The Emerging Manager Fundraising Pitch Deck

Your pitch deck is one of the main qualitative documents that LPs may use to vet your fund, and a compelling pitch deck entices an LP to review the rest of your data room.

The average emerging manager fund pitch deck is 15 - 20 pages in length. If you have more information to share, consider adding anything beyond 20 slides to the appendix or saving it as supplemental information for a follow-up meeting.

Here’s some key elements to consider incorporating into your pitch deck:

Your team.
Background and biographies for each investing partner plus any other key teammates or advisors and industry experts, if relevant.

The opportunity.
What is the market gap you’re addressing, and why are you and the team best positioned to win here? This could be a sector, geography, stage, industry theme or a combination of multiple areas where you have a differentiated advantage.

Your investment thesis.
Your thesis should clearly match the opportunity you’ve outlined and show how you’re positioned to take advantage of it. Valence’s Arjun Dev Arora has some useful thoughts on what makes a great investment thesis, ranging from a specific founder niche to your operational structure or track record.

Your sourcing strategy.
Tactically, how will you source the best companies that fit your thesis? What competitive advantages do you have to do so? SVB’s Efrat Turgeman advises, “Be prepared to answer questions about the fierce competition and how you plan to compete / collaborate / win against other firms with a similar thesis.”

Your investment decision process.
How will your firm make investment decisions?

Case studies.
A strong case study highlights a successful investment you’ve made, how you sourced the deal, why the company fits your thesis, ways in which you were instrumental and how the company has performed since your investment. We recommend including two to three case studies.

Your track record.
Your track record spreadsheet may share deeper details, but it is important to include high-level metrics in the pitch deck. For a first-time manager, consider including either your verifiable investments from your previous fund, an aggregation of previous on-thesis angel investments or a combination of both. At minimum, consider including a fund-level view of returns and some data on standout investments.

Your portfolio construction.
This section includes your target, minimum and hard-cap fund size. Consider also including your typical stage and check size ranges, follow-on and reserves strategy, the fund cycle length within which you’re planning to deploy, and whether LPs will have the opportunity to co-invest in follow-on rounds alongside your firm.

Fund structure and terms.
While you may want to include the full terms of your limited partnership agreement (LPA) in the data room, this page could provide a high-level overview. At a minimum, anticipate having to outline management fees, GP commitment, carry distribution and returns distribution.

What matters most to LPs?

Your team.
If you have a partner, how long have you been working together? In what context? How are your skills complementary? If you’re a solo general partner (GP), how have you built a community of experts around you? How do junior investors on your team play a role in your strategy? How do you think about board roles across the team?

How your fund size target matches your strategy.
Your target fund size should define your fund strategy. The target fund size needs to be viable—meaning an amount that you reasonably believe you can secure—and effective, meaning it will support the portfolio construction you need to win and return capital. Your fund size needs to be directly tied to how you think about ownership and valuations in the market for your stage.

Indicators of success.
In a competitive environment, you have to stand out. Depending on your strengths, these indicators could include some key metrics from your operator days, the strength of the network you’ll tap for deal flow or the impressive returns you’ve achieved in the past.

Transparency.
If there is a gap in your track record, or a part of the story that is less compelling, use it as an opportunity. The Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) puts it well: “Instead of avoiding a discussion about your portfolio or track record weaknesses, use this as an opportunity to share with LPs your ‘Lessons Learned.’ Remember, LPs don’t expect perfection, but they appreciate humility and the self-awareness to learn from mistakes—and of course, more transparency than ever before.”

Resources

Review two pitch deck samples

• Pitch Deck by Kaego Ogbechie Rust

• Pitch Deck by Alexander Jarvis