Can AngelList Successfully Standardize The Pitch Deck?
Let’s be honest: most people who are building startups don’t enjoy spending a ton of time crafting the world’s best pitch deck. Instead, founders want to spend their time building the business. So how can the whole pitch process become more efficient? This past week AngelList revealed their experimental “pitch deck page” for startups, and based on my conversation with the team the other night, it sounds as though they have a pretty ambitious vision: standardize the pitch deck.
While the team didn’t use those exact words, it’s pretty clear how time could be saved by providing a sleek design for entrepreneurs to present their startup to potential investors. A pitch deck is used for one thing: to get meetings with investors. While not all investors require it, it can’t hurt your chances for some 1-on-1 time. Once you have a meeting it’s your time to shine and the pitch deck is all but forgotten. So why on earth can’t founders spend less time on building beautiful presentations and spend more time on being awesome?
Perhaps AngelList can help! While still a work in progress, the new AngelList product found inspiration in the now infamous DressRush (now called Tailored) pitch deck according to the creator of the page,Khang Tran. As soon as I saw the page I was both excited and concerned. Excited because I know how annoying it is to come up with a beautiful pitch deck. Concerned because I knew that the new design would decrease follow volume for all startups on the site.
AngelList is well aware of this problem though and they are looking at making changes that retain (and even increase) engagement across profiles while simultaneously increasing the quality of introductions and follows. Ultimately, the team is working on furthering their own objectives which is closely aligned with startups on the site: the more engagement the site gets, the more awareness for the companies who are listed.