According to TechCrunch, total venture investment around the world was down 65% in Q3 2023 compared to record-breaking amounts in Q4 2021. At the same time, almost one-fifth of founders who did close a raise had to take a down round. While there are some signs that 2024 could be a better year, you’ll still need ways to raise money and collaborate with investors and clients faster and more efficiently. This is why we focused our efforts in 2023 on:

• Templates to speed up processes
• Enhanced security for sensitive information in spreadsheets
• More ways to access DocSend files

If you’re wondering what you can get done with DocSend now that you couldn’t before, keep reading.

1. Speeding up processes with templates

If you need to set up files in DocSend, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. DocSend Spaces is an easy way to gather and share files with one link, and we’ve cut down on how long it takes to set up those spaces even more with templates.

When you start a space, now you’ll be able to choose a template for a:

• Virtual data room: Due diligence documents, pitch decks, and financial documents for investors, founders, and boards who need extra security when sharing sensitive documents
• Board meeting: Agendas, meeting minutes, and financial documents for founders, executives, and investors who need a secure way to share sensitive documents before and after a board meeting
• Client portal: Company information, proposals, and contracts for people who want to centralize, protect, and customize all the documents they need to collaborate with clients
• Onboarding experience: Company policies, training videos, offer letters, and signed agreements for HR professionals and managers who need a secure and scalable way to onboard new employees

2. Enhanced security for sensitive information in spreadsheets

DocSend files are famously secure, and this year we extended those security controls to spreadsheets—because we understand that some of your most sensitive financial information lives in them. 

Now, when you share spreadsheets with DocSend, you can expect:

• Tab-by-tab analytics: View where people are spending the most time on your spreadsheets with tab-level analytics that give you a deeper look.
• Viewer-specific permissions: Create custom links for each spreadsheet viewer, each with their own permission control—all while avoiding multiple versions of the same document.
• Downloading and forwarding prevention: If you’re sending extra sensitive information, keep it out of the wrong hands.

Learn more about spreadsheet sharing controls and how you can use them in 2024.

3. More places to access DocSend files

We’ll never compromise on security, but 2023 was the year we expanded (controlled) access to your DocSend files. 

Especially important for client collaboration and wider audience reach, new DocSend access points allow you to guide your viewers to next steps, publish content on your website, and enjoy all the benefits of DocSend analytics on Google Drive files. More accessibility means:

• Embedded file viewer: Embed file content on your website to extend your reach on certain files with all the same DocSend security controls and analytics.
• Google Drive integration: Track your Google Drive files with DocSend’s page-by-page, real-time analytics.

Install the Dropbox DocSend Google Drive integration and start getting analytics now. 

Don’t have a DocSend account? Start your free trial. 

The post Speed, security, and access: DocSend’s 2023 year-in-review appeared first on DocSend.

Despite sustained interest in AI startups and glimmers of optimism in early-stage valuations, seed funding has continued to drop off in 2023. Seed founders who have managed to secure funding in 2023 have focused on the timeliness of their idea, and investors have responded positively to pitch decks that show recipes for success in the uncertain market and current events. 

Our 2022-23 report shows that although staple deck sections like Product and Business Model remain important, investors have sharpened their focus on sections like Competition and Why now? that speak directly to the current market environment. In addition to these changes in VC scrutiny, fundraising success also varies by demographic and geographic factors.

As VC scrutiny increases and fundraising competition remains fierce, how can early-stage founders thrive in times of uncertainty and rapid change? Here are some key insights from our research to help founders capture VC attention and navigate a successful raise:

Keys to success for seed rounds in 2023

• Cut through the gloom: why are you a good investment today?
  • VCs spent 65% more time on Why now? sections in 2023
  • Successful seed companies foregrounded the Why now? section more prominently than companies that didn’t get funded
• Address your competition head-on
  • Discerning investors gave extra scrutiny to the Competition section in a crowded seed market
  • Traction in a crowded field matters: VCs spent 33% more time on Traction slides and 88% more time on Competition slides in 2023
• Build a tight process, but prepare for the long haul
  • Seed founders contacted more investors but had fewer meetings in 2023 vs. 2022

Download our 2022-23 seed report to get the full scoop into how today’s fundraising climate has changed, and how to adjust your fundraising strategy and pitch deck for maximum success.

The post The seed round in 2022-23: No time like the present? VCs, founders focus on “why now?” amid ongoing slowdown appeared first on DocSend.

