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Introduction ARR, or Annual Recurring Revenue, is a key metric for SaaS startups to understand and track. At a high level, ARR is the annual revenue a startup can expect to make. Zooming in, there are a few more layers that define what ARR really is. Understanding ARR and how to calculate it is critical as you build a successful SaaS startup. Related Resource: Our Ultimate Guide to SaaS Metrics What is ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) for a Startup? For a startup, ARR, or Annual Recurring Revenue is the profit that they can expect to make in any fiscal year period. However, there are a few requirements that need to be considered for a profit number to truly be ARR. For starters, the revenue model for the startup should be subscription-based, meaning that the product sold is not a one-time purchase but rather a recurring cost. This subscription should be an annual one but can be fulfilled via a variety of billing structures such as monthly billing, bi-annually, or annual payments. The cost of the subscription should be in a dollar amount and always converted into an annual amount. One-off transactions for your products do not count towards ARR. For a startup, ARR is so important because it contributes to their overall valuation. Investors, no matter what stage of startup you are at, will expect founders to know, understand, and track their startup’s ARR. Additionally, because it’s only a number made up of annualized subscription-based profit, ARR will be a distinct, different number than accountings revenue. Why do startups like ARR? Not only is ARR a metric that all investors expect startup founders to know and track, it’s also a favorable metric for founders beyond just pleasing investors. A few reasons why startups like ARR as a metric include: Forecasting and Growth Planning: Company planning is typically done on an annual basis so when revenue is measured with ARR, it makes company planning that much easier. ARR can help inform not only the annual budget but ARR growth predictions as well. A clear forecast can allow leadership to make smarter, more tactical growth moves around hiring, raising rounds of funding, and eventually, exiting or going public with their business. Related Resource: Building A Startup Financial Model That Works Customer Payments: With annual subscriptions, customers are only responsible for a single bill every year. This makes the headache of billing, potential delays in customers’ paying, and chasing down revenue that much easier. When the bill is 1x a year for each customer, it’s a huge time saver and allows for more on-time payments by customers and more predictable work for the finance teams at startups. Related Resource: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): A Critical Metrics for Founders Standardized Subscription Terms: Naturally, with software sales, there may be some negotiations around term length for various customers. Most companies have a standard term they prefer (2 years, 18 months, 12 months). With ARR, regardless of term length, each customer’s payments are standardized to one year. This means that payments will always be billed in 12-month increments so all customers produce annual revenue for the business and all billing and contracts are treated the same. Startups love this again for the simplicity for finance teams but also for predictability of growth. Why do investors like ARR? As noted earlier, investors value ARR as a key metric when evaluating startups and their founders as potential investments. A few reasons why investors like ARR as a metric are: Revenue Predictability: This is a big factor for investors to feel confident about an investment. If a product comes with a monthly commitment instead of yearly or a business operates solely on 1-time purchases, this can be a red flag for investors in the business-to-business space. With annualized revenue, there is no risk for seasonality to a product or slow months where monthly or 1-time revenue can not be relied on. With ARR, investors can be ensured that there is clear profitability on an annual basis which provides more security for their investment. Competitive Landscape Insight: In competitive spaces, investors want to align themselves with the company and product that will ultimately come out on top. It can be hard for investors to evaluate the true best investment in a crowded space where all companies are growing their customer base and employee base and seemingly showing positive growth every year. ARR can help investors understand who the true rocket ships are in a space by understanding the annual revenue growth over time. A dip in ARR year over year can be a red flag but growing ARR even when bringing on new investors that change valuations are a huge positive for investors in evaluating a competitive space. Related Resource: How to Model Total Addressable Market (Template Included) Ease of Business Valuation: At the end of the day, a steady increase in recurring revenue reassures investors that they will most likely see a return on an investment in your business. ARR is critical because just as it allows founders to plan for the predictable growth for their business, it allows investors to more easily and accurately predict what the value of a business will be based on its ARR growth in 5, 10, 20 years post their investment. A multiple of ARR is a clear way for investors to predict an accurate valuation of a startup’s business and make smart investment decisions. Related Resource: The Understandable Guide to Startup Funding Stages How to Calculate ARR Knowing ARR is the annual recurring revenue for your business over a 12 month period, it may seem like a straightforward metric to calculate. That’s not necessarily the case. ARR can look differently depending on the company. There is nuance to how it is calculated for every business. Traditional ARR Calculation Traditionally ARR is calculated for standard annual contracts where a client commits for a 1-year term. The ARR is the total cost of the recurring product or services (what would be billed again after 1 year if the customer chooses to subscribe for another year of product). So if your product is $10,000 dollars annually but you also charge a $3,000 onboarding fee. The ARR on that customer deal would just be $10,000. The 3k is not included as it is not recurring and is only a 1-time fee. Multi-Year Contract ARR Calculation If you have a customer that opts in upfront for a multi-year contract, meaning they won’t be up for renewal or re-subscription until that first multi-year contract is complete, this gets factored into the ARR calculation. Sticking with our example, the recurring fee of your product is 10k a year. If a customer signs up for a 3-year contract, the ARR is found out by multiplying the annual cost by the number of years (10k x 3) and then dividing that total by the number of years (30k / 3) leaving the ARR at $10,000. This only gets tricky when the contract is not a straightforward multi-year contract but rather a contract length with a number of months that doesn’t quite add up to exact years. If your client has signed up for an 18-month term at 10k a year. The total cost of the product will be multiplied by the result of 12 divided by 18. $15,000 x (12/18) =$10,000 ARR. For a 15 month contract it would read: $12,500 x (12/15) = $10,000 ARR and so on. MRR Based ARR Calculation Monthly Recurring Revenue or MRR is income a business can count on receiving every single month. Similar to ARR, it is on a recurring basis however the outcome is a 30 day period vs. an annual period. In some cases, MRR can be used as a basis for ARR calculation. If your company operates a subscription business where the standard term is monthly (maybe with an upfront commitment of 6 months for example) your MRR can be used to estimate ARR for forecasting purposes. Simply take your total MRR (found the same way you would find traditional MRR, just looking at it month over month) and multiply by 12. So if a customer is paying for a product that is $100 a month, the ARR on that contract would be $100 x 12 = $1,200 ARR. Common Mistakes Calculating ARR While overall ARR might seem like a pretty straightforward metric to calculate, many startup leaders make a few common mistakes early on when pulling together ARR calculations. A few of the most common mistakes seen when calculating ARR include: Including Free Trials Time granted to a customer to use a product for free or at a temporary trial-period discount, regardless of how long, should not be included in ARR calculations. These should be treated as one-off payments. When the trial converts to an annual subscription, that cost can be used to calculate ARR but only if it is converted to a recurring subscription. Not Factoring in Discounts Often, discounts are offered for a portion of a contract to incentive partnership, however, discounts can affect your final ARR. If a customer has a discount for their first year or for any duration of their contract, it needs to be reflected in the ARR. So if the discount is 25% off for the first year bringing a cost down to $750 from a 1k list price, that needs to be reflected in the ARR and $750 should be used as the calculating number. If the discount is only for a set year, upon renewal, the full price can be used for ARR but not before then. Treating Late Payments like Churn If a customer is late on a payment, they haven’t churned so their contract should still be included towards ARR. The only difference the company might see here is when the payment hits the bank account but the commitment to a yearly contract is still in place so deals with late payments should be included in ARR calculations. Other common nuances that should be included in ARR calculations include lost payments from churned customers, upsells on current customer subscriptions, downgraded subscriptions. Common nuances that should not be included in ARR calculations include set-up fees, account adjustments, or any other non-recurring charge. Track ARR and other KPIs with Visible ARR is a crucial metric for any successful startup founder and team to master. Calculating ARR can help founders and executives plan for growth, make accurate forecasts, showcase more predictable revenue for investors, standardize their subscription terms, and increase the valuation of their business. An accurate calculation of ARR can be tricky but is a critical skill to learn. Visible can help founders and investors alike keep track of ARR and a handful of other metrics in a clean, painless, and delightful way. Check out how Visible helps with metric tracking for SaaS businesses here.

