
LinkedIn's Series B Pitch to Greylock: Pitch Advice for Entrepreneurs - Ecio78
http://reidhoffman.org/linkedin-pitch-to-greylock/
======
pixelmonkey
"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."

Great piece of advice, so obvious in retrospect and at odds with many other
pitch guidelines out there, that suggest you _start_ with the management team
/ "company snapshot".

~~~
hayksaakian
With the increasing popularity of the "aquihire" exit strategy, I'm not
surprised that "pitch guidelines" encourage discussing the team so early.

~~~
alexdevkar
Investors typically are not going for acquihires. See for a good discussion on
many issues: [http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/05/13/the-
corrosive-...](http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/05/13/the-corrosive-
downside-of-acquihires/)

------
runako
Interesting data from the "LinkedIn is the Market Leader" slide (data from
8/04):

\- Friendster is the largest social network. \- Facebook is not present.

Something to keep in mind when considering how much emphasis to place on
existing competition in a market.

------
memnips
I would love to see a visual representation of the relationship between pitch
deck length and successful raise. I was surprised by the length of this deck.

~~~
ScotterC
I think it was more a sign of the times and the fact that it was a B round.
You can elaborate a bit at the B stage.

~~~
dshah
Longer decks still work -- even today.

Possible reason: Often, decks are shared _before_ a meeting is taken, so the
really good ones are designed to be _read_ (not just presented).

------
Justen
Love this post. Only about a fifth of the way through it right now (@work),
but I'm definitely going to peruse the rest later and bookmark it for when I
make my own pitch deck here soon!

------
samspenc
Wow this is fantastic! Not only are the slides included, but a detailed and
helpful analysis of each slide as well.

------
elwell
Wow, the design looks much worse than I would have expected from LinkedIn.

~~~
chatmasta
Looks perfectly minimalist to me. You don't want a flashy design to distract
from important content.

~~~
dshah
Disagree with this.

In today's world (particularly in consumer Internet), investors often judge
the "quality" of a team based on the aesthetics of the pitch-deck -- and
website. All things being equal, the deck with the better design sense wins.

~~~
chatmasta
In the present context, I think you make a good point.

But it's worth noting this deck is from 2004, and thus should be judged in the
context of contemporary designs.

------
trendspotter
I know what a lot of future startup pitch decks will look like :)

------
dtwhitney
am I the only one who is surprised at how ugly it is?

------
monsterix
Brilliant! Thanks for sharing this on HN.

This one line is simply bang on at so many levels:

 _...we knew that our pitch would need to steer into investors’ biggest
concern: the lack of revenue._

And seemingly relevant in the current climate of 2013 again.

~~~
ialas
ICYMI, Reid addresses today's climate, too:

 _In 2013, it’s whether you can break through the noise. Today, there are
probably a thousand consumer internet startups founded every quarter — how do
you become one of the 1 to 3 that matter in a 7-year timeframe?_

------
ffrryuu
A much better system would be printing money to fund startups, instead of our
current, print money to fund debts.

