Since we began, we’ve mapped over 1050 funds raising >$300 billion⁺ in fresh capital—so money isn’t the problem. The real challenge? Mobilising the investors.

💸 New Funds Looking to Give You Cash 🚀 OCT 2025

$6.2 billion Across 47 New Funds

Investor appetite is surging for AI, climate-tech, fintech, quantum technology, healthtech, and the mobility ecosys…

Read more

✅ Senate: Passed 68–30
✅ House: Passed 308–122
✅ White House: President Trump is expected to sign it into law any day now.

Crypto’s “Wild West” era just ended—America just made stablecoins legal, Bitcoin fenced, and the dollar the de facto king of digital money.

This is bigger than it looks. Yes, it brings protection, clarity, and maturity to a $150 billion stablecoin market. But beneath the surface, this is a geopolitical power move to lock in U.S. dollar supremacy in the age of digital assets—and it changes everything from AI data security to crypto adoption.

📜 What the GENIUS Act Actually Does

At its core, the GENIUS Act sets clear, federal ground rules for stablecoins:

✅ 100% reserves in cash and U.S. Treasuries
✅ Monthly audits, public disclosures, third-party verifications
✅ Dual licensing: issuers must be federally licensed or state licensed under federal approval
✅ Algorithmic stablecoins are banned—every coin must be fully backed
✅ Priority claim for coin holders in case of issuer bankruptcy
✅ Full AML/KYC compliance under the Bank Secrecy Act

⏳ Effective date: Mid-to-late 2026 (regulators have 180 days to draft detailed implementation rules).

📚 Sources & References:

• GENIUS Act Full Text – Congress.gov

• Washington Post Coverage

• Pillsbury Law Summary

💵 The Hidden Agenda: Protecting the Dollar

Let’s not sugar-coat it: the real driver behind GENIUS isn’t just consumer protection—it’s currency control.

For years, Bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi, and foreign digital currencies threatened the U.S. dollar’s dominance. The U.S. faced two options:

• Ban or fight crypto outright, or

• Domesticate and regulate it—making sure everything flows through dollars.

GENIUS is a clear containment strategy:

“If people want to use digital money, fine—but it’s going to be dollar-backed stablecoins.”

Any serious digital financial infrastructure inside the U.S. will be tied to the dollar—not Bitcoin, not Ethereum, not the Chinese yuan.

• USDC, PYUSD, bank stablecoins → Green light ✅

• Bitcoin, Ethereum, unbacked coins → Legal to hold, but kept outside the payment rails ❌

It’s a textbook example of financial sovereignty dressed up as market stability.

🌐 The Surprising Upside: Crypto On/Off Ramps Just Blew Open

Here’s what’s going under the radar: the on/off ramps for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other crypto assets just became radically easier.

For years, banks wouldn’t touch crypto—regulatory risks were too high. Now:
✅ Banks can legally accept stablecoin deposits
✅ Crypto exchanges gain easier access to banking services
✅ Fintech apps can seamlessly connect fiat → stablecoin → crypto flows

This unlocks institutional-grade crypto access:

• On-ramp: Bank deposit → Stablecoin → Buy BTC/ETH/DeFi

• Off-ramp: Crypto profits → Stablecoin → Spend or withdraw via banks

It’s regulatory containment and market expansion—you get the rails, but with oversight.

🚀 What’s Really Unleashed: Tokenization—of Everything

The GENIUS Act is grabbing headlines for stablecoin regulation, but the real trillion-dollar unlock is even bigger—it’s the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) and data-as-an-asset.

With regulatory clarity on custody, reserve backing, and digital issuance, we’re now on a clear path to tokenize everything:

• 🏠 Real estate with instant on-chain settlement

• 📈 Tokenized securities and corporate equity

• 💵 On-chain treasuries and high-yield savings products

• 🎶 Royalties, patents, and intellectual property fractionalized for retail markets

• 🧠 Verified datasets, AI training pools, and personal data as monetizable assets

If it can be attested, audited, and transferred, it can now be compliantly tokenized.

And here’s the kicker: data itself—the crown jewel of the AI age—can now be treated as a real financial asset:
✅ Tokenized personal data vaults
✅ On-chain licensing of AI models and datasets
✅ Direct monetization of private analytics through decentralized exchanges

This isn’t theory—top asset managers like BlackRock and JPMorgan are already tokenizing traditional assets. Expect a rapid expansion into tokenized data, AI infrastructure, and on-chain digital property rights.

Stablecoins are just Phase One—but the $800 trillion global asset market, plus the untapped data economy, are next in line.

