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Can you elaborate? I'm skeptical that better/more efficient investment decisions can be made by looking at the pitch decks first and then watching the pitches

Can you elaborate? I'm skeptical that better/more efficient investment decisions can be made by looking at the pitch decks first and then watching the pitches as opposed to the other way around.

lisper 7y ago
It's not that I want to read all the decks first and then watch all the pitches, it's that I want to look at the decks in order to decide which pitches to watch. S19 demo day had 197 companies. I don't know how long the pitches were (I didn't go) but if each one was 5 minutes that is 16 hours worth of pitches without a break. I'm not capable of maintaining focus at a presentation for much more than an hour or two at a time. If my attention wavers at the wrong moment during a pitch I might miss something important. If I can look at a deck, then I can do two things that I can't do during a pitch. First, I can close my eyes and take a deep breath for a minute without missing anything. And second, I can see right away that, for example, this company is in a sector that I am not focused on (because I don't know anything about it) and so I am not going to invest in it even if it looks like a great opportunity. I am an individual investor with a very narrow focus (I look for companies in particular technical niches) so I can eliminate 80-90% of opportunities just by knowing the market segment they're in. A company might be well positioned to revolutionize (say) fashion design, but I'm not going to invest in it because I know absolutely nothing about fashion design, and I don't invest in things I don't understand. With a deck I can figure this out an order of magnitude faster than if I have to sit through a whole pitch.
- privatepayout 7y ago
  Could i bother your for comments on a seed pitch deck for a adtech/gaming ? I just sent u an email. Any feedback appreciated
  - lisper 7y ago
    I'm the wrong person to ask. I'm not interested in either ads or gaming. Two suggestions: 1. Post this as an ASK HN so that you can get feedback from people who are a better fit for this sector 2. Just build the damn thing. How hard can it be? (And if the answer is "really hard", then your deck should explain why, and why you are uniquely qualified to do it.)
    - privatepayout 7y ago
      Thanks.

Can you elaborate? I'm skeptical that better/more efficient investment decisions can be made by looking at the pitch decks first and then watching the pitches as opposed to the other way around.

lisper 7y ago

It's not that I want to read all the decks first and then watch all the pitches, it's that I want to look at the decks in order to decide which pitches to watch. S19 demo day had 197 companies. I don't know how long the pitches were (I didn't go) but if each one was 5 minutes that is 16 hours worth of pitches without a break. I'm not capable of maintaining focus at a presentation for much more than an hour or two at a time. If my attention wavers at the wrong moment during a pitch I might miss something important. If I can look at a deck, then I can do two things that I can't do during a pitch. First, I can close my eyes and take a deep breath for a minute without missing anything. And second, I can see right away that, for example, this company is in a sector that I am not focused on (because I don't know anything about it) and so I am not going to invest in it even if it looks like a great opportunity. I am an individual investor with a very narrow focus (I look for companies in particular technical niches) so I can eliminate 80-90% of opportunities just by knowing the market segment they're in. A company might be well positioned to revolutionize (say) fashion design, but I'm not going to invest in it because I know absolutely nothing about fashion design, and I don't invest in things I don't understand. With a deck I can figure this out an order of magnitude faster than if I have to sit through a whole pitch.

privatepayout 7y ago
Could i bother your for comments on a seed pitch deck for a adtech/gaming ? I just sent u an email. Any feedback appreciated
- lisper 7y ago
  I'm the wrong person to ask. I'm not interested in either ads or gaming. Two suggestions: 1. Post this as an ASK HN so that you can get feedback from people who are a better fit for this sector 2. Just build the damn thing. How hard can it be? (And if the answer is "really hard", then your deck should explain why, and why you are uniquely qualified to do it.)
  - privatepayout 7y ago
    Thanks.