Is your pitch deck missing this crucial element?

Founders can overlook their background when pitching for equity investment. But for VPs seeking partners, your story matters

Let’s imagine for a moment that you’re not a founder; you’re a VC. 

You’ve got £500,000 to invest in a business. Your inbox is a solid block of unread messages. You open two and stand them side by side. By an amazing coincidence that can only happen in allegorical fiction, they are exactly the same idea, with the same turnover and projected figures, pitched by two different founders.

Company A was set up by an ex-offender who got the idea in prison. On leaving, they won a grant and start-up loan to get the company where it is today. Their business partners are the police officer who arrested them and a forensic bookkeeper. 

Company B doesn’t tell you anything at all. It’s just about the figures, right? 

Be honest, you’d want to meet the team at Company A, wouldn’t you? Here’s a story of redemption, reconciliation and risk mitigation. £50k might not be the biggest investment you’ll ever make, but if you became part of this story, it could be the one you never forget.

This is an extreme example. But when pitching your business, how much time do you spend writing the “about us” section of the pitch deck? Is it just an afterthought? Did you copy ‘n’ paste it from your LinkedIn page? 

I went to a pitch event recently: six entrepreneurs spoke against the clock. Only one of them said who she was and how her personal experience informed her business idea. She’s the only one whose idea I could remember less than 24 hours later. 

Okay, stop reading for a minute and say your elevator pitch out loud. Go on - 60 seconds. 

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Great, now you’re back: how much of that elevator pitch was about who you and your leadership team are? If the answer is "not much" or "none", keep reading. You need this.

If you’re struggling to raise the investment you need for what on paper looks like a great business, this could be the brick wall you’ve been banging your head against.

I spoke to Kerry Dwyer , Senior Equity Manager at Swoop which offers founders a pitch deck builder and access to a network of VCs. (Find out more at www.swoopfunding.com.) I asked whether this was something that, in her experience, was lacking from pitch decks. She said: 

“Founders focus on the idea, the market and the growth plans: that’s what they go out and sell. They often think of themselves as the team ‘behind’ the idea rather than the team having as much value as the idea itself.”

But your idea is brilliant, right? Doesn’t that matter more than anything else? Kerry, who has seen hundreds of businesses pitching for equity investors and works with VCs on a daily basis says that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in the “great idea” basket: 

“There’s a saying that investors will always go for an A team with a B product over a B team with an A product. This is because the best teams will be able to adapt and pivot their business model if necessary, or in some cases completely change from their original business model.” 

What stays the same? The values and qualities of the leadership team. 

Even those who do talk about their background, says Kerry, place too much stock in their former job titles rather than the skills they have learned along the way: 

“Some founders need to emphasise the skills they learnt in their previous roles that will be a determining factor in how the business can scale. Something I always look for is the team’s ‘unfair advantage’, which is often the founder’s ability or knowledge in a niche area. For some investors, this can be the most important slide of all.”

To increase their chances in the equity market, then, founders must tell their stories better, in a way that appeals to investors. Our ex-convict-led Company A team has demonstrated a host of skills and qualities; can we begin to guess how Company B would respond to challenging circumstances? No - because although they might be brilliant, we cannot know if we don’t have the information. 

Bringing out the story is not an “extra” or a “nice to have”. Simon Sinek would call this “finding your ‘why’”, and it’s the reason why Apple isn’t just a tech company, or Nike isn’t just a cobbler. A good story is why the right investor won’t run scared of Company A, while a complete lack of story will see Company B filed in the trash.  

A step beyond founding your 'why'

Telling a story is one step beyond “finding the ‘why’”: when you understand how a story works, you are able to communicate what is truly important. At the heart of every story, plot and character become the same thing. Events unfold because of the decisions made by the leader and the bigger the jeopardy, the stronger the villain, the harder the decision… the better the story. 

Can you do this for yourself? Examples of those who have successfully understood and articulated their “why” are few, because most of us find it difficult to be so objective about ourselves. But if you get it right - and this is where I throw light on the blind spot that holds so many businesses back from achieving their potential - the “about you” page will ultimately be a roadmap of your future that is more securely grounded in the reality of your values than the projected figures you’ve pulled out of the air. 

Think about that, and dedicate your time to your “about you” page accordingly. 

Ian Hawkins delivers keynote speeches and workshops on how businesses can understand, build and profit from stories. HIs book, Storytelling is your Superpower, is available exclusively through LinkedIn. Visit www.mr-hawkins.com for more details about his work.

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