While a business plan might feel like a dying practice for startups there are countless benefits of building out and thinking through a plan. A startup business plan can be the backbone of pitch decks, investment memos, and strategy as you set out to build your startup. Related Reading: How to Secure Financing With a Bulletproof Startup Fundraising Strategy In our guide below, we lay out 8 concepts that will help you build a business plan as you begin your startup journey. You can skip around to specific sections below: Eight Key Concepts To Include In Your Business Plan As we mentioned above, the 8 concepts below are a great starting point to think through when forming your business. Inevitably, you’ll face questions and issues around all of the issues so having a well-thought-out plan and approach to each will pay dividends as you build your business. Related Resource: How to Create a Startup Funding Proposal: 8 Samples and Templates to Guide You 1. Build an Executive Summary As put by the team at Inc.com, “The summary should include the major details of your report, but it’s important not to bore the reader with minutiae. Save the analysis, charts, numbers, and glowing reviews for the report itself. This is the time to grab your reader’s attention and let the person know what it is you do and why he or she should read the rest of your business plan or proposal.” An executive summary is an opportunity for you to layout the contents of your business plan and set the stage for what is to come. Avoid going too deep into detail and rather lay out the backbone of your plan. You want to balance getting the reader’s attention with supplying the information they need to get a grasp of your report. A few items that we suggest you include: What is this product service/service? Who will benefit from this product/service? Who is competing with this product/service? How will you execute on selling your product/service? As you continue to build out other sections of your business plan, the executive summary might change as you tweak other components. Related Resource: A Complete Guide on Founders Agreements 2. Identify Your Business Objectives First things first, you will want to layout the objectives of your business. This should be a deeper dive into what exactly your company does and how it is set up. This will be your opportunity to highlight your market and communicate why your product/service is set up for success. This is also a chance to hit on the mechanics of your business (structure, model, etc.). A few items that we suggest including when laying out your business objectives: Gives investors a brief overview of what your company does Communicate the value of your product/service Highlights the market opportunity You will have an opportunity to go into more depth in each of the details above later in the plan so make sure you are giving just enough detail to build interest and give investors a solid understanding of your objectives. 3. Highlight Your Companies Products and Services Next, you can start digging into the fine details of your products and services. You will want to build excitement here and let investors know exactly what your product offers and why it is built to solve a big problem and win a market. This is a great opportunity to present any qualitative or quantitative data you have about the market and your ideal buyer. Layout the problem and make your investors feel the pain that you are trying to solve. For example: Let’s say you have an application that helps people find and book a camping site. You might want to lay out the problem you are solving below: Next, layout how and why your solution is solving the problem like the example below: A few other things you will want to make sure you include when highlighting your product or service: Face-to-face research on problems in the market How does this product solve the market’s problem? Data that suggests people are feeling the same pain point Stories from existing or potential customers that highlight the pain points The goal here is for you to have your investors understand the problem and start building empathy. Related Resource: How to Write a Problem Statement [Startup Edition] 4. Define Market Opportunities After you have laid out the problem and solution, you can start displaying the hard data behind the market. Venture capital follows a power law curve so chances are investors will want startups to demonstrate a large market and the potential to capture a large percentage of the market. One aspect is modeling your total addressable market. You’ll want to demonstrate a large market that piques the interest of investors. Make sure to use real numbers and a bottoms-up approach here. In addition to demonstrating your addressable market, we suggest including a few of the ideas below: Do research on the target audience Who is the target demographic for your product/service? What is the target location for your product/service? What is the typical behavior for your target audience? Related Resource: When & How to Calculate Market Share (With Formulas) 5. Complete Your Sales and Marketing Plan Now that you have demonstrated your product and the greater market it is time to start digging into the specifics of you will attract and close new customers. At the end of the day, bringing in revenue is the goal of a business to having a strong go-to-market strategy is an important aspect of your startup’s business plan. If you’ve correctly laid out your market and the demographics of your target market in the previous sections, investors should have a strong understanding of the space and will be able to have a conversation around your sales and marketing strategies. You don’t need to go into overwhelming detail here but laying out what channels you will rely on and how you will execute and hire on those channels is necessary. For example, if organic search is a strategy you can lay out what you are doing to execute on that channel but do not need to mention the specific posts and content you are creating here. To make sure you nail this section, be sure to include a few of the following: Sales channels Marketing objectives Early data points and success If you do not have any hard data points yet, no worries. Use your research and market data to build compelling cases for different acquisition strategies. Related Resource: 7 Startup Growth Strategies 6. Include a Competitive Analysis Report Of course, investors will want to know about the competitors operating in your market. They will want to understand how you are differentiated and why you are poised to beat them in the space. You’ll want to make sure you are clearly demonstrating who is operating in what aspects of the space. Compare your product or offering to them. Remember to be honest here as investors always have the ability to double-check your research and will do their own analysis of your competitors. A common way to show this information is by using a market map. Check out an example of what a market map looks like below: Related Resource: Tips for Creating an Investor Pitch Deck 7. Structure Your Operations and Management Teams In the early days of a business, most investors will be taking a chance on the founding team and management team. They will want to look at your team’s past experiences and skillset to understand why they are the ones that should execute on a problem. Highlight what managers and leaders are responsible for what aspects of the business and use their past experiences and skillsets to show why they are fit for the role. You can also use this as an opportunity to demonstrate hiring plans and how your teams will be structured as you continue to grow. Here are a few examples of what you might want to include: Define your team of experts and what tasks they are responsible for. Consider adding an organizational chart to clearly outline your companies structure 8. Financial Analysis Finally, you should include financial analysis for your business. Depending on who you are sharing your business plan with might depend on the level of financial analysis you would want to share. If you already have financials and data be sure to include the last 12 months of data. Make sure the data is incredibly easy to understand decipher. You don’t want someone to be looking at your financials and take things out of context to draw conclusions about your business that might be wrong. Another aspect you’ll want to include is your financial forecasts and goals. While chances are that your forecasts will be wrong it is a good way to demonstrate to your investors that you are thinking about your business in the right way. Check out why Gale Wilkinson of Vitalize Ventures likes to see early-stage founders model their future below: A few other items that might be worth including with your financials can be found below: Include revenue Major expenses Salaries Financial goals and milestones Related Resource: 4 Types of Financial Statements Founders Need to Understand Related Resource: A User-Friendly Guide on Convertible Debt Share Your Business Plans With Visible Once you have your business plan in place it is time to hit the ground running and collect feedback on your business plans and objectives. Use our Update and Deck sharing tools to share your plans with potential investors and stakeholders along the way. Raise capital, update investors and engage your team from a single platform. Try Visible free for 14 days.

At the core of every business or startup is a big problem they are trying to solve. Founders are putting forth their expertise and skills to build a solution to help solve this big problem. In the early days of building a business, many investors and stakeholders will ask to see a business plan to address how you are attacking a market and solving a problem. When going out to raise capital (from angels, VCs, etc.) making sure that investors clearly understand the problem you are solving is crucial. One of the key aspects of a business plan is the problem statement. Learn more about business problem statements and how to craft one for your business below: What is the Purpose of a Problem Statement? As we mentioned above a problem statement is part of a business plan. It should be an overarching thing you are trying to solve that guides most decisions you are making as a business — product development, go-to-market strategies, customer support, etc. A business problem statement defines exactly what problem you are helping your customers solve. It should be fairly simple but can be the backbone of your decision-making and business strategy. Note: While you might not necessarily be sharing a “problem statement” with investors during a fundraise, it oftentimes can be useful when crafting your pitch deck. Learn more about crafting your first pitch in our post, “Tips for Creating an Investor Pitch Deck” Best Practices for Writing a Problem Statement A problem statement is fairly short and straightforward, there are best practices that you’ll want to keep in mind. An erratic or longwinded problem statement can lead to more confusion and questions, in turn leading to more work for you as a founder. Check out our best practices and tips for writing your problem statement below: 1. Clearly Define The Problem First and foremost, you need to make sure that the problem you are solving is incredibly clear and well-defined. If you are wishy-washy with the problem, that will show a lack of conviction in the eyes of an investor or stakeholder that might be evaluating your business plan. For example, let’s say we are a software company called Adventure App that is helping campers find lesser-known camping spots. Our problem could be, “Finding a camping spot requires existing knowledge of a location and deciphering of local rules, boundaries, and signage that can be intimidating to new campers.” 2. Assess Who The Problem Impacts Naturally, a problem statement solves the big problem you are helping your customers accomplish. However, a problem statement can have an impact on different stakeholders and aspects of your business. A few questions you might want to ask yourself when understanding who your problem statement impacts: How are your customers impacted by the problem? How are your employees impacted by this problem? How is your overall business impacted by this problem? Using our Adventure App example above, if we are helping customers find more camping spots, our employees are likely impacted because they enjoy the outdoors and camping themselves and have empathy for the customers. Related Reading: How to Build A Startup Culture That Everybody Wants 3. Provide Possible Solutions Finally, a well-written problem statement should offer a solution and detail why it will help solve the problem. There might not necessarily be a single solution but an approach as to how you and your team will execute on the solution. Continuing on with our Adventure App example, our solution might be “Creating easy-to-use software and tools that anyone can access from the outdoors to enhance their experience.” 3 Ways To Enhance Your Problem Statement Once you have your first iteration of a problem statement down on paper, it is time to start dialing in the statement and make sure it is something that is easily understood by investors and stakeholders, even if you are not in the room to explain the specifics. 1. Highlight The Pain Points Of The Problem When crafting your problem statement you want to make sure anyone reading it can really understand the pain points that your potential customers are facing. Being able to hone in the specifics will help anyone understand the problem, even if it might not be one they experience themselves. For example (continuing with our campsite finding software), you might initially write something like: “Finding a campsite is a pain.” However, you can go deeper with the problem by adding more specific pain points like: “Finding a campsite requires driving to a remote location with little internet access, deciphering different signage and boundaries, and exploring in the dark until you find a spot to set up camp which can be a barrier for many to enjoy the outdoors.” 2. Add Empathy To Your Story Going hand-in-hand with the pain points from above, add empathy to make sure that anyone reading it understands the problem. When pitching an investor, they might have a surface-level understanding of your problem but to really make sure they feel the pain your customers are feeling you need to make the true pain points are truly there. This will help investors find empathy for the end-users and paint a picture of why a solution is needed and why your solution is the one. Using our example, many investors might not know much about camping. Making sure they can understand the headache of aimlessly driving around in the dark looking for a spot is important. 3. Explain The Benefits of Your Proposed Solutions Now that you have built up the problem and given the readers an understanding of why there needs to be a solution you need to dial in the benefits of your solution and explain why you are the ones that should be solving the problem. Remembering that we want to keep the problem statement succinct, you need to be intentional with the wording of your solution. The rest of your business plan or pitch deck can be used to dive deeper into your solution and the economics/strategy/etc. behind your business. Start Your Fundraise with Visible Have your problem statement and business plan in place and ready to go out and raise capital? Let us help. You can find investors with Visible Connect (our investor database), add them to your Fundraising CRM, share your pitch deck, and track how potential investors are engaging with your fundraise. Give it a try for free for 14 days and kick off your fundraise here.