If you think stablecoins will be big, imagine the scale of tokenized assets and AI data markets in an era of regulated blockchain rails.

This is where the real power shift happens—and the smartest players are already positioning for it.

🧠 Why This Goes Beyond Crypto: AI and Decentralized Data Will Follow

GENIUS signals how the entire digital economy will be structured:

• ✅ Auditable reserves → auditable data

• ✅ On-chain transparency → on-chain data flows

• ✅ Stablecoin payment rails → AI data transaction rails

Expect AI companies to face the same demand for transparency, data compliance, and auditable flows that GENIUS just imposed on stablecoins.

In the next 5 years:

• You’ll pay with regulated stablecoins,

• Manage data assets on-chain,

• And interact with AI governed by decentralized, verified systems.

This is crypto and AI regulation converging into the next financial superstructure.

🚨 Actionable Takeaways

✅ Founders → Build for compliant tokenization—of payments, assets, and data.

✅ Investors → Follow the tokenization thesis—real estate, funds, and data marketplaces are the next gold rush.

✅ Crypto Projects → Shift to registered, auditable offerings. The real growth is now inside the rails.

✅ AI/Data Innovators → Plan for tokenized datasets, verifiable AI training flows, and smart-contract data monetization.

🏆 Final Word: The Real Crypto Revolution Starts Now

GENIUS didn’t kill crypto—it forced it to professionalize.
It didn’t end digital assets—it legitimized them.

What’s coming next:

• Stablecoins will dominate payments ✅

• Tokenized assets will reshape global markets ✅

• Data will become a tradable financial asset ✅

• AI models will be auditable and decentralized ✅

The anarchist phase is over—this is the start of institutional digital finance.

Want to see the future? Follow the tokenized rails, data marketplaces, and AI governance structures. That’s where the real power and wealth are shifting.

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Thank you for reading. If you liked it, share it with your friends, colleagues and everyone interested in the startup Investor ecosystem.

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Please let me know what you think of it, love a feedback loop 🙏🏼

• ❤️ Love it, keep them coming!

• 👍 Great, always a good read.

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For the ❤️ of startups

✌🏼 & 💙
Derek

🔍 1. Deal Sourcing Becomes Commoditised

🔧 2. The Real Differentiator? Value Delivery

🔁 3. Capital Velocity Over Capital Lock-Up

📉 4. Post-Power Law Portfolio Strategy

🤖 5. The AI-Native Fund Stack

📢 6. The LP Wake-Up Call

🧠 7. Vertical Funds Will Outrun Horizontal Hype

🧰 8. Full-Stack Fund-as-a-Product

🧭 9. Founders Will Start Vetting VCs Harder

Venture capital, for all its swagger, is long overdue a reckoning.

For decades, the model hasn’t changed — and neither have the results.

• The top 5–10% of funds still capture 80–90% of all meaningful returns.

• Median fund performance has flatlined for 25+ years.

• Founder failure rates? Still brutally high — no better than two decades ago.

So much capital. So little innovation in capital.

We’ve normalised underperformance, dressed it up in power laws, and called it strategy.

But that era is ending.

The next generation of funds won’t just look different. They’ll operate on a completely new OS — one built around AI, engineered value creation, faster returns, and a flipped funnel that starts with capital efficiency, not just capital deployment.

Here’s how I see the new model — not as a nice-to-have, but as a survival necessity.

Here’s the full series 👇

🔍 1. Deal Sourcing Becomes Commoditised

AI now does what associates used to: scraping LinkedIn, parsing pitch decks, spotting traction signals. No need for 50 coffee chats to “get access.” The game’s changed.

Every serious fund will run sourcing like a tech product:

• Ingest

• Rank

• Qualify

• Only loop in a human when it matters

Sourcing is no longer a moat. It’s table stakes. The edge starts after the cheque lands.

🔧 2. The Real Differentiator? Value Delivery

Founders don’t need another “how’s it going?” call. They need firepower.

The funds that win will behave like high-impact operators, not passive capital:

• AI co-pilots for GTM, hiring, ops

• Embedded teams to close hires, test pricing, prep the next raise

• Playbooks built from lived experience, not Medium

No more vague promises of “value-add.” The proof will be in dashboards, metrics, and outcomes. LPs will back what they can measure.

🔁 3. Capital Velocity Over Capital Lock-Up

The old fund model — 10 years, 2% fees, wait-and-see DPI — is done.

