5 ms·

VC bias in viewing pitch decks can affect fundraising success

51 points by nickfrost 6y ago

harness_up 6y ago
No shit.
yodon 6y ago
Great hard data. Hopefully at least some VC's will look internally at the way they talk about "pattern matching" and recognize it for what it is, a selection bias tuned for young white male founders.
- cheez 6y ago
  like the rest of the world
mtlynch 6y ago
Where did this data come from? I had to dig five links deep before I got an answer. DocSend is a service that allows founding teams to send pitch decks to investors. DocSend invited founding teams to participate in this research.[0] It's worth noting that they don't seem like they asked for consent from the VCs whose browsing behavior they observed for this study. In DocSend's privacy policy[1], the VCs are Viewers, whereas the founding team is the User. DocSend apparently allows Users to give consent on behalf of the Viewers: >If you are a Viewer who views Content you receive from a User via the Service, we automatically collect information about your interaction with such Content and our Service. The information we collect includes: Whether or not a you have viewed or are viewing Content; Date and time you viewed the Content; Number of times and length of time Content was viewed; Which portions of the Content were viewed; and Your IP address and location. [0] https://docsend.com/view/my4w3gf https://docsend.com/view/my4w3gf [1] https://www.docsend.com/privacy-policy/ https://www.docsend.com/privacy-policy/
- ponker 6y ago
  Not a VC but if I was I would never click a DocSend link. And VCs hold a lot of power — sure they are all chasing deal flow but if they just responded “I don’t click pitch links, send me a PDF” they would get their PDF 99 times out of 100.
  - xyzzy_plugh 6y ago
    I'm not sure why this is getting downvoted, but this is a pretty popular perspective in general, let alone VC. Many high-profile folks don't care about your links or secure sites or what have you, they just want the PDF or PPT file. They also generally want the ability to keep it and show it to others, even if you don't want them to. Classic display of power.
    - joshu 6y ago
      I'm an investor and I don't love clicking on the docsend links, but I will. I really dislike clicking on linktracked links, especially from a cold pitch. The worst part of docsend for me is I will get an email saying "check out our new thing" and then I click on it sometime later to look at it again and it's already expired. Or I remember, "hey that deck about xxxyyy, other investor zzz should talk to them" and I can't search for it because there was zero content in the email.
    - TechBro8615 6y ago
      And founders don’t like it when a VC forwards their deck to a competing portfolio company.
- irjustin 6y ago
  Thanks for this. DocSend needs to walk that fine line between pissing VCs off and collecting useful data/insights. Super interesting position they take.
- jtsiskin 6y ago
  Yes. This is one of the worst products (most invasive) I have seen. I would hate to be sent a docsend link
- nickfrost 6y ago
  The survey/research is done with explicit opt-in from the founders and all of the viewer data is aggregated and anonymized.
irjustin 6y ago
I love this. Definitely the gap needs to close. Starting with an obvious - people gravitate towards people like themselves - so that means we need more women represented in VC first at the Principal and IC level. Even if you were able to mask who the founding team is from the initial deck and pitch (similar to how hiring has started), a face to face has to happen at some point. This will keep the same problem perpetuating until that particular group is represented as a decision maker. The phrase "no taxation without representation" seems apt.
