Niko Ludwig
@Collateral_com
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Founder of https://t.co/3N7L9wzTQH - the financial storytelling firm.
Dallas, TX
Joined October 2021
"The storyteller is the most powerful person in the world" - Steve Jobs
New episode: "How Elon Works" This episode covers the insanely valuable company-building principles of Elon Musk A few notes from the episode: 1. The mission comes first. 2. Retreat is not an option. 3. A maniacal sense of urgency is our operating principle. 4. Product
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Capital flows as a function of the story Writing the soundbite is harder than it looks Call collateral dot com We will help
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Investors hear hundreds of pitches You need a phrase that makes you memorable Viaweb was "the Microsoft Word of ecommerce."
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Investors fear you've built something no one actually wants Stories about real user problems prove there's demand
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Numbers stick in people's heads If the median visitor generates 12 page views, say that
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If there are too many words, people skip reading Try to keep each slide under 20 words (if pitching in-person)
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Smart investors see past superficial flaws They're looking for raw talent
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Never say "we're passionate" or "our product is great." Show it If you've built something good, you're doing investors a favor by telling them
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Splitting the presentation to show "equal partnership" is distracting Pick the best speaker and let them lead
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If you feel like you're speaking too slowly... You're probably at about the right speed
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Your business model is probably wrong anyway Talk about the problem you're solving instead
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Competitors and resumes get a quick slide at the end Spend your time on what you built and why it matters
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Have one person talk while another runs the demo When you look down at your laptop, the audience checks out
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If you speak to everyone, you speak to no-one "A system to collaboratively leverage the value of information" means nothing. Just say "web-based database."
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Set context in plain english "We're Jeff and Bob and we've built an easy to use web-based database. Now we'll show it to you and explain why people need this."
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YC has invested in 5,300+ companies worth $800B+ Just one year after founding, Paul Graham wrote an essay on investor storytelling Here are his 14 tips below:
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Classic - @paulg had seen thousands of startups, training his neural net, and at YC he mentioned that they would give advice and sometimes people wouldn’t listen. So I made a point to implement everything he suggested quickly - would be foolish not to take advantage of it. Be a
Brian Armstrong's original Coinbase pitch (2012) Listen closely and you can hear Paul Graham giving pointers on the storytelling
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Capital flows as a function of story Nobody can afford to miss out on the next platform shift If you need help telling your story Visit collateral dot com Don't get left behind!
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