I was an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Khosla Ventures for a year. Here are 7 tips for pitching them.
You must get an intro. Prepare that person very well for making your introduction. Get your deck in as best shape as you can. Craft to perfection the one paragraph they will send. They will then send an opt-in request to Khosla. It will be along the lines of “This company is doing … I think this is cool because … There are some concerns [be careful with this one] … Do you want to meet them?”
If you get the chance to pitch. This is a once in 3-5 year opportunity. Do not waste it. Prepare many times. Practice your pitch on friends, colleagues, other founders, and other VCs. Send them the deck in advance. Be respectful of their expertise.
Allow them to ask questions. They can probably give 2/3 of your pitch themselves. They may ask questions which will require you to jump around on the slides. Some partners like to do this, to see how you respond. Others like to send you their questions in advance, so that you can prepare the best possible answers.
Leave time during the 30 minutes for their questions. In order to allow them to ask questions, you must leave time for that. Consider doing at 5-7 minute pitch and leaving the rest of the time for clearing objections.
Ask some concluding questions. This will allow you to gauge their level of interest. And it can get the KV team member even more excited about your startup.
How would you describe us to your partners?
How do you make a decision? Is there anyone else I should meet?
Typically how long does it take for you to close? Is there a special process? Who is involved?
Is there anyone else I need to meet? Would you like to meet the rest of our team?
Follow up. Follow up the same day to answer any remaining, unanswered questions from the pitch. If your round dynamics is going really well, e.g. there are competing term sheets, definitely let KV know. This will spur a much quicker term sheet, or pass. KV is quite good about giving you a pass, with reasons. You may be in the evaluation stage for a while, but at KV this is not a ghosting pass.
Have an advocate within KV. Your company needs a champion. Try to identify that person. Maybe you can practice your pitch with the associate or principle that brought you in. Maybe you can practice with your current investors, and ask if they can introduce you to someone on the KV team. The partner, associate, or principal assigned to your company will be your advocate in the partners’ meetings. Try to give her the information to be a great champion for you!
And … a pass is still good. You are on the radar of a tier-1 VC. They will likely take your meeting during your next round of funding. If you have derisked their concerns, maybe you will be funded by them in your next round.
Your startup is awesome. Have a plan for your pitch process. Best of luck!
Michael Deem is Managing Partner at Angeliki Fund, a physical and digital private equity infrastructure fund. Previously Michael was an Entrepreneur in Residence for Khosla Ventures, a tier-1 venture capital firm on Sand Hill. Michael was part of the founding team of Ion Torrent Systems, sold to ThermoFisher for $2.3B in 2014. He was the 3rd person and performed all the original engineering calculations. He was the 10th person and director of drug design at CuraGen ($100M IPO in 1998). He started the first `Synthetic Biology' PhD program in the US. He was chair of a top-10 Bioengineering Department, with responsibility for 400 people and $27M annual budget. Michael is an active member of The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).
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