Are you raising money? A Seed Round, Series A/B/C, or beyond? This is for you. I have been talking to a lot of you. Here are the top 3 repeating themes I keep hearing and seeing.
[1] 💥 Wrong Story. As I flip through decks with prospects, some are 40-70 slides long (!). Even still, they sigh, “I’ve lost my story.” Or “The story is wrong.” Or “I don’t know why the story isn’t landing, it’s right there,” (when likely it’s not ‘right there’).
👉🏻 We have to find your storyline. We have to tell it WAY better. That is hard. Most people won’t take it on. I like the hard stuff. I will go to my Thinking Chair and find and reimagine your story.
[2]💥 PowerPoint slide decks with mediocre design. If you are raising $500K or $5M or $50M, you need to put on your ‘suit and tie’ or ‘million-dollar dress’ – a PPT deck that you love. It needs to be one – as one client texted me – that you “freaking LOVE.”
👉🏻 “Deck Creep” – when a slide deck has been iterated over and over and over – it’s real. It’s like a picture of a picture. Not good. Time to clean house. Your business’s storyline is different, so your deck should be, too.
[3] 💥 Lackluster scripts. “I can’t seem to say what I want to say.” This week I felt like a broken record. “Something is not landing. Investors aren’t hearing what they need to. It needs PUNCH.”
👉🏻 I love this part, noodling the words. Your script will have momentum, inspiration, and vision. You will deliver it with gravitas.
Fundraising is exhausting.
It can make your brain mush.
So many people to please.
So much feedback to take in… “mentor whiplash” is tough.
So many edits. So much pressure.
And your cash flow runway is getting smaller by the day.
You might feel like Hans Solo and Princess Lea in the garbage dump with the walls shutting in from both sides. Maybe it’s time to find the ‘light saber’ that is On Point. We are your escape hatch.
