6 ms·

Pitching Your Startup

163 points by gk1 9y ago

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
NatalyBurka 9y ago
2018 is the era of entrepreneurs! You can create a successful business with just having the idea and passion to realize it. If you are seriously thinking about running the business, you should consider an easy-to-implement but very cost-effective business model as a collaborative marketplace — https://roobykon.com/blog/posts/48-collaborative-marketplaces-beat-no-buyers-no-sellers-conundrum https://roobykon.com/blog/posts/48-collaborative-marketplace...
npsscorporation 9y ago
NPSS Corporation is here to provide solution through the trustworthy and experienced professionals. http://nonprofitsupportservices.net http://nonprofitsupportservices.net
blitzo 9y ago
I'm interested about this bit: If you are too early-stage to have functioning software, mockups will at least let you show that you have good design and product sense. I want to know if this is really the case here. I have a feeling that YC only accept established working prototype, not just mere interactive mockup that look plausible. Can somebody vouch in a mere mockup application that has been accepted?
- barry-cotter 9y ago
  Harjeet (Taggar?) known as Harj on this board was accepted to YC with a cofounder. Neither of them knew how to program at the time. I think he went on to be a YC partner before he left to found Triplebyte.
- patio11 9y ago
  It is my impression that I've accurately captured the sentiment of YC on that issue. Previous public expressions include e.g. Sam Altman here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12594615 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12594615 and here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10361530 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10361530 and here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9238968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9238968
- ngokevin 9y ago
  If you are asking about YC program acceptance, then many, many startups are accepted pre-product, pre-prototype, sometimes even pre-idea. If you only have mockups, then there will be weight on your team background and history.
allthenews 9y ago
I feel like this only applies to a very specific kind of tech investor demographic. I'm working on my own idea, and pitching directly to members of the industry that I've chosen to apply programming to. Surely this isn't a rare thing? It seems much less stressful, and given that you are speaking to the very people who are likely to use your software, I feel like it is substantially easier to communicate your value. You're much less subject to the Brownian motion of a two minute speech in a massive candidate pool. I don't think I've ever come across a guide for startups in such a situation.
- Swizec 9y ago
  > I'm working on my own idea, and pitching directly to members of the industry that I've chosen to apply programming to. Isn’t this just called sales/bizdev/gettingcustomers? Ideally you can fund your business from sales to adventurous customers who are willing to put up with you still developing the software. This I think is sttictly better than selling to investors and then your customers. Customers both provide more valid feedback and sttonger validation of your idea than investors ever could. They also have more skin in the game.
- contingencies 9y ago
  I don't think I've ever come across a guide for startups in such a situation. Yep. I'm self funding a startup here in China. It's hardware but not a kickstarter-widget, it's necessarily relatively capital intensive to prove market-fit, the opportunity is large, it's not in the US, it's already multi-jurisdiction, it's not growing via an accelerator, and it's absolutely not an SaaS or similar. Getting any kind of current advice is really difficult! I feel your pain. Those of us who are outliers just have to learn to filter a lot of this stuff and keep what's relevant. On the plus side, being outliers we probably have greater scope for execution without early competition, and if we play our cards right potential investors are more likely to notice us.
- domparise 9y ago
  Sounds like you’re pitching to customers rather than investors.
patio11 9y ago
I wrote much of this (in collaboration with YC partners and alumni for the YC-specific bits), and am happy to answer questions if you have them.
- keithwhor 9y ago
  Hey Patrick, I have one for ya. What are the biggest mistakes you've seen early, seemingly unimpressive founders (and teams) make during a pitch or through running their company that turned you off - only to discover later that they were able to build impressive businesses? Conversely, what signals do you think you've perhaps over indexed on (positively) in the past that have potentially been "yellow" flags in a founding team you've invested in (or recommended) and led to a failure to thrive? Are there things new startup founders can learn from either scenario?
  - patio11 9y ago
    Startups have a really long lifecycle associated with them. I have answers to the question with respect to startups I was not professionally engaged with. I don't have many data points regarding ones which I was, because the jury won't be in for a few years on the numeric supermajority of them. My set of data points where I have reasonable confidence in terminal outcome is very small relative to e.g. a professional investor who was active over the same length of time I've been on HN. This is not a new insight, but the thing pg says about successful startups often looking like a toy appears to me to be true. One benefit of having a searchable archive of my written thoughts going back 10+ years is that I can see what I thought of e.g. Facebook or Airbnb back in the day. In both cases, I thought they were unlikely to find a business model. I was very clearly wrong about that. I am, accordingly, very careful around the fact pattern "it's clearly something people love but is there really a business there?" Within my specific interest in B2B SaaS companies, a thing I have historically overindexed on is amazing product teams without demonstrated success in sales in the appropriate model (low-touch, high-touch, etc). I have sometimes been wrong about "Ahh, clearly they will figure out enterprise sales; how hard can it be if they can clearly ship a good product?" It is, in fact, possible to be a great product owner and not successfully build a sales organization strong enough to take a company to the sort of trajectory successful funded startups want to walk down.
jph 9y ago
Pitch deck notes I use with clients: https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/pitch_deck https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/pitch_deck IMHO the Stripe notes and YC perspectives are especially useful when the pitch deck has a first draft. Founders and teams write the first draft faster (and better) when they use the notes above.
- siquick 9y ago
  this is great, thanks for posting
- gupir 9y ago
  It's interesting that the 6-slide pitch deck doesn't have a "team" slide. Maybe was it used in the idea phase? PS: Thank you. I was looking for something like this.
  - jph 9y ago
    You're welcome. You're correct the 6-slide pitch deck doesn't have a "team" slide. It's deliberate. This is because it's higher priority to focus on the product and customer; the concept is still touched on by slide 6 and the "teammates" item. The 6-slide pitch deck can take an hour or so for a first draft. In practice I use the 6-slide as a first step, akin to a simple sketch, suitable mostly for internal discussion. Then I work with the founders to expand the 6-slide deck into the 12-slide, which gets sent to external people. The 12-slide pitch deck can take a week or so for the first few drafts.
- lucasverra 9y ago
  forked, thanks !
dogas 9y ago
Sidenote: The "Heroku for PowerPoint decks" bit is exactly what I am working on as a side project, and I'm very close to launching a private beta. Patio11 - has someone else launched that already? It's scarily close to my idea and value prop!
- patio11 9y ago
  Suppose, hypothetically, that this product existed in the world, but that it was so poorly distributed that even a person who wanted this product so much they went out and built it hadn't even heard of it. What would that set of facts change about how you executed on your idea and value prop? My guess is that the correct answer is "That should change my plans not one iota."

