the deck with the investment bank logo

a founder showed me his deck before pitching to vcs.

the back page had a logo on it. one of the biggest investment banks in the world. real engagement. real advisory work. legitimate credential.

i told him to take it off.

he was confused. why would you remove credibility from a deck.

because it isnt credibility in this room.

vcs are pattern matchers and one of the patterns they distrust is companies that already work with investment banks.

their internal logic is fast. if youre working with a bank you might be priced like a bank deal. you might have outside expectations on terms. you might be set up for an ipo path that doesnt fit a venture rounds typical exit math. you might be paying advisory fees that come out of the very capital they would put in.

none of these are your fault. they are perceptions. and perceptions cost you the meeting.

this is the pattern that almost no one talks about because nobody wants to admit that strong credentials can hurt you in the wrong room.

credentials are situational. they are not universally additive.

a founder pitching to a strategic acquirer benefits from investment bank involvement. a founder pitching to a vc does not.

a founder pitching to enterprise procurement benefits from a fortune fifty advisory board. a founder pitching to seed investors does not.

a founder pitching to lps benefits from prior fund management experience. a founder pitching to operators does not.

same person. same business. completely different optimal positioning depending on the room.

which is why deck preparation isnt one deck. its a base deck and a set of variations. you switch the second to last slide depending on who you are pitching. you change the team headshots depending on the cultural fit you are trying to signal. you swap out logos depending on which credibility currency the room values.

this is not lying. this is communication.

the same person who used to brag about his time at goldman in a banking pitch will quietly remove that line from a startup pitch. because in a startup pitch goldman alumni signal a certain risk aversion that the founder is trying to dispel.

he is still the same person. he still has the same background. he is just choosing which lens to put on it.

and the founders who win raises understand that their deck is not a documentary. it is a sales tool.

so heres the question for this morning.

what credential are you carrying around that helps you in some rooms and hurts you in others?