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Presentations & Workbooks
- What VCs Really Think About: This deck helps founders understand the VC business model and what VCs are actually thinking about when startups pitch them. It distills the knowledge and secrets that serial entrepreneurs gain over years of fundraising experiences. It’s particularly germane to raising from early-stage Silicon Valley VCs, but the lessons apply to any entrepreneur that’s thinking about raising venture. I’ve given this talk dozens of times around the world, both at live conferences and via webinars.
- Spotting Unicorn Founders at Early Stage: This presentation, based on my conversation with ChatGPT, explores how to evaluate whether early-stage founders possess the personal traits required to build a unicorn. It’s a great resource for founders wanting to understand how investors might evaluate them, VCs aiming to benchmark their own founder assessment methods, and anyone interested in the secret art of unicorn hunting. It includes references to exhaustive data analyzing the founders of over 900 U.S. and European unicorns created between 2013 and 2023, common VC memes, and a review of how the world’s top VCs analyze founders—including some of their favorite analytical tools and “red flags” that have killed deals.
- The Next Phase of Fintech: Summarize recent (typically updated quarterly) fintech trends, issues, and opportunities from a global investor’s perspective. Particularly relevant for fintech founders planning their next fundraising, as well as for angel investors, venture capitalists, and limited partners. It also helps explain how players along the fintech venture value-are thinking to other fintech ecosystem players, including financial institutions, incumbent technology and service providers, policymakers, and regulators. Includes a reading list featuring some of the top venture capitalists, analysts, and market observers in the field.
- Pitch Prep Notes: This document includes many of the tips, tricks and references I share with the companies I coach. The resulting pitch will allow you to present a complete picture of your company to investors in under 5 minutes - but the basic philosophy of telling your company’s narrative applies, regardless of whether you are giving a 30-second elevator pitch or a 30-minute investor presentation.