Next-gen funds will act more like product loops:

• Faster, smaller exits

• Early secondaries

• Active recycling of capital

We’re not thinking small. We’re thinking smart. Strategic acquirer by Year 3 beats IPO fantasy in Year 10.

📉 4. Post-Power Law Portfolio Strategy

The old model accepted mass failure. “One winner returns the fund.”

But in an AI-native world, that’s no longer necessary — or acceptable.

Now we can:

• Track real-time performance

• Spot drift before it kills a startup

• Pivot fast, not panic late

The goal? Fewer write-offs, more wins. This isn’t romantic. It’s responsible. And it’s what LPs now expect.

🤖 5. The AI-Native Fund Stack

New funds should operate like startups. That means lean, fast, and AI-augmented:

• LLMs trained to score deals by thesis

• Automated, personalised LP reporting

• Fund ops — from compliance to CRM — on autopilot

This isn’t AI theatre. It’s operational leverage. The funds still scheduling partner calls by hand? Extinct in five years.

📢 6. The LP Wake-Up Call

Let’s be honest — LPs helped cause the bloat. They chased logos, got seduced by hype, and ignored the fundamentals.

Now they’re awake — and demanding more:

• Faster liquidity

• Measurable value-creation

• Real-time visibility into fund ops

The best GPs will treat LPs as true partners. Live data. Milestone-based disbursements. No more once-a-year PDFs.

🧠 7. Vertical Funds Will Outrun Horizontal Hype

Generalist, spray-and-pray funds won’t cut it.

The next wave will go deep:

• Technical depth (quantum, bio, robotics)

• Ecosystem alignment (govtech, industrial, policy-driven sectors)

• Founder-embedded networks (operator-led, not outsider-run)

AI will surface the signal — but the real edge will come from knowing the terrain.

🧰 8. Full-Stack Fund-as-a-Product

The best funds will become infrastructure. They won’t just fund growth — they’ll power it.

We’ll see:

• VC-as-a-service platforms: AI tools, GTM kits, networks

• Programmatic follow-on strategies

• In-house accelerators — not for deal flow, but for actual traction

Think Y Combinator rebuilt for an AI-native world — less theatre, more output.

🧭 9. Founders Will Start Vetting VCs Harder

The old power dynamic is gone. Founders are in the driving seat.

They’re now asking:

• What’s your value-per-dollar?

• Can I plug into your stack from Day 1?

• Are you here for outcomes — or optics?

Founders aren’t just raising capital. They’re recruiting co-pilots. And legacy funds? They’re not getting the callback.

🚀 Final Thought: The New VC Isn’t a Money Machine — It’s a Momentum Engine

The future belongs to funds that build leverage across every layer: sourcing, delivery, decision-making, and exits.

AI isn’t a trend. It’s the new baseline.

The next era of VC won’t be led by pedigree, brand, or network.

It’ll be led by those who can engineer returns — for founders, LPs, and themselves.

Forget power laws. Build power loops.

Share Fusion42 by DeReK WaTSoN

Thank you for reading. If you liked it, share it with your friends, colleagues and everyone interested in the startup Investor ecosystem.

If you've got suggestions, an article, research, your tech stack, or a job listing you want featured, just let me know! I'm keen to include it in the upcoming edition.

Please let me know what you think of it, love a feedback loop 🙏🏼

• ❤️ Love it, keep them coming!

• 👍 Great, always a good read.

• 😊 Enjoyable, but let’s see some variety.

• 👎 Okay, seen better.

• 🛑 Get a different job.
  
  Subscribe below and follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter to never miss an update. 

Subscribe now

For the ❤️ of startups

✌🏼 & 💙
Derek

🚨 – What “Sherlocking” Means in the Gen‑AI Era

🧱 2. The seven venture‑grade moats

🔍 3. Diligence drill – five questions to kill thin moats

🚩 4. Red‑flag scorecard

🏁 5. Conclusion – Fund assets, not features

🚨 – What “Sherlocking” Means in the Gen‑AI Era

In 1998 Apple’s Sherlock search tool quietly absorbed a third‑party app named Watson. That one act coined the term Sherlocking: when a platform owner clones a popular add‑on and leaves the start‑up out in the cold.

OpenAI now does the same in software. A micro‑SaaS goes viral → the capability appears inside ChatGPT with zero‑friction UX and no extra cost. Its in‑chat Shopping Assistant arrived only weeks after product‑discovery plug‑ins hit the store.

For founders it can sink the company; for VCs it can wipe the return. Your equity only endures if something valuable still works the morning after the clone ships.