Startups are in constant competition for 2 resources — capital and talent. Without capital, a startup will fail to grow and execute plans. For startups just getting off the ground or ones that have yet to find product-market fit, securing capital via customers can be difficult. However, there are countless places (angel investors, venture capitalists, private equity, friends and family, etc.) to look for capital to help you and your startup secure the money you need to develop a product, scale revenue, hire top talent, and more. Related Resource: How to Find Venture Capital to Fund Your Startup: 5 Methods Learn more about how you can find and attract different types of private investors in our guide below: What is a Private Investor? A private investor is an individual or firm that provides financial backing for startups or businesses. There are varying levels of private investors. There are established venture capital and private equity firms that make a living privately investing in companies. On the flip side, there are wealthy individuals and angel investors, who are investing in small startups as a way to diversify their investments. Related Resource: How to Find Investors The Ins and Outs of Private Investing A private investor is a generally broad term. Private investors can come in all shapes and sizes and might be already in your network but you may not know it. Different private investors function in different ways. Related Resource: A User-Friendly Guide on Convertible Debt Types of Private Investors Learn more about the different types of private investors and what the benefits of them investing in your startup are below: Angel Investors As Investopedia puts it, “An angel investor (also known as a private investor, seed investor or angel funder) is a high-net-worth individual who provides financial backing for small startups or entrepreneurs, typically in exchange for ownership equity in the company.” Angel investors are generally wealthy individuals looking to diversify their investment portfolios. Because of this, financial returns are not their sole motivator. Angel investors might invest at a more personal level — e.g. a company might be in a space they are interested in, the founder could be a friend, etc. There are a number of benefits of finding angel investors to invest in your startup. To start, there are likely angel investors in your immediate network that you might not be aware of. As they are generally a friend, family member, or someone in your network, the fundraising process tends to be less stringent and can move along quickly (however, because of this check sizes tend to be smaller). Related Reading: How to Effectively Find + Secure Angel Investors for Your Startup Related Reading: Types of Venture Capital Funds: Understanding VC Stages, Financing Methods, Risks, and More Venture Capitalists Venture capital is the private investor most founders tend to be most familiar with. As defined by Investopedia, “A venture capitalist (VC) is a private equity investor that provides capital to companies with high growth potential in exchange for an equity stake.” Venture capitalists are professional investors. Venture capital firms have their own investors, Limited Partners, to who they need to return outsized returns to. Because of this, what they are looking for in an investment might vary from what an angel investor is looking for in an investment. Their thesis and investing principles likely come down to their ability to flip a huge return for their LPs. Related Reading: Understanding Power Law Curves to Better Your Chances of Raising Venture Capital However, the benefits of raising from venture capitalists can be huge (if venture capital is right for your business). Because of the growth in the venture capital space, there are more investors than ever before. This has created increased competition and the need for VC firms to offer more than capital. VC firms now offer to help with hiring, strategy, product development, leadership, fundraising, and more. When leveraged correctly, venture capital can be a great tool for a startup that believes it can grow to a massive valuation. Related Reading: All Encompassing Startup Fundraising Guide Private Equity Firms According to Nasdaq private equity firms are, “Firms that use their own capital or capital raised from investors to take companies private with the aim of running them better and later taking them public or selling them at a profit.” While venture capital is a form of private equity — VC firms generally spend their time and money investing in earlier-stage companies. Private equity firms are generally geared towards later-stage companies. Because of their focus on later-stage companies and straddling the line between public and private companies, private equity firms can offer some major benefits. The largest benefit is liquidity for founders and early employees. PE firms will generally acquire companies that free up capital for any previous investors, founders, and team members. Related Reading: The Understandable Guide to Startup Funding Stages Where to Find Private Investors? Naturally, the next question is “how do I find these private investors?” Luckily over the last few years different resources and communities have surfaced to help founders find the right investors for their business. Visible Connect — Connect is our free and open-sourced database of venture capitalists. We verify the data with investors directly so it is the most up-to-date, accurate, and important data for founders. AngelList — AngelList is a great tool for finding angel investors and syndicates for your startup. Online Communities/Twitter — Different online communities (on Discord, Twitter, etc.) exist and are full of eager angel investors and early-stage VCs that can be a fit for your business. Related Resource: How Startups Can Use an Investor Matching Tool to Secure Funding How to Network With Private Investors? Raising capital from private investors is a numbers game. You’ll need to talk to countless investors to find the right investor for your business. At Visible, we like to compare fundraising to a traditional B2B sales process. You are filling the top of your funnel with qualified investors, nurturing them throughout the middle of the funnel with communication, and hopefully closing them and cashing a check at the bottom of the funnel. Just like a sales process, there are different methods for networking and filling the top of your funnel: Warm Introductions — Oftentimes the best place to start is with your immediate network. By combing through LinkedIn and your personal network look for anyone that can make an introduction to one of your dream private investors. Cold Outreach/Email — When you can’t find a warm introduction, don’t be afraid to send off a cold email. Related Resource: 3 Tips for Cold Emailing Potential Investors + Outreach Email Template Events — The startup world is a typically tight-knit community. VCs, angels, and PE firms spend time at events to find deal flow. Attend events and speak with as many qualified investors as possible. Twitter/Social Media — Private investors, especially VCs, spend time building their personal brand on Twitter. Interact with their Tweets and build a relationship using the tools already available to you. By approaching your fundraise like a sales process you’ll be able to uncover the best methods for networking and building relationship with investors. Check out our Fundraising CRM and tools to track and manage your next raise. Related Resource: 7 of the Best Online Communities for Investors Related Resource: 6 Helpful Networking Tips for Connecting With Investors Related Resource: A Complete Guide on Founders Agreements Key Concepts Private Investors Look For in Startups Finding and networking with the right investors is only a small piece of the puzzle. At the end of the day, you need an investable business that excites private investors. A few of the key concepts they look for. Related resource: Dry Powder: What is it, Types of Dry Powder, Impact it has in Trading Increasing Revenue No matter how you cut it, a business needs to have increased revenue to be investable in the eyes of a private investor. If you’re revenue (and profit) and are not increasing, they likely won’t make money on their equity investment in the future. Liquidity Typically speaking, investing in startups is illiquid and can be risky for private investors. Clearly communicate this but also make sure to have a clear plan for successfully exiting at a later date. A Clear and Concise Business Plan If you can’t clearly articulate your business plan, strategy, and go to market efforts, investors will be left confused and likely not have conviction in your business. Be sure to clearly lay out your model and use any historical data to demonstrate how and why your plan is working. Controlled Spending Behavior In the eyes of an investor, they are cutting you a check and you are at liberty to spend it however you’d like. Investors need to trust that you’ll responsibly spend and budget your new capital. Demonstrate that you have a clear plan, historically have controlled your spending, and have unit economics that will scale. A Big Market As we previously mentioned, private investing generally follows a power law curve. Private investors are looking for some massive exits in their portfolio as most startups fail. Show potential investors that you are operating in a potentially big market that can create huge returns in the future. Related resource: 13 Generative AI Startups to Look out for Successful Team Startups, especially in the early days, are largely driven by their team. For companies that are pre-revenue, investors will spend time closely evaluating the founders and team members to build conviction on their ability to solve the problem and build a business. Strong Unit Economics Scalability and strong unit economics will be a huge plus in the eyes of investors. Show investors, you have strong unit economics and a model that will scale nicely as you grow. Learn more in our post, Unit Economics for Startups: Why It Matters and How To Calculate It. Your Funding Journey Starts With Visible Finding the right funding for your business is a journey. As you begin to scale your company, remember that different funding options exist and can be leveraged to best help your business. If private investors are not the right option for your business, great! If you want to kick off a fundraise and find the right angels and VCs for your business, awesome! We can help founders find the right investors, manage their conversations, share their pitch deck, and update potential investors. Find the right investors for your business with Visible Connect — Give it a try here. Related resources: Accredited Investor vs Qualified Purchaser The Top 9 Social Media Startups

Private Equity refers to an alternative investment class. This alternative class of investment is made up of capital not listed on a public exchange, meaning private equity is made up of funds directly from private investors or investment groups. In some cases, it is even the conglomerate of buyouts of public companies converting their public equity back to private capital. There are 9 main types of private equity funds out there, all with their own core purposes, structures, and strategies in place. Let’s dive in and understand the 9 types of private equity funds. Private Equity Funds: Illiquid, Predictive, and Powerful An alternative investment class is essentially an investment that isn’t a stock, bond, or cash. Also known as an investment that isn’t easily sold or converted to cash. Private equity falls into this category because although private equity represents a cash value, it is not easily converted and is not a traditional stock or a traditional representation of cash. Private equity has no public exchange value and is known to be illiquid. Private Equity is illiquid, meaning it’s not easily converted into cash. Private equity is different from traditional investments for a few reasons. Because they are not public investments or easily convertible to cash, private equity is not influenced by public markets. This means there is far less pressure on performance by investments from private equity funds as the swings of capital aren’t as dramatic, performance in the market isn’t a critical indicator of success. The overall goal of private equity investments is to provide the investors with profit, usually within 4-7 years – typically a much quicker return time than traditional investing. Today, there is $2.5 Trillion involved in private equity funds across the globe. The definitions provided so far have been high-level – overall, just an understanding that private equity is an alternative form of funding that is not public and not influenced by market conditions. More specifically, there are nine core types of private equity funds: Venture Capital, Growth Equity, Buyouts, Infrastructure, Real Estate Private Equity, Mezzanine Capital, Fund of Funds, Distressed Private Equity, and Secondaries. Let’s dive into each. 1. Venture Capital (VC) Venture Capital or VC is a type of private equity where investors specifically focus on investments that have long-term growth potential. VC funds typically operate with a managing partner and a handful of other operating partners or passive partners and are made up of pooled investments in high-growth opportunities in startups and other early-stage firms. VCs are typically only open to accredited investors. The ideal and typical businesses that are a good match for Venture Capital investments are startups. VC funding can be provided to both startups or entrepreneurs directly and is seen at all stages of a startup, scaleup, or growth company's evolution. A couple of well-known companies that have successfully leveraged VC funding are AirBnB and Slack. Both took on VC funds as part of various investment rounds over the course of their company life cycles and now are both public companies. Slack was also acquired by Salesforce after going public. Airbnb has raised 6B in funding over 33 investment rounds while Slack took on $200M in VC investments. There are a handful of reasons why you might want to consider a VC investment or not. The Pros of Venture Capital: Access to Large Amounts to Money: Venture Capital Firms typically are made up of very wealthy, well-connected ex-startup folks who know the business and have the access and influence to raise a lot of money. A major pro of taking on a VC investment is the access to capital you will have. Leadership and Networking Experiences: In addition to access of great amounts of capital, VCs typically offer great networking and opportunities to work with great leaders and advisors. From the VC firm’s partner experience, any operating assistance they may provide, or the network of other industry experts the partners have access to, there are typically plenty of opportunities for learning and networking with your investing VC that will lend a hand to your business. No Recurring Risk or Schedules: VCs are expecting a long-term return, not a monthly return. There is not a monthly or recurring fee that’s needed to pay back your VC, the expected gains they see are repaid by the success of your business. This open-ended return plan is helpful for a founding team to not have to consider any cost to taking on VC funds. Future Opportunities: Taking on a Venture Capital fund as an investor opens up the door for future large round investments from that same VC or other influential VCs. Additionally, VCs often provide assistance with public relations, hiring, risk management and more. The Cons of Venture Capital: Lower Ownership Stake: In return for the large sums of money without a recurring repayment schedule, VCs ask for long term opportunities to double or triple their returns. This means they are going to be wanting to take on a significant ownership stake in your startup when investing their money. This can be a con because it can easily turn into a dilution of your company and loss to the founding team as more and more VC money is taken on, becoming the price of scaling quickly – less ownership stake overall. Extensive Upfront Process: Often, the process of pitching to and securing VC capital is an arduous one. Founders may need to spend all of their time fundraising and