With risk aversion driving VC funding decisions, founders need to sharpen their storytelling and demonstrate traction to instill confidence in VCs and stand out. 

Keep reading: 3 pitch deck changes that make VCs pay closer attention

To succeed in this hyper-competitive landscape, early stage founders need to rethink their approach to the achilles heel of the entire fundraising journey: the pitch deck. 

Here are some key insights from our latest research to give founders a leg up: 

Shift from growth to profitability to minimize risk

VCs lean in on traction, business model, and financials sections in 2023.

Roadmap your product’s path to long-term success

Successful pre-seed companies linked their product and business model sections at the start of their decks, showing how monetization flows from their unique solution.

Show how your traction and monetization plans are integrated

VCs gave more scrutiny to business model and traction sections in decks that didn’t get funded.

Avoid elaborate pre-seed competition sections

Competition section had the biggest year-over-year drop in investor scrutiny.

As investor engagement remains flat in 2023, early stage founders can expect VCs to spend less time than ever reviewing their pitch decks. Your narrative and order of slides—with fewer words saying more—is key.

Given many VCs’ interest in startups’ paths to profitability, highlighting up front how a business model emerges organically from the product may be a winning tactic for pre-seed founders.

Timeliness is also important for pre-seed companies: successful decks put their Why now? Sections at the front of their decks whereas unsuccessful ones buried theirs in the middle.

The successful pitch deck flow

Demonstrate value in your team slide

The team slide is a must-have, no matter what stage you’re at. In early stages, VCs are investing in the teams as much as they are in the business idea, so making a strong impression here is key.

Focus less on big market numbers (and more on the approach behind them)

The market size section outlines your current business conditions and future growth potential. VCs shared that numbers in these sections matter a lot less than the approach a founder took to get to them. Clearly outlining the rationale behind market calculations is an especially important part of establishing trust with investors at the early stages. 

Reviewing your business model section? Say more with less 

Your business model section gives investors a clear understanding of how your company will make money by summing up your monetization plan and go-to-market strategy. Show how you’re going to make money and why you went with the business model you did. But, keep it brief and simple. You want investors to quickly understand how you’re going to make money, so use charts and graphs as helpful ways to explain the flow of money between who’s selling and buying. 

The post Anatomy of a compelling pitch deck appeared first on DocSend.

When it comes to the benefits gained from DocSend, secure file sharing is only the tip of the iceberg. Its robust analytics and dashboards unlock key insights you can use to refine pitch strategies, speed deal cycles, improve content quality, and follow up more proactively with stakeholders. You can use DocSend to surface countless nuggets of intel—here are six lesser-known areas of insight you can track.

Who’s actually engaging with your content

Sharing content via custom links and virtual data rooms is fast and easy—but do you know who’s actually taking the time to view it? Digging into DocSend analytics lets you see who’s interacting with the content you’re sending. In this way, it gives teams x-ray vision into how viewers are engaging with their shared documents. It lets you quickly and easily answer questions like:: 

• Did my customer view the project proposal I sent last week? 
• Who else is part of the review process for the sales contract? 
• Did that investor ever peek at my pitch deck like they promised? 

Document-level analytics give you a real-time picture of engagement, allowing you to filter views at the virtual data room level or by individual content files. Plus, if you’ve enabled the “require email to view” feature, you can see who your content has been shared with. This is especially helpful during a deal cycle when new stakeholders can enter the conversation unexpectedly. 

How long people spend looking at your documents

Analyzing how long someone spends engaging with your content can give you a better gauge for discerning their interest level. For example, say a lukewarm prospect opened your proposal the other day. But they only spent a couple minutes skimming its entirety and stopped responding to your outreach. This could indicate they’re no longer interested in your product or services (especially if they dropped off after viewing your pricing page!)

On the flip side, folks who spend large amounts of time engaging with your content—reading documents and watching videos from start to finish—often signal high interest and are, thus, people you should focus more time and energy on. 

Which pages are viewed the longest

Likewise, measuring time spent per page via DocSend dashboards gives you a clear line of sight into where different folks choose to spend their time and what they prioritize. This insight can be used in a variety of ways, such as proactively scheduling a follow-up call with a prospect who’s been spending 75% of their time viewing your pricing page. Or prepping for a second conversation with a VC who’s looking closely at your business model slide. If you’re working with multiple stakeholders at the same company, you can also compare their time spent to understand their unique interests and tailor your conversations accordingly. 

