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The team at DocSend discovered that more and more successful slide decks have something in common: a very good summary slide. In this article, we will look at a bunch of great examples culled from my TechCrunch Pitch Deck Teardown series and detail what needs to go on the slide.

Why you need a summary slide

As a startup founder, your company should be designed to fail as fast as possible. In other words, if what you are building is impossible, find out as quickly as you can so you can get your life back, drink a cocktail or two and attempt to start another business. A summary slide exists, essentially, to help your fundraising journey fail quickly, resulting in your investor deciding not to invest.

I’m calling it “failure” here, but what we are really doing is preventing you or your would-be investor from wasting time: There’s absolutely no point in landing a meeting and talking their heads off for 45 minutes if it turns out that they would never invest because your company is at the wrong stage.

Your summary slide should include enough of the right information that can help an investor tick the box that says, “Yes, this startup fits with our investment thesis.” Specifically, it helps cement your company in time and place by helping investors figure out how much you are raising, what stage your business is in and well, what the hell your company actually does.

How do you set the stage?

Your summary slide is probably going to be your first or second slide. Many prefer to let the cover slide be pretty minimalist, but it still needs to do a little bit of the lifting. Personally, I like to think of the first two slides of a pitch deck as setting the stage, and by extension, the first two slides, together, create the context for what’s about to happen.

Hook your investors with the perfect summary slide by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

On Thursday, Disney+ launched its first-ever ad-supported plan, “Disney+ Basic,” in the U.S. at $7.99 per month, which is the same price as the previous ad-free plan before Disney raised the price to $10.99/month. However, Roku users wanting to switch to the new plan are out of luck — at least for now.

According toDisney Plus’s support website, the ad-supported tier is “not currently available on Roku devices.” It’s also not available on the Microsoft Windows desktop app, the site informs. So, at the moment, U.S. subscribers with Disney+ Basic or Disney Bundles like Disney Bundle Duo Basic (Disney+ Basic and Hulu’s ad plan) or Trio Basic (Disney+ Basic, Hulu’s ad plan and ESPN+) are unable to stream on Roku or Windows.

Disney told TechCrunch that it is still in talks with Roku about reaching an agreement that suits both parties. It’s our guess that the dispute is over an ad-share agreement as, by default, channels must enter an ad revenue split with Roku. Disney, however, declined to provide specifics. Roku also declined to comment on the negotiations.

Roku has cemented itself as the top smart TV platform in the United States. So, it’s a major disadvantage for Disney+ not to have its new ad-supported tier available on Roku devices at launch.

Netflix ran into a similar problem when it launched its ad-supported plan a month ago.

At the time, Netflix told TechCrunch that, at launch, support for its “Basic with Ads” plan wasn’t available on tvOS devices but would be coming soon. According to Netflix’s support website, it’s still unavailable on Apple TV as well as PlayStation 3 consoles.

Disney+ ad-supported plan is currently unavailable on Roku devices by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

Vanguard announced earlier this week that it was leaving the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, a nascent attempt by the industry to self-regulate its carbon emissions. Its departure reinforces the need for government oversight of climate risks in investments.

Absent legal, financial or professional repercussions, industry self-regulation is often little more than window dressing so members can say they’re doing something, anything.

That’s not to denigrate the work being done by the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, which was formed two years ago and seeks to bring assets under management to net-zero carbon by 2050, preferably earlier. But Vanguard’s flip-flop — it joined a little over a year ago — shows that voluntary associations with non-binding commitments that lack financial or legal repercussions are not the tool we need to hit net-zero by 2050 or before.

Why did Vanguard leave? Fund leadership apparently chickened out because a few states’ attorneys general asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to revoke Vanguard’s ability to buy shares in U.S. utilities, citing membership in NZAM as a reason why. (You can guess which party the attorneys general belong to.)

Vanguard wouldn’t cop to that, of course, instead posting a fantastically anodyne message that’s kind of informative if you squint hard enough. A few lines stand out:

Vanguard has been taking steps to understand and attend to this risk [climate change] to investors’ returns.

That’s fine, I guess, but totally unsubstantiated. Membership in NZAM, while not perfect, was at least a concrete sign that Vanguard understood the problem and planned to do something about the risk that carbon emissions pose to its clients’ money.

So what’s Vanguard doing now? A lot of talking. Its statement on its “approach to climate change” doesn’t contain a single measurable benchmark, just meaningless and unmeasurable aspirations. Ultimate flexibility, zero responsibility.

