Funding Event – Sharing the decks we used to raise a $16M Series A with a16z

Last fall, after a year building our startup we reached a crossroads. We’d built our MVP, hustled to get it into the hands of customers, and were iterating fast. We needed to support our growth by scaling operations and investing in talent.
And that meant going back to fundraising.
We were entering what has now become known as one of the “worst” times to fundraise. VCs were closing up shop. Advisors told us the biggest mistake would be to make noise about raising a round and then fail to close the deal.
But we didn’t let that stop us. Ultimately, we had confidence in our mission and strategy. And we realized that in order to succeed, we couldn’t play to the average. We had to assume that we could and would be the outlier in a risky environment.
Today, we’re paying it forward by sharing the pitch and data decks we used to raise our $16M Series A with a16z.
Some of the lessons we learned along the way:
1. Own the narrative.
Your pitch deck is a punchy story about your startup that doesn’t get lost in the weeds. Your data deck tells that story in numbers, allowing you to dive into business drivers in detail. Master both so you can set the tone and preempt (rather than react) to questions from potential investors.
2. Build momentum.
Walk through the MVP you built and highlight how its features solve the core problem you’re tackling. Show how early adopters are responding to create a sense of momentum – this is just the tip of the iceberg.
3. Listen deeply.
You don’t need to be generating tons of revenue at this stage, but it is critical you demonstrate how you’re responding to market feedback. Why? Iterating on your MVP and learning what works is the cycle that will eventually put you on the path to scale.
4. Don’t boil the ocean.
Hone in on “hero” data points that drive the overall narrative of your startup. Make sure that every chart is digestible at a glance with a single takeaway that reinforces the story. Check out our blog post and our data deck template for a breakdown of which metrics we included and why.
We’re still early on our journey. We’re always learning, and we promise to keep sharing. If you found this helpful or have your own tips to share, let me know in the comments!
Links to full post, our decks, and data deck template 👇

Blog post: https://wraptext.equals.com/equals-series-a-deck/
Template (all dummy data): https://go.equals.com/templates
Pitch deck: https://equals-marketing-resources.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Series.A.Pitch.Deck.pdf
Data deck: https://equals-marketing-resources.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Series.A.Data.Deck.pdf