Every investor presentation has to introduce the management team. But where do you put the team slide for maximum impact? Usually you put it down near the end, with two “up” exceptions.
Your company will fail if the management team is not skilled and motivated, and investors know this. Before most investors will make an investment, they will check out the team and pass on the investment if they are not comfortable with management. So why should it matter where in the presentation the focus turns to the team?
It’s important to remember that an investor presentation is a story being told, and should be carefully designed to build investor interest while catering to expectation.
Investors generally expect to first be told about a problem that the company sees and then a solution that the company has or envisions. Nothing else matters if the audience doesn’t grasp and become interested in the problem/solution. That’s why the problem/solution is usually presented first in a pitch.
You may have heard the adage that there are lots of great opportunities but not many great management teams. That may be true, but at least at a first presentation, investors will assume the team is pretty good or better. Their first interest is in the opportunity. They want to know: Is this an area I invest in? Is the problem severe? Does the solution solve the problem in a novel way? Is the opportunity large? Does the business excite me? If all these boxes are checked, then I’m interested in the management team. If not, then the management team really doesn’t matter.
For these reasons, the team discussion usually is in the second half of the presentation.
There are two reasons to show the management team near the start of the presentation. The first, and less likely, is if the team is so stunningly spectacular that the team alone will attract investors regardless of the opportunity. If Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg start a new business and are looking for investors, it’s a good bet that investors will be interested regardless of the focus of the new business. So it makes sense to show the team first.
But a team that commands interest regardless of the business is very rare.
The principal reason to introduce a team early in the presentation is if the business concept has a real or perceived issue, and a very good team is used to mitigate some of the business issues.
For instance, say a company intends to aggregate travel pricing and discounts and make commissions on reservations made. Sounds kind of ho-hum, there are many competitors and it’s difficult to acquire new customers. But let’s say that the founders all come from the biggest competitors, have deep experience, and many contacts within the travel industry. Maybe, then, this particular team may take what would otherwise be an uninteresting or flawed opportunity and turn it into a very interesting one. That’s a great reason to show the team first.
If the above isn’t enough to convince you, think of hiring a financial advisor. You want to know what school he or she attended and what their experience is, but the first thing you want to know is what they can do for you, their philosophy and their approach. If there is an issue with that, then the rest just doesn’t matter.
If you put the team early in the deck, do it for strategic reasons.
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