How to turn your investor deck into a meeting

Daniel’s Story

Daniel told me a fascinating story.

He lives in England and remains close to his extended family in Ghana. As he earns more, he wants to send regular payments back home. But his grandparents live far from Accra and have no access to a bank. To receive his funds, they need to travel to the City with accreditation. They then have to pay to collect the cash before embarking on the long journey home.

Daniel reckons that up to 5% of the money he transfers is lost in the process, 3% at his end, 2% on receipt. He worries incessantly about his inability to track the transfer through to collection. And then his grandparents have no local bank. So they stash cash under the mattress until, inevitably, it runs out. They are, unable to make cashless payments or to utilise financial services in a region with no banks.

Daniel realised that his family were not alone.  There is a huge gulf between provision of financial services across continents.  Millions have similar problems. And millions more, particularly in Africa, have no access to the most basic banking facilities or investment vehicles.

Daniel’s business

So he is building Zendit.  An app that will make money transfers, banking services and even financial planning available to anyone.  Including those who live far away from the branch network.  All they’ll need is a smartphone.

Daniel is looking to raise £150,000 in equity, a relatively small amount to cover marketing and product development, with a view to an exit in two years.

Daniel’s investor deck error

It’s quite a story.  The app is brilliant and the upside is huge.  But when Daniel wrote his investor deck, he made a critical error.  He stopped thinking about the story and about the incredible benefits that Zendit could bring to families like his around the world.  Instead, he resorted to technical, institutionalised language.  His story became lost in a series of product features.

Daniel isn’t alone, of course.  He did something common to a large proportion of people writing investor decks.  They imagine that investors think differently.  That they are impressed by detail and jargon.  When, in fact, they are incredibly busy people who need to be excited and motivated by the business idea put in front of them.

A better way to write an investor deck

Investors, be they wealthy individuals, private equity forms or venture capital businesses, are human!  Yes, of course, they  need to scrutinise the financials, but they also need to understand why a new idea has potential.  And in almost every case, that means translating it’s ‘features’ into ‘benefits’.

Great investor decks – like all pitch documents:

1. Prioritise key messages.
2. Lead with benefits – to the end user and to the financial investor.
3. Are clear, simple and ensure that the detail doesn’t suffocate the headlines.
4. Remember that an investor deck is just the beginning of the investor journey.  Nobody signs-up without a meeting.  The deck just needs to unlock the door.

This graphic shows how Daniel’s deck was structured before and after we worked together:

The new deck contains almost all the same information, but in a clearer, more relevant way.

To quote Daniel:

“Working with Lawrence has given me the confidence to explain Zendit’s amazing potential in the clearest way possible.  I had been suffocating its benefits by trying to list everything it can do in our investor deck.  It’s now transformed for the better.

If you’d like to see Daniel’s full deck, please contact him directly.