prepping for investor presentations and conversations, losing the ability to engage with other areas of the businss. A distracted founder raising money, may lose sight of the real growth and details of their business. VC funding is rare relative to other types of funding and the time spent to secure it can be costly, especially since at the end of the process there is typically almost no negotiation leverage for the startup at all. High Pressure Stakes: At the end of the day, if your company is not growing to the aggressive expectations set out by the VC’s valuation, the company may come crashing down quickly. Funds are typically released on a performance schedule and low performers can lose their business (because they don’t have majority ownership anymore or don’t meet the board of investors expectations). If your company fails to grow, or doesn’t meet expectations, things can go south extremely quickly with VC funds accelerating to the end – if that pressure isn’t something your business or founding team is ready for, VC funding may not be the appropriate route. Related Resources: Venture Capitalist vs. Angel Investor Checking Out Venture Capital Funding Alternatives 24 Top VC Investors Actively Funding SaaS Startups What Is a Limited Partnership and How Does It Work? 2. Growth Equity Growth Equity is a form of Private Equity fund that is typically seen with late stage companies showing high growth potential. Growth Equity firms are looking to invest in companies with established Go-to-market business models and repeatable customer acquisition strategies already in place. Because of the already proven growth and success of late stage companies, growth equity is a lower risk investment to take on and to put forward, and a great choice if a business is looking to subsidize expansion of operations, make acquisitions, expand verticals of their TAM or enter new markets across the globe. Typically, a growth equity deal is a minority investment for the equity firm and is purely to capitalize on quicker capital gains vs. any long term benefit or ownership opportunity. Spotify and Uber are two major companies that have taken on growth equity later in the business and used it to scale new features and expand into new markets. As Uber became global and needed more money to front new markets, growth equity from companies like TPG growth was critical to their success. The Pros of Growth Equity: Maintain Control: Typically, growth equity funds make non-majority stake investments. Meaning they infuse cash to already established companies, taking on little ownership relative to the early stage investors. This type of investment fund takes on less risk and has a shorter runway on return, so for a founder, growth equity can be super helpful to grow the company without having to give up any remaining shares of ownership. Quick Growth Opportunity: Cash is king, so in a scenario where your business is doing well, you just want to move faster to achieve growth goals, an infusion of growth equity can be just what is needed. Growth equity capital allows for big moves and can be the game changer needed to hit aggressive valuations and pipeline KPIs. The Cons of Growth Equity: Value Added: The main Con of growth equity is that there really is no value added besides cash to the business. Growth equity funds aren’t invested in the same way a VC would be – the path to success is much clearer for their investment companies and they aren’t majority owners so the value to the investor to provide leadership, networking, or advisory value is not as evident or needed. This can be a con to take on money for growth and not have the accompanying support or guidance. 3. Buyouts A buyout, often synonymous with an acquisition, is when a controlling interest in a company is purchased. Buyouts consist of the majority stakeholder being acquired or bought, and then the now new majority owner buying out or purchasing back the remaining, minority stocks in the company. Buyouts can be completed by private equity firms or by other companies themselves. Typically, the ideal candidate for a buyout is a company that has some type of operational value or product value but is not hitting growth goals as quickly as expected or is not on a path to a profitable exit. A company may choose to buyout or acquire another company if they see the value of that company’s product, team, intellectual property, or customer base as a value-add to their existing company – making the combined power of both companies more valuable in the long run. One company that benefited from a buyout was Engagio, the software company. They were bought out by Demandbase, a leader in account-based-marketing software. This benefited Demandbase by unlocking new use cases for their customers with sales intelligence and insights, and benefited Engagio by pairing their customer base and trajectory with an even faster growing SaaS company. The combined product made the Demandbase platform that much more attractive to buyers. The Pros of a Buyout: Accelerated Growth Opportunities: A buyout could take your existing investment or company to the next level by bringing in missing product, leadership, or market opportunities. Stronger Outcomes: For the company being bought out, it could bring about continued growth and value opportunities for the employees and stakeholders, depending on the terms of the buyout. In a best case scenario, a company where stocks were losing value, is given a new life with stock converting to the new company value and continuing to accelerate. The Cons of a Buyout: Growing Pains: Acquiring a company doesn’t happen overnight. There are pains and challenges associated with acquisitions or buyouts and not all companies can overcome them. Overcoming growing pains around integrating product, teams, and customer bases is critical to see any positive outcome to a buyout, and is not always possible. No Guarantees: A Buyout doesn’t come with any guarantees. It requires the acquiring company to do well which is not promised. A buyout is also potentially at a loss for certain investors depending on how desperate a buyout was, making it a very un-guaranteed way to exit a business. There are two types of Buyouts, Managed and Leveraged. Managed Buyouts Managed Buyouts are most commonly seen with large corporations looking to sell off parts of their business, maybe sub-businesses, departments/divisions to another buyer in order to save the core business or make a profit off a poorly or average performing division. Another example of a managed buyout would be if a small, private business owner wishes to retire they may choose to sell their business to a conglomerate for a buyout. A managed buyout typically occurs with financing made up of debt and equity and is typically pretty substantial. Leverage Buyouts Leveraged Buyouts are buyouts that only require 10% capital and can take out debt to finance the rest of the buyout. This strategy of a buyout is extremely risky but if it pays off, it results in major returns with little cash down. A leveraged buyout is operating under the assumption that the buyout will be extremely profitable and a good business decision vs. needed to save the business. 4. Infrastructure Infrastructure Private Equity is the practice of privately investing in the equity of physical infrastructure needed to support society. A few of the types of infrastructure that infracture PE is used to invest in include: Utilities such as gas, electricity, water Transportation such as airports, roads, bridges, railways Social infrastructure including schools and hospitals Energy sources like power plants and pipelines Renewable energy like solar power plants and wind farms The Pros of Infrastructure Private Equity: There is always a need: Infrastructure investments are consistent and everlasting. There won’t be a change so suddenly in the market where all of a sudden a road or hospital isn’t needed. Consistent returns: Due to their consistent need, and typically low fluctuation in value, infrastructure investments produce steady, reliable, high cash returns. The Cons of Infrastructure Private Equity: The Impact of Social Factors: Macro factors like recessions, inflation, population changes etc.. have a direct impact on infrastructure investments. Planning for these changes and flexes is different from investing in a more high risk high reward type of investment. Expensive to Fix: Even though there is a consistent, unwavering need for infrastructure investments, in the case that there ever is an issue (a bridge collapses, the sewage system gets contaminated etc..) fixes can often be costly and slow down returns for a long period of time. 5. Real Estate Private Equity (REPE) A pretty straightforward type of private equity, real estate private equity invests in real estate projects and properties. A pretty risky investment, real estate private equity typically requires a significant amount of capital up front but 8-10% returns are often a common result. The types of businesses that are a good match for REPE are high-net-worth individuals with pensions, endowment funds, or LPs to invest because they come with a significant amount of capital up front. The Pros of REPE: High Reward: With returns up to 10% being typical (and in rare cases, even higher ones), the reward of REPE is tremendous. The Cons of REPE: High Risk: Despite the high returns, the amount of cash typically needed upfront is incredibly risky. 6. Mezzanine Capital Mezzanine Capital is a mix of debt and private equity financing. If a company is seeking Mezzanine Capital, they are essentially taking a loan from the investor alongside giving away some equity for part of the received capital. The investor can then decide to concert the debt owed by the seeker of the investment to equity interest in the company. The conversion typically occurs in the case of a default. Typically, later stage companies are a good fit for Mezzanine Capital. They will seek this type of PE investment if they have a short term growth project that they need cash for such as an acquisition. The risk level is moderate for the investor as the worst case scenario ends with them owning more of the company vs. just not getting their investment back at all. The Pros of Mezzanine Capital: Scheduled Payback Period: Because a portion of the investment is a loan, investors are set to make back their money on a timely payback schedule – providing a clear path to return assuming no default. Mostly Positive ROI: With the result of default equating to equity, the ROI is typically positive in either scenario for the investor with more equity resulting in more long term capital gains (potentially). The Cons of Mezzanine Capital: Moderate Risk: This type of investment is not 100% a loan so there is still a portion of your investment at risk as this is not the most low risk investment option out there. Dips in Valuation: For the portion of your investment that is for equity and any unpaid loan portion that turns to equity, you’re then banking on the valuation of that company keeping your money out of the red – any dips in valuation or future failures could make your equity worthless. 7. Fund of Funds (FOF) A FOF is exactly what it sounds like, is a private equity fund that invests in other funds, like hedge funds or mutual funds. FOF’s are also often called multi-manager investment funds. Individuals like you or I could invest in an FOF as it’s a great way for us to diversify our portfolios and start investing in a lot of assets with less capital needed. Emergence Capital is another example of an FOF, they invested in our investor, High Alpha. The Pros of FOFs: Minimal Risk: Due to the broad diversification that an FOF sets out to achieve, the risk on FOF funds is typically minimal with lots of different types of investments to balance out during various market conditions and outcomes. Broad Opportunities: Investors with minal capital to invest may lean into investing in a FOF so that they can diversify their assets without needing more capital. The Cons of FOFs: Higher expense ratios: Compared to other mutual funds and traditional funds out there, FOFs typically have a higher expense ratio – something to consider. Overlap fees and additional investor fees across the different investment funds are a potential concern. 8. Distressed Private Equity This type of PE comes into play when a company is in trouble. A Distressed Private Equity investment is one where an investment firm will invest in failing or in-troubled companies debt or equity to have a controlling state, make changes,sell assets, do what needs to be done to turn that company around, turn a profit and even in some cases take that company public. Bain Capital is well known for its distressed strategy, raising funds specifically aimed at this purpose. They’ve bought companies but also investments like properties that were failing – Just this spring, Bain purchased a 160+ room hotel in Ibiza that was failing and aims to turn it around. The Pros of Distressed PE: ROI Potential: The biggest pro of a Distressed strategy for investors is the idea that they could turn a major profit with very little if almost nothing down to take control (depending on how poorly off the investment is). The ROI can be huge with a distressed strategy but the right operators need to be in place. The Cons of Distressed PE: ROI Potential: If the right strategy isn’t implemented or the problems run too deep, even a super low cost distressed investment can yield little to no ROI and even lead to a loss. Operator knowledge and a strategic plan is critical to the success of a distressed investment. Time to value: A distressed investment return could be only a few years, however, the time invested by an operating team could cut into the ROI as well as make the time feel much more intense to get the desired value vs. the more passive nature of a lot of PE investments. 9. Secondaries Secondaries are the buying and selling of investments already owned. A Secondary PE fund or even individual traders are buying stocks or assets they see as valuable, holding them, and selling them when they know they can turn a profit. Many individual investors seek out Secondary PE experts to help manage their trades and advise on best practices. A financial institution writing a mortgage for a customer is a great example of a secondary. That financial institution can then go and sell that mortgage security to a company like Fannie Mae on the secondary market to hedge their bets and turn a profit. The Pros of Secondaries: Maximize your investments: Spending a minimal amount up front, or even spending a lot up front with the right knowledge guarantees you will maximize your investments if you buy and sell your secondaries with the right strategy. The Cons of Secondaries: Selling at the wrong time: Buy low, sell high is the goal but timing is everything and a misstep on selling too soon or holding too long can have major consequences for a secondary PE firm. How Crowdfunding Differs from Other Types of Private Equity One type of funding that does not make the traditional list of Private Equity is crowdfunding. This type of funding for a business is different in a few ways. For the most part, the key difference is that the folks or “investors” putting money into a project dont’ typically have any stake in the success of the ubisness and the ROI on their investment is very different. Instead of gaining ownership or guaranteed money back from said “investment”, crowdfunding is typically more so done to prove interest from a market – fund my product if you think this would be useful, support my business, donate to a cause – and the return comes in the form of something like early access, a discount on said final product, or a tax write-off for a crowdfunded charitable initiative. Because there is no ownership or partnership or lender / borrower agreement established with crowdfunding, it’s not considered traditional PE. There are many popular websites that exist for crowdfunding such as GoFundMe.com Tap Into Private Equity Funds and Keep Investors Updated with Visible Get involved with the network of PE investors and funds in the Visible Community and update existing investors on your progress today by creating your free Visible account. Find investors that are right for your business with our free database, Visible Connect.

