pitching advice

It’s a rare startup that tears down its own pitch deck, but that’s exactly what Equals did after it raised a $16 million Series A round. Equals’ mission is not to replace the spreadsheet, but to ensure that a spreadsheet can do whatever its users throw at it. As an inveterate spreadsheet user, this is an approach that I can get behind — I’ve built entire software solutions with extremely complex spreadsheets as the back end. Furthermore, as a pitch deck connoisseur, I can also get behind the bright and bold design of…

Only 7% of founders have a pitch deck with a reasonably good go-to-market (GTM) narrative. Given that a lot of founders are raising money to acquire new customers, allow me to put words to what that means: It’s an absolute embarrassment. The vast majority of slide decks barely qualify to be called even a coherent brainstorm. As an investor, when I’m looking at such a deck, I despair. Why should I give you $5 million when you clearly haven’t the foggiest clue how you’re going to deploy that money…

Originally a Facebook group started during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 that people used to cook healthy meals for others nearby, HomeCooks has now evolved into a comprehensive marketplace for chefs. It facilitates the entire process for its chefs, from cooking to delivery, and offers over 200 meal options. The company recently raised $3.2 million in crowdfunding on Seedrs. Positioning itself as the “Etsy of food,” HomeCooks has grown rapidly and today serves around 7,000 customers. Let’s look…