jtsiskin 6y ago
The linked article I found more convincing: https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/investors-prefer-entrepreneurial-ventures-pitched-attractive-men https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/investors-prefer-entrepreneurial... The original article someone could argue “this just shows men make better pitch decks” which is clearly not the case
anonunivgrad 6y ago
So the solution must be a ton of bureaucracy, a right to sue VCs when you think there was a gendered element to the decision, HR drones policing every comment by VCs, and affirmative action investments. That will fix everything right up! Oh yeah, and diversity training, including “white fragility” or “toxic masculinity” lectures, which are totally not racist or sexist. Implicit and systemic bias must be stamped out. If that means bureaucratizing every aspect of life and draining human civilization of dynamism, so be it. I long for the day when even replies to this post must be approved by a diversity commissar. Give me sterile, enforced equality in a globally homogenous world, or give me death.
- fdupress 6y ago
  The need for bureaucracy is only there because of people like you. People who, when an inequality is pointed out, simply knee-jerk their way into "I worked hard to be born a white man, I've earned this," instead of reflecting on what they have and where it came from.
  - anonunivgrad 6y ago
    “... [your opinion doesn’t matter because you’re] a white man” Give me a break. You don’t know who I am or where I come from or what my family is. And what a ridiculous, low, way to argue.
    - fdupress 6y ago
      Your strawman was ridiculous and low. Nothing in the article—which simply presents data—was arguing for > a ton of bureaucracy, a right to sue VCs when you think there was a gendered element to the decision, HR drones policing every comment by VCs, and affirmative action investments. That will fix everything right up! Oh yeah, and diversity training, including “white fragility” or “toxic masculinity” lectures, which are totally not racist or sexist. It just disagreed with me that having somebody point out an inequality just triggered you so badly that you just had to go and write a sarcastic comment that didn't do shit to actually tackle the problem at hand. My point—which could admittedly have been aimed further away from you personally—is that if we all take a tiny bit of responsibility, we don't need to have bureaucracy that kills innovation and difference. And right there and then, your comment was not taking on any responsibility (and indeed, it's possible you have none), but was in fact saying "those problems matter less than others". We can have a human civilization that's both dynamic and fair.
edko 6y ago
Is there any study that shows the effect on the environment caused by the current slowdown on polluting industries and travel?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ex3ndr 6y ago
Why this could not be different because of gender itself, not because of bias? For example, men prefer to talk about solutions and may be more focused on enterprise and women are more product oriented? Isn't you have to use pretty much the same keynotes to make any conclusions?
- jtsiskin 6y ago
  Yes this doesn’t make any sense as a “study”, just an ad for docsend. The Harvard study they referenced https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/investors-prefer-entrepreneurial-ventures-pitched-attractive-men https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/investors-prefer-entrepreneurial... is much better

