I see it in deck after deck: the founder waits until slide 27 to tell me about himself. Big mistake. Here’s how to do it right…

Right after your title slide, put a slide about yourself. Tell us your biggest accomplishments.

Before we care about your idea, we have to believe in you! 

Don’t Bury the Lead!

I’ve seen some amazing founders completely bury their accomplishments. 

One deck I looked at recently had the founder on the very last slide. This guy has some incredible accomplishments, including doing serious engineering work at a top deep tech startup. 

But looking at the deck, you’d never know it! 

What are the odds the investor actually makes it to Slide 41 with that information? Not high.

That’s why you put it front and center. 

How to Sell Yourself

Don’t just tell us where you’ve worked. Anyone can do that. 

Tell us the important things that you accomplished.

Maybe you worked at Anduril. Don’t just put an Anduril logo on your slide. 

Instead, tell us your biggest accomplishments there. Maybe you led a project to develop sensors for their unmanned fighter. 

Now that’s exciting!  

Not many people have done something that big. That’s okay! 

Just sell the best accomplishments you have.

Maybe you started a garage cleaning business in high school that paid your way through college. That’s amazing!

Make sure investors know about it. 

Why You Must Lead With Yourself, Not Your Idea

You don’t want to lead with your startup idea, the market, or the product.

Without an exceptional founder, no idea is likely to work. First, show us you’re that exceptional person.

What’s more, many startups pivot to a totally different business. One of my most successful investments, Micro1, was a completely different company when I invested.

Wrap-Up

Raising money is hard enough. Don’t make it even harder by underselling yourself!

You are the most critical asset your company has. Whether you raise money or not will depend on how investors assess you as a person.

If you’re raising money now, open up your deck and start making some edits. Put yourself front and center.

You’ll see the difference in how investors respond!

More on tech: 

How Sid From GitLab Nailed His Pre-Seed Pitch In Just 60 Seconds

How to Write Cold Emails to Investors That Actually Get Replies

You’ve Got Your First Customer. Now, How Do You Raise Money?

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