My name is Adam Renklint and I’m the CEO and co-founder of Pitch.

I'm a Swede living in Germany for the past 10 years. I moved here to join a small startup called 6Wunderkinder, where I was one of the first international employees. 

We built a to-do list app called Wunderlist. After about 5 years, the company was acquired by Microsoft, where I spent 2 years gaining insights into the corporate world.

Realizing that the corporate environment wasn’t for us, a few friends from Wunderlist, including some of the founders of 6Wunderkinder and I decided to start a new venture, which became Pitch in 2017.

We’ve raised a total of around $130M.

In 2018 we raised $30M while launching a private beta.

We most recently raised an $85M Series B funding led by Lakestar and Tiger Global, and joined by our existing investors Thrive Capital and Index Ventures. The peak valuation was $600M.

After raising that Series B, it became clear to everyone, including the team and investors that things weren’t working. 

We unfortunately did 2 rounds of layoffs where we shrunk the company. The first was at the end of 2022 when we went from 160 to 120 people. 

We could see that the traction wasn’t good enough and we were losing the momentum a little bit. 

The second round was us really hitting the reset button. We made a deal with investors to return a majority of their capital. This also entailed bringing the company down to 40 people at the end of 2023. 

This tough decision enabled us to build a cash flowing business, rather than a venture-scale one, that’s sustainable over the long term.

It was mostly for hiring, scaling operations, and building out more features that we thought users wanted.

Finding the right investor is like any important relationship — it comes down to trust and mutual understanding. 

Whether you're considering allowing someone to invest in your company, hiring someone, or choosing a co-founder, it's essential to build trust quickly.

Christian and I did this by being very open about what was working and what wasn't, avoiding putting on a show. 

This approach also helps gauge early on how the other person responds — if they are open with their feedback and genuinely excited about what you're building, not just the potential return on their capital.

You ideally want someone who understands your vision, shares your excitement for the product, and contributes ideas to support your journey.

The process of connecting with investors can vary, especially depending on your reputation as a founder. 

If you don't have an established name or reputation, it can be challenging to get in front of a VC, and you may have fewer options for initial funding. 

This initial funding is crucial for building the product and proving that your idea is worth investing in.

In our case, it was a bit different. Christian, my co-founder, had already built a reputation after selling Wunderlist and getting involved in venture capital and investments. 

This gave us easier access to investor meetings and allowed us to be more selective in choosing the right partners. 

We focused on finding investors who could add value to our board, challenge us constructively, and help with partnerships or connections.

After my co-founder Christian had sold Wunderlist, he also started doing some venture capital investments and made a name for himself.

We had a very easy time getting into those rooms to talk to people because of his connections. 

That also meant we could be more picky with finding the right partner that we felt would be a great addition to our board.

Having the ability to choose investors at the time drove inherent urgency for investors to vie for that role.

After raising the large Series B, everything that went into resetting the business was extremely difficult. 

Being forced to let many people go that helped build the company from its earliest days wasn’t easy.

Changing from a venture-scale business towards a cash flowing business is quite a transition.

Not exactly a fundraising story, but we had a client come to us recently that was a creative/design agency. 

They had heard about Pitch because they lost a pitch to another agency that was using our software.

The beauty and the design of the deck was stated as being one of the major reasons why they lost the business. 

As someone who creates that software, that’s pretty amazing to hear.

When it comes to pitch decks, I've noticed that many are incomplete. 

It's important to understand that different stages of fundraising require slightly different information and there are varied expectations from VCs. 

You have to remember that VCs aren't just looking at your company; they might be reviewing around 100 companies a month, relying heavily on pattern matching.

To get your deck in front of as many eyes as possible, you need to follow a clear format and have a compelling storyline that align with the stage of your company. 

If you're past Series A, don't forget to showcase your product. As a product-driven founder, the product should be front and center. You should be proud – let that pride shine through.

Another common mistake is having an ambiguous ask at the end of the deck. 

If you're not confident, you might just aim to get in the room by providing a vague range. 

To help investors envision the potential of your company 5-10 years down the line, you need to be very specific. 

Clearly state how much money you're asking for, what you're willing to give in return, and how you plan to use the funds.

First time founders should use templates and then customize them – rather than trying to create a pitch deck from scratch.

Focus on the story over the visuals, but use a tool that helps you get the visuals crisp from the beginning.

Advice unrelated to the deck would be to stay calm. It's never as bad as it seems, and it's never as good as it seems either. If you just keep going, it will feel better.

Ciarán O’Leary from BlueYard Capital. BlueYard is a European fund. 

Ciarán was also an investor in Wunderlist through another fund. 

He has a really amazing vision for what the future of computing will be like, and he’s a great discussion partner. I could not recommend him enough.

Use Pitch.com to create a crisp pitch deck! 

We live in a world of saturated visuals everywhere so it's really important to try to stand out.

The majority of decks look terrible. 

Just by virtue of putting enough effort into it that people will see that it looks well-designed, you're already one step ahead of the average person trying to raise money.