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The Pitch

A woman in a white shirt speaks into a microphone while standing in front of a seated audience in a bright conference room. The listeners appear engaged and attentive.
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The pitch is at the core of every fundraising strategy. A compelling narrative describes “Why your idea and/or product matters,” “why now is the right time for it,” and “why you are uniquely positioned to succeed.” It will take several iterations to nail. Also be mindful of your target audience – perhaps build multiple pitch decks. In biotech, if you have something that pharma clearly wants, no VC will worry too much about whether or not there is money to be made – they will expect (in a normal market) that they will get ROI before the product is likely even approved, let alone sold. However, novel contraceptive methods do not necessarily fit this mold because, as a class, they sit between medicine that treats a disease and a consumer product, and the world is also not in a traditional VC market. So, you may need to convince investors from a range of backgrounds and motivations to secure capital. Consumer and tech VCs want to see the vision of the product on the shelf and believe that it will make a ton of money. Biotech VCs want to understand the technical and scientific approach from the first meeting.

Start by getting your story down on paper, in a pitch deck, and get feedback from trusted advisors, mentors and friendly investors to refine it further. After that, it’s all about practice – you become an expert with telling your story. While you’re practicing, you’ll notice that you might get the same questions over and over again, and that will help sharpen your answers to them, so you’re ready once you’ll get in front of your ideal investors.

“ While it’s a good idea to socialize your early deck with friendly faces, everyone will provide different feedback, focus points, and advice. It will be impossible to implement everything. What matters most is listening to the feedback that resonates with you, and generating a pitch that flows well. You’re the one that needs to have full confidence in your story, and love what you’re sharing with others. The old adage “don’t let perfect get in the way of good” is always true, but in a world where everyone you talk to is looking for reasons to say “no”, it is best to get as close to your version of perfect as possible. Also be prepared for that version to constantly change depending on your audience and feedback over time!

“ Talk about your venture with everyone you meet. Annoy your friends, colleagues, people on the plane next to you. Make everyone aware of what you’re doing and why it matters. Why? Two reasons: you don’t know who you’ll meet, what help they might have for you, or who they have connections to. And, it helps you refine your elevator pitch and your core pitch too, for when it really matters.

How to Structure Your Pitch Materials

Successful pitching requires multiple conversations under varying circumstances. As you’d expect, having several slide decks prepared is useful, as well as knowing the key talking points that can take you through an entire conversation without slides. The goal is to be clear, concise, and confident. The classic way to approach preparing for a pitch is to think about pitching scenarios across different lengths of time.

  • A 30-second pitch: Your hook, your one-liner, your elevator pitch – enough to get someone interested if you are meeting them in an elevator
  • A 3-minute pitch: A punchy summary of your problem, solution, market and ask – enough to get someone interested if you are waiting to order a drink next to them at a bar
  • A 30-minute intro meeting pitch: This will start with introductions from the VCs and founders, and will be followed by the genesis story of your company. These conversations will vary greatly depending on who you are talking to and what they care most to ask about during the call. You will want to highlight the science and why it is differentiated, and make sure you have a compelling business model and understanding of the clinical development path forward.
  • A 60 minute partner meeting pitch: The full story with supporting data and backup slides. Don’t expect to walk through a presentation uninterrupted, as there will be many questions throughout.

There are many good posts and templates online on how to build deep tech/biotech startup pitch decks. You will find that you need several types:

  • One/Two Page Memo or Backgrounder: This can be generated as a word document and should serve as an executive summary highlighting the problem and solution you are proposing, how much you are raising and what it will allow you to accomplish. Template Link
  • A short, non-confidential intro pitch deck (6 – 12 slides): You’ll use this deck to get “a foot in the door”, making investors curious and getting them to ask for a meeting to learn more
  • Partner / Investment Committee pitch deck (24 – 30 slides): A slide deck meant for you to speak over. You will want to have your full story outlined in discrete sections.
  • Deeper dive decks: Other decks or material can provide deeper background on the science, market, business development opportunities, etc. should be ready to share with investors upon request.

What to Include in your Intro Deck

There are some standard slides with main points that you need to cover in your intro deck. VCs see hundreds of slide decks, so it is better to beat them over the head with key points rather than leaving it up to the reader to find the answers for themselves.

​These are the key slides:

  • Executive Summary
    • Single sentence summary of your big idea
    • 2-3 main points that highlight the best things about your company
    • Traction and amount of money needed for next milestone
  • The Problem: What is the problem? What urgent, meaningful gap are you solving? Why does it matter to do it now?
  • Your Solution: What you’re working on, and why it’s the best answer to the problem
  • Market Size: The total addressable market, the serviceable market, and why this is a real business opportunity
  • Competition: Who else is in this space, and what are they doing?
  • Differentiation: How are you different from them? What can only you own, what is your moat? What makes it difficult for others to do the same as you do?
  • Exit Landscape / Benchmark Deals: If you build a therapeutics startup, are there any comparable partnerships or acquisitions of assets in your space (what did the deal look like, and at what stage were the assets)? This will not be possible for non-hormonal male contraceptives, so have a clear story on how you would de-risk your technology and fit a market need for large biopharmaceutical partners who have the infrastructure and finances for late-stage clinical development and commercialization. What is your plan for global access?
  • Team: Who is on the team, and why are you uniquely positioned to win?
  • The Ask: How much money are you raising and how will you spend it? Also called the “use-of-proceeds” slide

Resources worth bookmarking to help with the full Pitch Deck

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