Who is making it all happen, and how do we recruit, motivate, and excite people to join this rocket ship?
The Founders & Team slide offers a detailed snapshot of the company's founders and team. It showcases the growth strategy and underscores the compelling company culture, attracting top-tier talent and shaping the brand as an engaging workplace.
Your team is your biggest strength, showing how well you work together. Investors want to see who is on your team, their skills, and how they fit with your goals. Highlighting your organization's culture is a powerful tactic to increase your chances of securing funding. Your culture reflects your business values, attitudes, goals, and the strategies you employ to reach them.
Investors want to see proof of a good company culture, like facts and numbers. If you have a lot of employees staying for a long time, this shows investors you have a happy and supportive workplace. Also, if you listen to what your employees have to say and use their feedback, this is a big plus for investors. They care more about real outcomes and the actual advantages of your culture, not just what you say in promotions.
Show a clear organizational chart for key hires in the next 3-6 months. As CEO, explain how you'll shape the company to grow from a startup to a mature organization. Given remote work, share strategies for boosting performance and engagement while managing costs.
Focus on key executive positions in "Product Management," "Tech/Engineering," "Sales," "Marketing," and "Finance & Legal." In the early stages, founders often wear multiple hats, so clarify responsibilities.
It’s common for startups to have flat organizational structures to stay agile and fast. Spotify coined the term “ Scaling Agile @ Spotify, “ which has since become a blueprint for fast-growing development teams with so-called Tribes, Squads, Chapters, and Guilds.
Keep it simple on this slide. Chart out the main functions and highlight the most important hires the new funds will help you secure.
Supportive slides can explain your recruitment and structural plans in more detail.
In our therapy health app example, the organizational slide showcases the current team structure, emphasizing expertise in mental health, business development, insurance, and government contracts. We highlight our tech team's pedigree in building secure, high-volume B2C app transactions with robust API integrations. Additionally, our team includes a compliance officer and strong legal and finance resources to handle patient data within strict regulations.
And if you have lots of superstar talent, you could show it off like this ;)
Questions to anticipate from an investor:
- What is the company's culture or its main values?
- Is there proof that the company truly practices its stated values ("does it walk the talk")?
- How do you hire people?
- What kind of people get hired, promoted and fired by the firm?
- What kind of skills and leaders does the firm celebrate?
- How long have the company's top leaders and key employees worked there? The longer they've been there, the better it is for keeping a consistent culture and attracting long-term investments.
