Part 4: How to Raise a Successful Round

Ideally you’d cover off the following 10 key areas, in some order that makes sense to your business:

• The size of the addressable market you’re operating in, and the problem being experienced in that industry - i.e. how large is the problem for those people experiencing it?
• The solution(s) that your ideal customer currently uses, and why it’s flawed or not suitable for them (i.e. it could be fragmented between systems, expensive, inefficient etc)
• Your solution, and why that’s superior to what is currently being used. What’s the main part of the feature set, and what’s the value to the customer
• Basic growth metric on your business to date (revenue, user numbers over time etc)
• What your revenue streams are (how you make money). i.e. what’s the fee for your product or service, is that a one-off or recurring fee?
• What your go-to-market strategy is - how do you acquire customers, and through what main channels
• What your customers say about your business - e.g. some sort of testimonial from a customer
• What your long-term vision is for the business and where do you want to take it
• How much capital you’re looking to raise, and what you’ll do with it (what you’ll spend it on and where it’ll get the business to in terms of revenue/users etc)
• Why you and your founding team are the right people to achieve your goals - what’s your career track record and industry expertise for example - why should investors put money behind you

• Start with one slide representing each of the above points.
• Have the slides be in 16:9 format.
• You might combine a couple of the above points into the same slide if it makes sense for your business - but the key thing is to make sure you at least cover off the above somewhere.
• Don’t worry about formatting or images or anything else just yet - these are just placeholders for now, as they will no doubt change further on in the process

This needs to be a detailed script, line by line, that covers exactly the words you want to say. It’s really important to think about the words you use and make the script positive. Some tips:

• You’ll need a strong start to the pitch, something to grab the audience’s attention and make them want to hear more. A bold statement or statistic that hooks them in. “In 2030, 25% of the world’s dolphins will be controlled by AI”
• You’re telling a story to the audience - so imagine you have to do it without any slides - how would you tell that story?
• Pitching is all stage-craft - it’s about capturing the attention of the room and holding it for 5 full minutes
• Keep your sentences short and punchy - long rambling narratives will lose their attention
• Always factor in pauses after each sentence - you want your sentences to hit home with the audience, so give them a chance to digest what you’re saying. If you’re someone that struggles with public speaking, you’ll naturally speak faster once you’re up in front of people (as your body and brain will be trying to get it over with faster) - so make sure your script includes regular pauses for effect
• In a 5 minute pitch, you want to get through at least the above 10 bullet points, and for each of those you maybe want to say 3 short sentences maximum. So 5 minutes = 300 seconds = 30 seconds per bullet point = 10 seconds per sentence. If any of your sentences take longer than 10 seconds to get through, cut them down.
• Don’t forget that you’ll need to memorise this pitch off-by-heart - so if you use overly complex words you risk forgetting to say them or stumbling over them
• Write your script like you would talk - if you write sentences that aren’t ’in your own voice’ (or worse, you get someone else or an AI to write them for you) then it’ll be harder for you to remember, and harder for you to pick back up if you stumble or lose your place at any point
• Your pitch will need a big finish - similar to the start. You need to finish on a strong final statement - a call to action for the audience. Re-affirm the vision you have, why they should care, and invite them to get in touch with you afterwards. “At DolphinCorp, we’re on a mission to revolutionise the way sonar works, for the good of humanity. If you want to be part of the future, we’d love to hear from you”

• Read it out loud to yourself, making sure to pace yourself and add pauses
• See roughly how long it takes you to get through it
• If it takes longer than 5 minutes to get through it, you’ll need to cut things down
• If there are sentences you find hard to say, change them and simplify the language
• Your script will go through further evolution once you start thinking about slides, but for now if you have a punchy, 5-minute script that covers the main points, you’re in a good position

