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pre-fundraising essentials

This presentation consists of insights inspired by 33voices® interviews with Jenna Abdou.

Table of Contents

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Chapter 1 - How to Hit a Homerun Pitch

Chapter 2 - The Allstar Team

Chapter 3 - What to Expect in the Meeting

Chapter 4 - The Hard Questions

Chapter 5 - How to Plan Ahead

Credits

How to Hit a Homerun PitchChapter 1

Build a thoughtful deck that highlights the key points you want to explain. Think of every slide as a bread crumb leading to Hansel and Gretel’s house. Focus each one on a single

part of your story and support it with demonstrative facts.

Inspired by

Jenny Lefcourt

Answer these four questions to nail the first 30 seconds of your pitch:

Inspired by

ICONYC Labs

Answer these four questions to nail the first 30 seconds of your pitch:

What do you do?

Inspired by

ICONYC Labs

Answer these four questions to nail the first 30 seconds of your pitch:

What is your vision?

Inspired by

ICONYC Labs

Answer these four questions to nail the first 30 seconds of your pitch:

Why are you the best team to execute it?

Inspired by

ICONYC Labs

Answer these four questions to nail the first 30 seconds of your pitch:Why should I, as a customer or an

investor, be interested?

Inspired by

ICONYC Labs

Here’s an example of ICONYC Labs pitch. It’s exactly 30 seconds!

“ICONYC Labs is a first of it’s kind acceleration program that focuses exclusively on early stage Israeli tech companies to help them grow their businesses globally via NYC. Part of what we want to do is bring them here and have them

take advantage of all that NY has to offer; To be able to land their first customers, partners,

and ultimately investors.” Inspired by

ICONYC Labs

The All Star TeamChapter 2

Investors want to partner with scrappy entrepreneurs who have a deep conviction

that their vision will change the world. These are the four things they look for in a team:

Inspired by

Jenny Lefcourt

Investors want to partner with scrappy entrepreneurs who have a deep conviction

that their vision will change the world. These are the four things they look for in a team:Authenticity: Does the problem you’re

solving keep you up at night?

Inspired by

Jenny Lefcourt

Investors want to partner with scrappy entrepreneurs who have a deep conviction

that their vision will change the world. These are the four things they look for in a team:

Big vision: What have you done to achieve your goal today? What milestones have

you set to make your version of the future a reality?

Inspired by

Jenny Lefcourt

Investors want to partner with scrappy entrepreneurs who have a deep conviction

that their vision will change the world. These are the four things they look for in a team:

Relentlessness: Entrepreneurship is a roller coaster with an occasionally malfunctioning seat belt. Will you be

able to survive the Goliath drops?

Inspired by

Jenny Lefcourt

Investors want to partner with scrappy entrepreneurs who have a deep conviction

that their vision will change the world. These are the four things they look for in a team:

Leadership: How capable are you of inspiring people (customers,

partners, team members, etc.) to do business with you?

Inspired by

Jenny Lefcourt

What to Expect in the MeetingChapter 3

Do your homework. Target investors who are interested in and proficient in your market.

Don’t pitch your food startup to a firm specifically focused on Bitcoin.

Inspired by

Jenny Lefcourt

Remember that meeting one is an introduction. As a founder, you’re working to build rapport.

Ignite interest to invoke action.

Inspired by

Jenny Lefcourt

Pitch to your unique audience. Each customer, investor, and potential partner

will have different questions about your work. Answer their questions, not every question

that applies to your business.

Inspired by

Jenny Lefcourt

Create an appendix to quickly reference data and visual representations that

supplement your answers.

Inspired by

Jenny Lefcourt

“It’s about emotional intelligence, really being able to read the other side and play ping pong. You want to get

to a point where everyone is playing and enjoying it.” - Eyal Bino

Inspired by

ICONYC Labs

Talk is cheap. It’s a telling indicator if a partner asks you to meet their partner. If they say, ‘Love

it. Be in touch.’ they’re likely not interested.

