just curious, but why aren’t more investors cool with founders sending YC apps instead of decks? (or are they?) like i’m writing both now, and i just find YC’s memo to be so much better at pulling out the important info. is it just length of time it takes to skim?
there’s a lot of leeway to bullshit in a deck. harder to do that well in a YC app.
because they have a lot more pattern matching on a pitch deck making a good deck (content, not formatting) requires a high degree of clarity https://www.slideshare.net/PitchDeckCoach/sequoia-capital-pitchdecktemplate
Each VC has a different philosophy on what makes a company investable. YC needs to know if the founders can build it, if they can pitch well (for demo day) and if the product “makes sense”. I think that seasoned investors can review anything and be right, a 6th sense, but not all. Decks make it easier for the VC
Paul Graham is like giving a loaded gun to a minor without a background check imho
💯 agree! It’s no extra time for founder, amazingly thoughtful questions and also healthy exercise to do for the founder every 6 month or a year even if not doing YC. Was just talking about it with someone.
read about ripple raising series A with a memo instead of a deck. It seems much easier to follow
A cool thing about being a YC startup is when an investor asks for a deck, you just tell them you don’t have one nor have the time to make one.
- apps have really helped us think through the product, vision, etc. - really like the "explain what you do in 50 chars or less" from YC - i get the pattern matching of a pitch deck from the VC's side, but think everyone building should write out a memo for themselves - there should be a common app for fundraising
can’t speak to other funds but we have a custom application flow at calm fund. better for founders (who can save their app mid-stream and revisit later) and for us. everyone saves time and we only proceed to a call if there’s a high chance we’ll invest. (we use ours rather than YC’s given our fund’s focus.)