Dogpatch Labs » RyanSpoon

Creating an Early-Stage Pitch Deck

RyanSpoon — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:29:28 +0000

Note: This article originally appeared on TechCrunch (“How To Create An Early-Stage Pitch Deck For Investors”).

It is the first in a series of posts / decks that I will be doing on those questions I get asked most commonly. Of course we will start with the question I get most: how to create a great pitch deck!

When raising capital, a combination of your company’s product, vision, team and execution are what ultimately attract investment. And while the pitch deck is ultimately less important than vision and product, it exists to convey both elements and get investors hungry for more.

Like other investors, I come across hundreds of pitches each month — some in person, others in email; some as PowerPoints, and others as full-fledged business plans. Your goal is to craft a deck that is both:

- crisp: succinct enough that it is easily digestible (in person, email, etc)

- and complete: thorough enough that it conveys the big vision and current traction

I looked back on many of the pitches I reviewed over the last couple years (good and bad) and compared it to public pitch decks of familiar, successful companies like Airbnb, Foursquare, and Mint. The output is this guide to creating an early-stage pitch deck. It’s intended for companies seeking seed and series A investments.

There are five core themes followed by a suggested structure:

1. Have a great one-liner
2. Know your audience
3. Keep it to 10-15 slides
4. Beware of the demo
5. Expect the deck to be shared

And remember: it’s the story and the conversation that is important – not the imagery and colors. If you can convey the passion that drives you (and your users / customers!), you will have created a powerful pitch deck.

Mashable Profiles Instagram & Touches on Dogpatch Community.

RyanSpoon — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:24:48 +0000

As part of their Scaling Startups series, Mashable profiled Dogpatch-alum Instagram: “Scaling Instagram: How the Photo Sharing Startup Avoided Catastrophe in Its First Days“. It is an interesting read considering Instagram’s instant, tremendous success… and it is also a testament to Kevin and Mike, who are terrific.

The article also touches upon the core of Dogpatch Labs: a community of entrepreneurs of different backgrounds and skills. As the Instagram team quickly (ie six hours after launch), co-founder Mike Krieger leverage the Dogpatch community’s input / experience:

Instagram, already fast-approaching 40,000 users, would need something much sooner to meet the weekend demand. “We needed to be on a platform where we could adjust in minutes, not days,” says Krieger.

So, Krieger, a former UX designer at Meebo with admittedly no experience scaling a startup, walked around the Dogpatch Labs coworking space in San Francisco — the locale of Instagram’s first office — and queried other startup founders about what to do. Officemates suggested that Instagram move its service to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).

Instagram officially went from a local server-run operation to an EC2 hosted shop in the wee hours of Saturday morning October 9, 2010. Doing so was much like open heart surgery, according to Krieger.

Also fun: Mashable highlighted the Instagram picture of the Red Bull consumed during their all-nighter at Dogpatch

Updates from Dogpatch Labs SF

RyanSpoon — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:39:01 +0000

For South by Southwest 2011, we constructed a two-day long Dogpatch Labs SXSW and, over that period, hosted 100s of entrepreneurs. It was a lot of fun and a big success (TheStreet, Inc, NY Observer, etc).

The weekend also reminded me that there are a handful of exciting new companies who have recently joined Dogpatch Labs SF (see all here) and a couple great launches / announcements from former residents:

New Dogpatch Labs SF Residents

Adility is an offers platform for advertisers, publishers and developers. Adility has three core products: OffersApp for advertisers and brands, OffersDB for publishers and developers, and OffersAgency for sales teams. (Business Insider coverage)

ChartBoost: get your iPhone apps into the ranks.

MyPad is the best way to view Facebook on the iPad. It’s been downloaded over 3,000,000 times. (TechCrunch coverage)

Truvie: We’re a passionate team working on a building out-of-the-box hyper local solutions that will shape the future of web and mobile fraud detection, targeted advertising and content geo-fencing.