🚨 The Clone Is Coming

ChatGPT has Sherlocked fourteen standalone plug-ins this year. As soon as a point solution gains traction, OpenAI folds it straight into ChatGPT—no extra cost, zero friction.

Every one of these began life as a separate plug-in or micro-service—now folded straight into ChatGPT’s UX, at no extra cost or friction. Founders and VCs need to ask: if my entire feature set were built in-house at OpenAI, would users even notice?

1. In-chat Shopping Assistant (Instacart-style)

2. Web Browsing (“Browse with Bing” replacing WebPilot, etc.)

3. Advanced Data Analysis / Code Interpreter (formerly Python & Wolfram plug-ins)

4. DALL·E Image Generation (vs third-party image-gen add-ons)

5. Canva-style Graphics (template-based design in-chat)

6. Zapier-style Workflow Automation

7. PDF Reader & Summariser (AskYourPDF-style)

8. YouTube/Video Summariser

9. Memory & Personalisation (third-party “memory” plug-ins)

10. Travel Booking (Expedia/Kayak-style searching and reservation)

11. Restaurant Reservations (OpenTable-style)

12. Translation (DeepL-style high-quality language conversion)

13. Meeting Scheduling (Calendly-style)

Real-time News & Research (replacing niche news-feed plug-ins)

🧱 2. The seven venture‑grade moats

Read more

This metric tells you how much recurring revenue you’re keeping from your existing customers—without counting any upsells, expansions, or new customer wins. It’s a pure measure of your product’s core value.

It focuses solely on:

• ✅ Renewals

• ⚠️ Downgrades

• ❌ Cancellations (aka churn)

🔢 How to Calculate It

Read more

Read more

Read more

Read more

We want to make your conversations with investors around valuations more informed and the journey far more palatable.

What’s covered:

• 🌟 Introduction

• 📜🧠 The founders truth

• 💰 Valuation

  • The maths is pretty simple

• 💰 So how do you work out your Valuation?

  • 📈 The Berkus Method

  • 📊 Scorecard Valuation

  • 📉 Comparative Analysis

  • 🏗️ Cost-to-Duplicate

  • 💼 Venture Capital Method

  • 📈💵 Discounted Cash Flow

  • 📘 Book Value

  • 🚦 Risk Factor Summation

  • 🌐📊 Online valuation metrics

• 📝 Conclusion

🌟 Introduction

The real purpose of valuations for early stage startups is to find a split that is fair and motivational for everyone involved.

Three fundamental points need to be front of mind when valuing your startup:

What you are selling has little to no value, and your objective is to bring your vision to life. If your idea is holding on to as many shares as possible, then bootstrap.

How much money do you need to achieve your next milestone, if that means a subsequent funding round or to be able to bootstrap the business.

Will this business make investors 163x return?

📜🧠 The founders truth

If you wish to know and understand the truth behind VC and Investor motivations please read the above article to understand it is all about the money and returns.

We need to understand how to align our story, and therefore valuation, to fit their needs.

As a founder setting out to value your startup, it is handy first to identify your entrepreneur type. There are essentially five types in Tech startups, and determining which type you are will help set your goals and ask. There are no right or wrong ones, but the risks associated and pay off profile may differ between investors looking to deploy capital.

💰 Valuation

As founders we all think we have come up with the latest greatest earth shattering idea, it is very rarely the case, so getting grounded is crucial, it is also a critical part of making a realistic valuation.

So let's unpack what the fundamental objectives are for raising capital.

The capital needs to pay the bills at the Seed to Series A/B stages, as you will launch and push your product offering and customer acquisition. For this, you'll need more engineers, more marketing and sales to keep growing at the same rate; if you are exceptionally lucky, natural organic growth will kick in (this is the exception and not the rule). There will be flat spots requiring you to adjust your strategy, and as you learn more about your customer/user behaviour and fracture points, more product iterations will be required.
Many founders underestimate how difficult customer acquisition is, overestimating their internal targets. It is easy to do and all more when these KPI's are related to the growth required to attain the valuation you are trying to get.
Going into future funding rounds having overpromised and underdelivered is not somewhere you want to be.

The maths is pretty simple

A $10m valuation implies you have to reach unicorn valuation, and that the investors didn't dilute from his initial investment. Then he has achieved 100x, but that is not the case as we know that the average dilution over the early rounds is roughly 50%.
The higher the initial ask the higher the exit value needs to be, all sounds pretty obvious but is often not very well thought out.

100% of 0 will always = 0.