The content, pages, and formats people are engaging with the most

You can also track and measure your top-performing pages, replicating successful formats and structures to improve the quality of existing sales and marketing materials. Here, you can uncover insight into content types that resonate most across your audience reach. 

For example, customer stories are a popular marketing asset that take on different forms and formats. Do your prospects favor customer videos over long-form stories? Or perhaps you notice that folks are spending a lot of time reviewing the competitive comparison matrix within a product overview. Is there an opportunity to replicate a similar matrix for all of your products and services?

Who’s watching (and rewatching) your videos—and so much more!

Videos are a key sales prospecting tool, and you can use DocSend analytics to improve the quality of your videos and how prospects engage with them. Tracking engagement and performance will help you prioritize your leads and save hours of wasted effort. Here are some of the video engagement metrics DocSend lets you track. 

For each visit you’ll be able to track: 

• Playback time per visit
• Playback percentage per visit
• User information including device, operating system, location, and email address
• Playback details during a visit, including pauses, rewinds, and skipped sections of content

Across all your visits you can track:

• Number of visits to your video file
• The average percent of your video that visitors viewed
• Aggregate viewership across your video by version
• A visit map, providing insight on where your viewers are located

You can also view aggregate viewership stats for multiple versions of your video, to see the most common drop off points. You can use this intel to eliminate areas of friction or confusion—sharing higher-quality videos that draw in more leads.

How viewers are engaging with your spreadsheets

DocSend’s new Spreadsheet sharing controls feature allows you to maintain control over sensitive business content and access detailed insight into how viewers engage with what you’ve shared. 

When you send your spreadsheets via traditional sharing platforms, you only see if someone has opened your document. DocSend’s tab-by-tab analytics lets you see how long each viewer spends on every tab, giving you insight into exactly where they want to deep dive.

You can also set viewer-specific permissions to make sure each of your viewers has the right view, as well as create custom links for every viewer, each with their own permissions. If you’re worried about your sensitive files getting into the wrong hands, DocSend’s spreadsheet sharing controls allow you to send a version of your spreadsheet that is only viewable in your recipient’s browser, preventing them from downloading or distributing your sensitive data.

Interested in seeing DocSend analytics in action? Sign up for a free trial!

The post Six things you didn’t know you can track with DocSend appeared first on DocSend.

How to structure a compelling pitch deck is crucial to a successful raise. As the fundraising landscape becomes increasingly competitive, data from our 2023 pre-seed report shows that busy VCs have even less time to look at every pitch deck sent their way. This means founders are under the gun to build engaging decks that quickly command attention from investors amid noisy, crowded markets. Startup founders need to show product readiness at earlier stages, and position their companies with a competitive edge. Even though no two pitch decks will ever look the same, we’ve found that successful startup pitch decks all organize their narratives into a clear and compelling story.

You can also see exactly how your deck stacks up with our Pitch Deck Analyzer tool, or download our free pitch deck template to create yours in minutes.

Tracking investor engagement with your pitch deck

You’ve created a compelling, well-organized pitch deck presentation. You’ve run it through DocSend’s Pitch Deck Analyzer tool with great results. Now, you’re ready to present your pitch deck to investors. Sending out an investor pitch deck is never easy, but having visibility into exactly how investors are engaging with your startup pitch deck shows you exactly where you can improve and add clarity or context.

Actively tracking investor engagement with your pitch deck is essential to a successful raise. It’s frustrating, and common, for founders to hear a lot of ‘no’s’, or even worse, mixed messages, during the fundraising process. If you want to avoid spending much of your fundraising period in an abyss of uncertainty, send your pitch with DocSend.

DocSend’s detailed analytics reveal exactly how VCs  interact with your pitch deck, empowering you to identify which investors are actually interested and craft more impactful follow-up conversations. Instantly see who has viewed each page, when, how many times, and whether your pitch deck was forwarded to anyone else. Actively tracking investor engagement lets you apply what you learn to optimize your pitch deck to give investors exactly the information they want and help increase your chances of getting funded.

Here’s how to use DocSend to track investor engagement and create the most compelling pitch deck possible.

Step one: Upload your startup pitch deck directly to DocSend

Whatever draft of your pitch deck you’re on, start off by uploading it to DocSend. Or, download our done-for-you pitch deck template to save tons of time.