Yobongo is a mobile communication startup currently in private beta testing. The keys to the service are location, realtime, and identity. (TechCrunch coverage)

News from Recent Dogpatch Labs SF Graduates

SoundTracking: share the soundtrack to your life. (TechCrunch coverage)

Wild Pockets is an end to end solution that supports creators throughout the life cycle of 3D game development (Update:acquired by Autodesk)

Mashable + Dogpatch = Breakout Apps of SXSW 2011

RyanSpoon — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:49:57 +0000

As South by Southwest approaches, start-ups are polishing their applications and planning their launch parties. And today Mashable listed the “13 Potential Breakout Apps to Watch at SXSW 2011“. Of the thirteen companies to watch, three are Dogpatchers:

Also – a reminder that we will have Dogpatch Labs SXSW Sunday and Monday. If interested, click here to learn more or email me directly for more information. Several of us will be present!

- Yobongo (Dogpatch SF)

- Fast Society (Dogpatch NYC)

Fast Society Version 2 Launch from Fast Society on Vimeo.

- Instagram (Dogpatch SF)

Former N.E.R.D Gus Weber Joins Dogpatch Labs Cambridge

RyanSpoon — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:26:26 +0000

Polaris Venture Partners Adds Former N.E.R.D Gus Weber to Dogpatch Labs Cambridge
Former Microsoft Community Manager is new Entrepreneur in Residence

BOSTON (January 12, 2011) – Polaris Venture Partners today announced that Gus Weber (@gweber), formerly Business Development and Community Relations Manager at Microsoft’s New England Research & Development Center (N.E.R.D), is the new entrepreneur in residence (EIR) in the Cambridge Dogpatch Labs. Gus, an active member of Boston’s technology and startup community, will work with early stage entrepreneurs and founders as they conceive of and launch startups in the rapidly growing Boston-area ecosystem. He will also build upon the synergies between the three Dogpatch locations and the Labs’ alumni network, which now includes more than 300 entrepreneurs across its NYC, Cambridge and San Francisco locations. Dogpatch Labs offers space, connectivity and “open-sourced” collaboration through industry events and open houses that encourage a constant atmosphere of breakthrough innovation.

“Gus has established himself as a leader in the Cambridge startup community, and he brings passion and a unique perspective on how to make Dogpatch Labs an even more vibrant member of the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem,” said Dave Barrett, General Partner of Polaris Venture Partners. “Over the past two years, Gus has worked tirelessly to bring the Cambridge startup community together. We’re proud that Dogpatch has established itself as a strong presence in the ecosystem, and we look forward to its next stage of growth as we bring one of Boston’s most prolific ‘connectors’ to the Dogpatch family.”
“I’ve had a tremendous opportunity through Microsoft N.E.R.D to be an ambassador to the local tech community,” said Gus Weber. “My goal has always been to be an enabler of innovation, and I see this new opportunity as a logical extension of the work that I’ve done throughout my career. I’m excited to share my experiences with the Dogpatch community, including my time at Rochester Institute of Technology, where I helped establish an academic innovation incubator and, especially, at Microsoft, where I drove a global innovation competition for students and leveraged N.E.R.D to help build organic community in Boston.”

About Polaris Venture Partners

Polaris Venture Partners is a partnership of experienced investors, operating executives and entrepreneurs. The firm’s mission is to identify, invest in and partner with seed, early stage, and middle-market businesses with exceptional promise and help them grow into market-leading companies. Polaris invests in businesses across a number of markets including technology, digital media, consumer, enertech and life sciences. Polaris-backed successes in technology and consumer include: Akamai Technologies (AKAM), Allaire, Art.com, Athlete’s Performance, Automattic (WordPress), e-Rewards, LogMeIn (LOGM), LegalZoom, LivingProof, MarkMonitor, Powersoft, Solidworks, TechTarget (TTGT) and Quantcast. Polaris-backed successes in life sciences include: Adimab, Adnexus (sold to BMS), Advanced Inhalation Research (sold to Alkermes), Alimera (ALIM), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY), Asthmatx (sold to Boston Scientific) Glycofi (sold to Merck), Momenta Pharmaceuticals (MNTA) and Ironwood (IRWD). For more on the firm, its mission and its portfolio companies: http://polarisventures.com.

