Fundraising Mistakes

I've seen a few hundred fund raising slide decks pass by my desk at Enterprise Partners Venture Capital and Third Security and while only a few have been funded, the ones that did all had met a minimum standard of quality for their slide deck.

It is certainly possible to get a company funded through personal connections, amazing technology, or market traction but the companies I've seen funded also put together really good pitches.

Pitching your company to a venture capitalist is a lot like selling your product to a customer. If you can't explain your story in terms your customer can understand you won't get the sale. A lot of entrepreneurs looking to raise funds for the first time have very little experience talking to or understanding a venture capitalist.

In the next few posts I'm going to highlight some of the most common mistakes I've seen. Before I do, let me introduce a fellow UCLA Anderson MBA, class of 1979, Guy Kawasaki, who has written extensively on this subject and can give the positive side of how to build a VC presentation to win over an investor. His colleague at Garage Technology Ventures, Bill Reichert, adds even more detail to that outline.

Good luck!