How This Pitch Deck Raised $66 Million in VC Funding

July 5, 2018 BusinessTrumpet

Sixty-six million dollars.

Armed with a 25-slide presentation, 28-year-old CEO Mathilde Collin earned her company, Front, $66 million in Series B funding.

She pitched to 11 investors over five days, and walked away with 10 investment offers.

Front is an app that streamlines social media message, emails, Slack messages, and texts in one place for easy collaboration. It’s a forward-thinking, competitively priced service.

It takes more than that, however, to walk away with $66 million in funding for a startup — it also takes a killer pitch deck and strategic approach to convince investors your company deserves backing.

Here, seven takeaways from Collin’s presentation and approach that hit the heart of what investors are looking for.

1. Start with your value proposition.

Collin started by showing the problem that Front is solving — and, then, exactly how Front does it.

2. Provide social proof.

Showing that business like Shopify and Hubspot use Front (along with 2,300 other companies) gives investors the social proof that industry leaders believe in your product or service — and that investors should, too.

3. Share customer data and growth.

You can’t argue with data. Collin provided data showing Front’s consistent customer growth, platform use, and low churn rate.

4. Be transparent about your current financials.

Collin was transparent with the funding Front had already received, and, furthermore, was able to show how successfully the company has handled its Series A funding.

5. Share your annual recurring revenue plan.

In addition to showing investors how Front had been efficiently handling money already, Collin also shared the annual recurring revenue the company is aiming for in 2018.

6. Share your future vision.

Naturally, Collin shared how Front will grow, specifically, throughout the rest of the year.

7. Cultivate relationships with investors.

It’s not just about a killer presentation. In an article on Medium, Collin shared that building relationships with investors was ongoing, organic process — and that relationships were four years in the making.

“I leveraged my existing relationships with one partner in each of the venture capital firms to be able to get a partner meeting right away. Building these relationships happened over the course of Front’s entire existence, so in effect, it took me 4+ years to secure this funding,” she said.

“Build relationships early and maintain them regularly, but keep it short and focused. I usually meet with each firm once every 3 to 6 months.”