Fundraising is difficult. On top of building a strong business, founders need to build their investor funnel from start to finish. They need to find the right investors, build relationships, and successfully pitch their company with hopes of a check. In order to better help founders tackle finding investors for their business, we’ve built a totally free, community-sourced investor database, Visible Connect. While the world has certainly become virtual over the last few years, there are still benefits in keeping tabs on the local tech and startup scene. For founders located in the Dallas area and Texas, we’ve put together a list of the 20 venture capital funds you need to know: Blossom Street Ventures About: From the team at Blossom Street, “We’re don’t believe in high burn, go big or go broke models. We don’t push founders to take more money than they need. We look for founders who are cash efficient, scrappy, and pragmatic. We focus on companies with $2mm to $30mm of run-rate revenue, with year over year growth of 20% to 50%+ depending on revenue. We’ll invest anywhere in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and broader Europe. We prefer to lead, but also follow. Our check is $1mm to $3mm.” Location: Dallas, TX Check Size: $1M – $3M Stage: Early, Series A Thesis: “No thesis. We want to see it all! Especially SaaS, eCommerce, marketplaces” To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile > Interlock Partners About: From the team at Interlock, “We invest in companies positioned to take advantage of emerging technologies to transform a market. We look for high confidence teams that meet strategic and financial goals with the best practices in scaling tech and organization, planning, execution, and controls. We will leverage our extensive network to increase opportunities for partnership, resources, talent, product/market expansion, and successful outcomes..” Location: Dallas, TX Stage: Early Recent Fund Size: $50M To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile > Hexa Global Ventures About: From the team at Hexa, “HEXA Global Ventures brings capital, resources, experience and talent – partnering with visionary entrepreneurs to help shape the best ideas into great companies.” Location: Dallas, TX Check Size: $50K – $2M Thesis: “We invest in early-stage companies solving big problems with exceptional teams. We believe that where you come from is just as important as where you’re headed and that nothing is more authentic than growth that comes from overcoming long odds. We focus on BtoB SaaS companies.” To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile > 7-Ventures About: From the team at 7-Ventures, “7-Ventures, LLC, is the 7-Eleven® corporate venturing arm focused on discovering, partnering and investing in startups that complement 7‑Eleven’s mission of convenience. We are looking for equity and business relationships that help reinvent retail, and we are willing to use our stores to test and learn.” Location: Dallas, TX Stage: Seed to Series B Focus: Food & Beverage Startups To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile > RevTech Ventures About: From the team at RevTech, “RevTech Ventures is a venture capital fund with a focus of early-stage investments at the intersection of retail and technology. We make dozens of small, initial investments, with larger follow-on investments in those companies that demonstrate rapid growth and sustainable advantage. We provide year-round content and support led by our management team and our large pool of world-class mentors.” Location: Dallas, TX Stage: Pre-Seed and Seed Check Size: $100k – $4M To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile > Goldcrest Capital About: From the team at Goldcrest, “Goldcrest is a venture capital fund that invests in private technology companies.” Location: Dallas, TX Stage: Seed to Series B Check Size: $1M to $10M To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile > Tech Wildcatters About: From the team at Tech Wildcatters, “Founded in 2009, Tech Wildcatters is a Seed to Series A venture capital fund focusing on technology and tech-enabled companies. We are backed by an international group of investors and deal-flow collaborations. As one of the world’s first accelerator funds, we’ve backed over 150 companies and were nationally recognized by MIT and Forbes.” Location: Dallas, TX Stage: Seed to Series A To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile > Dallas Angel Network About: From the team at Dallas Angel Network, “The Dallas Angel Network links angel investors in Dallas with great entrepreneurs in Dallas, Houston, and Austin.” If you’re in need of early-stage private equity or venture capital, check out Dallas Angel Network Location: Dallas, TX Stage: All To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile > Mobility Ventures About: From the team at Mobility Ventures, “We are a selective hands-on firm focusing on emerging companies across the Wireless Ecosystem: Mobile Internet, AI Data Sciences, Digital Media, Mobile Health, e-Commerce, Software, Location-based Services, Applications and Services. We invest in category-defining companies. We are value-added investors helping to build enduring, significant institutions, working with entrepreneurs to transform ideas into successful companies.” Location: Addison, TX Thesis: “We invest in what we know. We invest where we can add value. We seek to work with teams who are best-in-class and enjoyable to work with.” To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile > Perot Jain About: From the team at Perot Jain, “Perot Jain is an early-stage venture capital firm committed to partnering with bold and innovative entrepreneurs to build highly disruptive, industry-transforming companies.” Location: Dallas, TX Stage: Seed to Series B Thesis: “Our mission is to provide timely capital and resources while delivering the highest quality strategic advice to assist our portfolio companies in achieving their maximum potential.” To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile > Kick-Off Your Round with Our Fundraising Tools Finding the right investors is only half the battle. Once you have your ideal list of investors, you need a system to manage your conversations, share your pitch deck, and keep your investors in the loop along the way. Use Visible to find investors, share your pitch deck, and track the progress of your raise. Give Visible a free try for 14 days here.

Storytelling is an integral aspect of a successful VC fundraise. A pitch deck is a visual tool that founders can leverage to tell their stories. However, as a founder, it can feel like you’re getting pulled in a hundred different directions, and finding the time to build the pitch deck might feel impossible (or design just might not be your strong suit). Thankfully, there are countless resources, tools, and options to help you get your pitch deck designed and shared with potential investors. Pitch Deck Design Options There are countless options when it comes to finding the right person or resource to help with your pitch deck design. Depending on what your needs and budget are there are plenty of options — ranging from free to tailored services that will help build your dream pitch deck. As we mentioned in our post, Pitch Deck Designs That Will Win Your Investors Over, some investors are not looking for an overly designed pitch deck so be sure you understand what your needs are before determining your pitch deck design option. A few popular options that we’ll touch on: Use a template Hire a freelancer Use specialized deck design service We’ll touch on pricing, popular services, and more below: How Much Does a Pitch Deck Design Cost? Having someone else help you create your pitch deck might sound great but you are probably thinking, “how much is this going to cost?” Of all of the expenses associated with running a startup, pitch deck design might find its priority towards the bottom of your list. However, there are countless free and inexpensive options but more expensive and involved options if you are in a financial position to spend more on your pitch deck. Depending on how much you weigh the importance of a well-designed pitch deck might also help determine how much you’d like to spend. Use a Template A natural place to start when determining how to design your pitch deck is with a template. This is generally the cheapest option but will put more of the work on your shoulders as a founder. If you’re comfortable with design tools and have a good idea of what content you’d like to include, this could be a great option. As more companies go through successful fundraises, the options and tips here continue to evolve and improve. Free Templates The best place to start is with a free template. There are countless different libraries and options to browse through. Even if you don’t find the perfect template that is free, you will be able to find inspiration for a design that you can take to a freelancer or use to build your own template. Related Resource: Tips for Creating an Investor Pitch Deck (with Free Template) Paid Templates If you’re not finding the perfect template for your startup, you might want to take a look through different paid templates. There are options that are more involved and can help you take a free template to the next level. Beautiful.ai is a tool that uses its design expertise to help anyone look like a design pro. With their paid services you’ll have the ability to pull on hundreds of individually designed slides. Their pricing starts at $12 a month and goes up to $46 a month depending on your design needs. Related Resource: 18 Pitch Deck Examples for Any Startup Have a Pro Review Your Deck If you think you have your deck ready to go, it might be helpful to have someone review it to make sure it is up-to-par. Depending on your immediate network, there might be free or somewhat inexpensive options here. On one hand, if you have existing investors or a founder friend who has raised capital before, have them check things out to make sure it looks good to go. On the other hand, there are paid options that will review a deck for you. Base Templates has a service for $149 where they offer expert design feedback to make sure you can confidently kick off your raise. Hire a Freelancer If you’ve browsed through different templates and have decided you want to create a more custom pitch deck, it might make sense to find a freelancer to help. There are varying options when it comes to freelancers. Mid Tier Pricing Thanks to tools like Fiverr and Upwork you can browse through a marketplace of different freelancers and find the perfect person for your budget and needs. There are hundreds of options less than $300 on Fiverr. You can find a well-reviewed freelancer for anywhere between $50 and $200 on Fiverr. For example, this freelancer (with all 5 star reviews) starts at $60 but is upwards of $260 for a 15 slide pitch deck. Between Fiverr and Upwork there are hundreds of other options that fall in that price range as well. Premium Pricing Of course, if you’re willing to spend more and would like to find a more tailored fit for your business there are options as well. Using Upwork, we were able to find some more premium options that take a more tailored approach and work on an hourly rate so you know exactly what you’re getting. The hourly rate for top-ranked designers ranges anywhere from $100-$200 an hour. For this freelancer, they charge $175 an hour and look to take about 3 or 4 hours for a project. These options can still keep you below/around $1,000 but will give you a more custom approach and hands-on experience. Use a Specialized Design Service Taking things one step further and you can find a specialized design service. Across the board, these will be a more “premium” service and a higher price point. The price here can vary quite a bit but is more difficult to find information on until you start a conversation with a specific service or firm. For example, we found an agency on Upwork that charges $3,500. They complete the project from start to finish and help with any specific content you’ll need throughout the process. Another example is the 4th & King agency. While we don’t have information on their pricing they come highly recommended and have helped some of the most successful startups and venture capitalists build their pitch decks. Another option is finding an individual designer in your network that might be taking on more work. This will really allow you to take a more custom approach and have a more hands-on approach during the entire process. We have seen companies use individuals that will help build branded deck templates that they can use for investor pitches but also other use cases (sales & marketing pitches, product pitches, webinars, etc.) Easily Share Your Pitch Deck with Visible Decks All in all, there are countless design options available for you and your startup. Depending on your design skills, budget, and need for a polished pitch deck should determine what option is best for you. A good starting place is any free template to get the inspiration flowing. To learn more about building your template check out our post, Tips for Creating an Investor Pitch Deck (with Free Template). Building and designing your pitch deck is only half the battle. Once you have your deck ready to go it is time to hit the ground running and start pitching/sharing your deck with potential investors. We offer a dead-simple way to share your pitch deck. Decks are completely integrated with our fundraising CRM and leading investor updates platform. You’ll be able to set customized sharing permissions, notifications when investors view your deck, upload new versions without clicking a button, and understand how potential investors have engaged with your content. Learn more here or give Visible a free try for 14 days here.