Once you’ve uploaded your pitch deck, you can adjust the name and other document attributes as necessary until it’s presentation-ready.

Step two: Send your pitch deck as a DocSend link

You’ll probably send your startup pitch deck to a few dozen investors, and in order to properly track investor engagement, it’s best to use unique DocSend links for each one. To make this easier, you can install the DocSend plugin for either Gmail or Outlook to send out your pitch deck. Unique links will ensure that you can monitor investor engagement and activity and toggle access on an investor-by-investor basis.

When creating a link to your pitch deck in DocSend, specify the appropriate Account Name (in this case, the name of the firm to which you’ll be sending this deck). You can select from an array of security parameters as needed. The security parameters you select will be applied to the pitch deck on a link-by-link basis. For example, you can gate, password protect, or set a link expiration date for each link. You can even require viewer verification for some investors while enabling or disabling downloading for others.

Pro tip: If you’re set on tracking investor engagement with your pitch deck, disabling the download option when creating a link to your pitch deck is a good idea. If an investor asks you to enable the downloading option, you can always just switch on the ability to allow downloading within their link.

Step three: Invite other users as admin guests

By clicking the User Settings tab and selecting “Add Users,” you can invite other users, such as advisors, as admin guests. These users will automatically have access to the stats and materials they need, and you won’t need to consistently share access or send update summary emails.

If the time comes to remove a user, you can click here to learn how to remove (and, if necessary, reactivate!) an admin guest.

Step four: Optimize your investor pitch deck with analytics

Once you send out your pitch decks with the links you’ve created, you’ll be able to see which investors/VC firms have been engaging with your pitch deck and where they have spent the most time. Here’s what you can track with DocSend, and how to apply those insights to prioritize investor communication.

Who’s actually engaging with your content

During fundraising, new investors can enter the conversation unexpectedly. Knowing who’s actually taking the time to view your shared content is a critical step to strategic investor follow-up. 

Pro tip: Enable the “require email to view” feature to see who your content has been shared with.

How long viewers spend looking at your content

Analyzing how long an investor spends engaging with your content can give you a better gauge of their interest level. You can use this engagement data to prioritize investor outreach during your fundraising process. If an investor is repeatedly accessing your pitch deck and sharing it with his or her colleagues, that investor is likely much more interested than an investor who has never opened your deck.

Which pages are viewed the longest

Measuring time spent per page gives you a clear line of sight into where investors choose to spend their time and what they prioritize. This insight can be used in a variety of ways, such as prepping for a second conversation with a VC who’s looking closely at your business model slide. 

Who’s watching (and rewatching) your videos

Creating a compelling video pitch can be a great way to capture investor attention in less time. With our Dropbox Capture integration, you can record and upload your video in just a few clicks. After you send your video pitch to investors, start using DocSend’s video analytics to optimize your video. You can track:

• Playback time per visit
• Playback percentage per visit
• Playback details during a visit, including pauses, rewinds, and skipped sections of content
• Number of visits to your video file
• The average percent of your video that visitors viewed
• A visit map, providing insight on where your viewers are located

You can also view aggregate viewership stats for multiple versions of your video, to see the most common drop- off points. You can use this intel to eliminate areas of friction or confusion—sharing higher-quality videos that capture investor attention in less time.

There are many helpful ways to use the data you get from tracking investor engagement with your pitch deck. Look at where in your deck investors are bouncing, as well as where they spend more or less time, to optimize your deck for future rounds. With our pitch deck template, you can cross-check these areas with quantitatively-backed best practices in pitch deck creation.

Step five: Version control with DocSend

If you do ultimately decide to make changes, it’s easy to update your pitch deck directly in DocSend. Every link you’ve sent will be automatically updated—no need to send an apologetic email with an updated version of your investor pitch.

You’ll then have access to real-time quantifiable indications of whether a new version of your deck is outperforming the current version of your deck.

Then you can identify which investors viewed the original version of the deck to guide your follow-up process. You can use this data to prioritize investor outreach with pitch deck engagement as a gauge of each investor’s interest.

Step six: Turn off access for investors who say no

Any startup founder will tell you that hearing “no” from investors is more common than hearing “yes.” So when you hear a “no” from a venture capitalist, you can simply disable the link you sent them. All other links will stay fully functional—only investors with disabled links will lose access to your pitch deck.

