WARNING: HARSH TRUTH About INVESTORS & PITCH DECKS (Do NOT Watch if Easily Offended)

If you are a startup founder and you are trying to raise funding, especially at preede, and you are sensitive and you do not want straightforward, in-your-face, blunt advice from an adviser who's raised money before, $100 million and above, then do not watch this video. Just stop this video, turn it off right now. Because if you are easily offended, I am partially irritated, partially livid, partially exasperated. I'm also sad because I'm trying to help a lot of you founders out there raise capital, but some of you founders, you might be one of them and you probably turned it off already, but some of you founders are just not listening to me. And I can't think of any other way than to yell and scream on a YouTube video so that maybe you'll get it. At the same time, I want to acknowledge some of you founders out there who are working with me, who are listening, who are participating in this kind of battle, push and pull, working on your pitch deck for the entire purpose of trying to help you raise money. This is not for my health. This is me taking a risk, going out there for all the social media trolls and the haters to jump on me, saying, "Oh, Ed's just having another meltdown because that's what I've been accused of before. But I am really worked up about this. at the same time confused, ambivalent, got a lot of mixed emotions, and we need to talk about your pitch deck. I'm going to skip the pleasantries of an introduction. Go look at my description. Go look me up. Look at my credentials and see where I'm coming from. And let's just jump right into the meat of it. If you are trying to raise funding from investors at an early stage or you've asked me to help you raise funding at that stage, an investor does not care how amazing, how technical, all the whisbangy things your solution can do if they do not understand it. They will not invest. You will not pass go. You will not collect $200. And here's what it looks like in the best case scenario. I have founders that are so technical, they're so smart that they speak in such a way that nobody was going to understand them, let alone write a check. They don't know what they're investing in. If I, as a pretty smart adviser and a former founder and investor, general partner working with VC, I can't understand what I'm investing in as you talk about it. Then why would anybody else? And to the credit of some of you founders out there, you listen to what I have to say and you say, "How can we dumb it down so investors understand? " And I tell you, we're going to do it in a way that sharpens the tip of the arrow and make sure that they understand what they're investing in and they believe they'll make money upfront and then give you the runway, allow you to build what you need as the foundation to create that worldchanging technology and move into several levels up of your vision for that absolute gamechanging category defining disruptive whatever you have in your mind, your genius mind. Because so many of you founders are so smart and you've got solutions for problems that the world needs, but you're getting in your own way. And that brings me to the worst case founders out there. Not saying that's all of you. I'm saying that there are founders out there that are either oblivious or incredibly arrogant, so self-centered that they say, "No, that's not me. Our startup does a lot more. Don't use that language. That diminishes my impact in the world. That makes me look not as special as I think I am in my own mind. " I just had a conversation with a founder and I said, "So, you're building this for this? " And I said it in a way that any investor could understand. And he said, "No, that's too simple. That's just this and this. " Creating a very simple analogous example to the marketplace. We do so much more. He says, "This is what we do. " And he gave me a weird technical language, a category defined term that was so out there that I said, "Nobody knows what that is. " But I get it. You want to sound special. You want to differentiate yourselves. I have founders tell me, "Ed, I'm not going to listen to your pitch deck advice because investors probably see tons of pitch decks that look exactly like that. I want to be special. I'm going to be different and I'm going to stand out. " To which my response is, great. Go for it. There are dozens of founders that have completely ignored my advice. In fact, they've gone and done the exact opposite of what I'm recommending and they've gone to raise millions of dollars. Prove me wrong. I'm always open. and then come back to me and tell me how you did it and what were the circumstances, what's the context to make that successful for you because you need to find what works for you. But there are reasons there are standards. There's a reason there's such a thing as the Seoia method because Seoia has basically figured out how to get through all the fluff and cut right to what they're investing in. They want the problem slide, the solution slide, then the market slide. They don't want visionary statements. They don't want hyperbolic buzz terms, slogans that talk to the customer saying, "Oh, we're changing the way that humans interface with Centia technology. " They don't want that. They want to know exactly where their finite money is going to go. Do I understand the problem? Do I believe in it? Do I like it? Do I understand the solution? Is it clear, not clever? Is it concise, not cute? Because they want to know. They've established that beach head and you can commercialize. you can make that money upfront and start to develop that momentum to eventually get there because you're not going to make it with those limited funds. They're not going to write you a $10 million check right up front. They're going to write you a smaller check, $500,000, maybe a million. And you have to prove that you are trustworthy with the little resources you have before you're trusted with much more in terms of resources

