Recently, I met an LP who told me an interesting framework, derived from something Warren Buffett once said. “Every pitch needs to have energy, intelligence, and integrity. And without the last, the first two can lead bad outcomes for the LP.”
- Energy — Why now for the world? Why now for your LPs? Why is now the time for you? Why do you have to do this and nothing else? Can your pitch get people really excited about the opportunity? About you? When they wake up the next morning, are they still thinking about your conversation, or have they moved on with their morning to focus on sending the kids to school or what their schedule looks like for the day?
- Intelligence — Do you know what you’re talking about? Have you done so much research and have so much lived experience here that you are the one of the world’s foremost experts here? Are you a thoughtful and intentional person around all aspects of your life?
- Integrity — Can I trust you? Why should I trust you? Do you have a track record of maintaining long friendships? What’s the longest friendship you’ve maintained? Do you have an strong moral compass? How is it exhibited in even the smallest actions you take? If your and my interests ever clash, what is your course of action? Where do you sit in the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? What set of needs are you primarily motivated by?
Interestingly enough, just a few hours later, I was catching up with a good old friend who’s putting together a pitch for his new venture. And he was telling me one of the pieces of feedback that he got was that there wasn’t enough dopamine induced from his pitch. Which was an interesting piece of commentary. The person giving him that piece of feedback believed that all pitches should induce three types of hormones:
- Dopamine — known for joy, excitement, and motivation. To draw a parallel, “energy” under Warren Buffett’s framework.
- Oxytocin — known for building trust and empathy. Or “integrity.”
- Serotonin — known for calmness, well-being, but in the context here: optimism. I’m not sure if this draws a strict line of correlation to Warren Buffett’s framework, but nevertheless, something useful to think about. Why will the world tomorrow be better than the one today? What can I look forward to?
In my buddy’s pitch, he included a lot of facts and research, promoting oxytocin in the reader. But the pitch lacked excitement and an urgency to take action. In other words, dopamine.
Most decks charting new territory and betting in the non-obvious carry too much oxytocin, responsible for creating trust (i.e. data, information, synthesis of market trends, why the GP is legible, testimonials, track record, etc.). So much to prove factually why this should exist. A very left brain approach.
Most decks betting on a hot topic, industry or idea index heavily on dopamine. Why this is exciting? Why we have to do this now?
The best decks have both.
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