The short answer? By putting in the effort and preparing well. Sorry if we just spoiled all the fun and excitement, but our experience has taught us this: There is no shortcut to writing the perfect investment teaser deck. In our practice we sometimes see founders who want to start their fundraising process by creating an investment teaser: They ask for a template where they can fill in the details so they can quickly create an investment teaser deck they can send out
A blank investment teaser template is not enough
This approach would work if founders already knew all the necessary details. In practice, they often don’t. Why? Because it is hard and requires a lot of effort to become knowledgeable about all those details. Also, founders are busy building a company. The “details” you put in the investment proposal are the condensed outcome of a thinking process that Paul Graham has summarised like this:
Understand why your startup is worth investing in, then simply explain this well to investors.
This doesn’t sound too complicated, does it? Let’s read that sentence again and think a bit about what he is saying. There are two valuable pieces of advice in there:
- Understand why your startup is worth investing in
- Explain it well to investors
Understand why your startup is worth investing in
Imagine you were to change places with an investor: Look at your startup from her or his perspective and ask yourself what would make you want to invest. What questions would you ask? What numbers would you like to know? What would convince you in a startup teaser?
If you’ve already started to think about getting an investor you probably know most of the questions already:
- What does your company do and why does it matter now?
- What problem are you solving and for whom?
- How big is the market and what is your Unique Selling Proposition?
- What traction do you have and what is your plan ahead?
- Why do you need an investor and what are you going to do with the money?
Most of these questions are about hard facts. You have to have knowledge about your market(s), and the domain expertise relevant for your product and you need to have a strategy for growth. Besides those hard facts there is another question which is very important for investors: Can you do it? If you get the investment will you be able to deliver?
Understand why your startup is worth investing in from the perspective of an investor. Provide the necessary data in your startup teaser to give investors a solid basis for decision-making.
Explain it well to investors
Attractive investors are overwhelmed by 250+ investment proposals per month. More than 95% are being rejected. This shouldn’t scare you off, instead, it should help you understand how important it is to prepare the teaser deck well before you start approaching investors.
A good startup teaser explains the investment opportunity in a structure reflecting investors’ needs. It is concise and covers all relevant aspects of your business. You should write in a clear and to-the-point style because you want to get the most important information across as quickly as possible.
Investment Teaser Template
Use the headlines to tell the story. If an investor reads only the headlines he or she should be able to learn enough about what your company does and why they might be interested in investing. Keep in mind that writing is often an iterative process. The first version is probably not going to be perfect. Keep going, refine, edit and get feedback from others.
Use our Template and Investment Teaser Example for Writing a Great Investment Deck
How can our guide help you with writing the perfect startup investment teaser?
- You’ll get a template that is based on a proven structure of many real-life investment teaser examples that worked. This ensures that you\’ll cover all the essential information for investors.
- The purpose of each section is explained and sample texts are included. The templates will help you to get started quickly.
- A lot of additional information is available at the Konsultori Academy.