Pitch Deck — 200 days to YC #W2
Why pitch deck?
You might ask me, why don’t you start with an MVP? The thing is, I’m already quite fried from coding at work. Second, I realized that even without an MVP, a pitch deck can still be an entry point to secure funding for your idea. Last but not least, honing your idea is still a good call!
I realized I feel less scared about the 200-day commitment if I’m just reading books and drawing random things in my mind! Gathering some output weekly feels much less daunting and quite comprehensive.
My Practice on making a pitch deck
This is my first idea sketch.
How to tell a good story
Pitch deck essentially is about story telling, a skill I can practice and exercise on. Hence, I started with How to Tell a Story, a book recommended by a talented video maker Joshua from our incubator.
Let me share with you my favorite story so far in the book.
She locks me in a gaze and says, “You’re cursed. You’re cursed! You’ll never find love. This is the worst curse I have ever seen.
Your whole family this is generational. I am floored by the level of curse that’s hanging on you.” And I’m standing there. And I
gotta tell you, I’m pretty excited about this. Because all these years, I thought it was me! I thought I was too loud, too fat, too Black, too whatever. But if I’m just cursed? Hallelujah! Yes, that means we can fix it. All right, here we go.
Personal stories are usually the easiest, here are some to start with.
- Felt an emotion: doubled over with laughter, burst into tears, or lost your cool. Did something you never thought you’d do.
- Tried to be something or someone you aren’t.
- Discovered something about yourself, your environment, your family, or the world
- Changed your relationship with someone for better or worse, a little or a lot.
- Had a secret revealed — by you or someone else.
- Stood to gain or lose something that mattered to you.
- Made a tough choice for the right (or wrong) reason.
- Found yourself saying, I do! I won’t! Hell no! I dare you. You couldn’t pay me to. It would be my greatest honor.
But how can I translate personal stories into a professional setting?
I found this a very funny but inspiring story!
Think through the stories in your arsenal before the interview and have one or two prepped In an interview for a TV producing job, I once managed to work in a story about me surviving a runaway camel in Morocco without dropping the expensive camera I was holding. (I got the job!) But one of my favorite on-the-job stories is told by my friend Tim Bartlett. He once spent a year traveling solo through rural England, shooting a documentary. He took buses from town to town, and stayed overnight in the small villages where he was filming. One cold winter night, he missed the last bus that would take him to the next town. There were no taxis or hotels in the tiny village where he was shooting. In the end, he ordered a pizza, asked if it could be delivered to the place in the next town where he was staying, and then said, “Uh… can I go with it?” The delivery guy took Tim and his pizza to the hotel in the next town. The story demonstrates that Tim is a creative problem solver, with an adventurous spirit and great sense of humor. I’d certainly hire him!
This week from the book, I learned this idea:
Every good story, I feel certain, hinges on a decision. In the most powerful stories, your decision will be a tough one. (Some of your audience will concur with your choice, some will be appalled!)
Is there anything decision-making or turning point I can put in my pitch deck?
Learn from existing good stories
I studied several tech pitch decks I can find
I found a lot of comfort that all the pitch decks are extremely ugly. But it helps me to kick things off too. So I made this second version of the pitch deck.
Tbh, I have no idea if this makes sense at all, but that’s the point of practicing!
People of the week
I hung out with one of the founders of Quizard AI. He gave me some ideas for approaching my vision. He said, “Let’s think about who is the person on this planet that is at the frontier of the vision.” It might be Sal Khan from Khan Academy.
What is his path? He got lots of donation after he became an influencer. Is it replicable? Yes! I can be an influencer but will take me 3+ years. Can I skip the steps?
Maybe, he funded some other ideas, like schoolhouse. Can Sal Khan also be my sugar daddy too? Maybe.
I still don’t know how to make this work at all, but he gave me another potential route to explore.
Next week goal
Pitch to 3 random friends and get feedback about it! Well, if you want to give me feedback now, that works too hehe.
