If you’re fortunate enough to be generating strong demand before demo day — you don’t need much to complete the fundraising process, but it certainly helps if these materials are great.
1. Pitch Decks.
I like to have 2 versions, one is long form that you pitch in a meeting and the other is a teaser, which is maybe 4 slides taken from the longer version that you send when asked for a deck via email.
2. Paragraph Intro.
Even if you’re not sending your deck, a concise paragraph highlighting your team, traction, and vision will help you get meetings and generate more excitement.
3. Model Responses.
Every startup has strengths and weaknesses, so be prepared to answer the hard questions. Create a document of the repeating, tough questions and roleplay the answers. This will help you get the very best investors.
Best of luck out there.
Sterling Road invests in idea stage and pre-seed B2B startups based in the US, Canada and UK.
