Deck Doctors

We’re joining the FoodLabs team TODAY at 11a ET to talk all things pitch decks. Sign up and stop by!

🎉 Excited to share that SelfTact was featured in Hustle Fund's Second Opinion Live Podcast! Over 400 founders, investors, and startup enthusiasts joined to watch Mark G. and Alex Flynn from Deck Doctors provide actionable feedback on pitch decks to help startups better connect with angel investors, pre-seed VCs, and other early-stage funding partners. TY Kera DeMars for putting this together!!! During the event, we showcased SelfTact.com (Smart Selfies for Networking and Personal CRM) 🤳🏽 revolutionizing networking with Smart Selfies that double as visual smart business cards. We received incredibly helpful feedback, which reinforced key principles for crafting a compelling pitch deck: 👉 Start with a strong story hook: Capturing your audience’s attention early is crucial. Highlight the problem you’re solving and why it matters upfront. For SelfTact, our hook is simple—turning selfies into smart business cards for seamless networking. 👉 Showcase your moat early: Investors want to know what sets you apart. For SelfTact, our patented Smart Selfie technology is a key differentiator, and placing this higher in the deck ensures it gets the attention it deserves. 👉 Simplify your message: The simpler the idea, the earlier you should pitch it. We focused on positioning SelfTact as the go-to AI-powered networking app for professionals, emphasizing clarity over complexity. 👉 Tailor your deck for the format: A take-home deck should be concise and self-explanatory, whereas a presentation deck allows you to expand on each slide with commentary. Reducing unnecessary slides improves readability and makes the core idea shine. This experience was great, both for updating our deck and understanding how to communicate our vision to potential investors easily. Whether you’re a founder building the next big thing or an investor looking for opportunities in personal CRMs, AI-powered apps, or networking tools, there’s a lot to learn from events like these. Happy Holidays!!!

The easiest way to 10x conversions on your pitch deck is to use a “hook.” But not for the reasons you think... Yes, you are competing for attention. Investors look at tons of decks. Using a “hook” may seem like a schemy marketing ploy to manufacture attention. But done right → It’s simply a way to optimize for your intended outcome... More meetings. You see, many founders use cookie-cutter templates to create generic pitch decks. However, in most cases, all of the standard details are secondary to THE VERY FEW, MOST IMPORTANT TAKEAWAYS that make your startup special. So, if those important takeaways are lost in a sea of slides... Investors need to do work → to ~hopefully~ find those important takeaways. Chances are, they won’t. So, I always tell people to… Reverse Engineer for Takeaways. Ask yourself: “If an investor could only walk away with 1-3 major takeaways, what do I NEED those to be?” Major takeaways by nature must be: 1. Unique - Something only you can say 2. Credible - Backed by evidence  3. Exciting - Signal that you have success potential These takeaways could be… A. Outstanding early traction B. Special founder-market-fit C. Insane tech D. A larger-than-meets-the-eye market E. Or more!   Once you’ve figured out what those 1-3 important takeaways are… Reverse engineer your deck, so that → It would be IMPOSSIBLE for someone to NOT walk away with those points. The easiest way to do so: bring those points to the top, in a “Hook” slide. This can read like an exec summary or just simply an intro slide. By not “burying the lede” → you control what STICKS with investors. If what sticks with investors is something that’s… 1. Unique 2. Credible 3. Exciting They’re more likely to... A. Spend more time on the deck B. Request a meeting! What’s your pitch’s MOST IMPORTANT TAKEAWAYS? ...And what slide in your deck do people find them? 😏

"Best one yet!" We share some high-level but easy to apply design tips. Useful to founder pitch decks...and anyone making any type of presentation! Watch HERE: hhttps://lnkd.in/e2SkMdD4 Hustle Fund Kera DeMars

"Best one yet!" We share some high-level but easy to apply design tips. Useful to founder pitch decks...and anyone making any type of presentation! Watch HERE: hhttps://lnkd.in/e2SkMdD4 Hustle Fund Kera DeMars

Mark & I had fun jamming with the All Caps Capital guys, chatting all things pitch deck. Ahmed + Ryan bring a new voice to startup media. It’s fun. Check em out.

Our intro might be a little too edgy for LinkedIn😂 But… if that means having fun and being able to share our learnings with everyone, I say that’s a huge win!! If this pod can help even one person, I’m beyond happy. Man, I love everything about this startup game. Thank you to Alex Flynn & Mark Golub for sharing their knowledge with us!!

We used to send a newsletter about pitch decks. Now we’re in our YouTube influencer era and also introducing our latest newsletter: Antidote ✨ At the Deck Docs, we’re lucky to sit in this unique spot between 1) Founders 2) VC firms 3) Service providers (like ourselves) So each week, we’ll be sharing some big value in Antidote across each of these groups: •⭐️Investors, you’ll love this: Fundraising Features for startup’s we’ve worked closely with — that are actively fundraising + awesome. •⭐️Operators, you’ll love this: Services Spotlight of people we admired running their own services & agencies we think you’ll find useful. •⭐️If you’re actively fundraising, you’ll love this: Our Second Opinion video of the week and other content to help you raise. •Shifra-selected venture memes   Subscribe below and join thousands of operators, VCs, and founders already reading Antidote below👇🏽 https://lnkd.in/eJ9zRNPq

Is investor feedback turning your pitch deck into a Frankenstein? 🧌 You’re far from alone. Everyone has an opinion on your deck. Mark and I shared some tips on dealing with feedback in our next episode of Second Opinion with Deck Doctors & Hustle Fund --> 1) Ask and you shall receive — When you ask someone for feedback, they’re inclined to look for “cons” and not “pros” - Be careful sorting through what’s substantive vs. a nitpick. 2) Find Patterns — If you’re hearing the same thing over and over again, like “Your market size is too small for us to gain conviction?” Consider making a change. If you hear something once, and don’t totally agree, don’t feel obligated to do anything - you never will please everyone! 3) Remember the North Star — The perfect pitch deck is not possible. Your goal should be giving yourself ~absolute confidence~ when bringing your pitch to the table. So sift through feedback carefully and make changes that give YOU more confidence. We cover a lot more in the video :) We’re back every other Tuesday with new episodes of Second Opinion, where we overthink pitch decks so you don’t have to. https://lnkd.in/gHMrRCPW