Jenny Q. Ta and Shinta Dhanuwardoyo, co-founders of VCNetwork.co, taught me a lot about their new vision to improve the process of connecting entrepreneurs to funding. A big part of the communication between entrepreneur comes via the “investor deck,” or presentation that is used to explain a company/idea.
Historically business plans have also been tool in communicating with investors. I was curious to learn from Jenny and Shinta, their thoughts about both decks and business plans, and their relevance in today’s startup environment.
Ryan: Do you give guidelines for how you like to see decks? Or have … Best practices, a ten point … Ten slides? Is it just whatever their slide is? Does it need to come in a certain format or a certain length or a certain structure?
Shinta: We will eventually. Jenny and I are putting that together. When I go to events entrepreneurs physically give me decks and business plans. Jenny does the same as well. The startups would just give them to us in hard copies. Once we read it and we liked it, then they could simply upload what they have already to VCNetwork.co and the connection begins. If they see us in person or around, they are also welcome to ask for our personal inputs. Then right there right then we would give them our thoughts. If their deck is too short or too long, or which of the main points are missing within a perfectly written deck.
Jenny: Yes, that’s right.
Ryan: Not the business plan, but the deck, right?
Shinta: Both. Most startups just starting out may just have the deck, which would be a good start for angel investors. When startups are looking for Round A funding, for example, best to have a business plan ready to submit.
Ryan: Both? Okay.
Jenny: Yes, both. On our platform, it would be best that if they do both. That would tell us how mature they are. If you only send in a deck and especially if you wrote it yourself without much due diligence and thoughts… I’ve seen some decks that are just not sufficient. So, we would reach out to them and give them a bit of mentoring and help them fix it, then resubmit.
Ryan: Death by deck.
Jenny: Yeah. That’s it.
Ryan: Okay. Well, I really appreciate this. Any final words there, Shinta?
Shinta: No … I was just about to say that my inbox is full of decks every day.
Jenny: I can envision that.
Shinta: I’m just overwhelmed sometimes.
Takeaways:
- Give digital and in-person decks, and don’t be afraid to ask questions
- Don’t be afraid to give them in-person or upload it straight to VCNetwork.co
- Make sure that your deck has the necessary information
Learn more about how Jenny and Shinta are shaking up the funding marketplace for the better at VCNetwork.co