From serial entrepreneur to VC and now author, Bill Reichert of Pegasus Tech Ventures talks about the guide he co-wrote for landing VC investment.
Bill Reichert started his entrepreneurial career in Silicon Valley as a graduate student at Stanford University. After founding Garage Technology Ventures, the first VC firm to accept pitches over the Internet, he became a regular speaker and pitch judge at events. One day, a contact called him up to invite him to such an event and he accidentally let out a groan. He said: “You know I really want to try to help these entrepreneurs but somehow, we’re messing them up. These pitches are horrible!”
The phone call gave Reichert the impetus to figure out what was wrong with how they were teaching entrepreneurs to pitch. “I had a couple of epiphanies in the process of doing that,” he recalls.
The Wow Factor
The belief at the time was that the secret to a good pitch was a data-packed pitch deck, complete with competitive analysis, and “56 slides later, you make the point that the success of your company is inevitable,” he laughs.
But then he studied other VCs and realised that the difference between a captive VC and an uninterested one was linked to a “wow” factor, “some trigger that made their heart beat faster.” He compares the reaction to falling in love. The realisation hit that VCs did not invest with their brains, but with their hearts. “It ain’t about team, it ain’t about technology, it ain’t about the market. It’s about having a compelling value proposition,” says Reichert.
This was the slide that was missing from most pitch deck templates. This realisation was the origin of a new way of teaching pitching, dubbed “Getting To Wow”. Eventually, Angelika Blendstrup, a VC partner with SV LATAM FUND and part of the 500 Global group, convinced Reichert to put their combined learning into a book.
“Between the two of us, we had access to lots of pitch decks. Her big idea was to find the best slides for every nuance of a pitch deck, critique those slides and create a workshop around each topic,” says Reichert.
Wow In 3 Steps
“Getting to Wow, Silicon Valley Pitch Secrets For Entrepreneurs” was published in November 2020. Over 293 pages, the book exposes the secrets of distilling that “Wow” in three broad sections: connecting with a VC, pitching and then what Reichert calls “inquisition”.
Reichert found that most entrepreneurs do not communicate clearly or effectively when talking about their work. The book drills into readers that they must be clear about what their company does and present it in a short and succinct way, on the understanding that most VCs have little time.
“You can’t use a 60-second elevator pitch while standing in line for lunch at a trade show,” Reichert points out. “They’re not going to put up with it,” he says.
He moots the idea of a 20-30-second pitch, that can be delivered easily in a conversation, a proposition that offers a compelling value proposition and convinces the VC they are credible.
He says: “Most entrepreneurs are pathologically optimistic, and tend to exaggerate so most VCs do not believe what entrepreneurs are saying on the face of it.” And the pitch decks often don’t get a look in. What VCs look at is behaviours in the founder and these can be best detected during the Q&A following a pitch.
“Most entrepreneurs don’t appreciate that their pitch wins or loses not based on the pitch, but based on the Q&A,” the author says. Founders should prepare for the kinds of questions they will receive.
Reichert concludes: “You’ve got to hook them upfront. You’ve got to do a good pitch presentation, and then you’ve got to be good at Q&A.”
It is rare to find a book written by insiders that is so rich and comprehensive in its approach and yet remains accessible for newcomers and anyone just wanting to dip in thanks to the way it is organised. Among the highlights are the pitch templates as well as real-world examples to inspire founders and help them to push through the “wall of fog”.
The book ends on an empowering note with the inquisition chapter. Here the authors set out typical questions investors ask and questions a founder should ask an investor when deciding which investors to work with.
“Getting to Wow, Silicon Valley Pitch Secrets For Entrepreneurs” is available from Amazon and all reputable bookstores.
