After all those ideas in previous posts, I did not end up pursuing any of them. What is it that I did? Let’s talk about the pitch to investors!
Pre-ICs
In Antler, they had an intelligent way to prepare us for the big pitch day. It all starts with “tracking-out”, which means we have officially formed a team and want to work on it with an advisor(s) from Antler.
We worked towards a chance to pitch to the investment committee (IC).
I have done that for the first time with the medtech idea. Then we got assigned one of the general partners from Antler fund as a coach. Those weekly sessions were a valuable way to prepare us.
The theory was that we would have three test pitches = pre-ICs before the real deal.
We broke up after the first pre-IC 🙂
Extension
What I am learning more and more is that in business, rules are a bit fluid. What matters is the motivation of the parties. Antler wants to invest in great founders, and founders want to build great stuff.
These processes are great guidelines for getting there but can be slightly bent.
After the failed pre-IC, it took quite some time before I found both the idea and the partner in crime.
That person is the fantastic Simon Langkjær!
The personal connection was there; we have complementary skill sets, and on top of all of that, we are both passionate about energy!
The program was approaching its end, and we needed more time. Luckily, Antler saw our potential and granted us an extension on the program.
Final Pitch
With Simon, we pitched on 27 November 2023 in Oslo. We didn’t go through any pre-ICs together but have done a pretty good job.
It also felt easier if there were only two of us.
Here is a cleaned-up version of the presentation we used for the pitch. I will, of course, dive deeper into the problem space further.