Enduring Planet’s $2.1M seed deck – Nob6

We’re going through a reasonably huge local weather change problem, and I’ve lengthy been skeptical about whether or not enterprise capital will be as huge part of the answer because it appears to suppose it’s.

Because of this I used to be so excited when Harri wrote about fintech startup Enduring Planet. It’s taking part in a extremely intelligent card: making an attempt to make fast financing accessible to local weather entrepreneurs in a win⁴ scenario — the place traders, the startups, society and the setting all win.

At present, I’m delighted to current the deck the corporate used to boost its financing. As you may count on, it’s a little bit inside baseball — it is a deck for a startup that helps different startups elevate cash from different VCs — however as you may additionally count on, Enduring Planet actually is aware of what it’s doing.

The deck is fairly extraordinary, and it’s enjoyable to get underneath the pores and skin of how the founders are fascinated about its spherical. The corporate did an exemplary job on a number of slides that a variety of startups get mistaken, and it even included a number of the appendix slides, which helps deepen the story and context of the fundraise even additional.

I’m psyched to share this with you — LFG!

We’re searching for extra distinctive pitch decks to tear down, so if you wish to submit your individual, right here’s how you are able to do that.

Slides on this deck

Enduring Planet’s slide deck does have some mild redactions, however the primary deck is kind of intact. The corporate eliminated the income numbers (however saved the graph) on Slide 16. It eliminated a deep dive into its underwriting standards and eliminated firm names from its pipeline slide. It additionally deleted various appendix slides (delicate data about its underwriting, buildings, and so on.).

The primary deck is an 18-slide deck, and the corporate included 5 of its appendix slides. That represents the primary time I’ve been in a position to embody appendix slides as a part of a pitch deck teardown. I’m excited to dive in on the ins and outs of what appendix slides are for!

1. Cowl slide
2. Staff slide
3. “Some investments up to now” — Traction slide
4. “Development” — “Why now?” slide
5. “Increasing funding by corporates and VCs” — Market evolution slide
6. “Governments are turbocharging non-public sector motion” — World market alternative slide
7. Skyrocketing Startup + SMB Growth” — Market pattern slide
8. Downside slide
9. Resolution slide
10.   Product slide
11.   “ML and Automation” — Product element slide
12.   Worth proposition slide
13.   Key funding standards slide
14.   Pipeline slide
15.   Resolution highway map slide
16.   Monetary projections slide (redacted)
17.   Staff and board slide
18.   “Fundraising goal” — Ask slide
19.   Appendices cowl slide
20.   Appendix — Detailed downside slide
21.   Appendix — Pattern VC companions slide
22.   Appendix — Key funding standards: Sectors element slide
23.   Appendix — Key funding standards: Fairness and inclusion element slide
24.   Appendix — Threat administration slide

Three issues to like

There are some very severe points with this deck, however I’ll get to these towards the top of this text. There’s additionally some completely wonderful storytelling at play right here, although — so let’s begin there!

The deck pulls no punches

[Slide 8] The corporate’s downside slide is daring. Picture Credit: Enduring Planet (opens in a brand new window)

I needed to snigger after I noticed Enduring Planet’s “downside” slide. It’s on the market elevating cash from enterprise capital companies, but it surely pulls no punches: It’s too little, too costly, too unique and inadequate to hit the 2 degrees Celsius goal standard the Paris Agreement is aiming for.

The corporate outlines the issue succinctly and hints at its personal answer within the final level — that institutional capital desires to deploy extra money however doesn’t have an environment friendly mechanism for doing so. It’s one of many cleanest, easiest downside slides I’ve seen shortly; it outlines each an infinite downside and hints on the scale of the chance.

Resolution and product slide working in tandem

[Slide 10] Product slide. Picture Credit: Enduring Planet (opens in a brand new window)

I’ve lengthy had a weak point for firms which can be in a position to clearly articulate their acknowledged options to an issue and their merchandise as two completely different tales. There’s a superb motive to take action.