• Review through your placeholder Google Slides presentation - do the order of the slides still align with your script?
• If not, adjust the order of the slides to align with the topics you’ll be covering
• On each slide, note down the 2-3 main things you want to show on the slides
• These are not the same things that are in your script. The slides are there to provide context and depth to your words - not to replace or compete with them
• For example, your script might say “We have a proven track record of growth, having scaled to $2m ARR in the last 2 years” - whereas the slide content might be a big chart showing your revenue growth over time
• Once you’ve noted on the slides the main things you’ll want to show on them, add some very basic placeholder layouts to the slide. Use basic boxes and circles to plan out what the slide will show. e.g. If your slide will have a big chart on it, add a big grey box and write ‘big revenue chart goes here’ into that box
• If your slide will have 3 icons with a statement under each to represent your go-to-market approach, add 3 circles to the page, with a rectangle under each one
• Once you’ve done this on each of the slides, go back to your script and read it through whilst looking at the slide content and clicking through it in Presentation Mode
• Does the slide content make sense in relation to what you’ll be saying at the time? Do any of the slides only stay on the screen for 10 seconds, or for longer than 1 minute? If so, you may need to think about changing some of the slide content/order so that you’re not going to lose the audience.
• Once you’re happy with the overall structure and pacing of the slides, you can move to the next stage

• Start by working through your slides, replacing your placeholder boxes with actual charts, images, icons and other content
• Gradually increase the fidelity of your slides, using the ‘Master’ template in Google Slides to apply colours and formatting to all slides in bulk (including adding your logo in the bottom corner of the slides to keep it front of mind for the audience)
• It’s really important that your slides pass the ‘flip-book test’. Put your slideshow into presentation mode and click through it rapidly from the first page. If the headings on each slide aren’t in the same place, or if the content between slides appears to jump around the page, take the time to line things up consistently. Slideshows that jump around will be jarring for the audience’s eyes, and will ultimately distract them from your message. Run the ‘flip-book test’ regularly as you add content, to make sure things line up.
• As you add content, you may end up iterating your script, adding extra words here and there, or removing sentences that no longer make sense based on the slide content.

• Basic animations can be a good addition to your pitch, providing emphasis, allowing solid pacing, or revealing content to align with your script
• Think about how the slide content lines up with your words - if there’s a big statistic you’re referring to, perhaps have it appear on the slide ‘On Click’ so that you can control the reveal for that part of your script
• Try and avoid animated ‘transitions’ between slides though, as this can be jarring for the audience.
• Consider the audience’s cognitive load - too many animations will make it hard for them to follow, and no animations at all will cause them to read and digest an entire slide without listening to you.
• Mild animations provide pace and structure to your presentation - but don’t go overboard.

• Your pitch should feel slick and seamless and natural
• You’ll need to practice your pitch over and over again, timing yourself alongside the slides, to get comfortable with when to click to the next slide or piece of content
• This is still an opportunity to further refine your script and slides, making slight tweaks based on what’s working for you in your practice sessions
• Try to always stick to the script - and if you find yourself ‘ad-libbing’ or saying things differently when you’re practicing, change the script to match what you’re saying in practice. If your brain is defaulting to other words, there’s no point in trying to force it another way. Change the script so that it feels natural to you - as that way it’ll come across as natural to the audience
• Make sure to practice in front of other people - it will seem awkward at first, but you need to get used to it. If you can, practice making eye contact with the people you’re presenting to - you need to get used to engaging your audience, and if you’re not used to it, catching someone’s eye during your real pitch could throw you off.
• Ask your practice audiences for feedback - how was the pacing? Did the slides make sense? Is it exciting enough? Be responsive to their feedback - if they tell you that something doesn’t make sense to them, take it seriously
• I’ve always found it useful to record myself saying the pitch aloud - as if it were the real presentation - making a recording of the ideal/perfect timing, tone etc. I then regularly listen to it back to myself, speaking along with the recording. I’ll do this for days before a pitch, and all the way up to the time I’m going on stage. You need your pitch to be burned into your brain like muscle memory.
• The worst outcome for a pitch is that you lose your way or forget your words - so make sure you take the time to get that practice done. Ideally you might get to pitch at a few different events - so having your pitch nailed is a valuable skill.

