever high-tech innovations, to mature scale-ups with new ideas, good for breakthroughs in medical or life sciences. A young woman has an exciting idea, which will soon require urgent funding: at a location that is still secret at the moment, transform a dreary, empty shopping center into a playing field for a "Real Life Gaming Experience. Complete with tricky opponents: actors in the role of eerily real zombies. Help from Hollywood's best grime artists is already on the way. Warrior Events is going to be called the company. It's all neatly laid out in the pitch deck.

Getting Started

What should you pay attention to, to begin with? A good pitch deck requires a little more text than the ppt you discuss in front of an audience. After all, the pitch deck should speak for itself after delivery, without you being there in person for clarification and energy!

Just when you thought you had a pretty good grasp of crafting a convincing pitchdeck, Alain comes with the sobering announcement: 80% of the pitchdecks he faces (almost a thousand a year!) fall into the category of 'bad, too bad insufficient'. Some 10% are 'just fine.' Only a meager 2% may be called 'outstanding'. Naturally, our participants would like to be among those. From now on he has all the attention.

Alain burns loose with pleasure. Shows telling examples, toe-curling misses and illuminating examples. Does not mince words: "If you have a turnover of less than one million, you are unfundable in Europe for the time being." Of course, he also says it a bit to excite, to wake everyone up. The message: it is not impossible even then, but count on very, very hard work! That warning is also in the cartoon he ends the afternoon with: Your Plan (smooth ride to the finish line) versus Reality (bumps, bumps, setbacks, canyons, knockoffs, hassles).

Ask the audience, "Which of you can already count on sales above 1 million?" A single hand goes up after some hesitation. You don't expect it - and yet a little bit you do: the hand belongs to the hawaii shirt. Immediately learned something about perception and misplaced prejudice.

Better not

What's best not to do if your pitch deck is to leave an "oustanding" impression? Sometimes it's also surprisingly simple and practical:

• Tough black background on all slides? Don't. You'll unintentionally drain the intended investor's ink cartridge, plus he or she won't be able to take notes on dark prints. Bummer!
• Do not send a ppt, but a pdf. Otherwise, it can get messy.
• Check the title! Powerpoint sometimes unwittingly chooses a title from previous work, including private work. With "Birthday card neighbor Henk," you go off like a sore thumb.
• Peaking too early. You have a brilliant idea, but 5 years too early. In 6 years, another start-up will triumphantly run off with it. Timing matters.
• Never ask for a non-disclosure agreement or NDA. This is disruptive and also means: another two waits for a follow-up.
• Forgetting your contact information or putting confidential information on it. The first recipient often forwards a pitch deck; if it doesn't have contact information on it, who should they call? And if it says confidential on it, you miss any chance that another investor could/should look at it.

Quite often forgotten - not thought of at all

• The Use of Funds chapter. What will you do with the money and when? Mention a financial planner.
• Milestones! Most VCs are milestone driven. What have you accomplished then and there?
• What is your "competitive advantage? What sets you apart from the competition?
• At least "something" about sustainability.
• When pitching, provide energy and emotion. Those both do well.

Absolute recommendations

Look through the eyes of the prospective investor.

• Who is going to investigate. Calling your customers. Alain once did 17 such calls before reading through. For evaluating a sensor that can smell, he once did 2 years of thorough preliminary research.
• Good idea: ask for feedback from professionals before you send it. And then not 1 or 2 acquaintances. Even better: ask around. "Is my business at all fundable?" Do your homework.
• Provide enough information about your team. Investors find that interesting. Team, team, team. And team again.
• Have you convinced previous investors (by name)? Call those "past funders," it helps.
• Also, use an unusual term. We see on the screen the words "underlying magic. Tantalizing.
• Keep in mind cultural differences! In Germany, your income must already be 300% sure to be sold, in the USA, on the other hand, "the sky is the limit. The Netherlands is in between as conservative and somewhat cautious with targets.
• Don't antagonize investors with "Confidential. They want to see the term Non-Confidential. Just be careful with things you haven't patented yet. In the Netherlands, by the way, start-ups' ideas are almost never stolen.
• Choose your competitors with care. Weigh your opportunities. It's hard to compete against the "big, established elephants" in a hospital's supply chain as a smart startup.
• On stage: make sure you have an anecdote, storytelling, a practical joke or good joke to end the talk. That will stick, even if your talk was mediocre. Alain has juicy examples ready.
• Not so good at design and formatting yourself? There are handy tools online, such as Dropbox DocSend.

Make your own wall tile

Alain Le Loux has no shortage of thought-provoking, motivational one-liners. A sampling of one afternoon's harvest:

• "Confident is not the same as arrogant."
• "Successful? You get to enjoy bringing in that sum of money for exactly one week; after that, you start fundraising again. Next round."
• "A pitch deck in Word no dog reads."
• "Do you use a screen on stage? Then people only half listen to you. They mostly look at the pictures."
• "Most VCs don't feel like having conversations at all."
• "Beware of overconfident claims like: next year 30% market share. Some 99% of start-ups underestimate the cost of getting there."
• "Even if you yourself think your idea is so genius, you have to be able to demonstrate that customers are willing to pay for it. That's where everything starts."