Particularly within the earliest-stage firms, you could have a speculation that your product is an efficient answer to the issue, however you don’t know for positive. By divorcing the answer your organization believes in from the product your organization builds, you’re setting your self up for achievement. You may all the time pivot precisely how you present an answer — what you’re exhibiting is an in-depth understanding of your market. In addition to, you’re setting the scene for a narrative that features a couple of product to unravel the total set of issues within the business. That’s precisely what Enduring Planet is doing right here.

On its answer slide (Slide 9), the corporate states that its answer is a “Local weather-exclusive lending platform offering entrepreneur-friendly capital utilizing the newest automation know-how.” It seems like a mission, however pay shut consideration: It’s extra tactical than a mission and works very well as the corporate’s answer assertion.

From Slide 9, it strikes into its product, and even explicitly states that that is its first product. There’s no whisper right here: It loudly shouts that it has extra concepts to function a part of its platform.

In case you’re within the technique of fundraising, take an additional shut have a look at slides 8 by 10 on this slide deck; Enduring Planet does an important job at presenting the issue/answer/product in a coherent story, with sufficient element to grasp what’s happening right here, with out dropping right into a rabbit gap. Put merely, I want each deck did it this nicely.

A win/win worth prop

As I urged within the intro paragraph, Enduring Planet does a very good job at portray a world the place everybody wins.

[Slide 12] Worth proposition slide. Picture Credit: Enduring Planet (opens in a brand new window)

I typically see worth proposition slides in pitch decks; normally, they present the benefit for the shoppers. It’s encouraging to see Enduring Planet take a broader view into the way it desires to indicate up on the planet. In its appendix, it expands on the way it exhibits up in society, spelling out the way it envisions a world the place everyone seems to be pulling in the identical route.

Pay additional shut consideration to the “For VCs” a part of this — as a would-be investor, I’d. In two quick bullet factors, Enduring Planet is ready to make two completely different factors. “Non-dilutive progress capital for portfolio firms” is a strong sentence; it implies that Enduring Planet is promising VCs that its firms can go additional with out giving up extra fairness. Provided that VCs sometimes are optimized to care about their possession stake (and, by extension, are allergic to pointless dilution), that’s a strong promise.

The second level is expounded however considerably completely different: By providing non-dilutive financing, Enduring Planet is prone to see a variety of deal movement and monetary information for local weather tech firms. That’s an info goldmine for VCs who’re considering investing on this house. When an organization is able to elevate fairness financing, some methods down the highway after getting financing from Enduring Planet, the latter is in a unbelievable place to have the ability to have a a lot deeper view into what startups are price investing in and that are much less engaging.

Bonus: Appendices

Picture Credit: Enduring Planet (opens in a brand new window)

I shortly needed to notice the appendices that Enduring Planet utilized in its pitch deck; it’s price taking a more in-depth have a look at them within the full pitch deck under, however I like Slide 20, the place the corporate expands on its declare that “Capital for local weather entrepreneurs is both excessive value or inaccessible.” It does that with a full matrix exhibiting how fairness, grants, business debt, enterprise debt and revenue-based financing are all poor methods to develop a startup on this house. It’s supremely elegantly finished and effectively positions Enduring Planet as an important financing choice. An extra win — and one thing I want was acknowledged extra typically — is that the corporate factors out that “these challenges are higher for underrepresented founders throughout the climate-tech ecosystem.”

Placing a slide like this in the primary deck can be a distraction; there’s 20 cells of detailed info, and in the event you care about this form of factor, you can simply spend a number of hours choosing it aside and rabbit-holing on the professionals and cons of every funding choice for varied startups. Enduring Planet sidesteps that elegantly; if a VC desires to debate this in additional element, they will shortly flick to the related slide and present that they’ve finished the mental legwork to reply the query. And if it doesn’t come up as a part of the pitch, nice. The information is there for the investor to ingest after the decision or in a later assembly, and also you didn’t waste any time within the time-limited pitch. This can be a nice instance of why it’s best to contemplate having an appendix within the first place.

In the remainder of this teardown, we’ll check out three issues Enduring Planet might have improved or finished otherwise, together with its full pitch deck!