Pitch Deck Hook: Captivate Investors

Wheel's Successful Pitch to Tusk Venture Partners

Michelle Davey, the founder of Wheel, initiated her presentation to Jordan Nof from Tusk Venture Partners by immediately presenting key performance indicators. While unconventional to begin with metrics, particularly at an early stage, she articulated the reasoning behind this approach. Nof subsequently confirmed the effectiveness of this strategy.

Davey and Nof participated in a recent installment of Extra Crunch Live, elaborating on Tusk’s enthusiasm for investing in Wheel. They provided a detailed walkthrough of Wheel’s Series B pitch deck, highlighting the specific slides and elements that ultimately secured the funding.

About Extra Crunch Live

Extra Crunch Live is a regularly scheduled virtual event series designed to empower founders in building robust, venture-backed companies. Each session features discussions with investors and the entrepreneurs they support.

The goal is to uncover the factors that initially attracted these parties to one another, the qualities they recognized in each other, and the dynamics of their ongoing collaboration.

Furthermore, Extra Crunch Live incorporates the Extra Crunch Live Pitch-Off. This segment allows founders within the audience to present their startups directly to the featured speakers.

Participation in Extra Crunch Live is open to all viewers during its live broadcast on Wednesdays at noon PDT. However, access to the recorded sessions is exclusively available to Extra Crunch members.

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Prioritizing Traction in Pitch Decks

Davey highlighted the flexibility required when constructing a pitch deck. Rather than adhering to a strict template, she advocates for tailoring the presentation to showcase the company’s most compelling and distinctive attributes. These key differentiators should be prominently displayed.

In the case of Wheel, demonstrable traction was the primary focus, as the company experienced significant adoption from its inception. This approach proved effective during their recent Series B funding round as well.

“The structure of many pitch decks, particularly the initial ten slides, often follows a predictable pattern,” Davey explained. “However, my advice, which I’ve consistently applied from my first meeting with Jordan through our Series B raise, is to identify the single element that will most effectively capture an investor’s attention. This could be the strength of the assembled team and their ability to address a specific challenge. For us, substantial year-over-year growth allowed us to lead with that metric. We presented it upfront – demonstrating a clear reason for investor interest, with details about our company following later.”

Presenting the most impactful information at the beginning can effectively communicate desirable characteristics of the company, potentially securing investor interest before a detailed explanation of the business goals is even provided.

“It’s not solely the impressive figures themselves, but the connection between them that matters,” Nof commented. “I recall observing the traction data and recognizing that the revenue run-rate was nearing, and potentially exceeding, the total venture funding the team had received. This immediately signaled a resourceful team capable of effectively selling the product and achieving rapid market penetration.”

Guiding Investor Beliefs for Successful Funding

A crucial insight, shared by Nof, emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurs explicitly stating the core beliefs investors must hold to justify their investment. He points out that investors invariably assess these underlying assumptions, but without clear guidance, they will formulate their own, potentially inaccurate, criteria for evaluation.

According to Nof, proactively addressing this is vital. He suggests entrepreneurs should articulate the foundational beliefs necessary for the company’s success. “Essentially, ask yourself, ‘What must be true for this venture to achieve a multibillion-dollar valuation?’,” he explained.

By directly presenting these key beliefs – “Here are the three understandings essential for you to consider this a worthwhile investment” – entrepreneurs minimize investor uncertainty. This refocuses their assessment on the specific challenges the company is designed to overcome.

Controlling the narrative is key, as leaving it to chance can lead to misinterpretations. Without explicit direction, internal discussions might identify beliefs that are fundamentally flawed, hindering the fundraising process.

Davey illustrated this principle with her experience at Wheel.

“Our approach centered on demonstrating the inadequacy of existing solutions and the necessity for a new paradigm,” she stated. “We needed to show that the current system couldn’t scale effectively.”

She further explained that a marketplace model was deliberately chosen as the optimal solution. “While various business models could be applied, it’s crucial to understand the rationale behind your selection and its direct impact on resolving the target problem.”