163 points by gk1 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

2018 is the era of entrepreneurs! You can create a successful business with just having the idea and passion to realize it. If you are seriously thinking about running the business, you should consider an easy-to-implement but very cost-effective business model as a collaborative marketplace — https://roobykon.com/blog/posts/48-collaborative-marketplaces-beat-no-buyers-no-sellers-conundrum https://roobykon.com/blog/posts/48-collaborative-marketplace...

npsscorporation 9y ago

NPSS Corporation is here to provide solution through the trustworthy and experienced professionals. http://nonprofitsupportservices.net http://nonprofitsupportservices.net

blitzo 9y ago

I'm interested about this bit: If you are too early-stage to have functioning software, mockups will at least let you show that you have good design and product sense. I want to know if this is really the case here. I have a feeling that YC only accept established working prototype, not just mere interactive mockup that look plausible. Can somebody vouch in a mere mockup application that has been accepted?

barry-cotter 9y ago
Harjeet (Taggar?) known as Harj on this board was accepted to YC with a cofounder. Neither of them knew how to program at the time. I think he went on to be a YC partner before he left to found Triplebyte.
patio11 9y ago
It is my impression that I've accurately captured the sentiment of YC on that issue. Previous public expressions include e.g. Sam Altman here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12594615 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12594615 and here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10361530 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10361530 and here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9238968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9238968
ngokevin 9y ago
If you are asking about YC program acceptance, then many, many startups are accepted pre-product, pre-prototype, sometimes even pre-idea. If you only have mockups, then there will be weight on your team background and history.

allthenews 9y ago

I feel like this only applies to a very specific kind of tech investor demographic. I'm working on my own idea, and pitching directly to members of the industry that I've chosen to apply programming to. Surely this isn't a rare thing? It seems much less stressful, and given that you are speaking to the very people who are likely to use your software, I feel like it is substantially easier to communicate your value. You're much less subject to the Brownian motion of a two minute speech in a massive candidate pool. I don't think I've ever come across a guide for startups in such a situation.