To disable a link, click the toggle located near the link settings—this will immediately remove viewing access to all recipients. You can also delete a link by accessing the link settings, which will delete all associated visitor data. Since deleted links remove viewing data and are unretrievable, we recommend disabling content instead of deleting whenever possible. Alternatively, you could set the shared link to your startup pitch deck to expire after a specified time period.

Step seven: Respond to investor interest with DocSend Data Rooms

If you have a meeting with an investor and they for additional info, create a Data Room and upload all the relevant assets to it. Relevant assets can include spreadsheets, web links, additional decks, and any other files you have to share. You can customize the Data Room for that specific investor with a personalized viewing experience.

If interest wanes, just turn off access to a Data Room like you would turn off access to a DocSend link. But if interest results in a successful round of fundraising, you can (and should) celebrate!

If you get multiple indications of interest from different investors or VCs, you can duplicate the Data Room you’ve created. Creating a unique Data Room for each interested VC firm lets you restrict access for any investors that don’t pan out. Plus, you can personalize the content you provide to each VC firm. This is helpful if a firm requests a specific document or piece of information.

Use these tips to create a compelling pitch deck on your own, or copy/paste directly from our downloadable, done-for-you pitch deck template. Don’t have a DocSend account? Sign up for a free trial today.

The post Get x-ray vision into investor engagement with your pitch deck appeared first on DocSend.

Market seasonality invites cautious optimism

Quarter-over-quarter investor activity rose by just under 1%. An uptick, albeit slight, isn’t typically expected during the summer months. In the short-term, this shows reason for mild optimism: the increase in VC activity signals that from a demand point of view, investors have been gearing up for the fall rush. 

For the past year and a half, founder activity has been steadily on the rise. This trend continued over the last few months, with founder links seeing a 2% increase, QoQ. Given founder activity levels and the fact that it’s been an investor’s market for some time now, this 2% uptick isn’t especially significant. 

However, the fact that there was an increase in founder and investor activity during the summer months, which are typically quieter, indicates that we may see more activity over the next few weeks, just in time for the seasonal fall rush. However, this year’s ffall rush for investors may be less notable than in previous years. Spikes we’ve seen in previous years may be tempered this year by macroeconomic trends, such as recent news that interest rates will remain higher for longer. 

In the short term, the case for cautious optimism remains. Even if these expected seasonal movements end up being softer than in years past, the very fact that we’re seeing seasonality at all is a sign of relative health in the fundraising marketplace.

2023 vs 2021 analysis reveal a competitive landscape for founders

The longer-term perspective complicates this picture. On the one hand, VC activity in Q3 is down less than 2% year-over-year, which is less than one might have feared given the macro volatility we’ve seen so far this year. Further, it’s encouraging that demand for decks is down less than 4% from 2021 levels in a much hotter fundraising market. 

The YoY increases in founder activity indicate just how much of an investor’s market it is right now: founder activity is up nearly 9% year-over-year and nearly 16% compared to 2021. Although investor activity isn’t down sharply from the hot market of 2021, these two numbers have to be taken together to really understand what the market looks like:  investor activity isn’t significantly down, but founder activity has increased by 16%. This leaves the current market very much in VCs’ favor. Founders are sending out more and more  pitch decks, but investors aren’t looking at them very closely. 

One key takeaway is that even though VC activity isn’t falling too far behind its previous benchmarks, the fact that founder activity continues to heat up means the marketplace will stay extremely tight for founders and tilted toward investors (who may still not be eager to cut checks, anyway).

Looking ahead: macro-economic trends continue to create an investors’ market

What do these takeaways suggest from a forward-looking perspective? At first glance, it might seem like deal volume would be poised to pick up, given the beginning of the fall rush, the Q-Q uptick in investor activity, and the continued high volume of founder decks in the marketplace. However, macro news coming right at the end of Q3 might end up giving investors pause: interest rates that will stay higher for longer are now being priced into equities, and this may dampen private investors’ enthusiasm somewhat through Q4 and into Q1 2024. 

These macroeconomic factors will have a big impact on tech and VCs for the foreseeable future. Despite the cause for short-term optimism, there are still storm clouds indicating that we may see muted versions of past years’  VC behavior patterns going forward. 

DocSend releases quarterly data analyses via our Pitch Deck Interest metrics to track and predict the investment landscape, informing founders of volatility or stability in the venture capital environment.

