Pitch the Way VCs think by Khosla Ventures

The full guide to pitch the way VCs think by Khosla Ventures + 3 real examples

Before pitching to VCs, this is what you should know:

1. Investors bounce between fear & greed

• Emotion is the reason to invest: feelings, stories, narratives not facts

• Rationale is the reason to “explain investment or not invest”

• Complexity scares investors; KISS works; jargon-free

• Play games or hide things: good investors will notice

Judging you: be confident, transparent, humble… but don’t trigger BS meter!

2. Surprising truths

• Message sent is OFTEN not the message received

• Simplify: Tell the “story” well enough to get to complexity later

• Steer into your investors’ objections! Don’t avoid them; ask

• How do you become one of the 3 out of 1000’s in a 7 years?

Your goal: get to the next stage... get investors to dig in

3. Investors’ view of your business model

There are startups that know how they’ll make money & those that haven’t figured it out yet but can define options/tests to run

Technical startups should have technical risk & lower market risk

Series Seed, A, B have increasing specificity & more risks eliminated; Series C should be growth round. What do you de-risk with this round?

4. Your “first pitch” goal

• Make sure investors know what you do in first 60 secs

• Show why it is awesome: “If I can prove x, then…”

• Show market is big enough or new to be exciting

• You can or have figured out the product market fit

• The technical risk is manageable & market obvious

And LAST the team is worth backing

You’re selling the partnership, through your sponsor VC, so give the individual partner the talking points to overcome all objections; pick the right partner

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