Heading into 2011, Some Dogpatch SF Updates

RyanSpoon — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 17:17:21 +0000

As we head into 2010 winds up and we head into 2011, there is a lot of terrific news coming out of Dogpatch Labs. Here is a sampling from just the last couple weeks in Dogpatch Labs San Francisco. Of course, I have missed several exciting updates… and I apologize! We look forward to a terrific 2011!

There are several great new companies and entrepreneurs joining in January. Dogpatch Labs New York is currently taking applications (apply here) and you can always drop me a note for San Francisco here.

End of 2010 Dogpatch Labs Updates:

- Movity was acquired by Trulia earlier in the week (Movity is also a Polaris company). Read more…

- Instagram hit 1,000,000 users. Read more…

- Curated shopping site Everlane soft launched this week

- Trazzler launched a deal platform specifically for travel

- ChompOn launched a couple killer partners. Read more….

- Cardpool released a new marketplace version yesterday. Read more…

- Stickybits released a totally new iphone version to great brand feedback (Note: a Polaris company). Read more…

- Frid.ge released an enhanced version of http://frid.ge, including full email integration (Note: a Polaris company)

- AllTrails has the #1 noteworthy iphone app in travel. Download here…

- Fanvibe released a new iphone version and NBA integration. Read more…

- Yardsellr and Formspring recently closed follow on rounds of funding. (Note: Formspring is a Polaris company) Read more here and here…

Dogpatch Labs SF Collage via Instagram

RyanSpoon — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 00:03:05 +0000

Fun, quick collage I put together of Dogpatch Labs using Instagr.am – one of the exciting current Dogpatch Labs companies.

These are pictures taken of Pier 38 (where Dogpatch is housed) using various filters on Instagram.

Another Dogpatch Exit: Thing Labs / Brizzly!

RyanSpoon — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:59:35 +0000

Congrats to Jason Shellen and the entire Thing Labs team on yesterday’s announcement that Thing Labs was being acquired by AOL. Rich irony that TechCrunch, which originally reported that the deal was rumored, was also bought by AOL on the same day.

We are psyched to report that this is the third exit for Dogpatch Labs in under a year, following Google’s acquisition of AppJet and MTV’s acquisition of Social Express.

We will have exact numbers soon, but between financings and exits the number of Dogpatch success stories now exceeds 50. Way to go guys!

And last but certainly not least, Thing Labs also was a very nice return for Polaris It’s been a good September for us. Last week two of our portfolio companies had big exits: Internet Brands was acquired for Hellman & Friedman for $640M, and Asthmatx was acquired by Boston Scientific for about $450M.

Robert Scoble Visits Dogpatch Labs (Video)

RyanSpoon — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:31:47 +0000

We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Robert Scoble of Building43.com and taking about Dogpatch Labs, entrepreneurship and Polaris Venture Partners.

Scoble just posted the article, “Dogpatch Labs gives startups the room—and expertise—to thrive” and the video chat is included below.

I was first introduced to Robert at other Dogpatch Labs events – the most recently of which he gave a speech about the five companies and trends he is most excited about (if you are a Scoble follower on blog or Twitter, you know that Flipboard was absolutely in that list!). He enjoyed the space and the community of entrepreneurs, and we decided to do a piece on Dogpatch Labs:

Handful of Dogpatch Labs Company Updates

RyanSpoon — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:12:25 +0000

A handful of various updates from Dogpatch Labs companies across our three locations: Boston, New York and San Francisco. This is by no means a complete list – but it is includes links from TechCrunch articles within the last week:

YCombinator Demo Day Includes Dogpatch-ers

- Congratulations to the 36 companies that launched at the most recent YCombinator Demo Day. Three of the companies are of Dogpatch Labs: FanVibe, Rapportive and one that is ‘off the record’

Zozi Funding

- Local-Activity Site Zozi Lands $3 Million Series A From 500 Startups And Zig Capital

WiseStamp Launches Its Platform

- WiseStamp Signs Your Emails With Tweets, Stumbles And Plans