My colleague, Harry Davies, who is our Applied AI Lead, recently shared some fantastic advice for founders raising seed funds with a VC/ Ambitious Angels.

He used to see thousands of pitch decks when he was at Wayra. Although I can't share with you the successful pitch deck he showed us, I did want to share some of the brilliant advice he gave.

The difference between a VC and an angel This advice is aimed at those raising from VCs / ambitious angels. In this case, you want to be bullish about growth and ambitions.

The reality is that many pitch decks are very poor. The good news is that we can do something about this.

✅  What a pitch is? Your pitch is a sales document designed to push an investor into action (a call, a zoom, a meeting…)

It’s a document that persuades the investor that it’s worth taking some time to find out more about you. It is a story about your business.

❌  What a pitch is not? A pitch is NOT your business plan in a slide deck.

You have about 2 mins to persuade them so with this in mind:

🏆  The golden rules 🏆

💫 Create the shortest possible desk. This has to be a teaser to get to the next action (not the final cheque).

💫 Remember the entire deck tells you about the founder, not just the bio you include on the team slide.

💫 Use the Aristotle's "modes for persuasion"

• Ethos - This is about establishing your credibility. Who is delivering the message and why should you believe them?
• Logos - Imagine you are a barrister producing a case through logic. You need to provide details, facts, data and combine them to make an argument as to why your company stands out.
• Pathos - How do you sway your investor emotionally? How do you make someone feel when they read your deck? Why should they care?

💫 Hire a professional designer to help you. It might sound expensive but it’s worth the payout. If you can’t do that use tools like Canva Give it thought so it looks slick. Find someone in your local community who can help, or use platforms like Fiverr https://www.fiverr.com/ to find a freelancer or try out Canva - https://www.canva.com/

💫 Keep it simple. The fewer words the better. Each slide must have a point and your message has to be super quick.

💫 You want the investor to feel FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

💫 Make sure it’s clear what you are raising (this could even just be on the intro email).

⛔️  Avoid - Adding labels to slides such as problem/ solutions. It should be obvious that’s what you are saying if your story is right. - Adding a path to exit (some investors love it / others don’t so it’s marmite) make sure you know what side your investor is on.