This is the best starting point for a founder. Selling equity in small amounts and taking in the capital that allows you to get to the next level is the best way to raise; it gives you the most flexibility and control over the direction you wish to go and increases your probability of raising future rounds. Of course using a Safe note certainly helps in averaging a higher valuation at the starting point.

One issue that always arises with founders is the fear of selling shares too cheap and being over diluted. Having the right amount of capital to allow you to hit your KPI’s will increase your valuation way more significantly than any dilution you have to take going forward. The danger with overpricing or raising too much is that if you don’t hit your targets, you’ll need to do a down round, which is always problematic.

💰 So how do you work out your Valuation?

We all have a rough idea of the market dynamics and where we sit. But investors have some capacity for their valuation because they have a mix of investments into portfolio companies.
Not all investments carry the same weight or the same conviction. To get the correct value for your company, we have put together some of the principal valuation models VC’s use when they value opportunities.

💰📊 Valuation Methods

• The Berkus Method

• Scorecard Valuation

• Comparative Analysis

• Cost-to-Duplicate

• Venture Capital Method

• Discounted Cash Flow

• Book Value

Read more

Let’s start here… because it is how to make your life easier, by having what you are doing and achieving in one place it gives you the understanding and focus of what you need to be speaking / writing about. Numbers are the easiest way to understand what your story telling should be about rather than the fairly tales we often hear.

What’s covered:

• 🌟 What the pro’s say?

• 🧭 Navigating Investment Readiness

• 🔦 Your one source of truth is your guiding light

• 💬 VC Q&A

• 🤝 Building Investor Confidence

• 🧩 How to fit it all together

• 🖼️ The Slide

🌟 What the pro’s say?

While the required outputs are clear, understanding the inputs and their critical role in a startup's foundation is essential. A centralised system that consolidates all data into financial value and provides the ultimate source of truth is vital. This should not be seen as 'doing accounts' or 'bookkeeping,' but as the oracle of truth, where every aspect of the business is translated into financial insights—the ultimate reason any business exists.

🧭 Navigating Investment Readiness

Deciding what to put in and what to say can feel overwhelming. It's not just about avoiding the pitfalls of unrealistic growth projections and excessive spending. This slide is multifaceted, serving crucial purposes for all founders contemplating the investment route. The first question you need to tackle is, are you actually back-able? Answering this lays the foundation for your journey into the world of gaining investment from different investor types. Once you determine if you are venture back-able, the next step is understanding the requirements and expectations of follow-on funding rounds. Knowing where to focus at each stage is not just strategic; it's essential for guiding your startup's growth and aligning your aspirations with the realities of venture capital funding.

1. VC Back-ability and Stage-Specific Goals:

Understanding what investors / VCs look for at various funding stages is critical. Early on, they may focus on market potential and team capability, while later stages may demand clear paths to profitability and scaling. Your financial model should reflect these stage-specific expectations, showcasing your startup's potential to meet and exceed these benchmarks.

Read more

🌟 Why Does This Slide Matter?

IMO this is a waste of a slide, it goes on your cover, in your traction, GTM and financials slide, thats it.
The conventional wisdom might suggest devoting an entire slide to detailing your business model. However, a more nuanced and integrated approach proves more effective in conveying your business's value proposition and operational strategy without segmenting crucial information. Another really important factor is to understand what “Business Model” means.



🤷🏼‍♂️ What the pro templates say!

Now that’s a solid guiding light for founders 🤯

🔎 Understanding the Landscape of Business Models

Business models are not one-size-fits-all. While terms like B2B (Business-to-Business) and B2C (Business-to-Consumer) describe who a company sells to, they don’t fully define how a business makes money. Similarly, SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) describes the nature of the product or service, but not necessarily how revenue is generated. The true essence of a business model lies in how a company creates, delivers, and captures value—essentially, how it makes money.

The landscape of business models is broad, encompassing various approaches like subscription-based models, pay-as-you-go, and freemium strategies. Understanding these different models is essential because they directly impact a startup's ability to thrive or fail. Let’s clarify the aspects of a business model to ensure we’re on the same page about how businesses generate revenue and sustain themselves.

⭐️ Business Models vs. Customer Segments, some examples.

Business Models

• Subscription: Recurring fee for access to software or services (e.g., Salesforce, Netflix).

• Freemium: Basic features are free, premium features are paid (e.g., Spotify, Dropbox).

• Marketplace: Platform connecting buyers and sellers, usually with transaction fees (e.g., Airbnb, Uber).

• Advertising: Free services monetised through advertisements (e.g., Google, Facebook).

