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Stop Pitchin’
I confess — I have the attention span and memory of a gold fish. I am also more ambitious and optimistic with how to allocate my time than reality permits.
Unfortunately, the combination of these personality quirks is not very conducive to the conventions followed by many of my peers in VC when it comes to meeting new startups.
So, what are said conventions?
The Startup Pitch
One key part of venture capital (and the one most glamourised in popular culture) is the startup pitch — where a founder (or founders) meet with a VC to pitch how the VC’s capital will allow the team to develop a product and/or solution that will change the world and make everyone filthy rich in the process.
Typically, this follows the format of a 20–30 minute meeting (60 minutes if the VC is feeling generous) where the founder presents some variation of:
- The ‘big problem’;
- The ‘opportunity’;
- How they’re capturing the ‘opportunity’;
- How they’re different from everyone else trying to capture it;
- Why they’re the best team to do it; and
- The ‘ask’.
If the founder is lucky, the VC might ask some questions through out this presentation. If the founder is unlucky, the VC might…
