Where to put the team slide in the pitch deck?
Venture capitalist Mark Suster posted a quick video about this issue.
His advice:
- What you do (he is right, some pitches are vague about this), if you can, even without slides to make direct eye contact with the audience and establish rapport.
- The exec bio, to establish credibility, why you are the right person to pursue this opportunity
- The body of the presentation
He has a point. BUT, I would keep that bio slide super short, maybe limit it to the CEO and/or people who are presenting in the room and put the dense, detailed CV information in a slide later in the back. Grinding through lots of CVs of everyone on the team can break the momentum of the presentation (unless everyone on your team is a unique rockstar). Also not every startup has that rock star team (which probably gets you a minus from Mark anyway).
A final note, if you are presenting to Mark, there is no question, put that full bio slide on page 2. You should research every person you pitch to, and this is how he likes to see things, so that's what you do.