• Each Pitch Event will be slightly different, so it’s really important that you find out from the organisers what the logistics are
• What’s the AV set up? Will they use microphones, or is the event small enough that you can just project your voice? If they use microphones, will it be a handheld mic, a lapel mic or a headset mic?
• How will the slides be advanced - will there be a remote clicker of sorts, will you be expected to click through slides on a laptop, or is it expected that someone else will be clicking through your slides for you?
• What time do you need to be on stage? Who is on before and after you?
• How many people will be in the audience? Are they all seasoned investors, or will there be members of the public there?
• You need to be prepared in advance - there’s nothing worse than turning up to an event and being surprised. Ideally you can align your practice sessions to use the same setup as the real pitch event itself

• After pitching to one or many investors, they’ll no doubt want to ask questions.
• Often at a Pitch Event, the organisers may schedule in a few minutes after your presentation for you to take questions from the audience - even if they’re not investors themselves
• There may even be a ‘networking’ event after the session, where interested investors can come and talk with you directly.
• This is an amazing opportunity to engage with investors directly - and so be prepared to answer questions about any and all aspects of your business. You’ll need to know all your numbers by heart, and be able to confidently talk about your business. You may also need to answer some dumb questions that show that an investor hasn’t understood your business - but be respectful - they’ve only heard about your business for 5 minutes…
• Use it as an opportunity to take the contact details of potential investors, so that you can follow up with them later and perhaps send your Investor Deck
• Some Pitch Nights may even encourage you to bring collateral with you, to share with interested investors. This could be a full investor deck, some sort of ‘1-page summary’ of your business that features your contact details or even some form of promotional merchandise. One of the first things you’ll probably buy as a founder is one of these.

A standard investor deck will feature all of the following, in some order:

• A first ‘Title Slide’ - a glossy front cover to your slide deck, that may feature a product image, or stock image, and a clear title. It’s also worth adding a date (“August 2025”) to make it clear to investors the recency of the data and information contained within the deck
• A summary of your business, and the current stage you’re at - this could be your first slide after the Title slide, a bit like an Executive Summary
• An overview of your product, and what it does. Cover key features, and the value exchange for your users
• The history of the business, what your growth has been to date in specific terms - what revenue, how many users etc
• Talk about your customers - who are they, how many of them are there, what problem do you solve for them, what do they say about your product?
• If this isn’t your first time raising money into this business, highlight what you have achieved since the last time you raised funding, and where the business has grown. Investors like to see that you have a history of putting money to good use
• Cover your go-to-market strategy, what channels you use, and the current effectiveness (CAC / CAC:LTV / CAC Payback Period) of each channel
• Dive into your full unit economics beyond CAC - your Gross Margin, Burn Multiple, Revenue per FTE etc. Show how these have tracked over time
• Explain the specifics of the market you operate in - how large is it, who are your competitors, what is your point of difference
• What is your revenue model, and how will that expand over time. Investors always like to see that you have future plans to increase ARPU
• What are the specifics of the round you are raising. How much are you raising, and what pre-money valuation, and what specifically are you going to spend the money on. What will the business metrics look like in 12-18 months’ time based on you getting funding
• Describe your current team, its size, capabilities and strengths. What is your company culture like, and why are you the team to back?
• The back page should be your contact details, website address, your LinkedIn URL - and always include some sort of small-print disclaimer statement such as:

💡

Disclaimer:

This document is intended to provide an overview of [Company Name], to allow potential investors to make informed decisions regarding the current and future investment rounds.

This document may include forward-looking statements which reflect various judgements and assumptions which:

• may or may not prove to be correct, reasonable or reliable;
• are subject to the emergence of new risk factors and to unexpected impacts of known risks; and
• may be affected by subsequent events.

Neither [Company Name] (the "Company" or "[Company Trading Name]") nor any of its shareholders or directors will have any liability for, nor do any of them give any representation or warranty (express or implied) as to:

• the accuracy, completeness, reliability, adequacy or reasonableness of any statements, opinions, information or matters (express or implied) contained in this document or subsequently provided to anyone; nor as to
• the reasonableness of any assumption, estimates, projections, targets, forecasts or forward-looking statement contained in the document or otherwise made available.

No audit or independent verification of this document has been conducted and this document does not have regard to the investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs of anyone. Any reliance by anyone on any information contained in this document is a matter for that person’s own judgement. To the maximum extent permitted by law, neither the Company nor any of its shareholders, or directors will be liable to compensate any person for any liabilities, costs, losses or expenses incurred by anyone in connection with their review, investigation, evaluation or analysis of this document and the Company. All amounts, unless otherwise stated, are denominated in NZD. This document is governed by and is to be construed in accordance with the laws of New Zealand.

