How to Build Your Pitch Deck to Raise Money in 13 Slides with Brandon White: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Content is Profits. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down how to build your pitch deck to raise money in 13 slides. To drop these value bombs, I have brought Brandon White into EO Fire Studios. Brandon is an entrepreneur with two exits so far, an angel investor and a former VC in management and marketing at AOL. Currently, he hosts Build a business success secrets podcast.

0:36And today's value bombs, Fire Nation, is when you make a pitch, make sure that your story is concise and easy to understand, spend two, three minutes per slide, set a timer for yourself. And if you're going to raise money, be prepared with your 13 slides and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Brandon and our sponsors. Imperfect Action, hosted by Steph Taylor, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Imperfect Action is a bite-sized online marketing podcast for business owners who want to get straight to the point.

1:08Join Steph Taylor as she answers all your business marketing questions. Recent episodes include five must-knows to sell your online course, program, or membership, and four steps to grow your email list for your next launch. Listen to Imperfect Action wherever you get your podcasts. Brandon, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with? What's up, Fire Nation? One of the things that I think most people think is that building a business takes these large movements. And one of my mentors who's really successful once told me, which I didn't believe at the time, which is just do one small thing every single day towards your goal.

1:55And after a week, you'll be uncommon. after a month, you'll be really special. And after a year, you and your business will be remarkable. And it turned out that way for me. So most people don't believe it, but it's really just one small little thing every day and do it every day. I don't always agree with my guests when they share this. In this case though, I do have to say a hundred percent. There's two books that I always recommend that really put me in that mindset, Brandon, The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson and The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. And it really just gave me this relief of being like, you know what, I can do the small things right every day and just 1 % better every day.

2:40And it's really going to add up to massive impact over time. And then, you know, here you and I are a decade later, 3000 episodes later, a hundred million listens later. And it all started from doing one episode, one time, one day, and then just doing it again the next day. So that really can add up Fire Nation. And as I shared, we're going to be talking about how to build your pitch deck to raise money in just 13 slides. And Brandon's going to be breaking this down for us. But before we do, I want to get into a little bit of a backstory with you, Brandon, because you have a pretty interesting story about your first money raising experience.

3:19Yeah. So when I started, it was 22 years ago. And I started, which became the largest social networking site for sport fishermen on the internet of all things. But I had no idea how to raise money. I had an idea to build a magazine. I had like$800 in my bank account. I was working on my master's in psychology. And I decided after reading, and this may, hopefully you're the fire nation listeners are old enough to remember a thing called time magazine. And in the beginning of time magazine, they used to have these little write-ups and it would be innovative people doing cool things, a lot of entrepreneurs and stuff, startups.

4:02And it had an article that said that David, um, Jerry Filo and David Yang, the founders of Yahoo had just raised, I think it was$1.7 million from Sequoia capital and that they were going to build this thing, which was the yellow pages of the internet. So I read that and I was like, well, if they can do it, I can do it. So I got a business plan book from Barnes and Noble or Borders. My now wife and I drove in her Acura, Tegra to Annapolis, Maryland, bought this book. And I actually just started reaching out to people. I had read an article in my alumni magazine of a guy who had graduated, who I knew was a senior when I was a freshman.

4:47And it said that he was doing investing and I had reached out to him and ultimately he didn't invest right away. He made an introduction to a guy and he said, look, I know you're sort of private. Um, you know, do I have permission to send your email to this guy? And I was like, well, if he wants to potentially invest, sure. So I get an email four hours later and it says, Hey, I'm Tom. I'm from a venture capital firm called Sequoia Capital. I'd like to see you tomorrow. Well, here's a little bit more to this story. So between that time, I actually had packaged up, because I had no idea how to raise money, a business plan, which back in those days, you wrote like these 50-page business plans, which was crazy.