Key Leading Indicators of Fundraising Activity

There are three core metrics DocSend analyzes to track investors’ hunger for deals and founders’ quest for capital.

• Founder links created – the average number of pitch deck links each founder is creating via DocSend. This serves as a proxy for the supply of startups seeking funding. A “link” refers to the unique URL a founder creates using DocSend to share their pitch deck with investors. When the average number of links increases, it means that founders are sending their decks out to more investors.
• Investor deck interactions – the average number of investor interactions for each pitch deck link. This serves as a proxy for demand for investments. The higher the interaction metric, the more often decks are viewed, shared, and revisited by potential investors. 

Investor time spent – the average time spent per pitch deck by potential investors. This metric offers a look at how long VCs are spending reviewing deals. More time spent per deck could mean investors are more closely scrutinizing deals.

The post DocSend Q3 2023 Pitch Deck Interest analysis indicates a low ceiling, but high floor for investors appeared first on DocSend.

Except almost as fast as you can pop that bottle, it’s time to be accountable to the people who put their faith in you. As the post-raise glow fades away, what’s revealed underneath is a pressure to spend the money you raised and communicate your decisions to your new bosses: your board of directors and your investors. 

The transition from rogue innovator to accountable business owner can be tough, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are three tips to make sure you have a soft post-raise landing:

1. Personalize consistent communication with your investors and board members

Now is the time to brush up on your communication skills, specifically for investor updates and board meetings. In a survey of 870+ founders, 60% of them said they send investor reports on a monthly basis, and seed investment firm NFX agrees this is a “sweet spot.” 

Here are some best practices to help you brush up on your communication skills:

1. Personalize your emails to investors: It might take a bit more time, but your investors will appreciate a personal email addressed to them rather than a blanket bcc to everyone. Every time you send an update, provide information tailored to their investments or interests. Send your personalized reports via a secure link so you can track whether they’ve opened and read the update.
2. Commit to consistency to soften future bad news: Consistent communication with investors can provide a buffer for bad news during times of crisis. As Erik Berg, investment analyst at Rev1 Ventures, puts it: “Developing a regular cadence with your updates will take a lot of the punch out of anything that is less than perfect. An email received after not hearing from a founder for 6 months saying that a company missed one of their revenue milestones…seems like a catastrophe.” Bad news as part of a regular update, on the other hand, is a launching off point for solutions.
3. Use document analytics to improve communication: You deserve to know who’s actually reading your investor updates—so you can improve them in the future. Document tracking tells you which investors are viewing your update, for how long, which slides and tabs they’re lingering on, etc. You can’t improve what you don’t measure, and paying attention to communication metrics like these can help you build stronger relationships earlier.

2. Spend money based on a plan, not pressure

After a raise, founders can feel a lot of pressure to spend that money quickly on hiring. If you’re still in the early stages, you’ll likely need to hire a chief operating officer if you don’t have one already, but beyond this key hire, it can be tough to quiet the pressure to hire more people without a solid plan, just because you have the money to do it.

David Kenney, corporate advisor and Sydney director of Startup Grind, says “spending priorities always depend on how early stage you are” and encourages founders to ask three questions before they make key resource decisions:

• Is my product ready?
• Are there things I need to build before I can monetize my product?
• Do I know what kind of customers I want to attract?

When you make hiring decisions based on product goals and/or customer goals, you’ll have a solid rationale to educate people who don’t know your business as well as you do.

3. Send more information than you communicate at your board meeting

Three things will make your board meetings run more smoothly:

1. Send detailed material ahead of time: Send a detailed board pack two or three days before your board meeting. It should include financials, any big news, updates from across the business—and more detail than what you’ll actually share at the board meeting. When your board members feel informed with details ahead of the meeting, you can use precious meeting time for ideation and decision making instead of getting stuck in the weeds.
2. Call each board member to discuss what’s coming: If you’re new to having a board and you’re still working out the quirks of your relationships, follow up on your board material with a phone call. Quick conversations can help you anticipate what’s coming, including questions and sticking points that should be addressed up front.
3. Use document analytics to anticipate questions: Similar to your investor report, document analytics can let you know in advance where people spent the most time on your board pack. If you notice people lingering on any slide in particular, you’ll be able to better anticipate questions.

Want a head start on your most important post-raise action items? Download our board meeting minutes template and our investor report template to start your relationships on the right note.

