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If you want to raise venture capital funding , you should be able to say a compelling narrative to get anywhere . What ’s more , according to conventional wisdom , your story should be supported by a pitch - unadulterated deck , too . How many slides a deck needsand what order they should be in is up for disputation , but the deck itself is nonnegotiable .
That said , there are , in fact , hoi polloi out there raising lots of capital without employing a deck at all . I was really intrigued to speak to two of them and learn how they did it .
Before Michal Cieplinski became the chief executive officer and founder of fintech startup Capstack , he successfully founded several companies and commit in others . Today , he has refined his storytelling chops to the extent that he does n’t utilise a pack of cards at all .
For Cieplinski , not using a deck generate a major benefit : You secure that your startup is base on a realproduct and not a feature . The perils connect with launching a business that rely on another production are many and life-threatening , but in little , if the original merchandise changes or is no longer usable , then it ’s bye - bye for your commercial enterprise .
Your idea postulate to stand alone . As Cieplinski says , if your troupe is reliant on a proprietary Cartesian product , you often have so much to explain to potential investor that you necessitate a deck of cards to help oneself you .
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“ It ’s a feature of speech , stand for it ’s not a fend - alone Cartesian product , ” he says . “ As a result , you ca n’t really tell a story , because it ’s a thing that needs a lot of other things . Yeah , [ each ] story has a beginning , a center and an close . ”
Cieplinski veers away from decks because he receive that they do n’t keep going a founder in telling their news report . Instead of helping to guide a conversation between a founder and likely investor , decks tend to be used as information dumps without a exonerated intention .
“ The deck is a visual , guide tool for the conversation , ” says Cieplinski . “ It should not be used for anything more than that . masses tend to use a deck as an data dump . That is never live to work . ”
clear , there are time when a ocular aid can be lively for telling your story . It makes sense to use graphs and charts , for good example , because painting can account numbers and patterns far better than words . Charts can also assist in explaining complex procedure , and occasionally , a photo of your product or industrial plant is incisively what you need .
But the point here is that you ’re using diagrammatics or illustration to live up to a very specific aim where they have the edge over your words . They are n’t overshadow your storytelling ; they ’re helping bring it to life .
“ You should always apply a deck as a guide , an aiding tool to your conversation if you realize there are portions that get quite complicated , ” says Cieplinski .
Cieplinski divvy up an insight he gain by raising funds without using a deck : If the VCs are n’t able to connect with him and see the potential drop in his idea without a deck of cards , then maybe they are n’t the right investor for him .
“ In the back of my mind , ” says Cieplinski , “ if you ’re not arrest it [ a intro without a deck ] , then you may not be the good investor , because I am going to make it very easy to realise . ”
That make water sensation . As a beginner , you ’ll be working with your VCs close , sometimes in challenging lot , for years . If your investor somehow do n’t empathise you , what motivates you , what ’s important to you , or how you work , it ’s going to be a difficult relationship . Such relationships can easily go bad through poor communicating , personality clangoring or mismatch expectations . So , if neither of you need a deck to understand your society and your vision , perhaps it ’s a sign of a strong partnership .
Cieplinski is n’t actually anti - deck of cards ; he ’s pro - storytelling . What he really object to is the misuse of deck .
Will McGugan , CEO and founder of Textualize , which allows Python developers who do n’t have front - remainder skills to work up WWW apps solely with Python , has a very different experience of raising without a deck of cards : The VCs ground him before he even approached any .
“ I was doing this thing called agency hours , ” said McGugan . “ Basically , you set aside half an hour at the terminal of the Clarence Day just to spill to someone in the community . And because I was working open germ , it was quite utile . I get to talk to masses using my projects . ”
One of the hoi polloi McGugan talk to hap to be Tony Liu , a pardner at Costanoa Ventures . McGugan was n’t think about funding , so he do by the chat like any other conversation even though he knew Liu was a VC . But as the weeks go by , Liu help McGugan plan out how he could monetise one of his projects . The head here is that there was n’t a pitch pack of cards and McGugan did n’t have to pitch his projection .
“ It was basically a description of what I intended to build and what I designate to do with it , ” said McGugan . “ I post that to Tony and he sent it around to his pardner , and I guess it work because we ’ve got funding . ”
Even if you ’re not see for funding , some VCs always have their ears to the ground and eyes peel for new labor . Sometimes it ’s just about having the right conversation at the correct time .
There ’s unremarkably more than one means to do many thing in this humankind , and that ’s true for raising VC funding , too .