5:32And FedExed it to Sequoia Capital only because I had read in Time Magazine that they were the best venture capital firm in the world. world. And, um, so I write back because I don't actually believe this. I said, um, yeah, sure. Uh, six 20 South street, Easton, Maryland. Um, love to see you. And the next day he showed up and knocked on my door. So my wife and I lived in a very, very small house for many, many years, which, uh, I think was life was a lot simpler. It was 1400 square foot house. And he walked in and he looks around and he's like, is this all you got? And I was like, well, my office is in my spare bedroom upstairs.

6:17Come on up. So we walk upstairs and he looks around. He's like, is this really it? I was like, yeah, this is really it. My partner has a spare bedroom down the road that we can go to, but like, this is it. I said, if you came here for more. I'm really sorry. He's like, be quiet. This is how we found Cisco. So we had lunch, we did the business plan on the back of a placemat. I was like, Hey, do you want to go fishing? Cause he was a big fisherman and actually had been using the site for a long time. He's like, yeah. So we went fishing, had a great time on the way back. He asked me how we were funding the company.

6:59And the truth is, John, we were trading stocks to fund the company. We were getting some money from building webpages, but we literally were, my partner and I, trading stocks to raise money for the company. And I was like, well, usually we have like 7 ,000, sometimes we have 15, just depends on how the market did. And he said, what does that mean? and I told him and he just kept quiet. He was writing something and he handed over a check for $50 ,000. He's like, let's go. And that was literally my first money raising experience. Wow. I mean, Fire Nation, think about that. You know, talk about humble beginnings and I actually truly resonate with you when you said, you know, sometimes life might've been a little simpler back in the 1400 square foot days.

7:48I mean, I think back to my 384 square foot studio apartment, one block from the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, California. And man, I sometimes miss that place so much, it almost hurts. And you know, listen, I'm not complaining. I love my house here. But when you have 5 ,250 square feet, when you have six bathrooms, five bedrooms, you know, all the things in the world, there's always something that's going wrong. And as I was like, oh, you have a great house. It's like, yeah, but it's always taking my energy, my time, my bandwidth. Nothing was ever wrong with my 384 square foot studio. I loved that thing for all the reasons.

8:27So, Brandon, I resonate with you there, brother. And let's get into the meats and potatoes of this episode because you came up with something pretty revolutionary. You came up with 13 slides, specifically how to build your pitch deck to actually raise money in just 13 slides? Because I like to say, listen, so many people are just doing things wrong. And here you are coming and saying, this is how to do something right. So listen up, Fire Nation. Brandon, take it away. I came up with this through a bunch of experience. One trial and error. I've done a few companies. I've raised a lot of money for those companies.

9:04I was a venture capitalist, actually. I worked for two venture firms managing total about half a billion dollars. And from trial and error, I said, what really works, what doesn't work? And then I also studied, and I think this is important for Fire Nation, I looked at what the quote unquote pros said. So I looked at Guy Kawasaki, I looked at Peter Thiel, I looked at Sequoia Capital. And then I added, I'm a, John, I'm a, I don't know about you, but I'm a Bruce Lee guy, you can do. So absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own. So I came up with this 13 slides because from seeing pitches, from pitching myself and it working, it just so happened to work.

9:49And a few other parameters here. If you are pitching or when you are pitching either an angel investor, a venture capitalist, friends and family, anybody, You are generally going to have about a 50-minute meeting. Now, they'll schedule an hour, but you got to figure that it's going to go 50 minutes and people are going to start wrapping up. So you got to have your story done. 13 slides, that gives you two and a half minutes a slide, and you want to get through that deck as fast as possible so that you can get to the real questions that they're going to ask you. The other thing is that it forces you ultimately to make your story, which is what you're telling, really concise and simple to understand.

10:37If it is complicated, you're just not going to get through. And what a lot of people who pitch, entrepreneurs who pitch out there don't realize is that you are one of multiple meetings of the day, of the week, of the stack of business plans that are on these desks or get sent in. It's much more sophisticated, I think, than when I started because of technology with a lot of the big firms and even angel investors or angel groups. But you're going to have to make yourself stand out. And if it's not simple to understand what problem you are solving, what your solution does, and how you're going to scale that company, then investors are going to get lost.