Swizec 9y ago
> I'm working on my own idea, and pitching directly to members of the industry that I've chosen to apply programming to. Isn’t this just called sales/bizdev/gettingcustomers? Ideally you can fund your business from sales to adventurous customers who are willing to put up with you still developing the software. This I think is sttictly better than selling to investors and then your customers. Customers both provide more valid feedback and sttonger validation of your idea than investors ever could. They also have more skin in the game.
contingencies 9y ago
I don't think I've ever come across a guide for startups in such a situation. Yep. I'm self funding a startup here in China. It's hardware but not a kickstarter-widget, it's necessarily relatively capital intensive to prove market-fit, the opportunity is large, it's not in the US, it's already multi-jurisdiction, it's not growing via an accelerator, and it's absolutely not an SaaS or similar. Getting any kind of current advice is really difficult! I feel your pain. Those of us who are outliers just have to learn to filter a lot of this stuff and keep what's relevant. On the plus side, being outliers we probably have greater scope for execution without early competition, and if we play our cards right potential investors are more likely to notice us.
domparise 9y ago
Sounds like you’re pitching to customers rather than investors.

patio11 9y ago

I wrote much of this (in collaboration with YC partners and alumni for the YC-specific bits), and am happy to answer questions if you have them.

keithwhor 9y ago
Hey Patrick, I have one for ya. What are the biggest mistakes you've seen early, seemingly unimpressive founders (and teams) make during a pitch or through running their company that turned you off - only to discover later that they were able to build impressive businesses? Conversely, what signals do you think you've perhaps over indexed on (positively) in the past that have potentially been "yellow" flags in a founding team you've invested in (or recommended) and led to a failure to thrive? Are there things new startup founders can learn from either scenario?
- patio11 9y ago
  Startups have a really long lifecycle associated with them. I have answers to the question with respect to startups I was not professionally engaged with. I don't have many data points regarding ones which I was, because the jury won't be in for a few years on the numeric supermajority of them. My set of data points where I have reasonable confidence in terminal outcome is very small relative to e.g. a professional investor who was active over the same length of time I've been on HN. This is not a new insight, but the thing pg says about successful startups often looking like a toy appears to me to be true. One benefit of having a searchable archive of my written thoughts going back 10+ years is that I can see what I thought of e.g. Facebook or Airbnb back in the day. In both cases, I thought they were unlikely to find a business model. I was very clearly wrong about that. I am, accordingly, very careful around the fact pattern "it's clearly something people love but is there really a business there?" Within my specific interest in B2B SaaS companies, a thing I have historically overindexed on is amazing product teams without demonstrated success in sales in the appropriate model (low-touch, high-touch, etc). I have sometimes been wrong about "Ahh, clearly they will figure out enterprise sales; how hard can it be if they can clearly ship a good product?" It is, in fact, possible to be a great product owner and not successfully build a sales organization strong enough to take a company to the sort of trajectory successful funded startups want to walk down.

jph 9y ago

Pitch deck notes I use with clients: https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/pitch_deck https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/pitch_deck IMHO the Stripe notes and YC perspectives are especially useful when the pitch deck has a first draft. Founders and teams write the first draft faster (and better) when they use the notes above.

siquick 9y ago
this is great, thanks for posting
gupir 9y ago
It's interesting that the 6-slide pitch deck doesn't have a "team" slide. Maybe was it used in the idea phase? PS: Thank you. I was looking for something like this.
- jph 9y ago
  You're welcome. You're correct the 6-slide pitch deck doesn't have a "team" slide. It's deliberate. This is because it's higher priority to focus on the product and customer; the concept is still touched on by slide 6 and the "teammates" item. The 6-slide pitch deck can take an hour or so for a first draft. In practice I use the 6-slide as a first step, akin to a simple sketch, suitable mostly for internal discussion. Then I work with the founders to expand the 6-slide deck into the 12-slide, which gets sent to external people. The 12-slide pitch deck can take a week or so for the first few drafts.
lucasverra 9y ago
forked, thanks !

dogas 9y ago

Sidenote: The "Heroku for PowerPoint decks" bit is exactly what I am working on as a side project, and I'm very close to launching a private beta. Patio11 - has someone else launched that already? It's scarily close to my idea and value prop!

patio11 9y ago
Suppose, hypothetically, that this product existed in the world, but that it was so poorly distributed that even a person who wanted this product so much they went out and built it hadn't even heard of it. What would that set of facts change about how you executed on your idea and value prop? My guess is that the correct answer is "That should change my plans not one iota."