Ok here’s my pitching part 2 thread. A few things not to do when pitching:

1. Don’t talk for too long up front. Of a 30 min meeting, spend 5-10 mins doing your pitch, and leave 20 mins for questions/discussion/feedback. If you send me your deck beforehand, that helps save time.

2. Don’t make generic statements, eg “we’ve seen a lot of interest in our product recently.” Number, numbers, numbers. For everything you say.

3. Don’t launch into the pitch without a 1 min intro into your background, why you are building this co and why you care about what you’re building. Are you solving a personal pain point?

4. Don’t talk about a working product without offering to show me a demo. Often I’ll ask to see the demo right then and there if it’s an app.

5. If the goal is for me to invest, don’t ask me to mentor you as an “expert on the industry.” That’s really not the objective here.

6. Don’t ask me to help you work out your business fundamentals. Eg don’t ask me, “who do you think my biggest competitors are?” Or “what are the best ways for me to acquire customers?” It’s your company. You should know. You can ask me for feedback.

More later on pitch decks.

Hope this helps you understand what I am thinking as you pitch! And it’s probably nearly universal for VCs.