Five Things We Look At Before the Deck

The five headings we work through before opening a pitch deck, and why we look at them in that order.

When we talk to early-stage founders we look at the deck last. First we work through five headings, and the order matters.

1. The founding team

At an early stage the team is the most concrete thing you can assess, because the product and the market will both change and the team will remain. What we look at is behaviour rather than a CV: which decision have they changed on the basis of which evidence, how do they describe what they got wrong, do they understand each other's work?

Not knowing an answer is fine. Not knowing that you do not know is the problem.

2. Is the problem real?

The best indicator that a problem is real is what people do about it today. If they are working around it by hand, in spreadsheets, or by hiring two people, the problem is real. If they are doing nothing, it probably does not hurt enough.

That is why our first meeting is not about the product but about how the job is done today without it.

3. Distribution

Most good products win because they can reach people, not because they are good. If a venture has no concrete plan for its first hundred customers, the road is long however strong the product is.

This is also where the group can contribute most: building distribution is what we do.

4. Unit economics

Growth does not fix loss-making unit economics; it multiplies them. The relationship between what it costs to win a customer and the contribution that customer makes has to be understood before scale.

At an early stage these numbers are estimates. Being an estimate is fine; having no basis for the estimate is not.

5. Overlap with the group

The last heading is this: what can we bring beyond capital? If we cannot make a real contribution on marketing, brand management or software, we are not the right investor. Saying so up front protects everyone's time.

How to apply

You do not need a long deck. A short email answering these five headings in a paragraph each is enough. Read the criteria on our Investments page, then write to us — we respond to a first review within two weeks.