• Pay-As-You-Go: Customers pay based on usage (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud).

• API-as-a-Product: Monetising access to software/data through APIs (e.g., Stripe, Twilio).

• Open Source: Free core product with monetised support/services or premium features (e.g., Red Hat, MongoDB).

➡️ These business models describe how a company generates revenue, focusing on the mechanics of income generation.

⭐️ Customer Segments

• B2B (Business-to-Business): Selling products/services to other businesses (e.g., Salesforce, Slack).

• B2C (Business-to-Consumer): Selling directly to individual consumers (e.g., Netflix, Spotify).

• B2B2C (Business-to-Business-to-Consumer): Selling to businesses that, in turn, serve consumers (e.g., Shopify).

• D2C (Direct-to-Consumer): Manufacturers selling directly to consumers without intermediaries (e.g., Apple, Tesla).

• Enterprise: Targeting large corporations with specialised products/services (e.g., Oracle, SAP).

• SMB (Small and Medium Businesses): Focusing on smaller companies (e.g., QuickBooks, Mailchimp).

➡️ These customer segments describe who the company sells to, not how it generates revenue.

Clarifying the List

• Revenue Models: The specific method of making money, which could be any of the business models listed above (e.g., subscription, transaction fees).

• Distribution Channels: How products/services reach customers (e.g., app stores, direct sales).

• Value Propositions: The unique benefits that make a product/service attractive to customers (e.g., time-saving, cost-effective solutions).

• Key Resources: Critical assets necessary for the business to operate (e.g., proprietary technology, user data).

• Key Activities: Essential tasks that the business must perform to deliver its product/service (e.g., software development, customer support).

• Key Partnerships: Important external relationships that support the business (e.g., cloud providers, payment processors).

Key Takeaway

Read more

🌟 Why Does This Slide Matter?

The competition slide is the space in your deck to illuminate the overlooked gaps in the market. This slide should crystallise your competitive edge and be firmly tied with your entire story, your solution, your GTM, your roadmap. Again, this is to amplify your Value prop. and not just some adhoc list that says little to nothing.
Some of the most interesting things I see when pointed to a list of competitors are how much better they are at messaging their VP… and that is why this is such a key slide to get right.



🤷🏼‍♂️ What the pro templates say!

These are so convoluted 🤯 and have led to this…

Which can just be ripped up because this format it is so weak and litrally useless.

Writing a compelling competitive landscape slide is a perennial challenge. It's not just another slide; it's a bit of a litmus test that can make your pitch. Standard visual aids, like quadrant diagrams or tick-and-cross feature lists, have become so cliché that they often fail to engage investors in any meaningful way. They usually come off as self-serving, leaving investors to roll their eyes at yet another founder who thinks they've "disrupted" something.

So, what are investors really looking for? In essence, they need clarity on three key aspects:

• Differentiation

• Unique value proposition

• Defensibility

It's not merely about demonstrating that you understand your market and competition; it's about showcasing why your solution is 10x better, faster, cheaper. Investors need to see that you're not just better but different in a way that matters. This is where your 'unfair advantage' comes in, whether that's proprietary technology, an innovative go-to-market strategy, or an unparalleled understanding of customer needs. And it has to be easy to grasp—no mental gymnastics allowed.

Your competitive landscape slide should tell a cohesive story that integrates these elements, tying them back to your overall business model and market strategy. It's your opportunity to provide a 360-degree view that's reinforced with hard data and market insights, solidifying the notion that you're bringing a special solution to an untapped market.

Investors are in it to make money, plain and simple. In a venture landscape where many startups fail, your competition slide needs to do more than just impress; it has to convince. It needs to de-risk the investment by showing your startup is designed for both scale and long-term sustainability.

To sum up, your competitive landscape slide is far more than just a box to check off. It's a strategic tool for validating your startup's potential. When put together thoughtfully, this slide does more than capture attention; it earns you credibility and potentially opens the doors to investment. Use it wisely.

Read more

🚀🎯 Traction / Go to Market

This is probably the most important slide in your deck to convince investors that you are doing the right things, in the right market to make them want to invest. It is a display that aims to de-risk the opportunity with tangible evidence.

🤷🏼‍♂️ What the templates say!

Honestly, these templates are pretty generic and don't provide a solid guide. Everyone's business is different, so a one-size-fits-all template doesn't work. They all say the same things without really saying much, as if they don’t even know what they’re looking for. While the templates offer a starting point, they're pretty much useless unless they really reflect your business. Make it personal, relevant, and uniquely yours... Let me show you how.

