How To Perfectly Pitch Your Seed Stage Startup With Y Combinator's Michael Seibel

Discover the best ways for a seed-stage startup to pitch to investors and successfully fundraise from Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel.
Any founder you talk to likely remembers every investor who said no to them.
Those founders hold a special kind of “not hatred,” says Michael Seibel, Managing Director and Group Partner at Y Combinator, but a special kind of something for those investors and a desire to prove them wrong.
If you’re a seed-stage startup, Michael shares the best ways for you to present your company to startup investors.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software.
Subscribe for weekly updates: www.saastr.com/subscribeform
Twitter: / saastr
LinkedIn: / 2724976
Quora Group: www.quora.com/q/cloud
Facebook: / saastr
Instagram: / saastr
Our North American Event: bit.ly/2OXeAYh
Our European Event: bit.ly/2OZTad8

[@owenmcallister6948]

Thank you Michael - I just won the London Business School Booster Pitch Nights and your advice was instrumental.

[@Play-Date-Care]

Watching this right before I'm about to "design" my pitch deck, lol, saved me lots of time and avoided lots of unnecessary work

[@MrMehrd]

Yea it is called google magic recommender system algorithm.

[@anthonyerdenetuguldur5609]

You are lucky, I wish I had this video two years ago. No wonder my first startup seed raise failed. I am going to use the lessons learned here and the advices I got in the past to perfect my pitch for my next startup.

[@moh-jx4ls]

tell me more about ur start up@@anthonyerdenetuguldur5609

[@ankurkumarsrivastava6958]

I am also watching this before creating my pitch deck.

[@J35Y1]

​@anthonyerdenetuguldur5609 what start up did you try to pitch? also to YC or another VC?

[@Leoninhk]

you can tell when advise is from someone who's been there, and this is it. great stuff

[@Dt-qv1wb]

Working on my own invention for the first time. Resources and help and finding people to help with the right path is tough. Your precise communication and very descriptive situations will help me and my company greatly. Just doing the pitch deck portion currently. Appreciate your video.

[@keithrandrade]

Been in SaaS sales for reputable pre and post IPO companies and can attest, this is spot on.

[@okikiayoalogba406]

"80% accurate, 100% clear"

[@Regina.Clarke]

That part!

[@3266711732665514]

i.e. 80 accurate, 100 clear

[@radical187]

Awesome presentation! Pure gold starting at 7:09 - that's so true!

[@MrMehrd]

22:52 when you see pick of interest in part of your pitch go with it,stick to it and get them talking. Most important part of your this video.

[@moltenangel]

'Pique' of interest.

[@lewissheridan]

This is literally gold. Thank you

[@dkia]

Michael you're such a G! Love watching you speak

[@organizer14]

Great points, thanks for valuable coaching!

[@zzzacupuncture3546]

Thanks lot for real Experience share. Real start up need working on.

[@sashalevochkin]

Extremaly helpful. Even though I dont get why quoting reports is bad for market size explanation:)

[@rembautimes8808]

Great talk and insights. KISS principles reinforced.

[@_cocoalabs]

This was fantastic

[@eliporter3980]

I'm planning on developing an AI app and this is helpful. I'm working on building an MVP now and I'm planning on attending a pitch even in the next few weeks.

[@DrringHealth]

Thank you, this is pure gold!

[@Saastr]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Aryan_Divyanshu_000]

Insightful

[@TheAIEpiphany]

thanks Michael!

[@daveb4446]

Great advice

[@stevenfoster9402]

Gold. This is gold.

[@carlomoretti.x]

AMAZING

[@ralphmaxi2463]

Really interesting stuffs

[@NjofieWilson]

Insightful and very helpful.

[@Saastr]

Glad you think so!

[@streetfashiontv9149]

Good talk

[@davidsalas-gx9eh]

Amazing

[@jonassteinberg3779]

It's crazy how basically everything he says is just practical advice one learns from being a fairly senior engineer or engineering leader or manager of some type. I'm shocked at how down-to-earth all of the advice is. Basically Michael seems to say that the key to getting funding is just being very clear what problem is being solved and how the product solves it and what the problem intensity level is.

[@Friday4]

Found some free gold here

[@adriandemir7699]

You are right man

[@eleken.agency]

Haha, the 'just ask' part is hilarious and so true! It's wild how something as simple as asking can open so many doors, not just in pitching but in life in general. Reminds me of that story about Steve Jobs when he was 12 - cold calling Bill Hewlett after finding his number in a phonebook, asking for spare parts for a project. And it worked, of course! Now, do I have the guts to do something similar? Of course not 😅

[@VivienEneFoundation-km3yv]

Freaking Gold

[@saidubundu6392]

i just lluv the way he keeps saying f**k you lol

[@henrygagejr.-founderbuildg9199]

If cursing was < 2%, I could share this with my students. Instead I will recreate a youth friendly version.

[@johnheaney3349]

Is it normal to drop so many f-bombs during a pitch?

[@not_serious_bro]

why don’t i like his vibe no idea 🤷‍♂️

[@iamiqbal]

Good insights but i am surprised on the use of F so many times. That’s strictly NO

[@therealjayz8036]

Reposting old videos ?

[@Saastr]

no but we edit and update the live streams from Annual

[@row_timi]

@@SaastrI couldna sworn I saw the same video posted a few weeks back

[@agulannajosemaria4490]

You're not alone@@row_timi

[@Saastr]

@@row_timinot posted but we did stream it along with another video and they are together on Live tab. we then edit the top ones and put them out. but yeah not different, just edited from Live

[@mohitsingha1809]

Good presentation will save people time on their pitch, only thing is the presenter has used the f word too many times, maybe he needs to learn more English!

[@nickfleming3719]

This sounds like a massive distraction. I'm not in the business of selling shares to investors, I'm in the business of serving my customers.

[@StrandedKnight84]

Raising capital is a huge distraction, but sometimes a necessary one.

[@dukensonguerrier5369]

This is where delegation becomes useful. Progress can't stop because capital is being raised. Furthermore, your startup isn't just YOU. While you're raising capital your co-founders should be doing whatever is necessary to gain more users/solve users problems.