Pressured by fossil fuel interests, Vanguard decides maybe climate change isn’t a problem after all by Tim De Chant originally published on TechCrunch

Roblox is adding two new ways for people who spend time in its virtual worlds to find old friends and make new ones.

The company announced Friday that it would introduce a contact importer and friend recommendations, two new features designed to connect existing users to each other and to bring new players into its experiences.

The features have long been the the norm elsewhere, but most things about Roblox work quite a bit differently from other social networks and more traditional online games. For one, Roblox serves a much younger demographic, including tens of millions of kids under the age of 13 who use the app on a daily basis. Young users age 13 to 18 comprise another massive chunk of the company’s user base and Roblox is making efforts to retain that age group and build around their needs as they age up.

The two new features work like you’d expect. New and existing phone-verified Roblox users over the age of 13 who play on mobile will be prompted to scan for contacts on their devices and add any friends that show up. Any nicknames saved in a phone will automatically stay tagged to that user across the platform. For privacy’s sake, anyone eligible for the contact importer can disable the ability to be discovered through their phone number. Existing users can also invite friends through the contact interface, making it easier for dedicated Roblox players to loop in their friends and bring more users to the platform.

Roblox’s new friend recommendations feature is also straightforward, providing a list of people “you may know and want to connect with.” The company is giving the new social tool some prominent real estate, featuring it on the home page for eligible users age 13 and older. For safety reasons, Roblox says that the feature will only make “high quality” connections, so it won’t be trying to connect people who don’t already have a high probability of knowing each other. Two users might share a number of mutual friends or have interacted recently in one of Roblox’s many game-like portals.

Roblox Senior Product Director Garima Sinha told TechCrunch that the pair of new social utilities will create fresh “entry points” that help new users plug in to their real-life social circles right away. “People care more and more about finding friendships,” Sinha said.

Ultimately while deeper social graph-building features are standard on other platforms, Roblox’s unusually young user base means the company moves deliberately when considering new features that connect users or give them new ways to interact.

“There’s very little we do just to get market fast or because others have it,” Sinha said.

Roblox will let 13+ users import contacts and add recommended friends by Taylor Hatmaker originally published on TechCrunch

I have nothing against the investor class, but sitting in a room with several VCs while I try to sell them on my billion-dollar idea sounds very stressful.

When an investor inevitably asks founders about their valuation expectations, it is a trick question of the highest order. If the response is too high, it’s a red flag, whereas a lowball figure will undervalue the company.

“We’re letting the market price this round” is a confident reply, but it’s only appropriate if you’ve actually gathered substantial data points from other investors — and can fire back with a few questions of your own, says Evan Fisher, founder of Unicorn Capital.

Full TechCrunch+ articles are only available to members.
Use discount code TCPLUSROUNDUP to save 20% off a one- or two-year subscription.

“If that’s all you say, you’re in trouble because it can also be interpreted as ‘we don’t have a clue’ or ‘we’ll take what we’re given,’” said Fisher.

Instead of going in cold, he advises founders to pre-pitch investors for their next round and use takeaways from those conversations to shape current valuations.

In the article, Fisher includes sample questions “you will want to ask every VC you speak with,” along with other tips that will help “when they pop the valuation question.”

A pitch is a business meeting, but on some level, it’s also a game where investors hold all the cards and always win. To level the playing field, founders need to think one move ahead.

Thanks for reading,

Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist

Twitter Space: Is tech media creating “charismatic” founders?

Larger-than-life entrepreneurs are nothing new, but tech has taken that to the next level, often with an assist from news media.

On Tuesday, December 13 at 1:00 p.m. PT, Builders VC investor Andrew Chen will join me on a Twitter Space to discuss the role tech reporting plays in shaping ecosystems, narratives and expectations.

This should be a lively conversation, so please bring your comments.

The climate founders’ guide to the Inflation Reduction Act

The Inflation Reduction Act goes well beyond bringing down costs for American consumers — Congress earmarked $369 billion to combat climate change, creating new opportunities and incentives for thousands of entrepreneurs.

In a detailed post that examines the IRA’s impact on green fintech, electrification, carbon capture and other areas, investor David Rusenko and Floodgate Fund principal Leeor Mushin share their “understanding of the regulatory ramifications of this monumental bill.”

To prepare for a downturn, build a three-case model

Startups that develop case models are better equipped to deal with potential setbacks. Visualizing exactly how potential market shifts can impact your business is a great way to prepare for the unexpected.

A three-case model attempts to predict best-case, down-case and base-case scenarios, writes Matt Barbieri, partner-in-charge at accounting firm Wiss & Co.