📈 GTM Strategy

A Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy is often mistakenly narrowed down to just marketing or branding. It's crucial to understand that while marketing and branding are integral parts, the GTM strategy encompasses far more—it’s the overarching plan that includes strategy, process, and the mechanics of introducing your product to the market. This strategy begins on day one of your startup and is a continuous action plan that adapts and evolves with your business.

🔄 Continuous GTM

The GTM strategy is a foundational, ever-evolving aspect of your business operations, integrating not only how you communicate with your market (marketing) but also how you deliver your product (sales tactics) and create customer experiences (service design) to achieve sustainable growth.

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🔄⚙️ How it works

Lets take a look at what the experts say:

Describe the User Experience: Detail the user's interaction with the product in a clear and straightforward manner.

Explain the Technology: Offer insight into the technology behind the product, focusing on user-relevant aspects.

Illustrate in Steps: Break down the product functionality or user experience into clear, logical steps that are easy to follow.

Highlight the Unique Element: Clearly convey what makes your product unique ('the underlying magic' or 'secret sauce').

Utilise Visuals: Use diagrams, schematics, and flowcharts to visually communicate how the product works, which can often be more effective and engaging than text.

No wonder so many get it so wrong

🤷🏼‍♂️ What the templates say!

🧐 The Misconception

The common misconception about the 'How it Works' slide is founders often think it is a place to talk about how clever what they have built is, sometimes going into the technicalities of an algorithm and engineering. Or showing 20 screenshots or a 5 minute demo video of the user journey. These are focusing on totally the wrong things that the purpose of a pitch deck needs to achieve, outcomes. All of the above will only become relevant if you manage to get to the next meeting and into diligence, and that is the only objective of a Pitch deck.

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🌍🛒 Market Size

The market size slide in a pitch deck is one that has become 3 generic TAM, SAM, SOM circles with bigger numbers and gives little value. Whereas it can be one of the most enticing slides that has the power to tie together many aspects of why your opportunity is a great one.

🤷🏼‍♂️ What the templates say!

🔌❌ The Disconnect Issue

A chasm between TAM and SOM without a strategic narrative can raise red flags for investors. Imagine a $100 billion TAM followed by a mere $250k SOM for year one – or $10 billion when you conquer the world, it lacks coherence and could be perceived as naivety or over-ambition.

✅🔝 The Bottom-Up Approach:

A Non-Negotiable 1st thing, it has to always be a bottom up approach. This approach ensures you're grounded in tangible metrics and real-world scenarios, rather than finger in the air generalisations. Now bear in mind that the investor understands the problem, the audience and the solution plus benefits. What you now need to display is the size of the opportunity as you grow and reach new markets and new customers. It is not how much money you can make but the size of the pie you are eating from.

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The "Why Now" slide in your pitch deck is your stage to make a case for what you have seen that no one else has. If that is not apparent then you either need to dig deeper or drop the slide, better than filling it up with some generic points for the sake of it.

Only Sequoia have a “Why now” slide in their template, and it is a great question….


❓ 'Why Now' Understanding the Question

When investors ask, "Why hasn’t your solution been built before now?" they're probing for unique insights. They're not interested with vague notions about market growth or technological trends. They're seeking the specific catalyst – technological, regulatory, or market-based – that has uniquely positioned your startup for success at this very moment.
It needs to be an answer that they just would not know.

Here's how to nail your "Why Now" slide:

➡️ Identify the Unique Market Gap: What overlooked opportunity have you discovered? This is about highlighting your unique market understanding.

➡️ Articulate the Specific Timing: Detail why this particular moment is crucial. Have recent technological advancements, consumer behaviours, regulatory changes, or economic shifts created a unique opportunity?

➡️ Present Data and Evidence: Support your argument with concrete data and real examples.

This is more than just numbers; it's about a narrative grounded in reality.

• What is Your Unique Position?

• Why is your solution necessary right now?

• What sets your team apart in seizing this moment?

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👩🏼‍💻👨🏻‍💻👩🏽‍💻👨🏾‍💻 Team

I have always found the generic advice on this a total contradiction to the overarching advice of keep it short. I mean seriously, tell the story or compile a massive list. All generic blah and I just don’t find it the right steer at all. What is the object of this slide for early stage founders and how do we get this across to investors.

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🤷🏼‍♂️ What, Like this?

Or like this?

⛔️ NO NEVER

That is where generic paint by numbers consensus noise gets you, and it is miles away from what is actually needed to clinch the next meeting.