• Use 16:9 format. Whilst the PDF version may end up being printed out, more often than not it’ll be viewed on a screen, so 16:9 works best.
• Note down onto each slide what content you intend to cover on that page. As a rule of thumb, each page should tell the reader 3-5 important things about that topic. For each page topic, ask yourself “What are the the 5 most important or impressive things I want the reader to know about this topic before they turn the page” - and then jot those down somewhere on the page
• The content for your Investor Deck will need to be a lot more dense than for a Pitch Deck, so make sure you’ve got enough content planned for each slide
• Each slide will need a clear heading or title to describe what’s on the page. You can either just use single headings like ‘Unit Economics’ or get a little creative with it and use Headings like ‘We’re solving a global problem’ and ‘We have a proven go-to-market strategy’. If you go with the latter, make sure that your headings all flow nicely into each other like a set of consistent sentences.

Pro Tip: To make sure your Headings all make sense, use an AI LLM like ChatGPT to review a PDF of your slides, and to pull out each heading to make a simple list. That way you can quickly see the ‘story’ you’re telling in your deck, and check that the flow and structure of your Headings align with each other.

• Once you’re happy with the order and content of the slides, you can start to build out the content

• Similar to the Pitch Deck, you’re going to want to incrementally build up and add content to your slides
• Having noted on the slides the main things you’ll want to get across on them, add some very basic placeholder layouts to the slide.
• Use basic boxes and circles to plan out what the slide will show. e.g. If your slide will have a few charts on it, add a big grey boxes and write ‘Gross Margin’ or ‘CAC payback since launch’ into the boxes
• It’s a good idea for each slide to start with a short paragraph that summarises what’s on the slide. A bullet point or two that gives the high level of the particular topic, or explains some of the graphical content of the slide, such as below:
• Once you’ve defined the basic structure across each slide, you can start adding the actual content

• Start by working through your slides, replacing your placeholder boxes with actual text, charts, images, icons and other content.

Pro Tip: Don’t use full-width charts, especially for your revenue charts. Stretching your charts out to be as wide as the slide width makes the angle of your line charts always look flat. Your charts will look better (and more impressive visually) if you keep them to the proportions of an equal-sided square. Slim charts will make the angle of your lines steeper - and investors love charts that go ‘up and to the right’ as steeply as possible!

• Gradually increase the fidelity of your slides, using the ‘Master’ template in Google Slides to apply colours and formatting to all slides in bulk (including adding your logo and the words ‘Private & Confidential’ to the bottom corner of every slide)
• Much like the Pitch Deck, It’s really important that your slides pass the ‘flip-book test’. Put your slides into presentation mode and click through it rapidly from the first page. If the headings on each slide aren’t in the same place, or if the content between slides appears to jump around the page, take the time to line things up consistently. Slide decks that jump around will be jarring for the reader’s eyes, and will ultimately distract them from your information. Run the ‘flip-book test’ regularly as you add content, to make sure things line up.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment with different layouts for the same slide - really challenge yourself to present your information in the most compelling and easy-to-understand way possible
• For each slide, ask yourself ‘is this the most appropriate layout to display this information?’ and ‘am I educating the reader without confusing them or over-complicating things?’
• You’ll need to iterate through your slides a number of times to make sure they all fit together well, and the content looks good enough
• It’s really important that your content is clear, concise and can be understood without you having to talk someone through them. Remember - you may not have the opportunity to be there when an investor reads these slides, so the slides need to do all the work.

• Once you’re happy with the slide content, its really useful to run through some final checks, by exporting the slides as PDF, and doing the following:
• Check the file size of the PDF - if it’s too large, it might get rejected from Investors’ mailboxes or take too long to load/download. If it’s too large (>5MB), try compressing high resolution images or adjusting the content
• Do all of the pages render correctly in PDF, is any content missing, illegible or cut off behind other content? (Ideally the lowest any of your font sizes would be is around 10pt - any smaller than that and it’ll be hard to read for people)
• Do each of the pages have page numbers in the bottom left corner, and are the numbers correct? (Hidden slides in your deck can often incorrectly increment page numbers and make it look like the PDF is missing a page)
• Run a final flip-book test to make sure things line up
• Print the PDF to A4 and check that it doesn’t require any special settings or margins if someone were to print it. You’ve spent hours on this deck, and the last thing you want is for it to print out all wonky!