How to Video Pitch Investors

The biggest lie in venture capital: “We read your deck”

Ever show up to an investor call, and it only kind of seems like they’re maybe vaguely aware of what it is your business does?

…Yeah, that’s because here’s the thing:

Investors don’t want to read your deck.

Best of luck converting in that meeting… they came in not even knowing what you do!

If you want to win, you need to spoonfeed your pitch to prospective investors.

I’m talking about a video pitch.

A maximum 6-minute walkthrough of your pitch deck that gives more context, a clearer view of the story, higher-quality meetings and most importantly…

…a higher conversion rate toward getting the meeting.

I’ve been teaching founders how to do this for years, and those who really leaned into it ended up with commitments from

• Tiger
• a16z
• Sequoia
• The NFL
• Richard Branson

You get the point. It works.

But in order for it to work, you have to do it right.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Personalize, personalize, personalize

99% of the time, this is where founders go wrong.

They assume “I have to make a perfect video that will work for every investor I’m going to approach so I can just one-and-done this!”

Wrong.

And stupid.

Because you could spend 100 hours trying to get to a “perfect” video…

…only to realize that no one really is interested because it’s not personalized to them.

OR

You could go one by one with every investor you approach, and make one for them, including:

• WHY you’re reaching out to them, specifically
• WHICH deals they did in the past that indicated your company could be a good fit
• WHO you’ve heard good things from about them (or gotten a warm intro from)

Think about a cringey Youtuber who starts every video, Hey guysssss….

Versus a video that starts “Hey [Your First Name]” and then is instantly clear that it’s been made specifically FOR YOU.

It shows you take this potential relationship - one that’s more serious than marriage - extremely seriously.

They’ll reciprocate.

Step 2: Gloss over it, then bury the lead

Before you dive into your video pitch, you need to use your Get Out of Jail Free card:

I’m gonna gloss over a LOT, but happy to go into more detail on a call together.

There’s so much use loaded into this little phrase:

1. It allows you to let yourself off the hook for trying to tell the business’s entire history in a way-too-long video
2. It lets you skip over all the details, and only focus on the truly important stuff
3. It stops you from wasting their time (if >6 minutes 30 secs, forget it - no one will watch. Shoot for <5 minutes, but a 3-minute super-gloss-over pitch can be DYNAMITE)
4. If you forget something, no big deal!

…because you’re gonna hit the presumptive close of “we’ll go into more detail when we hop on a call!”

My version of ship early & often = Authentic & scuffed video >>>>> “Perfect”

But what you CAN’T forget to do: Tactically bury the lead.

You probably have something super-cool that’s either a) kinda-confidential, or b) not 100% a done deal (maybe a huge customer relationship about to expand)

You don’t want to put it in writing, and that’s fine.

Bury the lead by saying something like this in your talk track:

One thing I can’t NOT mention, we have a HUGE deal in the works with a Fortune 500 customer you’re gonna LOVE that has the potential to triple our revenue in the next 18 months. You’re DEFINITELY gonna want to hear about it - we’ll talk more when we get together. I’m gonna keep going though (flips to next slide)

Being a little coy does the job:

…because the only way they get to find out what that HUGE thing is?

GETTING ON THE PHONE WITH YOU.

…and that’s a win.

Step 3: Hit the CTA hard

So you’ve done an awesome job on your pitch, added more valuable info than what’s one the slides, hit perfect transitions from slide to slide all the way to the end.

Now it’s time to get them to take the next step:

Book the call.

So many founders get wrapped up in money-chasing that they forget that’s the #1 job of their pitch.

Gentle Reminder: Your pitch’s job isn’t to get them to send a wire immediately.

You want them to get on the phone.

Make it easy for them.

Remind them:

So I know this was a super-high-level overview and I glossed over a ton, and I’m sure you have a LOT of questions. I want to answer them for you - so let’s hop on a call! You can either shoot me an email back with some times, or I also dropped my booking link on the email if you want to go ahead & set something up. I’m looking forward!

Find a version of the above that sounds natural to you.

Just don’t say “Thank you.”

Just do it.

Personally, I recommend Loom but other software works too, so use what you’re comfortable with.

Get out there and make your impact.