“Typically, the base-case scenario falls between the extremes. For example, in financial modeling, you might say that Peloton experienced both its ‘best case’ and ‘down case’ scenarios within a year.”

In uncertain times, B2B sales teams must put value front and center

In an era when companies are looking for places to shave SaaS spending, sales teams must focus on ROI and value, says Ketan Karkhanis, EVP and GM of Sales Cloud at Salesforce.

In a post for TC+, he shares tactics successful B2B sales teams use to coach prospects through the sales funnel while building relationships via personalized interactions.

“Many customers are feeling lost,” he writes. “They’re confused by economic volatility and overwhelmed by a deluge of information.”

“Serving as a coach who brings personalized, relevant information to the right stakeholders without pushing for a quick close is key to building trust.”

Pitch Deck Teardown: Rootine’s $10M Series A deck

In 2018, TechCrunch reported that health and wellness startup Rootine was preparing to enter the U.S. market after racking up “1,500 paying customers in Europe.”

Four months ago, the company, which sells a $70/month subscription for multivitamins, announced that it raised a $10 million Series A.

If you’d like to read all 29 unreacted slides, click through for our latest pitch deck teardown.

Dear Sophie: How do tech layoffs impact PERM and the green card process?

Dear Sophie,

I handle HR and immigration at our tech company. We filed a PERM for one of our team members about five months ago for her EB-2 green card, and we’re awaiting certification from the Labor Department. We’ve been gearing up to start PERM for another employee.

Will the layoffs in the tech industry affect the PERM process for EB-2 and EB-3 green cards? What will happen to my team members’ green cards if our company has to do layoffs?

— Pondering in People Ops

To win over investors, use growth as your differentiator

Despite the doom and gloom, investors are still meeting founders as they look for places to park their money. Suave storytelling skills are good, but they’re not enough: Once you’re in the room where it happens, it’s critical to make the best use of everyone’s time.

To make investor buy-in more likely, Jon Attwell, leader of the Seedstars Growth Track, advises teams to create metric-oriented customer journey maps that detail “all the mini-processes that customers are put through and the pathways they are led down.”

Growth projections are nice, but showing investors concrete plans for onboarding and retention, fighting churn and addressing other growth factors will help demonstrate how well you understand your market.

“For investors, it’s a rare treat to see an obsession with the granular metrics of a customer journey,” writes Attwell.

TechCrunch+ roundup: VC trick questions, building 3-case models, B2B sales coaching by Walter Thompson originally published on TechCrunch

Brodmann17, an Israeli computer vision technology startup that developed a novel approach to take on a marketplace dominated by Mobileye, shut down this week.

Brodmann17’s co-founder and CEO Adi Pinhas posted a message on LinkedIn announcing the move, stating that while the company would not be able to bring its products to the mass market as hoped, “we do get comfort that our innovation will hopefully influence the market thinking and others will proceed in the mission of creating safer mobility to everyone.”

In a subsequent interview, Pinhas told TechCrunch that “there is a strong feeling of sorrow as we proved the technology, there is outstanding demand and we have customers in production.”

Brodmann17, named after the primary visual cortex in the human brain, was launched six years ago by Pinhas, a deep learning and computer vision specialist, and AI scientists Amir Alush and Assaf Mushinsky. The trio focused their efforts on developing a new approach to computer vision technology designed to support advanced driver assistance systems.

Computer vision systems are considered a critical component to automated driving features. This multibillion-dollar market promises to only get bigger as automakers shift away from its autonomous vehicle goals and instead toward near-term revenue products like advanced driver assistance systems.

Brodmann17 knew it couldn’t compete with Mobileye on its front-facing camera unless it could bring a new angle to the tech, Pinhas said. “So we focused on the blue ocean,” he added.

That blue ocean was to develop deep learning-based computer vision technology that isn’t reliant on bulky hardware. This “lightweight” software-based product was able to run on low-end processors in the car itself and was designed to complement sensors like cameras, radar and even lidar already on the vehicle.

Brodmann17 applied its technology to blind-spot wing cameras, surround and rear cameras, video telematics and even two wheelers, Pinhas said.

“The demand in the market is far more diversified than people think,” he said. “We decided to take the road not taken by many other companies in the ecosystem. We just needed more time.”

The startup did attract investors during its lifetime. Brodmann17 raised $11 million in a Series A round back in 2019 that was led by OurCrowd. Maniv Mobility, AI Alliance, UL Ventures, Samsung NEXT and the Sony Innovation Fund also participated.

