Having raised 10 rounds of VC & invested in 50+ startups, I endorse this thread & am adding my own thread with fun examples.
Elizabeth is right that the best way to pitch investors is to "pitch the business within the product", but few do this.
2 examples (1 is personal) 👇
Elizabeth is right that the best way to pitch investors is to "pitch the business within the product", but few do this.
2 examples (1 is personal) 👇
https://twitter.com/dunkhippo33/status/1384740650290094081
Example 1⃣:
Back in the Web 1.0 days I co-founded a company called iChoose. The product was a browser plug-in (this was before mobile was a thing) that automatically compared prices on products and offered coupons while you shopped at any retail site.
Back in the Web 1.0 days I co-founded a company called iChoose. The product was a browser plug-in (this was before mobile was a thing) that automatically compared prices on products and offered coupons while you shopped at any retail site.
It was very similar to @honey, but 20 years ago & in many ways more advanced.
I knew that a killer demo would speak for itself so I re-taught myself to code (I was a teen hacker in the early days of PCs) and spent countless nights building a working prototype.
I knew that a killer demo would speak for itself so I re-taught myself to code (I was a teen hacker in the early days of PCs) and spent countless nights building a working prototype.
I was 20-something & knew nothing about raising VC, so I naively cold-emailed top VCs, attaching my prototype plug-in. I didn’t have a pitch deck (or much of a plan at all).
One night at 10pm my phone rang and it was... @bgurley, who had just joined Benchmark. He was curious...
One night at 10pm my phone rang and it was... @bgurley, who had just joined Benchmark. He was curious...
I stumbled through a short conversation - I think Bill quickly sniffed out that I was a n00b. We never talked again. But I was psyched!
My little prototype sparked interest from several investors and we closed a seed round very quickly - the product was our entire pitch.
My little prototype sparked interest from several investors and we closed a seed round very quickly - the product was our entire pitch.
[Side Note: iChoose ultimately failed. 20 years later @honey sold to PayPal for $4 billion, so I like to think I was “ahead of my time” rather than incompetent 😜.]
Example 2⃣:
You’ve probably heard of @RainforestCafe, the Disney-esque jungle dining experience. The story I’ve heard (and it may not be true but it’s instructive) is that the founder was struggling to raise money...
You’ve probably heard of @RainforestCafe, the Disney-esque jungle dining experience. The story I’ve heard (and it may not be true but it’s instructive) is that the founder was struggling to raise money...
It was hard to convey the immersive experience he envisioned in words and even pictures. So he turned his home garage into a mini-Rainforest Cafe complete with jungle noises, foggers, etc.
He invited potential investors to dine in his garage cafe... and the rest is history.
He invited potential investors to dine in his garage cafe... and the rest is history.
👉 This approach works better for some products than others, but *pitching your business within the product* is a tactic to consider, not only for founders but for sales & business development within existing companies.
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