Having an investor presentation is very important and you want to have it right. The initial investor pitch probably should not be on an iPad or on a computer. I’m not a big fan of handing an investor 50 pages all bound up so they can read everything about your company – they don’t have time to read all of that. Get in there and be relational. It’s about that connection again. Be relational.
If they want to know more, if they’re really heading down the track of getting serious, they’re going to ask you for the details. Don’t worry, there’s a time for that, but it is not the first time. Let’s go back to the dating relationship concept here. First dates are not the time to talk about all your family history, all the illnesses you had when you were in second grade, how the airplane trip went with your Aunt Judy six months ago – all those things that might just be a little bit too much information.
Keep it simple and relational.
That investor deck is about you – maybe one page front and back, maybe two max, but it’s a lot like having a resume for your business. So, unless you’re in some really extreme high-end job, typically a rule of thumb is to keep a resume to one page. Two is really not great. One is better. This is a lot like having a resume for your business. Put some basic points down, make it pretty, you don’t even have to give a handout. It’s great if you want to be able to roll off that from a script standpoint, maybe the handout cues you up so you know where you are in the presentation. That’s fine, but keep it simple and keep it relational. Eye contact, having them talk and ask questions and talk about how excited they get – those things are way more important than that investor presentation deck. The details, the book, all the supporting data, that’s just a big, fancy, long Word document that’s well-organized and you can get to that later. That is not an investor deck. That is more of a prospectus or a true disclosure of the business and how it works.
