0:11

Hello and welcome back to equity tech crunch's flagship

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podcast about the business of startups. This is our

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Monday show where we take a look at the

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weekend and get you ready for the week ahead.

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Today is Monday, May 13th, 2024. And

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I'm Becca Scutak, a senior reporter here at

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TechCrunch. On today's show, we have

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a looming strike for workers at a Maryland

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Apple Store, what to expect from OpenAI's live

0:32

stream today, and a pitch deck

0:35

teardown for a software supply chain platform called

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CloudSmith. Let's get started. Our

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first big story we're diving into today

0:44

takes a look at some recent employment

0:46

news coming out of Apple. To start,

0:48

the unionized retail workers at Apple's Townes

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and Maryland store this Saturday voted to

0:52

authorize a strike. Now, listeners, if the

0:54

Townes and Maryland Apple Store sounds familiar

0:56

and you don't live near that store

0:58

specifically, it might be because that is

1:00

the first Apple retail store with a

1:02

formally recognized union, which came from a

1:04

vote back in June While

1:07

the date of this strike for the Townes

1:09

and Maryland Store union is TBD, the union

1:12

has been negotiating with Apple since

1:14

last January over a list of

1:16

issues, including work-life balance, unpredictable scheduling,

1:18

and wages. In a statement

1:20

by the International Association of Machinists

1:22

and Aerospace Workers Coalition of Organized

1:24

Retail Employees, also known as IAMCore,

1:27

quoted, This vote is the

1:29

first step in demonstrating our solidarity and sends

1:32

a clear message to Apple. The passage

1:34

of the strike's sanctioned vote highlights IAMCore's

1:36

unwavering commitment to advocating for the rights

1:38

and well-being of workers in the face

1:40

of challenges. As discussions with Apple management

1:42

continue, we remain committed to securing tangible

1:44

improvements that benefit all employees. And that

1:46

is not the only employment news coming

1:48

out of Apple this week. According

1:51

to Bloomberg, a store in short-hilled New

1:53

Jersey, tried to vote to unionize and

1:55

failed last week as well. And

1:58

earlier in that week, the national Labor Relations

2:00

Board ruled that Apple violated federal

2:02

labor laws when they confiscated union

2:04

flyers and interrogated staff about unionizing efforts

2:06

at the Apple Store in New York's World

2:08

Trade Center back in 2022. But

2:11

not all the news coming out of Apple this week was

2:13

employment-related. It was a busy week for Apple in

2:16

general. All this news comes on the

2:18

heels of Apple's big iPad event last week, which we

2:20

have plenty of coverage on over on TC

2:22

if you missed it or want to dive

2:24

in deeper. Also last week Bloomberg

2:26

reported that Apple is closing in on a deal

2:28

with OpenAI to chat GPT features on its

2:30

iOS 18 software. This

2:33

is part of a broader push to bring AI

2:35

features to Apple devices and is actually the perfect

2:37

segue to our next story of the day. Our

2:43

second story of the day involves a company I

2:45

am sure you have heard of if you have followed anything

2:47

in the tech sphere over the last two years, OpenAI.

2:51

OpenAI is trying to set expectations ahead

2:53

of its live-streamed announcement today at 1pm

2:55

Eastern. On Friday, Sam Altman put a

2:57

stop to the rumors that the company was going to

2:59

use this live-stream to release a Google

3:01

search competitor. In a tweet, Sam

3:04

Altman said, Not GPT-5, not a search engine,

3:06

but we've been hard at work at some

3:08

new stuff we think people will love. Feels

3:10

like magic to me. The information in

3:13

Bloomberg had previously reported that OpenAI has

3:15

a search product partly powered by Bing,

3:17

according to the information, which isn't

3:19

too surprising, giving Microsoft's partnership with and

3:22

investment in OpenAI, and will work as

3:24

a feature within chat GPT, allowing

3:26

the chatbot to search the web and site sources,

3:28

according to Bloomberg. Per TC's

3:30

Anthony Ha, in theory, at least, OpenAI

3:32

could announce a search feature, which

3:34

means Altman's insistence that it's not

3:37

a search engine could still be

3:39

true. But I mean, hey, I

3:41

think all of us are in a grand here that it would

3:43

not be bad for another search engine to get

3:46

started if you have ever used any of

3:48

the current ones available in the past few

3:50

years. That's

3:54

it for me this morning, but keep an eye on

3:56

TechCrunch for even more tech startup and venture news as

3:58

the week goes on. Always if you

4:00

want to dive deeper into anything. We talked about

4:02

today will have links to the stories be covered and

4:05

are so notes. Nellis second with higher

4:07

costs for today's pitch deckchair down taken

4:09

away higher. All.