51 points by nickfrost 6y ago

No shit.

Great hard data. Hopefully at least some VC's will look internally at the way they talk about "pattern matching" and recognize it for what it is, a selection bias tuned for young white male founders.

cheez 6y ago
like the rest of the world

mtlynch 6y ago

Where did this data come from? I had to dig five links deep before I got an answer. DocSend is a service that allows founding teams to send pitch decks to investors. DocSend invited founding teams to participate in this research.[0] It's worth noting that they don't seem like they asked for consent from the VCs whose browsing behavior they observed for this study. In DocSend's privacy policy[1], the VCs are Viewers, whereas the founding team is the User. DocSend apparently allows Users to give consent on behalf of the Viewers: >If you are a Viewer who views Content you receive from a User via the Service, we automatically collect information about your interaction with such Content and our Service. The information we collect includes: Whether or not a you have viewed or are viewing Content; Date and time you viewed the Content; Number of times and length of time Content was viewed; Which portions of the Content were viewed; and Your IP address and location. [0] https://docsend.com/view/my4w3gf https://docsend.com/view/my4w3gf [1] https://www.docsend.com/privacy-policy/ https://www.docsend.com/privacy-policy/

ponker 6y ago
Not a VC but if I was I would never click a DocSend link. And VCs hold a lot of power — sure they are all chasing deal flow but if they just responded “I don’t click pitch links, send me a PDF” they would get their PDF 99 times out of 100.
- xyzzy_plugh 6y ago
  I'm not sure why this is getting downvoted, but this is a pretty popular perspective in general, let alone VC. Many high-profile folks don't care about your links or secure sites or what have you, they just want the PDF or PPT file. They also generally want the ability to keep it and show it to others, even if you don't want them to. Classic display of power.
  - joshu 6y ago
    I'm an investor and I don't love clicking on the docsend links, but I will. I really dislike clicking on linktracked links, especially from a cold pitch. The worst part of docsend for me is I will get an email saying "check out our new thing" and then I click on it sometime later to look at it again and it's already expired. Or I remember, "hey that deck about xxxyyy, other investor zzz should talk to them" and I can't search for it because there was zero content in the email.
  - TechBro8615 6y ago
    And founders don’t like it when a VC forwards their deck to a competing portfolio company.
irjustin 6y ago
Thanks for this. DocSend needs to walk that fine line between pissing VCs off and collecting useful data/insights. Super interesting position they take.
jtsiskin 6y ago
Yes. This is one of the worst products (most invasive) I have seen. I would hate to be sent a docsend link
nickfrost 6y ago
The survey/research is done with explicit opt-in from the founders and all of the viewer data is aggregated and anonymized.

irjustin 6y ago

I love this. Definitely the gap needs to close. Starting with an obvious - people gravitate towards people like themselves - so that means we need more women represented in VC first at the Principal and IC level. Even if you were able to mask who the founding team is from the initial deck and pitch (similar to how hiring has started), a face to face has to happen at some point. This will keep the same problem perpetuating until that particular group is represented as a decision maker. The phrase "no taxation without representation" seems apt.

jtsiskin 6y ago

The linked article I found more convincing: https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/investors-prefer-entrepreneurial-ventures-pitched-attractive-men https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/investors-prefer-entrepreneurial... The original article someone could argue “this just shows men make better pitch decks” which is clearly not the case

anonunivgrad 6y ago

So the solution must be a ton of bureaucracy, a right to sue VCs when you think there was a gendered element to the decision, HR drones policing every comment by VCs, and affirmative action investments. That will fix everything right up! Oh yeah, and diversity training, including “white fragility” or “toxic masculinity” lectures, which are totally not racist or sexist. Implicit and systemic bias must be stamped out. If that means bureaucratizing every aspect of life and draining human civilization of dynamism, so be it. I long for the day when even replies to this post must be approved by a diversity commissar. Give me sterile, enforced equality in a globally homogenous world, or give me death.

fdupress 6y ago
The need for bureaucracy is only there because of people like you. People who, when an inequality is pointed out, simply knee-jerk their way into "I worked hard to be born a white man, I've earned this," instead of reflecting on what they have and where it came from.
- anonunivgrad 6y ago
  “... [your opinion doesn’t matter because you’re] a white man” Give me a break. You don’t know who I am or where I come from or what my family is. And what a ridiculous, low, way to argue.
  - fdupress 6y ago
    Your strawman was ridiculous and low. Nothing in the article—which simply presents data—was arguing for > a ton of bureaucracy, a right to sue VCs when you think there was a gendered element to the decision, HR drones policing every comment by VCs, and affirmative action investments. That will fix everything right up! Oh yeah, and diversity training, including “white fragility” or “toxic masculinity” lectures, which are totally not racist or sexist. It just disagreed with me that having somebody point out an inequality just triggered you so badly that you just had to go and write a sarcastic comment that didn't do shit to actually tackle the problem at hand. My point—which could admittedly have been aimed further away from you personally—is that if we all take a tiny bit of responsibility, we don't need to have bureaucracy that kills innovation and difference. And right there and then, your comment was not taking on any responsibility (and indeed, it's possible you have none), but was in fact saying "those problems matter less than others". We can have a human civilization that's both dynamic and fair.

edko 6y ago

Is there any study that shows the effect on the environment caused by the current slowdown on polluting industries and travel?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

ex3ndr 6y ago

Why this could not be different because of gender itself, not because of bias? For example, men prefer to talk about solutions and may be more focused on enterprise and women are more product oriented? Isn't you have to use pretty much the same keynotes to make any conclusions?

jtsiskin 6y ago
Yes this doesn’t make any sense as a “study”, just an ad for docsend. The Harvard study they referenced https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/investors-prefer-entrepreneurial-ventures-pitched-attractive-men https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/investors-prefer-entrepreneurial... is much better