Look for action not words.

Inspired by

Jenny Lefcourt

Bigger is not better. “Valuation isn’t the key to success. It often puts you in a corner. If your valuation is too high for

where you are, you don’t have the ability to move up and to the right as easily.”

Right partner + Right valuation = Long term success

Inspired by

Jenny Lefcourt

The Hard QuestionsChapter 4

Five founders share the most challenging questions investors have asked them and how they responded.

Would you sell this company for $1 billion? “I had no idea what to respond with. At the end of the day, it depends on the situation, on the

timing, on who the buyer is, and on how our company is doing.”

Inspired by

Liz Wessel

“What kind of CEO are you going to be?”

Inspired by

Vasco Pedro

Try these questions to prepare your response:

Try these questions to prepare your response: How do you make decisions?

Try these questions to prepare your response: What are your weak points and how

do you supplement them?

Try these questions to prepare your response: How do you inspire people to join your team?

Why don’t you take on all of the projects that are offered to you?

“Our top-line revenue numbers would be higher if we said yes to every project, but

we don’t feel like that’s the right thing for our business. We want every ZinePak release to be special, reserved just for properties with SuperFans. A mass-market, 150-releases-

a-year approach isn’t for us.”Inspired by

Brittany Hodak

If you look back in a year and things are going bad, what is the reason?

“I usually respond with the statistical likelihood of a major earthquake in California that destroys

our office and swallows Los Angeles, our largest market, cutting revenues in half.”

Inspired by

Mike Townsend

What if Google decides tomorrow that they’re going to launch your product?

“With all investors, there is a framework between fear and greed.

Don’t attack fear with why they shouldn’t be fearful. You always attack fear with greed and you always address too much greed with fear.

Never try to address fear with fear or with a rational argument on why they

shouldn’t be fearful.”Inspired by

Munjal Shah

How to Plan AheadChapter 5

Startup culture is defined by outcomes. Constantly ask yourself: ‘What do we need

to do to raise follow-on capital?”

Inspired by

Jeffrey Wald

Each time you raise a new round, view your capital in an 18-month window. Set 100

day milestones to capitalize on it and keep the team excited.

Inspired by

Jeffrey Wald

Answer these three questions to map out your 100 day period:

Inspired by

Jeffrey Wald

Answer these three questions to map out your 100 day period:

What is our burn rate?

Inspired by

Jeffrey Wald

Answer these three questions to map out your 100 day period:

How long is this capital going to last us?

Inspired by

Jeffrey Wald

Answer these three questions to map out your 100 day period:

What benchmarks do we need to hit to demonstrate that we’re ready to raise more money?

Inspired by

Jeffrey Wald

Make compensation work for your team. If it’s something you can truly agree on, pay

people based on what they need to live in the early days.

“We all needed each other. We did what we had to do to make sure that everybody was able to survive. We’ll do it in reverse

as we go forward.”

Inspired by

Vasco Pedro

ASK A FOUNDER

If you have a question we missed, submit it to 33voices Q&A for a direct answer from one of our founders or thought leaders.

FEATURED:

Jenny Lefcourt

Partner at Freestyle Capital

@JennyLefcourt

Munjal Shah

Founder of Health IQ

@MunjalShah

Eyal Bino and Arie Abecassis

Founders of ICONYC Labs

@iconyclabs

Jeffrey Wald

Co-Founder of Work Market

@JeffreyWald

FEATURED:

Liz Wessel

Co-Founder of Campus Job

@lizwessel

Vasco Pedro

Co-Founder of Unbabel

@justvasco

Mike Townsend

Co-Founder of HomeHero

@Mikettownsend

Brittany Hodak

Co-Founder of ZinePak

@brittanyhodak

CONNECT WITH US!

Tell us what you thinkJenna@33voices.com

Presentation by Chase Jennings

Insights by Jenna Abdou

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