INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Such as it was for Primary Ventures investor Jason Shuman, who commented on the recent prices for pitch deck advice in the Valley today:You
before; and everything just seems a little bit crazy these days, it seems downright, fucking insane to think that a PowerPoint file and some
But some are, and certainly an elect chosen set of consultants are worth every penny they demand.The best consultants are not luxuries to
Get a single slide wrong, or hell, a single bullet point wrong and the whole thing can blow up in a pitch meeting in thirty seconds or
As a former VC investor, I have gotten hung up on single sentences before
The right PR consultants can potentially get you traction that no one else can
The right sales consultants may lock in those critical early design customers that represent the difference between an orderly liquidation
founders is that the Valley has indeed matured, and all these consultants and more are available
There are the hucksters and the tricksters, the bon vivants thriving on naive capital, the idiot clowns cloaked in their own compelling
pitch decks.But as the market has expanded for these services, at least some superstars are emerging from the marketplace, people who can
offer more value for you in a week or two than the mediocrities can in a year.Your job as founder is to constantly probe and find those
that they are built upon strata of superstardom
Superstar talents lead to superstar products, superstar VC capital, and ultimately, superstar exits
Superstar momentum is real
Yes, yes, yes, not every time, and every stage in the pipeline is multiplied by a stochastic chance of failure, for sure
right people and the right ideas
deck than the underlying startup itself
There are founders whose entire skill is securing capital for their companies who have never paid a penny for this skill.Yet ultimately, all
early-stage startups face the same challenge: too many activities, too little time
Something, somewhere is going to have to get outsourced today and the quality of that external work is largely going to be determined by how
much you are willing to pay for it
What you choose to spend whatever capital you have will determine the trajectory of your startup
So whether it is pitch decks or another activity, never blink from those top dollars
It may very well be what gets you the top dollar in the end.
