We just launched the Travel Technology Investor Platform to help our startups expand their reach in accessing angel investors, VCs and strategic investors (travel companies).
4 of our startups are working on raising series-seed capital right now between $500K-$1.2M.
Here at Travel Startups Incubator we’re looking to build out our team and fund more startups so we have started talking with investors as well.
I’ve been helping two of our startups with their decks and working on our own investor deck.
I started to notice something really weird about the investor decks and it was consistent.
Page 1 is really boring.
It didn’t tell the investor anything other than the name.
Here take a look at our initial page 1.
This is terrible.
No good!
Have you ever taken a close look at the first page of your investor deck?
It’s ok, break it out and let’s have a look.
The majority of investors decks I’ve seen are doomed from page one.
I believe page 1 could be the key to whether you get the money or not.
Why? Because page 1 of your deck paints the first vista in my mind.
An image, a thought, and feelings are immediately embedded into my brain.
Do you want a crusty, boring, ho-hum thought embedded in your potential investors brain?
Or do you want a passionate feverish shiver to cascade through their bones?
Page 1 of the investor deck is totally underrated.
Too many startup founders are copying everyone else’s pitch decks.
I have to admit that’s exactly what I did as well.
It’s time to be creative and innovate on page 1.
Think of page 1 as your headline.
Headlines inspire, shock, create curiosity and drive people to want to learn more.
Look at my headline, “You just lost $1M” did that get your attention? I hope so.
After you read a compelling headline your inclined to be curious with a desire to want to know more.
The entire objective of an investor pitch deck is to sell your investment opportunity.
Get it read, get the investor to engage on the phone or to get a meeting and then to get the money.
You want the investor reading your pitch deck to write you a check, period, that’s the end goal.
An investor is asking himself three key questions in his head.
How much money can I make?
How big is this market opportunity?
What’s the risk?
The first question is the most important.
Why? Because, money drives everything.
The investor has to make money.
So sell him wants he needs.
Sound like something familiar?
So, please on page 1…Sell me out of the gate.
What are the 3 most powerful things about your startup?
What’s your traction? Tell me on page #1.
How much money can I make as an investor? Tell me on page #1.
Be unapologetic. Be bold, strut your stuff.
Look, investors are busy people.
Get in their head immediately in 5-seconds or less.
If you grab their attention you’ve got another 2-5 minutes if you’re lucky.
Make them so excited internally that they have to go through every page in the deck.
Ahhh…Much Better
I know this is working because I have been using DocSend to send our investor deck to our advisors and mentors on our team to get some initial feedback on the investment opportunity and hopefully a little dough. DocSend is really easy to use, just email a link to your deck, the person enters their email address and then they can view the deck online. You can easily edit your deck and then re-upload a new version.
This tactic works best for sending the deck to people directly you know. What is interesting is that the 1st slide is getting on average 4-6 minutes of view time longer than any other slide in the deck. Interested parties are spending between 25-35 minutes reading the deck.
One of our startups recently received $500,000 in investor commitments and is using the new more detailed first page in their deck.
Happy money hunting!