Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

what types of questions should be asked in user interviews?

3 Nov 2023 · 1 min

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In this segment, the speaker explains that the product narrative presented to venture capitalists differs fundamentally from the one shown to customers. They also note that pitches to limited partners (LPs) vary from those given to founders. For founders, the speaker emphasizes the importance of conveying deep conviction in their ability to build the company, which cannot be captured in a deck, so founder testimonials are used as a proxy. Conversely, investor pitches should focus on delivering a compelling story that promises outsized returns—typically framed around a massive problem, the founder’s personal connection to that problem, and the proposed solution—aimed at achieving high multiples like 30x.

Chapters

One of the things I was talking about with you was that the product that you pitched to a venture capitalist is ultimately different than the product that you pitched to customers. Similar to like in our first fund when we were raising, you pitch a different product to LPs that you pitch to founders. For founders, one of the most important things that you can give them is like deep belief in the conviction that they are a capable individual of building out this company. But that's not really something that you can put in a pitch deck. And so instead, you use testimonials from those same founders where that might be like the highlight of it. And similarly in startups, the proposition that you are pitching to investors is like, hey, I can make you a 30x return and give you a really cool story through the lens of here's a massive problem that I'm solving, here's my personal connection to it, and here's how we're thinking about this solution.