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Pre-angel / seed / series A

Below are the different ways I've noticed to convince VCs to invest in your company, in descending order of desirability. It seems the higher you can get in this list, the better terms / higher valuation you'll get from VCs.

1. A product / prototype with traction

   1. Examples:

      1. Facebook when they met with Peter Thiel (it had traction at Harvard / Stanford / Columbia)

      2. Oculus Rift when it raised money from Founder's Fund (it had traction on Kickstarter)

      3. Elon Musk when he raised money for Zip2 (he had 3 commissioned salesmen and a few local newspapers as customers)

      4. The Shark Tank contestants that get the best deals, with a bidding war between the sharks. (they all have demonstrated sales, preferably in the millions of dollars)

2. Positive cash flow

   1. Examples

      1. Elon Musk - 2003.10.08 - Stanford University Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture

3. An impressive team with a product / prototype, but no users

   1. Examples:

      1. Jack Dorsey with Square (he and his cofounder paid some engineers to build a prototype)

      2. DropBox (they created a video showing what the final product would look like, and how it would work)

4. An impressive team, but no product / prototype

   1. Examples:

5. Conveying that you are going to work extremely hard.

   1. Examples

      1. 2015.12.26 - TC - How I Created A $350 Million Software Company Knowing Nothing About Software - This is the cofounder of Five9, John Sung Kim.

      2. Get the quote about Elon Musk pitching VCs for his company Zip2.

It may be better to NOT start with a summary of your idea, because people will immediately react to it without the benefit of the facts you have accumulated which support your idea. It may be better to strupture the pitch in this way:
1. About me / why you should trust me / things I have accomplished
2. Facts which are not commonly known and which, when considered together, suggest a particular course of action (business idea).
3. The idea.

• 2009.03.19 - Travis Kalanick - Startup Seed Raising Skilzzz

• 2012.11 - HN - How to Get Startup Ideas

  • emmett [CEO of Twitch]
    Can you explain, in one sentence, what it is that you're building that's different from existing movie ratings sites?
    Try this template: "it's like Rotten Tomatoes, except ..."
    It's like Rotten Tomatoes, except you rate on 3 axes instead of just 1.
    It's like Rotten Tomatoes, except you rate the movie by answering questions about what parts you liked.
    It's like Rotten Tomatoes, except your ratings are automatically posted to Facebook.
    What are you building? If you can't say in one sentence, I would suggest the problem is with your pitch rather than with the listeners.

• 2013.04.22 - Mashable - 5 Practical Tips for Perfecting Your Startup Pitch

  • One of the partners at Founder's Fund (Thiel's firm) contributed advice

• 2004.06.22 - Feld Thoughts - The Torturous World of Powerpoint