Don’t let reality get in the way of your series A pitch

When a founder raises seed/angel money she pitches the investor on a dream.

Then the founder goes off and spends a year or two in the weeds grinding out the details of finding product-market fit and making a business work.

When it comes time to do a series A pitch this talented founder tries to share all the details of what she has done every day to push this rock up the hill — everyone feels better getting credit for all the hard work they’re doing. Pushing through the daily struggle is valuable.

But when it comes time to raise a series A it’s time to context switch back to selling the dream. Very few series A’s are fully traction based. At the time many companies raise their series A investors are still primarily betting on the team and the market.

Sometimes this bet is made with just enough product/traction to show that the entrepreneur is credible to execute against her vision.

Lead with all the insights you’ve gained from playing in this market for a while. You probably don’t even know all the interesting stuff that you know. What secrets have you learned about the market that make your product or service an inevitable part of how the future works?

Your series A pitch should:

1. Teach the series A investor something non-obvious and insightful that will pique their interest. (e.g. “What people think of as our current market is going to quickly get commoditized and we are leading that commoditization. Our monetization is actually in this adjacent market where we have pricing and market power from the commoditization that is occurring.”)
2. Inspire. The investor should leave the meeting feeling not only “informed” about your business, but also “in awe” of your talent as a founder. Give the investor confidence that your infectious energy will enable you to recruit top talent, close a big partnership, and raise the next round.
3. Explain why this is a unique moment-in-time opportunity. This couldn’t have happened 2 years ago, the opportunity must be captured now, and it will cease to be an opportunity 2 years from now.

If you have insane traction metrics feel free to ignore the advice in this post.

When Bill Gurley and Mike Moritz show up arm-in-arm knocking on the front door of your office begging to split the round, take the meeting and hear them out. But for a more typical series A pitch, this will help land the plane.

Thanks to Jen Yip and Avichal Garg for feedback on this piece.