Michael Seibel (via a Jason M. Lemkin upload) gives practical guidance on the "team" slide in investor pitches: state who is on the team, each person’s role/title, their notable accomplishments/credentials, and any direct personal experience with the problem. Common mistakes include omitting titles/roles (so investors don’t know who the CEO or coder is), telling long life stories that aren’t requested, and failing to call out specific impressive accomplishments (e.g., JPL/Mars Rover work). He uses Airbnb and a Mars Rover anecdote to illustrate how to convey problem experience and notable achievements.
Chapters
Next, your team. People screw up the team slide all the time. The purpose of team is really just to talk about who's on your team, what do they do, what their impressive accomplishments and credentials are, and if possible, how they've personally experienced the problem. If we go back to Airbnb, they could literally talk about how they were starving startup founders who couldn't pay their rent. And the first time they did this, they set up a website for a design conference, hosted three guests so they could pay their rent. If you can weave how you've experienced the problem into the team slide, suddenly I think of you as an expert. Now, what do people screw up? No titles. I don't know what the roles are. I don't know who the CEO is. If I'm an early stage investor, I'm trusting the CEO with money. If I don't know who they are, who am I trusting? Number two, who writes code number three, telling long stories. The team site is not the opportunity to tell your life story. Here's a hint. There is no opportunity in your pitch to tell your life story unless the investor asks explicitly for your life story. And you should double confirm. They want to hear your life story. No life stories. And then the one I always love missing specific accomplishments. There's one company in this batch that literally worked on the Mars Rover. The founder was like, worked at JPL and built software to make the Mars Rover project actually happen. Didn't talk about it. I didn't even know when we accepted him. I'm in office hours with him a month, two months into the project, and I'm like, what'd you do at jpl? And he's like, oh, have you heard of the Mars Rover? I'm like, yeah, I'm not a fucking idiot. And he's like, yeah. And I'm like, can we talk about that, please? If you've done something cool, say it.
