This document provides guidelines for venture capital pitches, including typical pitch content, assessing risk and opportunity, and how VCs evaluate market, team, technology/product, financing, and strategy risks. It recommends organizing a pitch presentation with an introduction, problem statement, market analysis, product details, customer development plan, competition overview, financial model, and concluding insights. The goal is to assess risk levels over time and secure funding to achieve objectives while minimizing risks. Effective communication using visual aids like PowerPoint is also discussed.

1. e-Challenge Workshop "The Entrepreneurial Pitch"
Venture Pitch 101
rohit sharma
Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV)
www.mdv.com
rsharma@mdv.com

2. today
What are (early stage) VCs looking for?
Typical pitch content | guidelines vs. rules
Design
Q/A
2

3. venture process
Meeting
Meeting w/ Pitch Meeting w/ Pitch
More Meetings
w/ Pitch
all about assessing risk & opportunity
3

4. the risk curve
$/risk
Valuation
iterate
Risk (likely)
Risk (ideal)
time
Seed A B
4

5. risk
Market Team
Strategy
Technology/Product Financing
5

6. the risk trajectory (hurricane tracks)
objective
money
time
6

7. the risk trajectory
objective
money
time
7

8. market risk
Size of market
Characteristics of the market
Customer development plan?
Customer behavior change ?
Cost of customer acquisition
Competitive landscape
8

9. technology/product risk
Technology creation
Product creation
Product 2.0?
Triangulate people  time money
Other (support, maintenance, upgrades,…)
9

10. team risk
Current skill-set (to address market/product dev)
Required skills, people
– fearless leader 
– bold visionary, evangelist 
– grumpy ass-kicker 
– customer advocate 
Hiring (Geography, sources, time, effort)
Will this team raise the next round?
10

11. financing risk
How much $$ to subsequent financings
Financing sources, type
Does market permit (large) company creation?
11

12. strategy?
Is there strategy risk?
(Un)Expected behavior of competitors,
companies in adjacent market spaces?
Do ‘receptors’ exist in customers?
Identify:
– Early adopters?
– Risk-takers?
– Market-makers?
12

13. the un-definables
(this is what we are *really* looking for)
13

14. but, that’s not how you organize
*your* powerpoint
Introduction (team)
Problem & Non-obvious insight 3-5 Minute drill
Market
Product development, customer development
Customers: identify, acquire, retain,… (Market construction)
Competition?
State the plan, financial model
End bits (plan? summary? insight?)
– Single most significant factoid about you or venture
– Recap 5-minute drill in 1 minute
14

15. design
All design is choice (Edward Tufte)
Powerpoint is a very challenging method of
effective communication (worst S/N ratio of any
method?)
Can you write your ‘pitch’ in report format? In
‘Word’?
15

16. Edward Tufte | www.tufte.com
$40 $48
$7
16

17. build a picture worth ten slides
17

18. powerpoint guidelines
18