The post 3 tips to help you succeed post-raise appeared first on DocSend.

But what if you’re a founder with a great idea and not much of a network? Where do you start, if not with cold leads and an email template that removes the intimidation of a blank screen? This is what you’ll learn here, so you can skip some of the trial-and-error of investor outreach and raise your round faster.

	Do	Don’t
Perform soft outreach before active fundraising
Stack-rank your outreach list of investors
Show the investor why you chose them
Use meaningful signals in your outreach
Use bullet points in your outreach emails
Mistake fluff for a positive signal
Only go after the big checks
Forget a clear call to action

Investor outreach do’s

Do start outreach before you start outreach

Nathaniel Jewell, founder & CEO of Recess.tv, begins “unofficially” fundraising about three months before he really starts fundraising.

“During this unofficial period,” he says, “I’ll get intros and reach out to the VCs on my list. I tell them that I’d like to meet with them and talk about what we’re doing but that we’re not currently fundraising. The soft raise is all about building relationships: these meetings are a great way to show me which VCs are a personality match.”

Do stack-rank your outreach list of investors

Not all investors are potential investors in your company. You’ll want to come up with your own ranking system for VCs, either based on geography, investment thesis, prestige, LinkedIn network overlap, etc. 

When you’ve ranked your investors, we recommend sending outreach in waves:

1. Wave one: Potential investors you know well, like family members, previous managers and colleagues, and other close connections. Ask them for honest feedback on your pitch deck you can implement for the next two waves.
2. Wave two: People who can lead the round and act as a real-world litmus test for how investors outside of your close network will react to your pitch.
3. Wave three: The “best of the best” list of firms. You reach out to this wave when you’ve incorporated all earlier feedback on your pitch. Hopefully at this stage you’ll also be able to show these big firms that you already have some momentum.

Note: When you send your pitch deck, Nathaniel Jewell recommends uploading it to DocSend to create a secure link and password for each firm. Restrict download access to prevent firms from creating a PDF of the deck, which strips it of the performance analytics you’ll need to improve it for future rounds.

Do show the investor why you chose them

Investors want to know why you want to work with them specifically, for reasons besides the paycheck. Mention companies in their portfolio that are similar to yours, both to show you did your research and to signal you’re not a risk. 

Do use meaningful signals in your outreach

Signals are words that get investors excited about you, your business model, and your product. Some examples of positive signals include:

• You’re an exited founder
• You already have term sheets from a certain fund (name them) 
• You’ve seen significant growth over a certain period of time (be specific)
• You have signed contracts, especially if they’re with big name companies (name them)
• You’re YC-backed

Do use bullet points in your outreach emails

Investors speed-read their emails. Develop bullet points that highlight words and numbers as positive signals. You may want to group your bullet points into three categories: team, product, and growth. 

Investor outreach don’ts

Don’t mistake fluff for a positive signal

You may think certain signals about your business carry depth, but Stéphane Nassa, cofounder of OpenVC, cautions against these “empty” signals that are red flags for investors:

• Mentioning a motivated team—this should be table stakes, and a mention of it may come off as fluffy 
• Mentioning conversations with funds or clients—everybody talks, and your conversations are not substantial enough to count as a signal
• Mockups, MVPs, and waitlists—these are no longer strong differentiators on their own, unless you have active users and user growth to go along with them

Don’t only go after the big checks

If you’re not starting with a large network, don’t overlook the small checks from friends and family. Sometimes the $1,000 checks bring $5,000 checks and those bring $10,000 checks, and so on.

When you view smaller checks as pathways to larger ones, you begin to realize your network is larger than you think. While much of your network won’t be able to invest $50,000, some can probably invest $1,000 or $2,000 and then bring in their uncle, their boss, their colleagues, etc. This is how you can maximize what might be a smaller network compared to other founders.

Don’t forget a clear call to action

Don’t spend so much time on the content of your email that you forget the most important part—a clear call to action. This is where you request a meeting with the investor, whether it’s a call or a face-to-face. 

Some founders prefer to send a Calendly link while others enjoy the cordial back-and-forth of scheduling—the issue is known to be divisive—but either way, make sure to set expectations about when you’d like to meet and for how long, so the investor knows you respect their time.

Want to make sure you’re constantly improving your pitch to investors? Track investor engagement with your pitch deck and securely share files with DocSend.

