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ArticlePitch Deck Traction Slide | Pitch Deck Perfection

Pitch Deck Traction Slide | Pitch Deck Perfection

The Pitch Deck Traction Slide helps showcase early traction when we pitch investors. But what kind of traction metrics matter to investors? Let's walk through some common pitch deck traction slide examples showcasing user growth, growing revenue, and scaling active users.

Also, if you're concerned about showing traction in your pitch deck, don't sweat it. We'll show you how to position your traction slides even if you're pre-revenue.

Traction Slide Pitch Deck Formula

The perfect traction slide pitch deck formula incorporates three investor questions into a single slide:

Product Progress + Customer Acquisition + Visible Growth = Traction

The most stunning pitch deck examples incorporate all of these factors into their traction slides. Let's look ...



ArticleThe Pitch Deck How it Works Slide — Pitch Deck Perfection

The Pitch Deck How it Works Slide — Pitch Deck Perfection

Our "How it Works" slide is where we begin explaining the mechanics of our solution in a pitch deck presentation. It's notably different than the Solution Slide of a pitch deck which sometimes confuses startup founders. We'll explain how the best pitch decks walk venture capitalists and angel investors step-by-step through their products.

How Potential Investors view the How it Works Slide

When raising money from potential investors, a successful pitch deck focuses on the needs of the audience first (read: investors). Every word in our pitch deck should be tailored to the 2 unique selling point goals they have.

Investor: "Do I understand how it works?"

In our solution slide, we explained what the product does. Now we have to begin convincing in...



ArticleHow to Contact Investors

How to Contact Investors

Congratulations! You've made it to the end of our four-part Funding Series:

Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise

Phase Two - Investor Selection

Phase Three - The Pitch

Phase Four - Investor Outreach

Let’s dive in!

So you've got your list of angel investors, venture capitalists, random private investors, and even your rich Aunt and you're ready to blast all of them with your email pitch...

Please don't! Step.. away.. from.. the.. keyboard!

Most Founders (and we help thousands) wind up tanking their entire fundraising process the moment they hit the "send" button to potential investors. That'...



ArticleHow Much Equity do You Give Away in a Seed Round?

How Much Equity do You Give Away in a Seed Round?

Funding a startup isn't easy, and anyone that has launched a startup knows this to be painfully true. You need money (like yesterday) and raising funds is "a process" — to state it simply. There are so many details to know and questions to ask before a round can even begin, and once the startup funding round is ready to rock, there are additional questions every founder needs to know the answer to before they take the plunge.

One of the most common questions asked — and arguably most important details to know is how much equity do you give away in seed round? With the help from members of our community, we are going to get into this question in further detail to demystify the information about raising seed capital and the amount of equity ea...



ArticleThe Investor Email Pitch

The Investor Email Pitch

Continuing in Phase Four of a four-part Funding Series:

Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise

Phase Two - Investor Selection

Phase Three - The Pitch

Phase Four - Investor Outreach

Let’s dive in!

Nearly all potential investors require a solid email pitch before they are willing to take a meeting with a startup. A great Email Pitch won't guarantee you a meeting, but a bad one will definitely prevent one! Therefore, creating the perfect Email Pitch is essential if you want an investor to respond.

The perfect Email Pitch is very tight — just a few very well-crafted sentences to create a great fi...



ArticleWhat is a Startup Accelerator?

What is a Startup Accelerator?

Startup Accelerators are programs that invest a small amount of capital into early-stage companies while providing programming and mentorship over a period of 3-6 months.

While startup accelerators have become wildly popular among early-stage startups, the answer to "What is an accelerator?" has morphed quite a bit over time. We hear about startup accelerators providing seed capital, mentorship with the business model, and ultimately introductions to venture capital at a "demo day" but how much of that is truly valuable?

Let's dig into what accelerator programs actually do, who they help, what benefits they provide, and what are some of the cons to joining them - and some new alternatives to the traditional startup accelerators.

What's the Bus...



ArticleInvestor Introductions: How to get them

Investor Introductions: How to get them

Continuing in Phase Four of a four-part Funding Series:

Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise

Phase Two - Investor Selection

Phase Three - The Pitch

Phase Four - Investor Outreach

Let’s dive in!

Before you try to connect angel investors or venture capitalists to secure funding, we want to ensure you are using the best possible inroad. That means before contacting a potential investor, we want to find the best way to make a warm introduction.

Startups sometimes forget that an angel investor or really any private investors are just regular people like us.

Their investment process starts with fam...



ArticleInvestor Outreach

Investor Outreach

Welcome to Phase Four of a four-part Funding Series — all about Investor Outreach:

Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise

Phase Two - Investor Selection

Phase Three - The Pitch

Phase Four - Investor Outreach

Let’s dive in!

Investor outreach strategy is an art form. Many founders will think about their investor outreach program as simply "carpet bombing" prospective investors with the same company story — which never, ever works for startups.

Instead, let's talk about how to build any investor outreach strategy that is customized toward highly specific target investors in a way that will make ou...



ArticleHow to Find Investors

How to Find Investors

Continuing in Phase Two of a four-part Funding Series:

Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise

Phase Two - Investor Selection

Phase Three - The Pitch

Phase Four - Investor Outreach

Let's dive in!

The search for investors takes time. However, we can at least make sure the time you do invest is well spent. These days “investor research” really means combing through a handful of databases and Web sites to find potential connections to the investment community.

Finding investors isn’t like finding a plumber. There’s no “directory of interested investors” available from the small business administration that you carpet bomb with emails and wait for people to ...



ArticleUnderstanding Startup Investors

Understanding Startup Investors

Welcome to Phase Two of our four-part Funding Series — all about Investor Selection!

Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise

Phase Two - Investor Selection

Phase Three - The Pitch

Phase Four - Investor Outreach

This article is an Introduction to Startup Investors. Let's dive in!

Whatever stage your business is in when you launch your fundraising efforts, you can find the investor support that you’re looking for. Now that you’ve determined the fundraise structure that matches your needs and goals, it’s all about finding the investors that make sense.

All investors are not created equal.

They may all have capital, but the vast majority of investment profe...



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