11:23They're going to glaze their eyes over. And they're just going to move to the next one. and you could say, well, they're going to miss a billion dollar opportunity, maybe, but there's a bunch of billion opportunities in that queue. So you've got to make yourself stand out. And usually if you can make it simple and concise, you will stand out. Now, Fire Nation, I'm a big believer in the quote, success leaves clues. Why would we not learn from people who have had success who have come before us? I mean, the answer is I hope you are, and I hope you will. And of course, that's why you listen to a podcast like this, because you're the type of person who does understand that success leaves clues, who learns from the guests to come on and share their knowledge, their expertise, their ability to absolutely dominate one area in life.

12:10And this can be a make or break one opportunity. You know, this is a, this is, this is your opportunity to actually get something that you want that you need. And you only have that first time to make a first impression. So if you do it right, you could be walking on that door with something. You do it wrong. Not only may you be walking out that door with nothing, but hey, listen, VC, they talk, they talk to each other. And you definitely don't want to have a stink around your business just because you can't put together an impressive deck. So why 13, Brandon? There's 13 original colonies. I think there's 13 weeds on the back of the dollar bill.

12:49I'm kidding. It just turned out that way. It turned out that what you're really doing here is telling a story. And in order to tell that story, it came up for 13 slides. Would it be okay if I went through just quickly? Yeah, rip the door, brother. You're going to have a title with your elevator pitch. Your elevator pitch needs to be, an elevator pitch needs to be 30 seconds. Can you just give us like a quick example of an elevator pitch that you really like? we help you find files you know you have but can't find faster boom it can be that simple fire nation so go ahead and by the way just for fire nation out there i rattle that off because it's one of the companies that i'm an investor in called file finder but that took that piece right there took probably seven months wow that's just true so i'm just saying the iterations that you have to go through.

13:44You just can't sit down. Like it comes to you. I think you understand that. You know that as well as anyone, John, right? Totally. It happens that way. So get your elevator pitch done. Then your problem, your solution, your product, your market, your business model, your traction and or goals if you're early, your competition, your barriers to entry, or what I like to call your moat, your financials, your team funds needed and how you're going to use them and your summary slide. And the summary slide is the magic slide that I really came up with. I don't want to ruin it for too many people, but I'll drop that for your Fire Nation is that that summary slide is your key points that you leave up there when you keep talking, because people forget what you said earlier.

14:36And this is a reminder. And it was something that just happened. It clicked for me in a meeting with a very large VC firm when I was pitching. And I realized that people couldn't remember. So I picked out the key points. I put that on the summary slide and I leave that slide up there for the rest of the discussion. And it's a reference for them. It's also a reference for your or our team to go up there and remember what we did. So why 13 Fire Nation? Because it's 13. Like you don't need to question everything. Like people are always like, John, like why is your roadmap in the common path to uncommon success?

15:15Why is it a 17 step roadmap? Like why didn't you go with like 10 or 20? Those are just such more round numbers. I'm like, it's because there's 17 core foundational principles that over 3 ,000 successful entrepreneurs share. That's why it's 17. It's a 17 step roadmap because there are 17 core foundational principles, not 18, not 16, 17. So again, success leaves clues, Fire Nation. And when we get back, Brandon's gonna be sharing the top three questions angels or VCs will ask. If you're a startup with big goals, then it's important to find a CRM that can keep up, but I get it. When you're in startup mode, it can be tough to know which platform is right for you and your business.

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16:29To see if you're eligible to join the HubSpot for Startups program and take your growth to the next level, visit hubspot.com slash startups. This isn't the first time and definitely won't be the last. You hear me talk about how important health and fitness are. And for me, nutrition is a huge part of that. So in addition to eating real whole foods, I take supplements to make sure I'm fueling my body with the right nutrients. And one supplement you should definitely check out is Field of Greens. Just one scoop a day and you'll be getting in loads of fruits, veggies, herbs, and spices all at once.

