The Perfect VC Pitch
Wednesday May 16, 2012 by Mike Hirshland - Founder, Resolute.vc
Ok, sure, there obviously is no such thing as a perfect pitch, I’m just trying to get better at using titles that actually attract readers (I’m gonna do a summer internship at Business Insider to really master the art).
But I just received a pitch deck that was so clearly a really good pitch that I wanted to share what I found so effective. So here goes a slide-by-slide narrative of why the deck worked for me.
SLIDE 1: WHAT WE’RE DOING. Two sentences, 22 words, plain english. One buzzword, but used appropriately. Immediately conveys the idea. Check.
SLIDE 2: TEAM. Yup, that is exactly what I want to see next.
SLIDE 3: THE PROBLEM. Plain english describes the problem and why current solutions are a pain in the ass.
SLIDE 4: THE SOLUTION. Clear description of what this app would allow me to do. Concise but makes it intuitively obvious why this solution would offer real value.
SLIDES 5-8: 2 EXAMPLE PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS. Very discrete and understandable real world illustrations of how I might experience the problem in the course of my life and how the app would solve it. If it were an actual meeting and not just a deck this is where the demo would be. But in the absence of a demo, the slides do a really good job of describing how the app works and why I would like it. This is where he got me. I am often kinda slow on the uptake, but I really, really need an entrepreneur to give me really concrete and clear examples of how their product actually works. My advice: if you can’t give really discrete examples of how your product works that a very average user will understand, you aren’t ready for VC pitches.
SLIDE 9: MARKET. Ideally it is big, right?
SLIDE 10: BUSINESS MODEL. You don’t always need this for seed stage pitches. But it helps.
SLIDE 11: INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY. Duh.
SLIDE 12: USE OF PROCEEDS. Don’t forget to include how long this amount of capital will last you without revenue. (This guy gets a ding here. But 11 out of 12 is pretty good).
If you are going to send or give me a pitch and happen to follow this format, extra brownie points 
Mike Hirshland is the Founder of Resolute.vc. You can find this blog post, as well as additional content on the Resolute.vc blog located here. You can also follow Mike on Twitter (@VCMike) by clicking here.
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