How to raise your Seed round 101 — Chapter 2: Craft your fundraising materials

6 min readDec 29, 2018

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This story is part of the “How to raise your Seed Round 101” which is actually divided between the following chapters:

Now let’s dive into part 2

Traditionally Seed fundraising consists of presenting a slide deck in person to investors. You should also have a 1–2 pages executive summary and a financial forecast tight and ready to go.

Tip: It is generally a good idea to build a list of top investors objections

The Executive Summary

You will need to write an executive summary, which should be no more than a page long and describe in the most matter of fact language what you plan to do, why it’s a good idea, and what progress you’ve made so far. The point of the summary is to remind the investor (who may have met many startups that day) what you talked about.

Craft the Pitch Deck

For each question, take a page and write out the key points for your business. Focus on getting concise and consistent answers rather than covering every detail. You might want to gather your team to have their point of view.

Describe your business in a sentence.
What problem are you solving and who are you solving it for?
How do you solve this problem?
How big is your market? (TAM, SAM & SOM)
What is your traction to date? How quickly are you growing? (Revenue or user weekly/monthly growth rate)
What is your product or service & what is the technology that enables it?
Who are your competitors?
How does your product or service beat the competition?
Why is now the right time for your solution?
What is your business model (i.e. how you make revenue, what are your costs)?
How do you get customers? How does your product scale with demand?
Who are the key people in your team?
What is your pre money valuation and how much are you trying to raise? What will you achieve with the investment? When will you need to raise your next round?

I would also suggest you to do the following process wrote by Brendan. Here are the results:

Tip: Instead of a one word slide, let’s take “Problem” as an example, include a proactive statement about the problem you are solving. Something like “30% of a full stack engineer’s time is wasted on code reviews”

The pitch deck is the most important, as it is your “workhorse” during the deal; you will use it constantly. Here’s a guide to building a pitch deck if you need pointers, and here’s a collection of decks to get some inspiration.

Sequoia also describes what such a deck should contain.

I deeply suggest you to check Front deck created by Mathilde Collin as an inspiration

Guidelines for the Pitch Deck

Remember: How do you seem like you’ll be one of the big successes? You need three things: formidable founders, a promising market, and (usually) some evidence of success so far.

Be simple and get to the point: your pitch needs to include a concise summary of the mission and values of the company and a one sentence explanation of what the company does.

You should start with your lead, not your market slide. And if you can’t tell clearly your company’s value-add, the problem it solves and why your idea is different in under a minute, you shouldn’t be pitching it yet.

Explain how you intend to use the resources you’re asking for. Think “lean” and only ask for resources to cover the next phase of your action plan, not more. You need to ask yourself “What is the minimum amount of resources that my project needs at this moment in order to reach the next level?”

Use the power of storytelling: your pitch should definitely tell a story.

During your presentation, make it clear that you know which are the results the evaluation committee or the board members expect to obtain if they support your proposal. You should highlight your expected financial and operational results in terms of the metrics that matter most to your audience. For instance, a business angel may be interested in your start-up venture’s expected valuation after five years whereas a corporate investment committee may emphasize whether your new project will exceed the corporate investment hurdle rate (for example, more than 15% annual return on capital employed.)

The pitch

Investors must fully comprehend what you offer, so later they can sell your story internally.

Don’t forget, at the end of the day, investors want a return of investment.

After a minute or two of small talk, it’s time to get into the pitch. I like to ask the investor what format she prefers, e.g. “How do you like to do these? Do you want to go through the deck, or do a product demo, or just chat a bit?” Involve them in the process

Each pitch will have its own unique flow, but try to guide the discussion as best you can to cover key points. I also suggest you make the investor pitch you — ask how they tend to add value to their companies (general “value-add”), as well as how they could help your specific startup, should you end up working together.

At the end of the pitch

After your next pitch, try asking the firm’s partners what they think.

Surprisingly, very few ask that question, but it is a question that signifies the entrepreneur who is flexible, self-aware, and would probably make a good partner.

At the end of the meeting, conclude by asking, “What’s your interest level?” as well as, “What does your process look like — what are the next steps?”

Finally, do not forget to send a follow-up note. Most investors are shocked with the lack of follow up from entrepreneurs who have come in and pitched them, but leave it in the investor’s court to follow up.

Don’t expect a quick “Yes” or “No.” An investor may sound enthusiastic about supporting your project, but it will take a long time to obtain an agreement in writing, such as a term sheet. Follow up again.

Why some meetings went bad?

Below are the principal reasons why meetings can go bad:

Don’t let meeting drag on (leave before it’s time)
You didn’t do any research about their investor
You don’t have any product demo but just a pitch deck
You don’t build rapport: ask people about their people at their last company or what they are working on now. If you don’t build rapport, there is no way you can create a connexion. It’s sales 101.
No sense of momentum
Being Argumentative: you disagree with the feedback
You didn’t ask questions (ex: what do you think of the market ? What do you think so far ? you need to create a conversation)
No information on market size

Now that crafting your fundraising materials has no more secret to you, I invite you to read Part 3 — How to raise your Seed Round 101 — Stuff to know especially if it is your first time fundraising.

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