Sample pitch decks, cold emails, NDAs, and other resources to help your business thrive
Every venture needs great advisors. Advisors will be involved in your business to help introduce you to potential investors, make you aware of potential partners or business development deals, and advise you on the strategy of your company and the execution of your plans.
The first thing you need to send out when you've found a great candidate that you want to bring on-board is an offer letter. Here, you will outline the exact terms of the employment that you're offering. The offer letter is an important step that comes before drafting a formal employment agreement.
Every startup needs to have an employment agreement for all new hires. These documents list the specific responsibilities of both the company and the employee. The goal of this template is to list your contractual obligations with new employees.
All of your information is important. Even though interns may not need to sign an employment agreement, they still have access to confidential information about your company. This template is a very standard way to protect your company if information is leaked and has a negative impact on your business.
Before you disclose confidential information to a third-party, you need to be able to control how that information is going to be used. This non-disclosure agreement is a standard confidentiality agreement that outlines how you intend to protect whatever materials or information you are disclosing.
A term sheet is a promise to invest in your company. This document is a precursor to the offering documents and outlines the terms of the investment. Keep in mind, though, that a term sheet is not a binding agreement; investors are not obliged to fund your startup because they signed a term sheet. That being said, term sheets are widely used by investors as a first step toward an equity fundraising round.
Think you're shooting into the dark? Don't. Investors write all the time about how they or their assistants actually do read cold emails — if they're written concisely and invitingly. Do. Not. Sound. Like. A. Robot. This template helps you warmly introduce your company to an investor and quickly detail its traction.
Press is very important for startups. Often times, customers will read stories in major publications about your startup in order to validate your product. That being said, it isn't easy to plant the story you want where you want it; reporters get hundreds of emails per day. This template will help you communicate the most importants features of your capital raise/feature launch and get either in leading publications.
Business development deals are an easy way to grow your user base and revenue without having to hire internally or spend a ton on marketing. To pursue them, you'll need to thoroughly research the opportunity, the space, and the company you'll be partnering with. You'll also need to thoroughly explain the opportunity to the other party and underscore how it will help them accomplish their business goals and grow without much effort or expense from them.
Everyday investors and founders make introductory emails to help their colleagues and expand their own networks. The goal of an introduction email is to briefly tell each party who the other is and explain how the new relationship will benefit both parties. Be concise and let them take it away.
You want to thank the investor for taking the time to meet with you, but you don't want to bug them by droning on. So keep it short and sweet. Thank them for their time and quickly remind them of what you'll be working on and updating them about in the future.
Above, we told you how to thank a potential investor and set the stage to update them with your progress. Here's where you send news about the progress you've made. Send this email once per quarter with three to four nuggets of information about your wins.
As an entrepreneur, it's important to build an array of connections with different expertises who you can go to for various needs. These close connections have other people in their networks who they can introduce you to — people who can become investors, advisors, customers, etc. Here is a template that shows you how to politely ask for an introduction and quickly state the reason for the introduction and expectations for it.
Launches are important! You've put thousands of hours of work in and now you're ready to unleash your baby to the masses. By all means, you can put some emotion into your product launch email and explain how you got here and what it was like. But if that isn't you, here's a simple template that tells your pre-launch list what they're getting and how it will help them.
Congratulations! You're ready to staff up. Now it's time to get the best candidates by taking the time to listen to their experience and ideas. Here's a simple template to help you set the stage to pitch candidates on your company and hear how they can help it grow.
It's time to make an offer to the candidate who could propel your company forward. This simple template lays out the important information that you'll need to give to the candidate and prompts that person to reach out to you for more information.
