Reid Hoffman says: You have the most attention from investors in the first 60 seconds of your pitch, so how you begin is incredibly important. One common mistake is putting the team slide early in the deck. The team behind your idea is critical, but don’t open with that. Instead, open with the investment thesis. Mark Suster says: Because management is so important I always tell people to make the bio slide the first in your deck. If you have good experience then the VC will be leaning forward for the rest of the presentation. If you save the punch line that you’re from the industry, did CS at MIT, worked for 3 startups, whatever, then they don’t have that powerful knowledge as part of their evaluation set. Who is right? I usually tell clients to start with the team slide if they have notable backgrounds, exits or unique experience that strengthens the credibility. If you are a young, inexperienced team, put it later on, after the business info.
