Oh, hi there! A cold-read is a bit like a ‘reaction video’ but for a startup’s pitch deck. All too often founders send pitch decks to potential investors to either never hear back, or get the dreaded “sorry, this is too early – not a fit” in return.
BUT WHAT ON EARTH DO THEY REALLY THINK?!?
A cold read is when an experienced & impartial investor reviews a deck they’ve never seen before and speaks out loud – to camera – everything they *think* when they see a deck, but never ever tell you. It’s so damn useful.
Oh, and it’s entertaining as heck.
Watch these puppies 
It’s another Crowdcube Pitch Review! The point of this is to give BOTH founders and crowd investors some perspective on what ‘professional’ investors think when
Ah here we are! Time for another dish of brutal honesty on someone’s #pitch deck. My friends, it’s a Cold Read. This time we have
This pitch deck is a goldmine of examples on how to get an investor to spend a lot of time on your pitch deck, but
Now this is an *excellent* example of an early-stage/pre-seed pitch deck. Like… really… wowsers! It’s often too easy to show/share things that people do badly
Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. #founders!!! NEVER EVER DO THIS! I felt compelled to create a cold read based on an unsolicited
PITCH DECK COLD READ TIME! Here we have a fine example of a founder attempting to create a new and novel kind of #pitchdeck ,
This is the full version review of the Howbout pitch deck on Crowdcube (https://www.crowdcube.com/companies/h…) In short, a good deck – but 4 really important unanswered
This time around on our ‘Q&A for Crowdcube’ series, we have Montvel – a BBQ & Pellet Fuel company from France. Now, to some, not
This one is a beauty of a cold read. What we have, across 5 minutes, is some of the best things to do in a
They take considerable effort & time to create. So they ain’t free. But if you’re a cheapskate, I’ll do it for a fiver – so long as you let me feature an edited version on my blog/LinkedIn.
See below for prices & how it works, chum.
yeah, i do. It took me 15 years and many failed attempts to get this good. Count yourself lucky, pal!
Good! Make sure they’re doing real work then. Because if they’re not, you’ve just blown your kids inheritence
of course it is. ever sent a shit deck to a great investor, but never heard back? of course you have. don’t blow your chance for the sake of a few quid
A cold-read is where I film myself reviewing your pitch deck and speak out loud everything I believe a good investor would *think* but never tell you about your pitch deck.
From bitter personal experience, too many pitch decks you send to investors rarely get a reply. Or if they do, it’s the ‘too early’ or ‘not a fit’ response. Being able to see what the investor was likely thinking at that moment can save you firing off your social capital unnecessarily
I have been doing cold-reads for about a decade. However they were exclusively for my students at MIT and the teams I mentored at Techstars and The Rattle. Only recently have I dared doing it in public, and it’s become a pretty astonishing success
Tut. Well, no one is technically ‘qualified’. However, having raised a lot of capital over the last 15 years and having invested a fair number of times, I have a sneaky sense for how VCs and Angel Investors operate. Not only that, I have spent over a decade calibrating my opinions against the world’s best investors – including Chris Dixon, Brad Feld, Sherry Coutu, and many other super mega famous investors.
Every 14 days I refresh a collection of 5-10 pitch decks I have gathered over the previous few months that I believe are worthy of some top-tier investor attention. These investors trust me to provide excellent opportunities and I incentivise myself by having an option to invest alongside them, if they choose to participate in your round.
Well, let’s hope so. But also from bitter experience, many advisers aren’t worth their weight in self-congratulatory LinkedIn posts. If your adviser has *personally* raised a lot of capital, and recently, then fair – use them, not me.
First, I do you a cold-read. I then send you a link to book time with me at your convenience. Prior to your session, it would be helpful to review an updated pitch deck. And during the session I will attempt to help you make edits and tweaks that speak more clearly to your target investors.
I will create a roughly 5-minute video that highlights the key founder-based learnings from your specific cold-read. It is intended to be entertaining, educating, and respectful to the founders who sent it to me
I will *always* redact financial performance and redact intending spending. I will also use my judgement to redact anything I believe would be commercially sensitive. If I have any doubts, I will check with you first
Equity is a powerful motivator for long-term team, advisers, and investors. Cold-reading is meant to be short, sharp, and direct. Equity just isn’t an appropriate currency for this type of product. Soz.
Don’t be. You’re gonna love it.