At its core, a successful fundraise comes down to storytelling. Founders need to tell a narrative to investors that piques their interest and ultimately leads to a check down the road. As Kristian Andersen of High Alpha puts it, “I always encourage founders to start with a story and think about it very fundamentally. Think about it very fundamentally. What is the plot? You have a protagonist, you have an antagonist, you have a climax. That storytelling structure can and should be applied to a pitch.” Outside of a verbal pitch, there are countless tools you can use to help tell your story. One of the most popular (and important) tools is a pitch deck. A pitch deck can be a powerful visual tool to help fuel your storytelling and increase your odds of a successful raise. In this guide, we’ll dive into what makes for a well-designed pitch deck. We cover everything from visualizing data to choosing fonts and layouts. What Makes a Good Pitch Deck Design A pitch deck is a tool that is used to visualize and assist with your story as you “pitch” a group. For this instance, we’ll be talking about pitch decks and how they apply to a venture fundraise. A pitch deck is a small but important part of a successful pitch and fundraise. Some investors won’t necessarily require a pitch deck, they are widely accepted (and expected). Some investors, like Gale Wilkinson of Vitalize, are fine with an investment memo, Notion document, or a pitch deck. If you do decide that building a pitch deck is right for your business, there are a few points to consider: Do you need a pitch deck? Why should someone care about your pitch? How long do you want it to be? How much context should you give investors before sharing it with them? How should you balance design vs. content? To learn more about building a pitch deck, check out this post from the team at High Alpha. At the end of the day, pitching your company (and building a pitch deck) is an opportunity to talk about your company and your vision — fundraising is incredibly difficult and time-consuming but it can and should be exciting! Lindsay Tjepkema, CEO of Casted, summed it perfectly when she said: “There’s nothing better than being able to talk to person after person about your company. That’s a great feeling and it’s exhilarating and it’s exciting to be able to share your passion with someone else. That’s also the hardest part because it’s your baby. And when you share something with so many people and you get so many nos, that’s hard.” Bottling up that passion for your company and vision can be a great backbone when going into creating your pitch deck. You are putting your company on display and want to make sure it is something you are personally confident and proud of. Related Reading: 18 Pitch Deck Examples for Any Startup Pitch Deck Designing Best Practices Different investors will tell you different things when it comes to pitch deck design. Some will say it needs to be polished and perfect. Others will say too well-designed is a signal a founder is spending too much time on it (and not enough on the business). What you present and share with investors is ultimately up to you but there are a few key focus areas if you’re not sure where to get started with your design: Keep it Simple Keeping your pitch deck simple is incredibly important. Investors are likely looking through hundreds or thousands of decks in a given year so keeping it simple and digestible is important. A few tips to keep things simple: Has a natural flow Legible fonts Simple branding Easy-to-understand data visualizations and images Media files are digestible Be Awesome at Storytelling As we mentioned at the beginning of this post, a pitch deck is ultimately a tool to help you tell your story. You can quite literally think through your pitch deck as you would a story. What is the plot? Who is your audience? Who is the antagonist? Who is the protagonist? Use Data in Form of Charts and Graphs As we mentioned earlier, oftentimes simple is better. Charts, graphs, and data visualizations are your friend. They can be leveraged to easily and creatively display key data about your business. However, data without context can be dangerous. Investors are potentially looking through your data without you so make sure it is incredibly clear and can be understood if you’re not in the room with them. Whenever Possible Use Icons or images Different icons and images can be useful when trying to convey different messages and points throughout your pitch deck as well. Instead of writing a story of how a customer is leveraging your product, consider using images of them and telling the story yourself. If you do decide to include images make sure they are high quality. This is true for company headshots and any supporting images throughout your pitch. Make Your Objective Crystal Clear If you’re keeping your pitch deck simple you should only be including things that are necessary to your story and pitch. Each slide should be well thought out and have an obvious point or call to action that you are trying to get across. No matter what the content is on a given slide (image, written, video, etc.) the point and intent should be obvious. Consider Using Different Types of Layouts You can keep your pitch deck simple but engaging at the same time. Different layouts are a great way to put emphasis on different points and sections of your story and pitch. For example, if you want to highlight a big problem or metric that is exciting, you can use a big splash like the example below: Or if you want to demonstrate how you’ll be putting capital to use, you can use a timeline like the example below: Use a Chart to Display Milestones While a story is a driving force behind a pitch, investors will want to dig into different data points and metrics from your success thus far. Be sure to include charts that show traction or growth. These can be great areas to excite and motivate your investors to move through the fundraise quickly. Consider a Professional Pitch Deck Designer Of course, being a founder is incredibly busy. You are building your business, hiring, closing customers, and more so designing your pitch deck might sit on the backburner. In order to help you build a great pitch deck, there are countless agencies and tools out there to help you. Freelancers are a great option or the team at 4th & King has helped founders raise $5B+ with their help. Related Resource: Our Startup Pitch Deck Template Pitch Deck Designs Brought to you by Visible Fundraising and pitching your company is incredibly difficult. No matter where you land on the importance of a well-designed pitch deck, just remember it is an opportunity for you to talk about your company and passion to hundreds of investors. If you’d like to learn more about building your pitch deck, check out our in-depth guide, “Tips for Creating an Investor Pitch Deck.” Visible is here to help with your next fundraise. Find investors, share your pitch deck, and track your raise all from one place. Try it for free for 14 days here.

Customers are the lifeblood of a business. At the end of the day, a business needs customers and revenue to survive. In order to better help companies understand how customers are interacting and spending with your business, you need to have a set of metrics in place. Customer lifetime value (CLV) (also referred to as the lifetime value of a customer) is a popular marketing metric to help you understand how much a single customer spends with your business of the lifetime of your relationship. As the team at Shopify puts it, “The lifetime value of a customer, or customer lifetime value (CLV), represents the total amount of money a customer is expected to spend in your business, or on your products, during their lifetime.” Understanding your CLV is useful because it can help inform your acquisition and go-to-market efforts. It can help you answer questions like: What is the most money our company can spend on marketing/sales for customer acquisition What is the most we can spend on customer service to retain an existing customer Who are the most valuable customers and how can we better target them for future sales? Related Reading: Startup Metrics You Need to Monitor Related Resource: Customer Acquisition Cost: A Critical Metrics for Founders How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value For Startups Determining your customer lifetime value is pretty straightforward but can vary depending on the business model and product. In the simplest form, a formula for customer lifetime value is: CLV = Avg. value of one purchase X number of expected purchases in a given year X length of relationship (in years) For example, let’s say you sell snowboards. It might look like: CLV = $500 average order for a customer X 1 snowboard purchased by a customer in a year X 7 years = $500x1x7 = $3500 CLV If you have a subscription-based or SaaS model, your CLV might look something like this (at a very simple level): CLV = Avg. Revenue Per Account (ARPA) / Churn Rate Let’s say you have $100,000 in ARR and 1,000 customers, your ARPA would be $100 a year. And let’s say you have a churn rate of 5%. Your CLV would be $2,000 ($100/.05). However, things can get a bit more complicated when you add in things like the expansion and contraction of different accounts. Why Determining Your Customer Lifetime Value is Important The formula for customer lifetime value might seem simple enough but you might want to understand why you should be tracking it for your business. Learn more about the advantages of tracking your CLV below: Advantages of CLV The biggest advantages of calculating and tracking your CLV are the insights you can uncover. These insights will help you understand your best acquisition channels (more on this below) and how to improve your customer retention rates. By understanding the value of a customer over the lifetime of your relationship, you’ll be able to better allocate capital and headcount towards different initiatives, channels, and product development. Historic CLV Vs Predictive CLV When it comes to calculating and analyzing your CLV there are 2 further formulas and decisions to make. On one hand, you have historic CLV, which is based on existing data that you’ve already collected. On the other sid,e you have predictive CLV which is based on predictions (using data you already have) for how much a customer will spend over their lifetime. How to calculate historic CLV Calculating your historic CLV is often more difficult and can be a lagging indicator for success. Simply put, historic CLV calculates all of the transactions and is multiplied by gross margin % over the course of a relationship with a customer. So it looks like something like: Historical CLV = (Transaction 1 + Transaction 2 + Transaction 3…) X Gross Margin % How to calculate predictive CLV Predictive CLV tends to be a better option for most businesses and can be a better interpretation of your CLV. Predictive CLV is more in line with the formulas we shared above and takes a holistic look a the business so you are multiplying your average customer spend by the amount of time they are a customer. Put Your CLV Calculations to Work If you’re going to take the time to calculate and track your customer lifetime value, you want to make sure you are getting the most out of it as possible. Check out some of our favorite ways to leverage CLV for growth below: Prioritize your marketing spend Arguably the biggest benefit of tracking your CLV is understanding how to better acquire new customers. A higher CLV means you can spend more to acquire new customers. A lower CLV obviously means you can spend less. This means different channels might be more fruitful or economical for different models. If you have a low CLV, you will need to find more organic and cheaper acquisition channels. If you have a huge CLV, you can use more robust and hands-on channels. As a general rule of thumb in the SaaS world you want to make sure your CLV:CAC (customer acquisition cost) ratio is at least 3:1. This means that your customer lifetime value is 3x what you are spending to acquire them. Related Reading: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): A Critical Metrics for Founders Reduce customer churn and hammer loyalty One of the highest leverage activities to increase CLV is by lowering churn. If you take our example from the beginning — a SaaS company with CLV of $2,000 ($100 ARPA / 5% churn rate) — and change their churn to 1% you’ll see their CLV goes to $10,000 ($100 ARPRA / 1% churn rate). By tracking CLV you’ll be able to better understand how you can properly service your current customers to decrease churn and increase loyalty. You might find that if they spend $10,000 over the course of a few years, you can run additional campaigns or offer them a dedicated account manager so they stick around. Related Reading: What’s an Acceptable Churn Rate? Design new enterprises that grow the business If you find a certain segment of your customers or particular product has a particularly high CLV, you can double down. You can find and design new enterprises that could have a higher CLV. Tips for Enhancing CLV Tracking your CLV is a small part of the battle. Constantly drawing insights and enhancing your CLV is where the real fun begins. There are a few key areas where you can focus to improve your CLV. Learn more below: Make Improvements to the onboarding process A surefire way to increase your CLV is by improving your onboarding process for new customers. This helps in a few different ways. An improved onboarding process helps to make sure your customers are engaged with your product. In turn, this reduces churn and increases your CLV. A more engaging onboarding experience is a great way to build a relationship with customers. This can help you expand their account size in the future as they are familiar with your product and team. Provide high-quality content to your customers Another great way to increase your CLV is by focusing on high-end content for your customers. This is especially true for SaaS businesses that might rely on a customer to use the product themselves. By having great and engaging content for your customers they will understand how to use and leverage your product best and will be less likely to churn. A couple of examples: A knowledge base or support articles that are well written and easy to understand for users. Videos and tutorials that demonstrate exactly how things can be accomplished in the product. Stories and insights from other customers that show how the best customers and companies are using your product. Offer the best high-end customer services Going hand-in-hand with the points above is offering a superior customer experience. Offering incredible customer service will assure customers they want to stick with your business and will churn at a lower rate. Build relationships with customers You might be noticing a trend here — the best way to improve your CLV is by having an incredible customer experience that reduces churn. Building relationships takes a series of approaches. It doesn’t happen overnight but by implementing a few of the ideas from above you’ll be able to strengthen your relationship and build trust with customers — the key to reducing churn and increasing your average revenue per customer. Track your CLV with Visible Customer lifetime value (CLV) is an important metric for any business to track. Having a calculated approach to your acquisition and customer support efforts is a surefire way to grow your business and bring in new capital from investors when needed. Need a place to track your CLV (and other key metrics) and share it with your key stakeholders (like team members, investors, board members, etc.)? Check out Visible. Track key metrics, raise capital, send updates and engage your team from a single platform. Try Visible free for 14 days.