4:11

right? everyone? I'm higher and I'm back with another

4:14

pitch stick tear down this week. We're looking at

4:16

Clansmen stick classmates secure to fifty million dollars series

4:18

A funding for it's cloud platform to twenty Twenty

4:20

One round was the largest. He is a for

4:23

a company from Northern Ireland since two thousand and

4:25

five so clearly they got a thing or two

4:27

rats and took a closer look to figure out

4:29

how to company. Pulled it off. Cloud.

4:32

Smith had a thirty six slide deck which is

4:34

a little bit excessive. As a road last

4:36

year most startups leader and sixteen slice to tell

4:38

their full story. Miss. If you sides

4:40

in there that aren't needed, nobody wants or needs

4:43

to see a full org chart for example. But.

4:45

That aside, let's dive in and take a close look

4:47

at what did work. I. Really

4:49

love have Club Smith created a great

4:51

summary slide. It really helps investors understand

4:53

the stage and status of the company

4:55

really really well and way to think

4:57

about that is in the first couple

5:00

of slides you really gotta set the

5:02

stage so the investor can get a

5:04

context for what they're trying to understand

5:06

about what you're trying to do. So

5:08

that means understanding what spacer in what

5:10

you're trying to accomplish a much more

5:12

you're raising how far along in journey

5:14

you are all those kinds of things.

5:16

Put. In all of that together helps the

5:19

investor contextualize what they're about to see. And

5:21

they can start thinking about why your

5:23

companies such a good investment opportunity. Cost.

5:27

Myth uses a then now next structure which

5:29

I think is a really good idea. It

5:31

it really helps sell the history of where

5:33

you've been. Capture what you're doing

5:35

with the current fundraise, and then lift your

5:37

eyes to the horizon to explain where you

5:39

want to go next. Now the

5:41

past is important because it helps explain how

5:44

you got to where you going and it

5:46

helps tell the story of wire a good

5:48

founding team, but that's not we have spending

5:50

most of your time. Be. Investors are

5:52

missing in the future of your company so keep

5:54

your focus on the immediate future and a long

5:56

term vision for we want to go. The

5:59

other thing as really like about his deck

6:01

is that they have a great depression scary

6:03

and most importantly the using grass to showed

6:05

attraction over time. The reason that

6:07

is so important is that it helps

6:09

show not use that you're growing but

6:12

also to you're growing cumulatively and that

6:14

the growth is accelerating. Accelerating.

6:16

Growth is really what your investors want

6:18

to see in order to understand that

6:20

you've found your product market states and

6:22

that you know how to continually keep

6:24

growing. This company. Has. Financial growth is

6:26

what Vcs love to see so make sure

6:28

your highlight that of every possible turn. I

6:31

would say that as much cheaper to learn for somebody

6:33

else mistake. So let's see what we can learn from

6:35

Cloud Smith and the things they didn't quite get right?

6:38

So. He's three things that Cloud Smith could

6:40

have improved about this deck. I.

6:42

Was surprised to find that they had

6:44

to solutions lights in there which I

6:46

was a little confused by. You don't

6:49

have to spend that much time on

6:51

a solution, especially for a company that

6:53

is working and is generating revenue. Realistically,

6:55

the solution and the product sides explain

6:57

that you have understood what your customers

6:59

need. It's. Read stories about your

7:02

traction. To thing to keep in mind is

7:04

that your solution slide is meant to be strategic. He.

7:06

Was explained to problem that you're solving

7:08

and the solutions kind of the high

7:10

level strategic way that you are thinking

7:13

about how this problem can be solved.

7:15

Now. It's important to separate

7:17

us and your product to solution

7:19

is to proceed Big strategic vision.

7:22

Accompanied very, very rarely pivots on a solution.

