1) Entrepreneurs as well as fund managers often ask me for feedback on their pitch decks.

Some quick thoughts on my learnings on this...

2) Usually people ask for feedback on things that are important but not really *that* important.

Things like:
-the design
-the clarity
-or even the story

These are important but often there's ONE BIG THING that no one asks about...

3) And that ONE BIG THING is about where you fit into the market landscape.

In isolation, a pitch deck can look great. It can be well designed. It can be clear. The story can be compelling.

But if you're going against 100 other companies w/ the same pitch...it's a bad pitch.

4) I think some top things to consider in your pitch deck are things like:

-how are you differentiated from the market?
-how competitive is the market?
-which niche do you fall into?

5) This applies to product startups & funds.

To poke fun at VCs, almost ALL VC decks I see basically say:

1) This area is overlooked (a group of ppl or a geo or a stage or an industry or a technology)
2) We have amazing bkgnds
3) Here's our track record
4) Give us money

6) And that's fine. Great deck in isolation, but there are something like 1100 microfunds according to @firstrepublic & $$ is a commodity...so how do you tell the difference between all the funds?

Even in a niche - there are like new 50 funds going after the same opportunity..

7) And the same goes for startups as well.

And certainly @HustleFundVC when we did our v1 deck for our Fund 1, we had the same story as everyone else. I showed our deck to @tchae and he basically was like, "You and everyone else"

8) This is why it's not only important to get feedback on your own story but where you fit in the landscape.

Iterate on the angle that makes you different. For us, we iterated on 20 VERY DIFF versions of our story. That's how impt iteration is.

9) By v20, our story evolved from "being some regular ole pre-seed fund" to:

a) here's our unusual investing model
b) here's our marketing chops / lead gen abilities and where this fits in
c) here's our mission & why it's diff from other pre-seed funds

10) Part of why fundraising takes so long is that sometimes it takes a long time to iterate on the story and how you fit into the market.

And then finding investor-fit with that iteration.

11) A related tidbit is that well-networked founders are not just at an advantage cuz they have a strong network.

What many don't realize is that it's also because their network helps them iterate their positioning into a mkt that is differentiated / has greenfield to run in.

12) If you have an opp to get feedback on your pitch, make sure you understand where you fit in. If people say your co/firm is in a crowded space or say you're not differentiated enough, that's a BIG HINT to figure out a TOTALLY DIFFERENT STORY that gets you out of that rut.

13) In conclusion: it's not good enough for successful pitching to have a nice looking deck with a clear story.