"I don't want to be led around by the nose"

As someone who has been part of the VC world for a long time, Holger Witte has experienced many things. In this interview, he explains what makes a good pitch these days - and what founders should rather not even try.

Vorwerk Ventures currently manages a fund worth 150 million euros. The VC has been independent of its namesake company since 2019. Holger Witte has been on board since then. Vorwerk Ventures usually invests in the seed phase and participates in Series A financing rounds. In this interview, he explains when a pitch deck stands out.

Mr. Witte, how many pitch decks actually end up in Vorwerk Ventures' inbox?

It's certainly around 3,000. Of course, we can't go through them all with our team of eight. That's why we "tinder" them first, so to speak: everything that doesn't fit our profile is thrown out straight away. If it fits, we discuss whether we want to schedule a meeting with the start-up. Because to be honest, we also receive a lot of requests that simply don't fit.

What was the worst pitch deck you can remember?

That was actually many years ago. One example that comes to mind from my time before Vorwerk Ventures: A founder wanted to build a music platform based on the Spotify model and align it with his own, yet very extravagant, taste in music. The design was supposed to be in the style of the Bundestag website, which was inappropriate. In the absence of a photo, one founder even included a picture of his ID card in his pitch deck. Nowadays, however, pitch decks are much better and more professional, and I don't really get negative outliers like that anymore.

Are there still positive outliers?

In terms of content, these decks are now all structured very similarly. Most of the founders have also had a designer go over them again. I recommend that to everyone, by the way. As we all know, you eat with your eyes.

You can find heaps of instructions on the Internet on what a pitch deck should look like. Doesn't the repetitive structure annoy you?

I actually find such instructions very useful. However, it can make sense to deviate from them. For some start-ups, the team is particularly relevant and I want to see that at the front and not on the last few pages. If the product is very complicated and I still don't know what it's about after page five because the general guideline says that the product description doesn't come until page ten, then that's also bad. I don't want to click through an entire pitch deck only to realize at the end that it doesn't suit us. Above all, the storyline has to be right and we as VCs have to be able to establish a personal connection with the founding teams.

In which cases is a start-up a good fit for Vorwerk Ventures?

We invest in founding teams with disruptive product and service ideas that improve the everyday lives of as many people as possible. Of course, a business idea must first fit our investment hypothesis and also have sufficient potential. But then it also depends very much on the personal "fit" with the founders. After all, we have to spend a lot of time together in the future. At the moment, we VCs also have to pitch good deals in order to be allowed to participate in the round. It is therefore a two-sided pitch - not only on the part of the founders, but also on the part of the VCs

What should start-ups that want to send you a pitch deck not do under any circumstances?

A trick that many founders also use: They say another VC is very interested. They try to play us off against each other. But we VCs know each other. So if a founder says something like that, it should be true - otherwise it becomes really unpleasant. The biggest mistake is to just send us something via the general e-mail address on our website. Instead, founders should make the effort to get an intro elsewhere - for example via their business angels.

Isn't that exactly what it should be for?

Yes, the email is there to make contact - but not for direct pitches. That's the worst thing you can do. In all the years I've been with other VCs, I've never seen any financing come about as a result. If founders don't even bother to get an intro for us, then the pitch can't really turn into anything.

If the majority of pitch decks are now at such a high level, how can founders still stand out?

The actual pitching is becoming increasingly important. It has to be fun to talk to the founders about their ideas. There are meetings where I look at the clock after 30 minutes and hope it's over soon. Ideally, you don't even notice how quickly the time passes. I have to be able to take it from the founders that they themselves believe that this thing will become big one day. That's a fine line, of course, as they shouldn't completely exaggerate in their pitch or oversell themselves. I don't need a self-appointed sales guru.

Have you ever been conned?

Yes, I've also experienced some unpleasant things: for example, a start-up whose idea we thought was really good. But they had the risk that they could be issued with an injunction for their product. Basically, everyone was aware of this, but we still found the start-up interesting. When I asked whether they saw this as a risk, they simply said "no". I don't want to be led around by the nose. So we didn't invest.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Personal details: Holger Witte has been a Partner at Vorwerk Ventures since 2019 and is an experienced early-stage investor with a total of 11 years in the VC business. He uses his expertise and network to invest in consumer tech start-ups, including Sharpist, Formelskin and Boon. Previously, he was responsible for incubator projects at Project A Ventures and later for fundraising and structuring follow-on financing.