Cambridge Agritech: what we look for in a pitch deck

Over the past decade, Cambridge Agritech has found and evaluated more than 250 agritech startups on behalf of its investor-members. In this article, CEO Sean Butler reflects on some of the many decks we’ve looked at and what made some of them stand out.

The first thing to tell startups is that we, like all investors, see a lot of decks and have limited time to review them. So if what you are saying is obscure or misses key areas, it may not get any further.

The second thing is that the deck should be designed to get an investor interested and make them want to know more. A few pages – a dozen or so – and an interesting story are all you need to catch our attention. We can ask further questions when we meet you. It should not try and cover everything in such mind-numbing detail that we lose the will to live…

As Chair Dr Rob Wylie said

“Alas we see too many decks that look like a PhD thesis, full of detailed diagrams and calculations, as though the company cannot bear to tell us something without all the footnotes that go with it.”

A final point to emphasise: technology alone is rarely enough. We need to understand who is buying the product, why they need it, how you will reach them and how long it will take to generate meaningful revenue. Great technology with no route to market is still a risky investment.

It might help to apply a couple of basic rules: 12-15 slides and a 24-point font (no exceptions!).

So, what do we want to see to help decide whether it interests us enough to take things forward?

Our own preferences – investors will vary, of course – are these:

• Summary: your elevator pitch. I used to despise these as trivial, but I’ve come to like them because they help me see whether the company properly understands what it does.
• Context: where the company fits, your product, your customers and market. Again, very simple – not the place to talk about Millenium Goals.
• Technology/R&D: what sort of technology you have, how far advanced it is towards becoming a saleable product, perhaps something about your IP status. We don’t have a preference for early-stage or later-stage businesses but be realistic about how far you are from revenue and how much capital you’ll need before you get there.
• People: just the main people, no more than three or four. Don’t fill up the slide with people who helped you, the advisory board or PhD students – it loses the message.
• Finance: set out your financials in a plain and simple way, ideally looking ahead about 5 years, covering revenue and spending. We all know it’s a somewhat made-up projection, but it is still useful.
• Strategy: how you are going to get to market and generate revenue, preferably though traditional business models such as sales or SaaS. One of the most common weaknesses is a company with great technology but only a vague idea of how it reaches customers. We are as interested in how you will sell the product as in the product itself.
• Products: the key part of your story! What you are selling? How you are going to make sales? Who is buying it? Most importantly, why are they going to buy it? In the current investment market, customers need a good reason to buy. If customers are already trialling, buying or even actively engaging with the product, tell us. Evidence that somebody wants what you’re building carries a lot of weight.
• Offer: you need to decide how much to disclose, but you cannot be too opaque. Ideally include the amount you are raising – I realise some companies prefer to leave out the raise and valuation, but it can rebound: I won’t proceed with a company that tells me it has not decided its pre-money valuation, or at least cannot give me a range.

If you want to know more about our process for assessing start-ups – under what we call the ‘quadricopter’, visit our website, www.camagritech.com

About Cambridge Agritech

Cambridge Agritech specialises in identifying and evaluating early-stage agritech companies for investors. Founders Dr Sean Butler and Dr Rob Wylie combine experience across agriculture, plant science, technology commercialisation, intellectual property, venture capital and company building. This blend of scientific, commercial and investment expertise underpins Cambridge Agritech’s approach to assessing agritech startups and supporting founders.

Dr Wylie, Chair of Cambridge Agritech, will be speaking at Focus on 17 September in a talk: ‘Backed by (Agri-Tech) Angels’.

Book your tickets for Focus on Finance here.