7:24

If you are coming up with a completely

7:26

different solution, you're probably talking about a completely

7:28

new company. Settles happen from time to time,

7:30

but that probably means running up one company,

7:32

starting a new one, a starting afresh. Now

7:35

the product. However, as you're learning from your

7:37

customers, you can have quite a lot of

7:39

leeway with how you pivots and change and

7:41

evolve your product. So the way to tell

7:43

the story really is you start for the

7:45

problem. Make. Sure that the or investors agree

7:47

that that's a problem most from with solving. Then

7:50

you go into the kind of strategic levels like

7:52

hey, we think this is a good way to

7:54

solve this particular problem And then you talk about

7:57

the product layer. By layer is always

7:59

about the past. right? It's what you

8:01

feel so far, and as Founders is often

8:03

very, very tempting to spend way too much

8:05

time hear. The. Truth is your investors

8:07

probably don't give much of a crap about

8:09

the specific problem at all, or they care

8:12

about is whether your customers seat as as

8:14

a viable solution to the public. To

8:16

the way to a lotta time really is to

8:18

make sure he's and a fair amount of time

8:20

on the problem so that's fully understood. A little

8:22

bit of time on the solution and then as

8:24

little times you can possibly get away with on

8:27

the product itself. People don't care, don't we should?

8:29

Time. Plasma. I have to

8:31

talk with you about your team slide. It's a

8:33

paradox wrapped in a powerpoint and I don't understand

8:35

what's going on here. You. Clearly have

8:37

a really good team. You got to this point

8:39

and somehow none of that comes through on the

8:41

team slide at all. Remember. That,

8:44

especially the earliest stages your team is really

8:46

the only thing your investors have to go

8:48

on to figure out whether or not you're

8:50

a good investment. On the slide

8:52

deck is so fuzzy. What a really want to

8:54

see is why this team is the right team

8:56

to build this solution for this problem. That's

8:59

really have to do so. You tell that story

9:01

by explaining what you've done in the past and

9:03

what you're super powers are like. why are you

9:05

the right person to do that? The.

9:08

Use of fun slides was a real face Paul

9:10

moment for me is kind of a perfect example

9:12

of what not to do. The company

9:14

includes the runway so how much time will

9:16

they have after their raises money and a

9:18

set of percentages for where the going to

9:21

spend the money. The problem

9:23

is that doesn't actually help the investors understand

9:25

whether or not you're going to execute well.

9:27

Think. About it this way: if you were going

9:30

to build a house or you hire a general

9:32

contractor and they told you a it's gonna cost

9:34

one million dollars and we're going to spend thirty

9:36

percent of the money on the kitchen, thirty percent

9:38

on the bathroom, twenty percent on the outside walls,

9:40

and twenty percent on a roof. I don't have

9:42

that as of two hundred percent. Pretended that. The

9:44

point is, you don't care how many percentages they're

9:47

trying to spend on the various parts, you just

9:49

want to know if you have a livable house

9:51

at the end of it. Same is true for

9:53

the investors they want to understand at the end

9:55

of spending the money they just invested, are you

9:57

ready for. the next round of investments And

10:00

the way to explain that is like, hey, we're going to

10:02

hit these milestones, and we're going to hit

10:04

these particular goals, and we're going to do it by this

10:06

time. The best way to do that

10:08

is to use so-called SMART goals. SMART

10:10

is an acronym meaning specific,

10:12

measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.

10:15

If you manage to translate your goals, i.e.

10:17

what you're going to spend the money on,

10:19

into good SMART goals, it helps

10:22

the investors understand that you have a clear plan for

10:24

what needs to be done. And

10:26

if you manage to deliver on your plan, they have a

10:28

really clear vision for what happens at the end of it.

10:30

Are you ready to raise more money? Is your company in

10:32

a good place? That is the right

10:34

way to do your ask and use of FunSlide. So,

10:37

just to quickly recap, make sure you set

10:39

the stage for what you're about to tell

10:42

your investors. Tell the history of your company briefly,

10:44

but focus mostly on the future. Tell

10:46

your traction story really well, and graphs are your

10:49

friend here. Don't focus too

10:51

much on your product, because honestly, nobody cares.

10:53

Make sure that your team slide completely shines. Finally,

10:57

explain what you're going to accomplish with the cash. That's the

10:59

whole point of raising money in the first place. Alright

11:02

that's it for today's episode, but don't you

11:04

worry, Equity will be back on Wednesday. If

11:07

you want to keep up with us in the meantime,

11:09

you can follow us on X and Threads under the

11:11

handle EquityBob. If you want to submit your

11:13

pitch deck to get your very own pitch deck teardown,

11:15

check out today's installment in the show notes, and follow

11:17

the Submit Your Deck link. Thanks for

11:19

listening, and we'll talk again soon. Equity

11:25

is produced by Teresa Loconcello with editing

11:27

by Kel. Bryce Durbin is our illustrator,

11:29

and we'd like to give a big

11:31

thanks to our audience development team and

11:34

Henry Pikavit, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

11:36

Thanks so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.