With an average round size of $58M, a company’s Series B Round is a serious endeavor. Early funding rounds such as pre-seed, seed, or even Series A, are all about showcasing the potential for your business and generating monetary buy-in to make that potential a reality. With a Series B, the stakes are much higher. A Series B Round is about building on proven momentum and securing further confidence that your business continues to be a strong, fast-growing, and profitable investment for the VCs and private investors participating. Instead of proving to investors why they should help launch or fuel the early potential of your business, a perfect series B round pitch deck is all about demonstrating to investors that your company is a rocketship and this is their ticket to the moon. Examples of Series B Funding Rounds Making it to a point in your business where it makes sense to raise a Series B round. With less than 5% of SaaS startups making it past the first year, raising any money at all is a risk and an opportunity most companies don’t even get. With the high growth that is possible with significant Series B funding, it’s important to understand what a Series B round even looks like. We’ve outlined 5 different Series B rounds to explore: Iterable – $23M In December 2016, Iterable announced their 23M Series B round. Iterable is a cross-channel platform that powers unified customer experiences and empowers marketers to create, optimize and measure every interaction throughout the customer journey. The company has gone on to continue it’s massive growth raising over $300M to date. . Their 2016 Series B was led by Index Ventures, with participation from CRV and previous angel investors. Per a note from their CEO, the round’s purpose was presented for product-specific innovations alongside marketing, sales, and engineering team growth. Lattice – $15M After launching in 2015 and participating in Y-Combinator in 2016, the performance management platform scaled quickly, raising a $15M Series B in 2019. Although on the smaller side of Series B, the investment was led by Shasta Ventures with participation from Thrive and Khosla Ventures as well. At the time of their series B, Lattice had surpassed the 1,000 customer mark – providing incredible credibility and excitement for the investors participating in this round. Beekeeper – $45M  Beekeeper, the mobile platform for frontline communication, raised a significant Series B to kick off 2021. The Swiss-based company with offices in Poland, Germany, and the US raised this round with a large number of investors participating. The round was co-led by Thayer Ventures and Swisscanto Invest, with participation from other investors including Atomico, Alpana Ventures, Edenred Capital Partners, Fyrfly, Hammer Team, High Sage Ventures, investiere, Keen Venture Partners, Samsung NEXT, Swiss Post, and Swisscom. Beekeeper’s largest target market is the hospitality industry and after the large hit that industry took in 2020, the demand for technology to improve employee retention and effectiveness is more in-demand than ever making the value of Beekeeper higher than ever and a strong catalyst for this funding round. Evernote – $10M Throwing it back to 2009 when the financial market was uneasy, Evernote was able to prove enough value in a risky market to raise a $10M Series B. The suite of software for organizing notes and information across multiple platforms has universal appeal with a product-led growth strategy in place. This round was led by Morgenthaler Ventures, with participation from prior investors including DOCOMO Capital and Troika Dialog. Despite their ability to raise funding even in a questionable financial period, Evernote is a cautionary tale of more money, more problems. Despite the resources, they struggled with product decisions, leadership, and execution and have since been surpassed and fallen behind in their space. Calendly – $350M To close out the examples, we have to highlight one of the largest Series B rounds in recent memory. Calendly, the modern scheduling platform, raised a staggering $350M at the start of 2021 from OpenView Ventures and Iconiq. Prior to this incredibly large round, Calendly had only raised $550,000 but had 10M monthly users and 70M in subscription revenue last year. Poised as an especially valuable piece of software for the new wave of remote work as the norm, Calendly had the right validation and timing to close out this impressive round. Related Resource: Best Practices for Creating a Top-Notch Investment Presentation How to Get Investors Excited About Your Series B Pitch As a founder, its critical to bring a specific set of qualities and elements to the boardroom for your Series B pitch. The stakes are higher and confidence and preparedness are more critical than ever before. We suggest implementing a few tactics and pre-work steps to ensure the investors you’re pitching get excited by your series b pitch. Analyze and Prepare The quickest way you’ll lose credibility with an investing team is by coming unprepared to speak to the numbers. The SaaS metrics of your business should be your guiding light. Know them front to back, run through all the possible questions that each metric could spur. From average deal size to burn rate to ARR, make sure you have it down pat and expect the toughest questions about the data to come your way. If you thoroughly analyze and prepare to present the data completely with clear, data-driven rationale for every business decision and outcome fueling your Series B ask, you will prove major credibility to your potential investors and give them the confidence that their money is going to a team with the business savvy to handle and spend every dollar efficiently. Lead with Confidence You’ve got the SaaS metrics of your business down and could recite them in your sleep. However, if your delivery and presence during the pitch fall flat, it might not matter. Confidence is key when executing your Series B pitch. Show that not only do you know your numbers but that you know your business is in fact an extremely valuable business opportunity for these investors to participate in. Nobody wants to invest millions of dollars into a founding team that doesn’t seem to believe they can become a billion-dollar business. SaaS founders don’t become founders because it’s a quick way to make money. Rather, they validate a great idea and take big risks to realize that idea. This takes confidence to do well and that same confidence is critical to bring to the Series B pitch, a big step on the way to this big goal. Tailor to Your Audience Typically with a pre-seed, seed, or Series A round the firms you may be pitching are smaller and there might even be more of a focus on individual angel investors or friends and family. With Series B, the opportunity may be present to pitch to much larger, more established firms with prominent and successful investing experience. It’s crucial to keep this in mind and tailor your pitch to this new type of audience. Research your potential investors’ portfolios, understand their previous investments and position in your pitch, how an investment in your company is complementary to their current portfolio and investment style as well as how you add a new value and new opportunity not currently present in their portfolio today. Understand Your Competition While competitors can be tough for your sales team to navigate FUD and a pain in the side for your product team to ensure innovation and differentiation, strong competition can actually be a key sign of validation for your business to investors. However, it’s absolutely critical that you understand your competition inside and out for your Series B pitch. Competition shows that there is demand in the market (as there should be if you’re at the point of asking for Series B level money), but if you can’t properly differentiate why you win and why your take on the market is the superior one then an investor may choose to pass and seek out other investment opportunities in your space. Dig into the metrics of your competition as much as you do your own business. Spend time in your pitch highlighting the competitive landscape and outlining clearly (with confidence) the key differentiators for your biz and how you plan to lead the market. This will show investors that you are keenly aware of challenges and how to analytically approach those threats – showing good business sense. The Perfect Series B Pitch Deck (Step-by-Step Template) As with Series A, you might not have a lot of time to communicate your investor pitch or you may be one of the dozens of pitches that a particular investment team is hearing that day. This makes your pitch deck critical to nail. As a starting point, get an idea of strong pitch decks from Seed and beyond to understand the general styles and methodologies that have historically worked well for other SaaS companies. Bonus points if you study successful decks from the portfolios of investors you’re pitching to. Related Reading: 18 Pitch Deck Examples for Any Startup We recommend the following flow to ensure you capture the right information and nail your Series B Pitch. Fewer slides is better but each slide can be extended into a second slide as needed: Problem Slide Make it crystal clear what large problem exists, with specific emphasis on how big said problem is. Emphasize the metrics of the problem, how expensive is it? What is the potential financial opportunity in this problem space? If you’re asking for a big sum of money to solve said problem, it’s critical to really prove outright from the start of your pitch how critical that problem really is. Solution Slide Introduce your company as the solution to that massive problem. Keep it simple with a clear statement of what your company is and how you solve the problem. The solution equals your company and your company’s mission statement is how you aim to solve this massive problem. Metrics Slide Why are you worth a fair chance to solve the problem you’ve outlined? With seed or Series A it’s proving that the idea is strong and you have early signs of validation. With Series B, let existing success metrics validate this for you. Showcase significant growth metrics such as customer count, month over month or year over year growth, ARR, etc… Use these numbers to clearly capture and hold attention. Competitive Landscape and Advantage Further, call out that the problem your company solves is one worth solving. Highlight the market including any significant competitors, both indirect and direct, and concisely share how your approach to this problem is different and stronger. Further, validate with growth data vs. competitor growth data if possible. Related Reading: How to Model Total Addressable Market (Template Included) Product Highlights Naturally, your potential investors want to see the product but don’t think that means they have time for a full-fledged demo. Share 1-2 slides highlighting how the product works with some screenshots or a quick peek at the live platform. Make it clear how your end-user would interact with the product but don’t feature dump. Product Roadmap Talk about the possibility and future of your product. What will you do in the next 6 months, years, 5 years? Highlight how your product evolves with the problem and continue to expand its footprint in your defined space. Funding Use Plan Outline how you plan to use Series B funding. For most companies, this is a natural expansion of the product roadmap. However, if you have other growth plans such as hiring etc.. highlight that need to and what that expansion will let you do to scale and make money for your investors even faster. Team Slide Prior to closing, make sure to highlight the amazing team you work with. Highlight your executives, the existing board members, and investors. This is a good way to close with credibility and highlight the connections and team supporting what you do. Closing Slide Keep your close simple. Re-highlight your company mission and the big problem you plan to solve, thank the investors for your time, and open up for any questions if appropriate. Prepare Your Investors In Advance Just as you did with a seed round or Series A, the more you can prepare your investors (or potential investors) ahead of the time set for the actual Series B pitch meeting, the better. Plan to circulate the deck, a summary of your current terms sheet, high-level company info for new investors, and key metrics no later than 48-hours prior to your pitch. This will ensure that all investors and potential investors have a clear understanding of what your ask is and who your company is today. This pre-understanding will make your time more valuable and even allow investors to come prepared with or share questions before – making the time more valuable and pointed for all. Alongside your series B pitch deck, a simple company introduction deck can prove to be extremely valuable. How Visible Helps Startups Raise More in Series B The Series B Pitch is a major milestone for startup founders to achieve. You’ve shown your business is on the right path, have credible early success in the market, and are ready to take on more serious amounts of capital to scale. Mastering the Series B Pitch is possible by following a clear, data-driven, and confident approach, tailoring to your audience, and deeply understanding your competition as the landscape for your space takes off. The Visible pitch deck for a Series B Pitch offers a straightforward template for success with this next-level investment task. Visible is helpful for companies at all stages of growth but especially helpful for founders looking to improve and expand their investor communications. Check out a free trial of Visible – create your account and get started today.

