Table of Contents

1. When, Why, and How to Pivot
2. Product and Company Road Map
3. Funding

When, why and how to pivot

The tyranny of urgency

• Quarterly cadence - serves as an accountability mechanism

• What is a Pivot?
  • When a startup shifts business strategy to accommodate industry, market, or customer
  • The process of direct and indirect feedback changing your business model
  • Iterations vs. Pivots
    • Iterations are course corrections
    • Pivots are painful - we were in the tire business, we’re now in apps
    • Not course correction
    • Slack - originally a gaming company
    • Odeo -> Twiiter
  • When to do a pivot?
    • Path to revenue is not there
    • Customer review interviews
• When & Why
  • When - 90-180 days
    • Get out of your head and get in front of the customer
  • 50-100 customer interviews
  • Build on email list
• How to pivot
  • Are you staying in the same TAM?
  • Is the product wrong?
  • Is the brand wrong?
  • Focus on the problem first, solution second!

Product and Company Road Map

• Product vision
  • Long term features
  • Startup with PROBLEM not product - pivot product/features around the problem
  • It won’t be what you ship first
  • What the world looks like before and after your product
• Product roadmap
  • What features and when
  • Quarterly targets based on
    • Budget
    • Available developers
• Estimating costs
  • Write specification
    • Required for launch
  • Design & flow
    • Post project on fiverr.com
    • PPT/keynote first with design
  • Test design and flow
  • Revise
• Company roadmap
  • Roadmap is NOT dependent on fundraising
    • If you raise the capital, you move things forward in the roadmap
  • Where will you be in 18 and 36 months
  • Does it map to your financial model
  • Maps to use of proceeds
• Highlight key milestones
  • This is a bit of an eye chart, so highlight key milestones
  • Product ship dates
  • First revenue
  • Key hires: Hire two packs - for sales
  • Quarterly Template

Funding 101

• Fundraising fundamentals
  • Raising funds is not a sign of success. Cash flow is.
  • Control terms
  • Convertible debt
  • Needs a lead investor
• Fundraising 101
  • Stage appropriate capital = what’s the right money at the right time?
    • Early - angels, early stage VC’s
    • Later - large venture funds
  • Control shifts - board roles, deal terms
  • Dilution - every round of funding you will sell 35-35% of new shares
  • Bad boards = bad enterprise value
• Angels
  • Invest in you and your passion
  • Like the market or idea
  • Have made money in the sector before
  • Deal type
    • Convertible note with o cap
    • Revenue but pre-product makes fit
  • “return the fund” deals that an produce > 10x
• Later stage = growth capital
  • Post product market fit
  • $10k in marketing spend = internal rate of return (IRR) of how many days?
• Fundraising process
  • Enterprise sales process - landing multiple planes at the same time
  • Top of the funnel
    • Research
      • Crunchbase (cheap) technation (UK)
      • Pitchbook (expensive)
      • Angelist
      • Competitive deals (w/ Exits)
    • Create a forwardable email
      • Ask for approval
      • Follow with intro
• Target investors
  • Targets - build of list of targets, look for linkedin and/or email introductions
  • They have invested in your market/stage in the past
  • They have board experience for your stage
  • They can help with strategic introductions
    • Investors
    • Customers
• Monthly updates
  • Using MailChimp free account
    • Investors - tagged
    • Customers
  • 30 day intervals
    • What we thought
    • What we learned
    • What we are doing about it
    • Where we need help
  • Regularly
• Do’s and Don’ts
  • Do
    • Keep your eye on the ball
      • Don’t miss your numbers
    • Manage the process
    • Quality your investor
    • Create optionality
    • If there’s an elephant in the room, call it out
  • Don’ts
    • Get < 6 months of capital
    • Hide the ball on any bad news
    • Be too transparent
    • Let the investor miss a deadline - escrow example
• Fundraising process
  • Asking for advice vs. cash
    • Who do you know that would like out type of deal
    • What other things would you like to see us complete before we talk again
  • Deals that
• Conclusion
  • Broad funnels gives you the most choices
  • They will be talking to other investors
  • How you interact in the process will indicate the future
  • What do you need in addition to capitol?
    • God to market help
    • Product help
    • Know your blind spots
  • Time kills ALL deals
• Tools for pitching
  • Forwardable email
  • Executive summary
  • Presentation
    • ~13 slides
    • More is OK if you have data/traction Monthly update