17:03Field of Greens tastes great and I'm feeling more energized and my hair and skin are loving it. This is nutrition the way nature intended. Field of Greens is radically different. Each organic fruit and vegetable was medically chosen to support heart and vital organ health. You're going to love this product. But if for any reason you don't, they're offering a 100 % money-back guarantee, plus I got you 15 % off your first order and free rush shipping. Visit fieldofgreens.com and use promo code FIRE. That's promo code FIRE at fieldofgreens.com. Fieldofgreens.com. Brandon, we're back, and what the heck are those three questions?

17:42What are the top three questions angels or VCs will ask? So here's the questions that I ask as an angel investor and that I've experienced over two decades. Usually we'll get asked, what traction do you have? And what that question really is, is in today's world, they're looking for sales. A lot of things have progressed in the way of angel investing and venture capital. And people are actually looking for success. So if you just have an idea, you probably want to go to your friends and family that you still want this pitch deck. but they're probably not going to be as pressing. But what investors really look for is, do you address a problem and that's painful enough that your solution is something that people are willing to pay for?

18:30And ultimately, that's really what's loaded in that question. Now, if you're raising money and you're a little bit further down the road, they're going to be asking that traction to look for your KPIs and to see if you understand the repeatable process so that when you hire arguably senior management, you have a process that they can replicate. So that's the first question and sort of the behind the scenes why they're asking that question. The second question I think will be about the team. Usually if you're raising money in the early stages, you're betting on the people, not necessarily the idea.

19:10There's so many examples out there and you've, over all the interviews you've done, I've listened to, there's plenty of entrepreneurs that have said, you know, I started with this idea and I wound up moving to this idea. So it's really, is that, what is the personality of that person and what is the openness of that person to be able to pivot? Some entrepreneurs I've seen die with their business idea because they just won't move off. They, they continue to say, this is it, this is it, this is it. When the market's saying, no, it's not it. And so the question is, are they willing to listen to the market?

19:47And then of course, do they have background? But, but I would say that there's plenty of examples that people didn't have that background and were still wildly successful because of these other traits. So they're really going to be looking at the founder, founders, and the supporting team. And also, I don't say it's a trick question, but a question that is in that question is, do you understand your weak points in your team so you can identify the people that you need to go get immediately with whatever funds you're raising? And then number three, they're going to ask, in my opinion, at least what I ask for is your financials and to walk me through your financials.

20:30And it is not because anybody believes those financials predictions, unless you're further down the road in a later stage financing, are actually correct or not. It's do you understand the approach that you're going to be taking your business down down that journey? So have you thought through these things? Have you thought through your marketing tab so that you understand your customer acquisition costs and how about that, what your customer lifetime value is and how that flows into your cash flow and what your receivables are going to be. If you're an internet company or an online company, you're probably going to get your money relatively quickly, although that's a misconception because what I'm looking for is if you're doing an e-commerce company or any sort of company where you're taking large volume of transactions online, is payment processors are going to hold your money back.

21:23Do you understand that? And have you allowed for that in your cash flow? And that's where a lot of people get caught up. So these are the types of questions that the financials answer. Do you understand that if you pay someone$125 ,000 a year, that your total load on that person is probably$150 ,000? Because if you just do$125 ,000 at the end of the year, you're going to fall short or on a monthly basis. So those are really the three questions. And in my opinion, why, or at least why I ask and why I've seen a lot of VCs and investors ask those questions. Wow. You are getting a masterclass, Fire Nation, that you need to be going through step by step if you are going to be in front of angels or VCs at any point in the future.

22:08I really hope you're taking all of these to heart. I mean, I love that tricky question that Brandon brought up. What are your weak points and who do you need to hire to address those weak points? I mean, just think about that. Like you need to have answers for that because people want to know that you are prepared. We're going to be in the room with the VCs, with the angels. You know, we have these 13 slides. How long do we have to get through these? In general, you should plan for a 50 minute meeting. They'll schedule an hour, but those last 10 minutes are going to be either follow up or they're going to wrap up.