which is a bigger risk. So, take the little and derisk the investment. Be clear and concise and explain it in a way investors understand. Park your ego at the door. I've had founders get mad and start to throw investors under the bus, totally attack venture capital. Where is that going to get you? You can complain all day long and throw rocks at the VC industry and how investors act and how they operate. But unless you do something about it to engage them, you're never going to get that check from VC or other investors. And that might be fine for you. Go bootstrap, put it on your credit card, develop the revenue, and prove all the investors wrong. prove that they were completely dumb for missing out on opportunity invest at an early stage and then you get to enjoy all the spoils. You won't have to share the pie with investors, lurking over your shoulder, controlling every decision. But if you want their money, you have to speak their language and get over yourself. So many new founders, you just have to get out of your way, get over yourself, and explain things to an investor in a way that a fifth grader can understand. I'm saying dumb it down not because investors are dumb, but because you want to remove the cognitive friction that it's going to take for them to get engaged and want to explore the opportunity with you further. But if you put so much friction right in the front and they are banging their head against the wall and they have to do work, they're going to give up. And then the issue is not them, it's you. The onus is on the sender, not the receiver of the message. The onus is on the founder communicating your pitch, not the investor that has to interpret the pitch. If you are listening to this and some of it's resonating and you're wondering, geez, maybe I am guilty of it, just take a step back and get some feedback from other people, stop running your pitch through your head and the echo chamber and the people who are just going to give you confirmation bias over and over again. All the people just say, "Yes, great idea. " Maybe it's your mom who says, "I love you. I think you can do everything. " Go get real feedback and put in action. Especially if there are patterns of feedback. If I tell you one thing and then you go talk to someone else and they say the same thing. We're both probably not wrong. We're pointing out a problem. I can be wrong all the time. I say that I'm the best adviser in the world. Half of my advice is perfect and dead on. I just don't know which half. That means you have to take everything I say with a grain of salt. But when those grains of salt pile up because you're getting consistent feedback out in the marketplace, instead of getting mad at me for letting you down or not telling you, maybe you look in the mirror and you start to go, hm, I wonder if I'm the problem here. And if that is starting to sink in with you, then we can get ahead of it. We can avoid some of the catastrophic mistakes that I always say that I'm trying to help you avoid. Not to say you're not going to make mistakes, but I'm going to try to make your life a little bit easier. And that's why I do what I do. But you have to help me help you. The worst place you want to be is me getting all worked up just like I am in this video. I feel my blood pressure rising. I need to go meditate, say, "Woo, and just calm myself, find that inner tranquility, outer strength, and inner peace. " You don't want me in this situation because then I will start to check out. you want to be in a collaborative work relationship with me and anybody else trying to help you raise your funding. With that being said, I appreciate all of you who are open to it. Many of you give me such encouragement every single day and I want to end on the high note. There are founders out there that are crushing it right now. They are communicating to investors using our principles and techniques, the things that I teach and they are getting VC meetings. And I just looked at an email from a founder and she was telling me, "Yeah, this is what I experienced with this VC meeting after this VC meeting. Compared the two said,"I really felt nervous about this one. I was flustered. This happened and I don't feel good about it, but I want to share it with you. " I love those types of stories because now we are in the adventure together instead of beating our heads against each other because you think your pitch deck needs to say something that investors don't understand. One last time, prove me wrong. If you want to go out and do it, great. Go for it. I empower you. More power to you. whatever you need for my encouragement. I am not so insecure that everybody has to take my advice. But if you do take my advice and you do enter into an advisor relationship with me or anybody, be earnest. Do it in good faith. Be open, be coachable, and show them that you are the best founder to advise so that they continue to maintain their energy, their interest, their emotional investment in you. And then you will be just fine. Eventually, you will get there. Every founder has a better than 0% chance of raising VC money to build a unicorn. And eventually, if you're just better than average, more consistent, longer than everybody else, you will win. That is an eventuality. I promise you. In the meantime, thank you for watching this video and letting me get this off my chest. It was cathartic in many ways. I'm glad I have this YouTube channel and this community come and just share in a way that not only do I improve my self-awareness, become a better adviser, but I know I'm doing right by you by just sharing openly from the heart. And we can do this together. Thanks for hanging out with me in this video and helping me feel better. Check the description of this video for special offers. Watch the other videos that have been put on this screen and I'll see you

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