In the early stages, the team slide is really important because concrete data is limited and it's truly all about you. While some debate including advisors or investors, you should, but only feature them if they genuinely enhance your narrative, not just merely for appearances.

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💡🔧 The Solution Slide

Now that you have meticulously put together your problem slide, it is time to focus on presenting the solution with the same clarity and impact. Here, you need to articulate how your approach addresses the gaps highlighted earlier, readying the audience for a solution that exceeds expectations. This is where insights become actions and show unique value and necessity of your solution.

But let's start this off with a little list of things I have seen that we are going to make sure you avoid.

⚠️ Vagueness.

Many founders struggle to articulate their solution in clear, specific terms. Instead of delving into the unique aspects they resort to broad, generic statements.

⚠️ Lack of Focus on the Problem:

Some founders do not adequately tie their solution back to the problem they're addressing. This disconnect makes it hard for the audience to see the solution's value and relevance.

⚠️ Overemphasis on Features Over Benefits:

Founders often get caught up in describing the features of their product or service rather than focusing on the benefits it offers to the user.

⚠️ Complex Jargon:

Use of technical language or industry-specific jargon will alienate parts of the audience, especially if they're not familiar with the terminology.

⚠️ Failure to Differentiate:

A weak solution slide may not effectively communicate how the solution is different from and better than existing alternatives. This differentiation is crucial in convincing investors.

⚠️ Skipping the Impact Evidence:

Some founders overlook the inclusion of data or evidence that demonstrates the effectiveness of their solution.

⚠️ Ignoring the Audience's Needs and Expectations:

A common mistake is not making he solution slide to the specific interests, knowledge level, and concerns of the audience.

WHO WHAT HOW

💡🔄 The Niche Solution Cycle

The Niche Solution Cycle is an effective way to deeply understand and articulate a specific solution to a targeted problem. It is the way to make the solution well thought out closely aligned with the problem and needs of a particular audience.

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❗🌱 Problem / Origin

Way too many of us concentrate on the overarching problems that can be universally attributed to literally any business, efficiency, cost and speed . These are all correct and are the only things that can be changed up. But why is it a problem?. If a market has a gazillion dollar value then I would argue that it does not have any problems per se, it seems to be working just fine.
The problem identification needs to be more specific then just these overarching statements, resorting to clichés that can be dismissed as trivial or mere inconveniences, especially in a highly lucrative market can be simply seen as characteristics of the market rather than obstacles to success.

So here is what the pros say. I get what they mean but between them the messages are so convoluted it is no wonder that founders resort to shoehorning everything into a few generic overarching statements.

Why 100+ rejections over 3 years ?

We have all read the story about it taking Melanie Perkins 100+ rejections over 3 years to raise for Canva. Now there are two things that come out here;
1. Resilience when it is a great idea will win through somehow.
2. Maybe the rejections were down to the 104 words used in just the problem slide.

Don’t get me wrong it hits a lot of great points, but investors are not going to read a novel.
There are a few other points that come to mind when reading it, it tries to cover and justify every point and has a negative tone . Terms like "file incompatibility" and "font embedding" are jargon. The figure "$138.4 billion" is striking, but it's not immediately clear how it relates to the problem.

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🖼️🤫 The slides you’ll need, a teaser?

Love them or hate them they do serve a purpose. A teaser is designed to pique interest and secure a meeting with potential investors without overwhelming them with information. Giving just the right amount of information that secures a meeting is an art. A teaser is the amuse-bouche of pitching, it is the last thing you write and should be used for casual requests from unverified investors.
Thinking of the best ways to deliver this should be a really fun experience.

The Teaser.

Teasers can be seen as a waste of time and that is understandable; not everyone appreciates them. They can be seen as too vague or a needless step in the fundraising process.

However, they serve a strategic purpose in creating interest and leading to more substantive discussions.

Positives of using a teaser:

1. Conciseness: It conveys the core message quickly and invites further conversation.

2. Engagement: It's a hook that can intrigue investors to learn more.

3. Flexibility: It's useful for casual encounters where a full pitch isn't appropriate.

4. Focus: It forces the startup to distill their value proposition to its essence.

5. Efficiency: It can be a time-saver for both the startup and the investor, acting as a filter to gauge initial interest.

When to use a teaser:

• Initial Contacts: When you're making first contact with potential investors.

• Networking Events: At events where time is limited and you need to communicate quickly.

• Follow-ups: As a follow-up to an initial conversation that warrants more details.

• Online Pitches: When pitching through online platforms where attention spans are short.
  

Now let’s get into your Pitch deck 👏🏼

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