Don’t Send the Deck

0:00 A question I've gotten for years from entrepreneurs is what do I do when an investor I haven't met says send me the deck I'll let you know if I'm interested or not.

0:13 And my answer has always been the same. Don't send the deck. Wait a minute if the investor asks for a deck and you don't send the deck that's kind of awkward isn't it?

0:23 Well, here's the deal. You need to hold the deck hostage in order to get the meeting because you

0:29 really need a meeting if you're going to get funded. Almost zero times in the history of the

0:37 world has it ever happened that someone has sent a deck and gotten a check back. That does not

0:41 happen. That's not reality. What you have to do is you have to get a meeting. You have to build

0:45 rapport with the investor. You have to build a relationship and then the investment comes.

0:50 So what do you do if you don't send a deck?

0:53 And my answer is you send a teaser.

0:56 And by a teaser, I'm very specific.

0:58 I mean a one-page teaser.

1:01 I want it to be crystal clear.

1:03 This is not the deck.

1:04 This is not a short deck.

1:05 It is a teaser.

1:07 And the goal of the teaser is the same thing as the goal of a trailer of a movie.

1:13 If you remember before COVID, when we used to go to movie theaters,

1:16 before the actual movie started, you'd see a bunch of teasers or trailers for upcoming movies.

1:22 And the good ones would show you the really attractive stars of the show,

1:27 and they'd show you the special effects, and they'd show you the suspenseful plot.

1:33 And then they stopped.

1:35 And you'd think, God, I really want to know how that movie ends.

1:38 I've got to go see the movie.

1:39 you also probably saw some trailers that showed you the attractive stars of the show the cool

1:47 special effects the suspense plot and then showed you how the movie ended you're like i don't need

1:51 to go see that one so when you're creating a good teaser deck for your business you want to

1:58 have it be like a good trailer so you want to show the highlights you want to show the exciting

2:04 things about your business ideally you'll have a little graph going up into the right

2:08 but you don't want to tell the whole story you want to leave them wanting for more

2:13 so that they have to take the meeting with you to review the deck to see the whole story

2:19 this is my hack for getting the meeting hold the deck hostage for the meeting have an awesome

2:27 one page teaser that you can send instead and if it tells part of the story and leaves them

2:37 wanting for more, they're going to take the meeting. And then you'll get the chance to show

2:43 them the deck, walk through it. And of course, at the end of the meeting, after you've walked through

2:47 the deck, best practice is to give them a copy of that deck, a PDF of exactly what they saw.

2:53 So that when you come back in three months or two months or whenever it is, and have a new updated

2:59 deck with new updated information, they can compare the old deck to the new deck, see the

3:03 progress that you have made and see that you're getting traction and be even more interested in

3:08 investing in you. So don't send the deck, create a great teaser and you'll get more meetings.