It's the same problem in finance and in a product where we have this very interesting story to tell on the phone or on a Zoom call and then 100% of the time, they'll go, "Sounds great, send me something. " They'll say one of two things. "Send me something" or "I'd like to see some material on it. " Like not those kinds of things, those words. Send me something or what material do you have on it? Those are the exact words that we have heard thousands of times. And then you send something and to the degree what you send augments what you said and matches it, connects to it, takes it further, and supports the claims you made, then now you're into a deal. The problem is that not having something that cements the words you said and matches it is where deals can just go fall apart right on the table. And when I say fall apart, and I'll show you in a minute, what I really mean is whatever level... Because you guys are all smart, you guys are well-networked, whatever the level the organization you got yourself networked into, right? So what happens is the pitch deck doesn't match what you said. You've got a relationship in there and you just go right to the bottom of the organization to some intern who gets assigned to learn their career on whatever you're doing. So when I say falls apart, it may not be that that deal completely dies but you go straight to the bottom and end up with an intern, a cousin, a nephew, a wife, or a chatbot. But the dealmaker cannot relate to you if the pitch deck doesn't match the things you're saying. So, this is really, when I think about it, the guy who taught me all this stuff, I was like hey, I want to get venture capital and private equity and a loan, right? How do I get to these private equity groups? How do I get to these private equity groups? And he would say, "You don't. " And I said, "I have to. That's where the money is. " It's the exact opposite. Capital gets attracted to a deal. You can't go and sell. So if you're emailing and calling and following up, then you've got problems. The capital needs to be able to... It's really three steps, right? Get networked in there to high status. They hear what you're saying and that's the pitch. High status, frame control, hot cognition. They're like "I love it, send me something. " You send the deck, and the deck attracts them to the deal and they're all over you, trying to figure out is this something? Like, that's the process. That's the job of the deck is to make that happen. " #venturecapital #startups #pitchanything