Annual Contract Value (ACV) Defined Annual contract value (ACV) is the average revenue per customer over a given year. ACV tends to be best for companies with recurring revenue. For example, if you have 200 customers on average paying $1,000 a month, the ACV is $12,000 ($1,000 x 12 months). Learn more about how to calculate, track, and make decisions using ACV below. Calculating Annual Contract Value One of the tricky aspects of calculating and tracking ACV is that there is no hard-set rule or formula. Different businesses will calculate ACV in different ways. The main differences are between what is and is not included. For example, let’s use our example from above — a company has an ACV of $12,000. This is straightforward and easy to get to with customers paying $1,000 a month on average. However, let’s say that they also include a $2,000 setup fee (or any one-time fee). Some companies might include this in their ACV, while others don’t. It all comes down to the business and what they believe is best for them. All in all, find the calculation that works best for your business and stick with it from month to month. Plus, make sure that your investors and team members are aware of how it is calculated and tracked. Annual Contract Value Formula At the core, annual contract value can be calculated by taking the sum of all customer contracts for 1 year and dividing it by the # of customers under contract. As we mentioned before, this is generally best suited for SaaS businesses. ACV = Sum of all customer contracts for 1 year / # of customers Under Contract For example, let’s say we have $120,000 in customer contracts for a year and 100 customers under contract. Our ACV would be $1,200 ($120,000/100 customer). Learn more about why you should track your annual contract value below: Why is Annual Contract Value Important? For SaaS companies, tracking annual contract value is vital to understanding your acquisition efforts and go-to-market strategy. Better decision making on Acquisitions At the end of the day, your business needs to generate revenue and a profit. Understanding your ACV will better help you determine your acquisition and pricing strategy. Are you going to search for higher contract customers but less volume? Or lower contract customers at high volume? Determining your pricing and acquisition strategy will have ultimately touch every decision you make when it comes to building products, hiring, fundraising, etc. For example, a lower contract product might require a more self-service product whereas a higher contract product might require a more hands-on approach from sales and team members. Calculating ACV can help with sales and marketing As we mentioned before, your ACV will determine your sales and marketing strategy. For a product with lower ACV, your strategy will require scale and volume. You need to make sure that your sales and marketing motions are repeatable as you are adding on a higher volume of customers. Buyers will likely have little to no interaction with the sales team. Instead, you might have a more robust marketing organization that can bring in new leads at scale. On the flip side, a higher ACV might warrant spending more to acquire a single customer. Because the volume is lower you can take a more tailored and custom approach to new customers. You might have a more robust sales organization that warrants spending more to acquire a single customer. Determining Your ACV Strategy Determining your ACV strategy will impact every aspect of your business. We break down 2 different examples below to show how ACV will impact your customer makeup if you want to achieve $1M in ARR. Small ACV Strategy To start, let’s say we want to land at $1M in annual recurring revenue (ARR). There are quite a few different ways to get there. For our first example, let’s say that we have a small ACV — companies are paying us on average $500 a year. That means that we’ll need roughly 2,000 customers ($1,000,000 in revenue / $500 ACV). 2,000 customers means you’ll need a scalable marketing playbook to fill your top of funnel. As you’ll need to service 2,000 customers, this means you’re product should be user-friendly and have the resources someone needs to support themselves (knowledge base, videos, guides, etc.). Large ACV Strategy On the flip side, let’s take the example from above ($1M in ARR) but with a higher ACV. Let’s say that we have an ACV of $10,000. That means that we’ll need roughly 100 customers. Because of the higher contract size, there are likely fewer customers that fit the mold so you will need to spend more to find and nurture your ideal customers. Because customers will be spending $10k a year they will expect a more hands-on approach from your team. This means you might need a dedicated account manager, or recurring performance check-ins, etc. Related Reading: Roundup: The Importance of SDRs Tips on Increasing Annual Contract Value Naturally, you might be thinking, “How do I increase our ACV?” Check out a few tips and examples for increasing ACV below: Consider upselling/cross-selling The first place to start is generally with upselling. As the team at BigCommerce puts it, “Upselling is the practice of encouraging customers to purchase a comparable higher-end product than the one in question, while cross-selling invites customers to buy related or complementary items.” For SaaS products, this generally means using paywalls and different pricing plans. For example, one plan might cost $99/mo but if you want additional feature sets you can upgrade to a plan that costs $199/mo. Understanding where the value in your product lies is crucial to determining future product features and pricing plans. Increase current prices Simply put, you can increase your price as a whole. There are considerations to be made when increasing pricing but can be worthy of a test for your business. According to Harry Beckwith, author of Selling the Invisible, 15 to 20 percent of people should resist your pricing. Yes, even in the startup stage. Narrow in on marketing and sales Your marketing and sales efforts can also be a way to increase your ACV. Every interaction someone has with your business matters. The sum of these interactions is ultimately your brand. For companies with a strong brand, they can likely increase ACV based solely on the positive experiences your customers (or potential customers) have had with your brand. Related Reading: How to Determine if Your Channel Partners are Actually Working Put the Customer First Having a strong customer experience is a surefire way to increase your ACV. At the end of the day if a customer is not pleased with your product or service they won’t feel the desire to upgrade or pay more in future years. By putting your customer first, you are giving yourself better odds of future upsells and expansion. How to track your ACV Tracking and taking action on your ACV is vital for a SaaS business to succeed. Give Visible a try to help your track your ACV and other key SaaS Metrics. Give it a try here.

We surveyed founders in our community and asked, “How likely are you to refer your current lead investor(s) to fellow founders?” (AKA — NPS score). The results were shocking with an NPS score of 23. An NPS score of 23 falls below the average for the airline industry. Not a great industry to be compared to in terms of customer satisfaction scores. As the venture space continues to grow and mature, the importance of investor’s adding value and opportunities is higher than ever. In order to better help investors support their portfolio (and hopefully move that NPS score up) we’ve put together 3 tips below: Systemize your data collection As Peter Drucker put it, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” In order to best help the founders in your portfolio, you need to have a system in place to collect data, quantitative and qualitative, so you can jump in and help when needed. Setting up a system requires a fine balance between being beneficial for your fund and being efficient and easy on the founder. With that said, it is important you only collect what is absolutely necessary (for founders who are already taking the time to send investor updates you want to make sure they are not duplicating efforts). What we suggest requesting from a founder to start: With Visible for Investors, founders can fill out simple Update Requests from their investors (like the example above) and use their data to fuel future investor Updates. Learn more about Visible for Investors here. Take action on the data Collecting portfolio company data is only half the battle. Once you have the data in hand (qualitative or quantitative) you need to make sure you are closing the loop. Keep an eye on qualitative data As we displayed in our example request above, best-in-class investors are specifically requesting a “Where can we help/problems” section. Being sure you can track and manage this data over time will improve your ability to take action. By setting up a view in Visible or exporting answered requests, you can keep your eye on where your companies stand and where your help is needed. Metric alerts and benchmarking When collecting metrics and data from your companies on a recurring basis, you’ll be able to uncover trends for individual companies and your portfolio as a whole. If you notice a core metric for a specific company is slipping month over month, it might be a good time to intervene and see if they need a hand to tackle a problem. Fundraising and Introductions Startups are in constant competition for 2 resources — capital and talent. As an investor, you will oftentimes see founders need help with 1 (or both) of those 2 areas. Being able to make an introduction to a potential investor or new hire can have a huge impact on a startup’s growth. Being able to open up your rolodex will be a huge win in the eyes of your founders. On the flip side, you can use the data from your portfolio as a whole to help benchmark and uncover new trends to the rest of your portfolio. For example, if you see a go-to-market strategy picking up steam with a few companies, it can be a good time to introduce the ideas to other companies that might benefit from the strategy. Learn more about how you can use Visible for Investors to better support your portfolio companies here. Make the most of it Setting up a system to collect data from your portfolio companies is no easy feat so you’ll want to make sure you are getting the most value out of the data as possible. Outside of helping your portfolio companies, you do have your own set of investors you need to report to. Having a strong system to collect portfolio data is a natural backbone to power your next LP report. Building strong rapport with your LPs is a surefire way to make sure your next fundraise goes smoothly. Using Visible, you can roll up your data and use Updates to report to your LPs. No exporting or additional data needed. Simply take the data from your portfolio, add in any necessary fund/investment data, and keep your LPs in the loop. Check out an example report here. Check out more LP update templates here. Learn more about using Visible for Investors to report with your LPs here. Stay engaged with your founders right from your pocket. Monitor your portfolio and be the value-add investor you want to be with Visible for Investors. Schedule a demo to learn more here.

As AngelList puts it, “Rollup Vehicles (RUVs) are special purpose vehicles (SPVs) that allow founders to consolidate multiple smaller investors into a single investing entity. It saves founders (and their legal teams) the hassle of collecting funds and signatures from many individuals, both to close the round in question and on future stockholder consents.” Jeromy Sonne, CEO and Founder of Decibel, recently leveraged RUVs and online communities to help raise a financing round. Jeromy was able to raise ~$150k from 41 different investors. The best part? He didn’t have to do a single investor call. Jeromy joined us to break down how he raised using an RUV. A few topics we discussed: What is a roll-up vehicle How do RUVs compare to SAFEs and other instruments How they can complement a financing round What tools and resources exist for raising via RUVs How Jeromy raised using an RUV

On season 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we interviewed 10 different startup investors. We covered everything from storytelling to mental health. However, fundraising was a constant theme throughout the season. Many of our guests broke down their thought processes and what they like to see from founders. As pitch decks continue to become an integral part of a fundraise, we dug into how different guests view and look for in pitch decks from potential investments. Check out our 5 favorite takeaways about pitch decks from season 2 below: Brett Brohl on the 4 Slide Pitch Deck Brett Brohl of Bread & Butter Ventures shares the idea of using an email intro deck. He suggests a 4 slide deck that your network can use to forward and share with potential investors. The idea is that a 4 slide deck gives a potential investor enough context to be intrigued but not too much information where they will already have a strong opinion on your company before meeting you. Listen to the full episode here. Elizabeth Yin on Using Pitch Decks for Conversation Elizabeth Yin of the Hustle Fund makes the case that founders don’t actually need a pitch deck. However, she does recommend that founders have a 5 slide pitch deck to use during the fundraising process. This gives the investor enough information but can lead to a conversation as opposed to a pure pitch. Listen to the full episode here. Kristian Andersen on Crafting Your Narrative with a Pitch Deck Kristian Andersen of High Alpha shares why a pitch deck is never a linear template. Kristian suggests that founders think about the story of their company and pitch before building their deck. The story should be applied to your pitch and can help build out the direction of your pitch deck. Listen to the full episode here. Ezra Galston on What to Share Before a Meeting Similar to Elizabeth Yin, Ezra Galston of Starting Line does not have a strong opinion on the medium founders use when sharing information with investors. However, he wants to make sure that he has enough context before having a conversation with a potential founder. Listen to the full episode here. Gale Wilkinson on Must-Haves in a Pitch Deck Gale Wilkinson of Vitalize recommends that founders have a pitch deck or one-pager that founders can share with potential investors. Gale goes on to break down the slides that she believes founders should always improve in their pitch deck. Listen to the full episode here.

On episode 10 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Gale Wilkinson. Gale is the Managing Partner at Vitalize Ventures — “an early-stage fund & angel community investing in software focused on future of work and future of learning.” About Gale Before starting Vitalize, Gale started her career in venture capital at Irish Angels. Gale is one of our favorite follows on Twitter where she shares tactical tips for founders on fundraising. She joins us to break down some of her most popular threads on Twitter and offers countless takeaways to help early-stage founders fundraise — covering everything from list building to ownership benchmarks. Our CEO, Mike Preuss, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Gale. You can give the full episode a listen below (Or listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any standard podcast player): What You Can Expect to Learn from Gale How VC has changed over the last 10 years Why Vitalize is launching an angel group Why list building is vital to a successful fundraise How many investors a founder should expect to talk to during a raise What catches her eye in a cold email from a founder What she looks for in a pitch deck Why she cares about financial modeling at the early stages Related Resources Gale’s Twitter Gale’s LinkedIn Vitalize’s Visible Connect Profile [Thread] Gale on Cold Emails [Thread] Gale on Data Rooms [Blog] How Long Does Fundraising Take?