22:43And the VCs actually, or the angels or any of us quite candidly, even entrepreneurs, we need to get to that next meeting. So you're going to have 50 minutes, but you're really only going to have or want to allocate two or three minutes per slide to be able to get through. So when you practice and practice is key, I practice with an hourglass. You can buy them on Amazon for like three bucks and I will turn that hourglass over. There's plenty of apps you could get on your phone as well. I think the iPhone has one, but you need to time yourself and you need to be able to get through this as quickly as possible.

23:18If they interrupt you, that's fine, but you're going to have to get back on track. So you should be able to do that slide deck almost out of memory and you should not have a wall of words up there. It really should only be logos, pictures, and very large font so that it is easy to understand. And the other tip I'll give people is that you don't want people to read your slide. I mean, this is for all presentations, but especially when you're pitching for money, you want them to be listening to you. So don't put a lot of stuff on your slide. So they have to pay attention to you. And then you can probably get through this thing in less than 30 minutes and leave time for discussion.

24:02G-O-L-D, Gold Fire Nation. But Brandon, let's be honest. Do we actually need full financials? If you have multiple exits with companies that you started, built, and sold, investors will probably forgive you. If you don't, then I would suggest that they're going to ask for some level of financials. Now, I will admit that I get down into the nitty gritty mainly because I know I got, I don't know a few hundred scars on my back from the last two decades of mistakes I've made and I know that you're going to need to understand those marketing dynamics and those metrics and how that feeds your pnl and your receivables and all these things will they want that level of detail I can't say all of them will but they all will want some level of financials mainly to understand either either if you and or your team member that you have recruited or is a co-founder can fill that gap.

25:04Because if they're going to write a check to you, they're going to want to make sure that that just doesn't get wasted. Fire Nation, I really hope you're taking away the gold that brand is putting down here because this is the type of thing that you're going to go in. You're going to have an opportunity to absolutely crush it by doing just even the small things right. I mean, not having a wall of words. Like I love that phrase. Think about that. Do you really want people squinting and leaning in and trying to read things on a PowerPoint slide behind you instead of like listening to your voice that you hopefully really practiced and prepared for.

25:36I mean, Brandon, you gave us so much value within this entire episode. What do you wanna make sure Fire Nation really gets from everything you talked about today? If you're gonna raise money, be prepared with your 13 slides. I do have an ebook for everybody if they want it. I've outlined these slides in a little bit more detail. Entrepreneurs always go into investor meetings with this idea that they've got this checkbook and that we have to answer every question and that we're on trial, so to speak here. But they're on trial too. Don't forget that when you get a check, you're getting married. So do your research on your investor and that way you'll know that there's a match.

26:18And quite candidly, they'll actually be impressed that you've done the research and spent the time. Spend the time, Fire Nation. Do the research. which impress the angels, impress the VCs. Now, Brandon, thank you for that final takeaway. It was awesome, as always. How can we connect with you to learn more about what you have going on? You mentioned an amazing giveaway for Fire Nation. What's the call to action to that? And then we'll say goodbye. I have a 42-page ebook on these 13 slides and want one in them for Fire Nation. If you go to Brandon C. White forward slash fire, all in lowercase, you can grab that ebook and be on your way to raise the money for your business.

27:04Everybody's going to need to raise money for their business at some point if you're growing fast. And Fire Nation, we want you growing fast. And one more time, Brandon, that was brandoncwhite.com slash fire. That's right. brandoncwhite.com forward slash fire. So that's Brandon with an O, Fire Nation, B-R-A-N-D-O-N, C as in the letter C, white.com slash fire. And Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with, and you have been hanging out with B-dubs and J-L-D today. So let's keep up that heat. Head over to eofire.com, type Brandon in the search bar. The show notes page will pop up with everything that we've talked about here today.

27:46Best show notes in the biz, timestamps, links galore. brandoncwhite.com slash fire is your direct call to action to that amazing 42 page ebook Brandon is offering for you. And Brandon, thank you brother for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your fire with fire nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks, John. It was awesome. Hey, fire nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Brandon and fire nation over the last decade. I have interviewed over 3000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs. And I've created a revolutionary 17 step roadmap for your financial freedom and your fulfillment.