Evan Baehr - Get Backed: Craft Your Story, Build the Perfect Pitch Deck, and Launch the Venture of Your Dreams

Get Backed is the essential guide to launching a companynot only raising money, but also raising relationships. If youre a founder or an entrepreneur, this book has the tools you need to succeed.

ADAM GRANT , Professor of Management, the Wharton School; New York Times bestselling author, Give and Take

This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to raise money and build genuine relationships with investors.

DAVID COHEN , cofounder and Managing Partner, Techstars

The best way to solve the worlds most pressing problems is to start a company. This book shows you how.

JOHN MACKEY , cofounder and Co-CEO, Whole Foods Market; coauthor, Conscious Capitalism

The ability to get a startup funded is a crucial test for a founder. It pulls together all of the larger requirements of the jobcrafting a clear vision, laying out a clear execution path, and cultivating relationships above money. Evan Baehr and Evan Loomis have created a field guide to help the best founders get the funding they deserve for their disruptive ideas.

MIKE MAPLES JR. , cofounder and Partner, Floodgate; investor, Twitter

Even the best business plan will fail if you cant pitch it well. Read this book to make sure you can.

BLAKE MASTERS , cofounder, Judicata; coauthor (with Peter Thiel), Zero to One

Successful companies grow out of strong communities. This guide helps you raise friends, partners, and investorsthe ultimate community to make your venture succeed.

TOMMY LEEP , Chief Connector, Rothenberg Ventures

Founders envision how the world can be differentand invite others to join that vision by telling stories of hope, failure, triumph, and a better future. Get Backed is the definitive primer on how founders ought to tell these stories.

JAMES K. A. SMITH , Professor of Philosophy, Calvin College; author, Desiring the Kingdom

Finally, a book by people who have actually done it! Get Backed is a staple for any startup library. It was our handbook for raising capital for our ventureand it will do the same for you!

LAURA and BEN HARRISON , cofounders, Jonas Paul Eyewear

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Copyright 2015 Evan Baehr and Evan Loomis
All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to , or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.

The web addresses referenced in this book were live and correct at the time of the books publication but may be subject to change.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Baehr, Evan.

Get backed : the handbook for creating your pitch deck, raising money, and launching the venture of your dreams / Evan Baehr and Evan Loomis.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-63369-072-1 (alk. paper)

1. New business enterprisesFinance. 2. New business enterprises Management. 3. Entrepreneurship. I. Loomis, Evan. II. Title.
HG4027.6.B242015
658.15'224dc23

2015015748

When your relationship with your spouse is strong, you move out into the world in strength no matter how tumultuous it is, explains theologian Tim Keller. But when that relationship is weak, you move out into the world in weakness, even if everything seems to be going perfectly.

As residents of a tumultuous world, we dedicate this work to our spouses, Kristina and Brandi, wholike so many spouses of entrepreneurssacrificed eternally by making ends meet, putting the kids to bed alone, and shouldering way more than half of the work at home.

And despite the burdens they bore, they often looked us right in the eyes during entrepreneurships darkest moments and said, I believe in you. And that belief alone equipped us to move out into the world with great strength.

Evan Baehr and Evan Loomis
Austin, TX

We are truly grateful to all those who have assisted with this project, and wed like to express our sincere thanks for the generous help and support weve received along the way.

This book would not have happened without Trevor Boehms tireless work and creativity. He served as our quarterback, led the writing and research efforts, and conducted countless interviews. Our names are on the cover, but Trevor is the true hero of Get Backed .

Wed also like to express our deepest gratitude to Harvard Business Review Press. Our first e-mail from Tim Sullivan, editorial director at the Press, said, The good news is that I took the project to our acquisitions meeting this morning. The better news is that the committee was wildly enthusiastic about the bookand how often can you say that any committee is wildly enthusiastic about anything? From the get-go, the Press has been a joy to work with, and we are deeply indebted to Tim for believing in us and seeing the importance of a book like this. We are especially grateful to a few folks on his team, namely, Jennifer Waring, Stephani Finks, Julie Devoll, Kevin Evers, and Nina Nocciolino.

Showing your investor pitch deck to strangers is a bit like giving the world a key to your front door. It is courageous and an extreme act of generosity. Most of the entrepreneurs we interviewed simply said, No, you cannot publish my pitch deck... are you crazy? It is for that reason that we are so grateful to the thirteen founders who said Yes: Brad McNamara, Cofounder and CEO, Freight Farms; George Arison, Founder and CEO, Shift; Jonathan Beekman, Founder and CEO, Man Crates; Justin McLeod, Founder and CEO, Hinge; Kegan Schouwenburg, Founder and CEO, SOLS Systems; McKay Thomas, Cofounder and CEO, First Opinion; Michael McDaniel, Founder and CEO, Reaction, Inc.; Russ Heddleston, Cofounder and CEO, DocSend; Ryan Allis, Cofounder and Chairman, Connect; Steven van Wel, Cofounder and CEO, Karma; Wade Eyerly, Cofounder and CEO, Beacon; Zvi Band, Cofounder and CEO, Contactually; and Will Haughey, Cofounder and Chief Blockhead, Tegu.

A few other people without whom this labor of love simply would not have been possible: Curtis Eggemeyer, CEO of Lemi Shine, who gave us a lot of encouragement and the seed capital needed to continue our work. A book is quite possibly the worst investment you can make, so were hopeful that Get Backed provides social returns for Curtis; Steve Nelson, at Harvard Business School, who first introduced us to Tim Sullivan; Charlie Hoehn and Tucker Max for their marketing genius; Erin at Able Lending and Lori of 33Vincent for taking care of the small details so we could keep our sights set on the bigger picture; Steven Tomlinson, who opened our imaginations to the idea of play; Steven Eggert, former designer at frog, who took on the first designs of the book; Dave Blanchard, Josh Kwan, Jon Hart, Jason Locy, Jon Tyson, and Dr. Steve Gravesour dear friends at Praxis who provided friendship, insight, and encouragement along the way; Francis Pedraza, our hero of the Friendship Loop, for allowing us to dig into his methodology and crack the code on relationship fundraising; Mike Rothenberg, Founder, Rothenberg Ventures, who made countless introductions to founders of startups along the way; Jason Bornhorst, Founder and CEO, Filament Labs; Will Sauer, Director of Finance and Operations, Skycatch; Sanjay Dastoor, Cofounder, Boosted Boards; Adam Tichauer, former President and CEO, Play-button; Deena Varshavskaya, Founder and CEO, Wanelo; Jeff Avallon, Cofounder, IdeaPaint; Jason Seats, Partner, Techstars; Scott Harrison, Founder, charity: water; Dan Martell, Founder, Clarity.fm; Nancy Duarte, author, slide:ology ; Tommy Leep, Chief Connector, Rothenberg Ventures; and Chi-Hua Chien, venture capitalist, Good-water Capital, and Twitter, Facebook, and Spotify investor.