But the company struggled to get new funding. Even though the team was “very lean,” with fewer than 30 people, Pinhas said it was impossible to continue without support from private and corporate venture capital firms. He added that “everyone” is waiting for next year and for something to happen before making more investments.

Brodmann17 did attract some interest as a possible acquisition target. There were several offers, but all of those fell through, due mostly to timing reasons, he added.

Despite the gloomy news, Pinhas said he is ready for another project.

“I love deep tech and creating new products,” he said, without elaborating on what he might focus. “Life is too short for a break.”

Computer vision technology startup Brodmann17 has shut down by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch

Hello and welcome back toEquity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

We are nearly at the end of the year, so your friendly, local podcast crew is trying to make sense of just what happened in 2022.

We started the year on a venture capital high which quickly turned into a downturn. Startups kicked off the year hiring and wrapped the year shedding staff. The stock market kept going down. A crypto winter kicked off. We saw some PE deals but very few IPOs. And the world saw a bit more geopolitical upheaval than we might have anticipated.

There were elections and shutdowns and frauds and mistakes and big wins. It was, well, a lot.

Thankfully Mary Ann, Natasha, and Alex were able to collate the news into a few distinct categories, so that we can all look back at 2022 with a bit more clarity. And we even got to hear from a bunch of you, thanks to your dozens, and dozens of great taglines you sent in concerning the year and how it felt from your chair.

We have even more good stuff coming, including our yearly predictions episode. Get hype, and we’ll talk to you soon!

2022: The good, the bad, and the wake-up calls by Natasha Mascarenhas originally published on TechCrunch

Tom Zhu, Tesla’s China president who oversaw Gigafactory Shanghai’s transformation into the world’s largest EV plant, has been appointed to run the new Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, Bloomberg reported earlier this week. That would make the China chief, who joined Tesla China in April 2014, one of the top executives at the EV giant.

The decision didn’t come as a surprise to industry insiders, given how quickly Gigafactory Shanghai became a cornerstone manufacturing and export hub for Tesla.

It took the plant merely a year — from December 2018 to December 2019 — to go from construction to production. In August, Gigafactory Shanghai made its one-millionth car, accounting for a third of the total Teslas produced up until that point, Elon Musk tweeted. This November was a record month for the facility with 100,291 vehicles delivered.

Such achievements no doubt make Zhu a preferred aide of Musk who promotes a “hardcore” work environment. While Zhu might have a secret recipe for building a well-oiled manufacturing team in a short time, China’s unique conditions aren’t easily replicable in another country.

“Over the past three years, Gigafactory Shanghai has outperformed its counterparts in Fremont, Texas, and Berlin, although [not all of the success] is attributable to Tom or the China team,” suggested Chris Zheng, founder of Chinese automotive blog Channel-Q.

“A friendly regulatory environment, a strong supply chain base, and an efficient front-line execution team — these are three factors that are currently only available in China, so the key isn’t Shanghai or Texas. Look at BYD. Granted, Tom and his executive team are excellent, but that’s not all,” he added.

Chinese tech news site PingWest reported Wednesday that Musk has anointed Zhu as the CEO of Tesla Global, a new executive role in charge of sales and Gigafactories, while Musk continues to lead “key technical works at the firm.”

Musk tweeted Thursday that he continues to “oversee both Tesla & SpaceX, but the teams there are so good that often little is needed from me.”

This is a developing story…

Tesla hopes China boss will bring secret sauce to Gigafactory Texas by Rita Liao originally published on TechCrunch

This column would like to apologize for somehow missing the buildup to Getaround‘s SPAC combination, which was voted on yesterday and began trading this morning. I don’t know how we managed to get so far behind on this particular news item, but we will rectify our tardiness today.

The Exchange explores startups, markets and money.

Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.

Getaround allows consumers to rent cars from one another, taking a cut on the transactions. As you can imagine, it’s a marketplace-style company. And it was a venture capital darling, raising hundreds of millions of dollars while private, including a $200 million round in 2019and another $140 million in 2020.

It had a choppy early-COVID period but has since managed to announce and close a combination with a special purpose acquisition company.

Early direction of Getaround’s stock after the deal closed and it began to trade under the “GETR” ticker symbol has been sharply negative. Indeed, in the first moments of its trading under its own name, Getaround lost around 65% of its value. It now trades for around $3 per share.

Getaround braves chilly public markets with SPAC combination by Alex Wilhelm originally published on TechCrunch