Some quick thoughts on my learnings on this...
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...
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.
-how are you differentiated from the market?
-how competitive is the market?
-which niche do you fall into?
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
Even in a niche - there are like new 50 funds going after the same opportunity..
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"
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.
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
And then finding investor-fit with that iteration.
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.