The post Investor outreach do’s & don’ts appeared first on DocSend.

Macroeconomic conditions continue to be challenging, and startup founders aiming to raise capital in 2023 face an uphill battle. The data shows that early-stage deals have been hit especially hard: year-over-year funding for these new startups dropped by about half in Q2 2023. Investors making pre-seed deals are focusing intently on long-term profitability over shorter-term growth, and startups at this earliest stage need to show a sustainable path to profitability, decreasing VCs’ investment risk. 

Our 2022-23 report shows that risk aversion is driving VC funding decisions, meaning that founders need to sharpen their storytelling and demonstrate traction to instill confidence in VCs and stand out. 

As investor activity wanes while fundraising competition remains fierce, how can pre-seed founders succeed in a hyper-competitive landscape? Here are some key insights and takeaways from our research to give founders a leg up: 

Pre-seed founders: How to succeed in fundraising

• Shift from growth to profitability to minimize risk
  • Our data shows VCs leaning in on traction, business model, and financials sections in 2023.
• Roadmap your product’s path to long-term success
  • Successful pre-seed companies linked their product and business model sections at the start of their decks, showing how monetization flows from their unique solution.
• Show how your traction and monetization plans are integrated
  • VCs gave more scrutiny to the business model and traction sections in decks that didn’t get funded. Be sure that you’re putting your business’ best foot forward here.
• Avoid elaborate pre-seed competition sections

The competition section saw the biggest year-over-year drop in investor scrutiny. Streamline your efforts on sections that investors care about more.

Download our 2022-23 pre-seed report to get the full scoop into how today’s fundraising climate has changed, and how to adjust your fundraising strategy and pitch deck for maximum success.

The post The pre-seed round in 2022-23: How founders can adjust to shift in VC focus appeared first on DocSend.

Your company is your baby — and you know first-hand how vulnerable it feels to share your company’s sensitive financial data. High stakes deals require high security sharing solutions. Don’t lose sleep over fear your company’s financial data won’t impress your potential partners or could end up in the wrong hands. Take advice from successful dealmakers and make sure you take these steps before you share any of your company’s financial data:

Be prepared to back up claims in your pitch deck: You wowed them with a memorable pitch and you should expect them to remember and fact check the impressive claims you made to capture their attention. Keeping your pitch deck and financial data in one shared space, like DocSend’s virtual data rooms, enables fact checkers to easily access and cross-check all the types of data, from qualitative customer stories to quantitative revenue forecasts, in one secure location, with one single link. 

Expect to dig into the details: Due diligence is a full time job (only for the most detail oriented of people). Know that no cell in your spreadsheet will go overlooked. Inconsistencies across spreadsheets and decks can make you look unprepared at best and untrustworthy at worst. By getting all your ducks in a row early, in a virtual data room you’ll give your team the best chance to triple check and ensure every document you intend to share reflects a consistent narrative and financial picture. 

Have an answer for known risks (and show that you have mitigation plans for potential unknown risks): Your deal partners are looking for certainty. They want to leave the due diligence phase confident they have all the data and have considered all the potential pros and cons of the deal. Showcase your strategic thinking by proactively communicating known risks, openly sharing potential unknown risks and demonstrating your mitigation plans for both.  

Expect due diligence to take longer than planned: The hard truth is that there will always be unknowns in a deal. Every deal team is incentivized to uncover unknown risks before anyone signs on the dotted line. It’s not personal, it’s the job. You’ll be living in your virtual data room for weeks, maybe months, constantly sending and receiving new files. Maintaining a sense of structure in your DocSend data rooms ensures that the endless hours spent in due diligence will not be wasted searching for lost documents. 

Put your best foot forward by being organized and professional: Your pitch deck was your first impression and your virtual data room is your opportunity to show you can both sell a vision and run a well-oiled machine. Take advantage of DocSend’s done-for-you templates to minimize the administrative overhead of due diligence, available within your DocSend dashboard. 

 Don’t have a DocSend account? Start a free trial and see how DocSend can ease the due diligence process.

From pitch decks to signing SAFE notes, Flow Networks uses DocSend as its full-circle fundraising platform

Coming soon: Due diligence templates

We’re launching industry-vetted templates for common due diligence spreadsheets in August 2023, and would love to hear from you. 

 Tell us what spreadsheet templates you want.

The post Let DocSend power your deal from pitch deck to due diligence appeared first on DocSend.