design for startups
the toolboxclass 14venture book
tool 12 of 12 · class 14 · design for pitch

the pitch deck

The final pitch as a story, a deck, and a live performance, rehearsed with interruptions until the obvious questions feel boring.

instrument · investment memo and three-year modeldue before class 15 · Dec 8venture book chapter · the pitch

what you make

The pitch deck

The final pitch as a story, a deck, and a live performance, rehearsed with interruptions until the obvious questions feel boring.

Everything the semester produced becomes one argument. The deck is the argument on its feet.

Investment memo and three-year model

A one-page memo (what this is, why now, the evidence, the ask, the use of funds) and a simple three-year model in a spreadsheet with assumptions someone can argue with.

The memo is the written form of the whole case study, and it is what the Venture Book was always building toward. The model is the numbers behind it.

what good looks like

  • 01
    The memo fits on one page and a reader who has never heard the pitch understands the company.
  • 02
    The ask is a number, and the use of funds adds up to it.
  • 03
    The model has fewer than fifteen assumptions and every one is labeled.
  • 04
    Year one of the model matches the unit economics and funnel pages. If it does not, one of them is wrong.

how to do it

  1. 01
    Write the memo first, before the deck. If the memo does not hold, the slides will not save it.
  2. 02
    Build the model from your unit economics and funnel: customers per month, price, cost, acquisition spend.
  3. 03
    Extend it three years with growth assumptions you can defend in one sentence each.
  4. 04
    Size the ask from the model: what does it take to reach the next milestone?
  5. 05
    Rehearse with your AI assistant playing a skeptical investor. Log the three hardest questions.

the template

Investment memo

Print this page, or copy the structure into your Venture Book. Every line is meant to be filled in.

What this is (two sentences)
Why now
The problem and who has it
The evidence (interviews, tests, numbers)
The business model and unit economics
Traction so far (landing page, tests, anything real)
The team
The ask, and the use of funds
The three-year model, in brief (customers, revenue, spend, by year)
The biggest risk, and what you are doing about it
back to class 14

where it comes from

The NFX Fundraising Manual ↗Writing a Business Plan (Sequoia) ↗