The numbers don’t lie.
According to DocSend, the average pitch deck is only checked for three minutes. And if you think a Senior VC is studying your team’s presentation for months like it’s a Faberge egg – well, you might be disappointed.
Even if you’re lucky enough to get a meeting, the more likely that a junior person went through your pitch and put it up the chain.
“The biggest lie about venture capital is, ‘Yes, I read your deck,'” said Evan Fisher, founder of Unicorn Capital and Minimal Capital.
“Because these words are immediately followed by: ‘… but why don’t you let us get through this from the start?'”
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According to Fisher, the pro forma pitch deck is a thing of the past. Instead, the founders he worked with did the video pitches, getting two to five times as many investor meetings as people who sent out traditional pitch decks.
In addition, they received up to five times more investor commitments from the first 20 meetings.
“While the only upside is that other members of the investment committee heard the story directly from the founder, that alone would make your video pitch worthwhile,” says Fisher.
Thank you for reading Extra Crunch this week!
Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist
Nothing founder Carl Pei on Ear (1) and building a hardware startup from scratch
Credit: TechCrunch
In an exclusive interview with Hardware Editor Brian Heater, Nothing founder Carl Pei talked about the product and design principles behind Ear (1), a set of wireless earbuds worth $ 99 / £ 99 that will be released during this Will be launched on the market this month.
“We’re starting with smart devices,” says Pei. “Ear (1) is our first device. I think it has good potential to gain some traction. “
Despite Apple’s market share and the number of players already competing in the space, “we just focused on being ourselves,” said the founder of Nothing, who also shared initial marketing plans and the tensions inherent in manufacturing discussed by consumer hardware.
“Everything is a compromise. If you pursue this design, it has a lot of implications. Battery life has a huge impact on size and cost. The materials used have an impact on costs. Everything has an impact on the timeline. It’s like 4D chess in terms of compromise. “
Will Didi’s regulatory issues make it difficult for Chinese startups to go public in the US?
Credit: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)
Last week, just days after the US IPO, the Chinese cybersecurity regulator banned driver service provider Didi from accepting new members.
At the weekend, the authorities demanded the removal of Didi from several app stores because of “serious violations of laws and regulations in the collection and use of personal data”.
The move suggests that China’s government is “ready to sacrifice business results to control,” wrote Alex Wilhelm in the morning’s issue of The Exchange.
“For China-based companies looking to list in the US, the market has likely gotten much, much colder.”
79% more leads without more traffic: Here’s how we did it
Credit: Peter Dazeley (opens in a new window)/ Getty Images
Jasper Kuria, managing partner of the CRO consultancy The Conversion Wizards, is conducting an A / B test that shows how research-based CRO (conversion rate optimization) techniques can increase conversion rates by 79% for China expats Health, a lead generation, have led companies.
“Using research-based CRO principles to optimize a landing page for pay per click (PPC) traffic resulted in a 79% conversion lift, which dramatically reduced the cost per lead for the company,” writes Kuria.
“They could then afford to offer more per click, which increased their overall monthly leads. CRO can have this transformative impact on your company. “