top 3 items: 1) track record / metrics (if you have one), 2) people / team (if you don't), 3) why you're different from everyone else. everything else is window-dressing.
Thanks for doing this guys. Would love to see more VCs and LPs be transparent like this. Great for the ecosystem. Kudos. (And love your mention of a push for a Gene Roddenberry style future, Jake! Feels like recent years have taken us in the wrong direction but let's not give up the fight for that future someday!)
First off Jake, thanks for sharing, this could not have been easy to open up to potential criticism.
Read every word and it was fascinating on two levels. 1 Fund creation but also just Storytelling.
I lightly subscribe to the Oren Klaff style of STRONG
Set the Frame
Tell the Story
Reveal the Intrigue
Offer the Prize
Nail the Hook Point
Get the Deal
I am not a zealot about it, but I do think there is strength in the not "spilling your candy in the lobby" of putting everything up front. As an LP, Chris Douvos obviously is busy and wants to dispense with it and meet the team, review the record and say Yay or Nay.
I agree there was some tightening up in the middle required, but also think drawing out the intrigue is part of selling and ultimately raising a fund is selling as is fund raising for entrepreneurs. I loved Chris's point about differentiation being key. Too often sales pitches ignore this with a tech focus. How are you / your fund / your product different? That is the key that has to jump out.
Hey Jake, thanks for sharing! As a Co-Founder & Partner at Alfabeat https://alfabeat.com/ a micro-VC in Europe, I find it really appealing to focus on founders' health and their cognitive skills. That's what we're exploring as well. Let's connect
This was super interesting to see why certain things were added (via Jake) or why some things do or don't matter (via Chris and also Dave's comment below).
As for my reading of the deck, I already know Jake and consider him one of the best people anywhere, so it may skew my perspective.
For example, Jake is a good person, humble and genuinely cares about founders, so can understand the reluctance to put himself or any team slide upfront. It just feels awkward to say "we care about founders, but hey, look at me!"
That said, I can also understand why LP's who may not know Jake need to know sooner than later why you as GP are so relevant to making this work. Not sure if track record, metrics matters as much because Jake's vision is investing in founders. A robot could not replace Jake (well, unless maybe GPT-3 and Jake are connected together through Neuralink, but that's a whole other future topic).
Thanks Jake and Chris for doing this. I wish there were more examples of reviews like this to learn from.
top 3 items: 1) track record / metrics (if you have one), 2) people / team (if you don't), 3) why you're different from everyone else. everything else is window-dressing.
Thanks for doing this guys. Would love to see more VCs and LPs be transparent like this. Great for the ecosystem. Kudos. (And love your mention of a push for a Gene Roddenberry style future, Jake! Feels like recent years have taken us in the wrong direction but let's not give up the fight for that future someday!)
That's interesting, thanks for sharing!
Jake, thank you for sharing. Terrific content. It would be great to see new version of deck.
First off Jake, thanks for sharing, this could not have been easy to open up to potential criticism.
Read every word and it was fascinating on two levels. 1 Fund creation but also just Storytelling.
I lightly subscribe to the Oren Klaff style of STRONG
Set the Frame
Tell the Story
Reveal the Intrigue
Offer the Prize
Nail the Hook Point
Get the Deal
I am not a zealot about it, but I do think there is strength in the not "spilling your candy in the lobby" of putting everything up front. As an LP, Chris Douvos obviously is busy and wants to dispense with it and meet the team, review the record and say Yay or Nay.
I agree there was some tightening up in the middle required, but also think drawing out the intrigue is part of selling and ultimately raising a fund is selling as is fund raising for entrepreneurs. I loved Chris's point about differentiation being key. Too often sales pitches ignore this with a tech focus. How are you / your fund / your product different? That is the key that has to jump out.
Hey Jake, thanks for sharing! As a Co-Founder & Partner at Alfabeat https://alfabeat.com/ a micro-VC in Europe, I find it really appealing to focus on founders' health and their cognitive skills. That's what we're exploring as well. Let's connect
Excellent article, thank you, Jake!
Really helpful
This was super interesting to see why certain things were added (via Jake) or why some things do or don't matter (via Chris and also Dave's comment below).
As for my reading of the deck, I already know Jake and consider him one of the best people anywhere, so it may skew my perspective.
For example, Jake is a good person, humble and genuinely cares about founders, so can understand the reluctance to put himself or any team slide upfront. It just feels awkward to say "we care about founders, but hey, look at me!"
That said, I can also understand why LP's who may not know Jake need to know sooner than later why you as GP are so relevant to making this work. Not sure if track record, metrics matters as much because Jake's vision is investing in founders. A robot could not replace Jake (well, unless maybe GPT-3 and Jake are connected together through Neuralink, but that's a whole other future topic).
Thanks Jake and Chris for doing this. I wish there were more examples of reviews like this to learn from.
This is Gold! Thanks for sharing!