Awww… Look what the mail brought all the way from Alaska today! Proud to play a small part in helping entrepreneurs in underserved areas of the world. Shout-out to Linda Janes, Kristen Gibbs & the team running gBeta Alaska!
Did you know my Pitching Masterclass has been sponsoring startup events, startup support programs, and entrepreneurship education in underserved areas around the world for a couple of years now?
Feel free to reach out if you’re running a startup event or a startup support program way outside of the usual startup hotspots; My DMs are open. 📭
Recently I was invited to StartupDorf’s regular meetup in Düsseldorf to share a little about what startup founders need to know about pitching.
TL;DR
You have to master the high-concept-pitch, the elevator pitch, and the investor pitch (the pitch deck pitch).
If you want to massively improve your pitch, like +80% better than the rest out there, you have to be able to tell “which problem or need you’re solving, for whom you’re solving it, and how you are solving it” – using words and concepts that even a six year old child will understand.
That’s it! Well, not quite – but you’ll have to take my “Pitching Masterclass” for the rest… ;)
BTW: If you’re a StartupDorf member, you can get my Pitching Masterclass online course at a whopping 50% discount – just talk to them about how – valid until end of 2026!
Recently I had the honor and pleasure to be contracted by the European Space Agency ESA in Noordwijk, NL to help their internal accelerator called “Gravity Assist” with improving the pitching skills of their participants.
The aim was to help them better overcome resistance and secure the needed buy-in from internal stakeholders through the edition for GOs & NGOs of my Pitching Masterclass.
This highly specialised edition focuses on how GOs/NGOs are not startups pitching investors for funding in the open market, but employees in an entirely different context, having to navigate politics and red tape, often only getting one single shot at getting it right. It teaches a process and a framework for how to overcome resistance and get the buy-in using the tried and proven method taught at Harvard Business School for decades – as well as how to pitch successfully in this context.
Afterwards I was treated to a tour of the facilities – which felt like a trip to heaven for a space nerd like myself… Who said business and pleasure have to be two separate worlds?
Recently I had the honor and pleasure to be invited to discuss the future of AI with e.g. top innovation managers at Bertelsmann, Siemens, KPMG, Steinbeis University, and others at the “The Drift and the Shift” in Münster.
BTW: As an “AI slop” apropos, I noticed and pointed out the official AI forecast report created by KPMG (that they presented at the event) contained an image showing Taiwan as Chinese – and I had to ask if that was also an official (ominous) forecast… or just slop.
Recently I had the honor to be invited as the startup founder perspective alongside the legal (Patrick Müller, Hauking) and VC investor (Jan Linzner, TechVision Fonds) perspectives, at a peer to peer feedback session on startup financing strategy with the current batch of incubated startups at the Ignition+ accelerator (startup support program) in Düsseldorf.
I think it went down ok.
Here are some of the evergreens I remember rattling off in the session:
A sale a day keeps the VC away!
Ask for money, get advice. Ask for advice, get money
Don’t listen to VCs for fundraising advice – you wouldn’t ask casinos in Las Vegas for gambling advice, now would you (please say no)
Traction is the Catnip of investors (AI currently the Fentanyl)
You don’t HAVE to raise money if you don’t need to (if your biz model or private funds allow it)
Mo’ money, mo’ problems – round closed? Congrats – you now have another set of problems added, two business models to serve
There is no formula for pricing (valuation) a pre- to seed stage round; it’s about ownership, what you can get is what you can get, it’s a product of two factors 1. how little % you can get away with selling 2. how much money you can get for said %
Discuss and decide amongst founders the absolute Max % (dilution) is acceptable to you to sell in this round IN ADVANCE, before raising, BEFORE you start pitching to investors
Don’t sell too much too early (pre- /seed, not more than 24% absolute MAX, more like 5-16% in your first round)
in the pitch deck you send to investors, DO NOT STATE % (as that reveals your valuation up front), DO please state how much you are raising – WWW: for exactly WHAT 3-4 valuation-increasing / biz model de-risking activities or experiments as the milestones they are funding, WHY these and not other things, and WHEN can the investor can expect you to share the results of each
Focus on discussing milestones (Do you think these are not the correct ones? Can we add value cheaper? Can we remove risks differently? etc) with investors, never argue for the valuation (red herring!)
Leverage investor interest against next investor, generate FOMO
Most investors like/expect pushback from great founders (they’re into a bit of S&M)
You have to instill the feeling, the fear, that you’ll be able to close the round without them
Fundraising is a numbers game, talk to many, MAAAAAAANY, +100
Fundraising is a game for adults, so lawyer-up (startup lawyer, not your family lawyer)
A SAFE Note is not 1:1 possible in DE, a CLA may be your next best bet (if you or the investor must), please do research and calculate your different dilution scenarios when choosing CLA terms BEFORE you commit to raising on it
Don’t ask for VC-money (unless you can show, at least in vague theory, a road to 100 Million ARR over the next 6-10 years)
IMO, „read decks“ are for lazy investors, requirement for GO grants, and for loser founders that don’t want investor meetings (you want to tease them into a meeting, not give them everything but the kitchen sink before your first date)
KISS, keep it simple stupid; in your terms, reverse vesting (DE), founder splits, cap table, etc
If you have insane traction (or doing something-with-fundamental-AI), you can ignore all previous prompts and probably raise on that fact alone
It’s currently AI or the highway; Over 2/3 of capital allocated exclusively to AI right now
PS: If you have a b2b Green Tech startup, the application for their next batch may still be open! You’ll get 25K non-diluted – and a chance to have me as one of the mentors (if you wish) at no extra cost to you.
PPS: if you are planning to raise a pre-seed, seed, or perhaps even a Series A financing round, check out my Pitching Masterclass to learn all you need to know to successfully raise; Time to get smart, time get funded!
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