Pragmatic Venture Blueprint
Card 7 of 18
Communicate a narrative
Crafting your initial value proposition involves creating a series of assets, or collateral, such as a one-pager or a landing page. These materials help us communicate our validation goals clearly and concisely. They also lend legitimacy to the venture, showing that effort and resources are being invested in showcasing its value. Utilizing these assets ensures we convey our message effectively and attract interest. Mastering this skill is crucial, as it applies to many other aspects of demand validation.
Category
Demand Validation (2-4)
Author
Jeremy Vo
How do I communicate my idea’s value prop to a prospect?
Strategy: Creating early hero assets (Landing Page, 1 Pager, Initial Pitch Deck)
Pitch Deck
Questions that need to be answered:
What is the pain point?
What is the smart solution (incl. earned insight)?
Why now? (Timing)
What is the clear explanation of "why now,” assuming it has been tried in the past
What is the demonstrated rationale that makes it uniquely possible today alongside a catalyst that drives adoption (e.g., tech shift, regulatory change, market readiness, etc)
What is our “unfair advantage”?
What impact will come from this?
One Pager
Develop a 1 Pager (starting to communicate externally)
Questions that need to be answered:
What value or outcomes will a customer receive?
How does it work at a high level? (i.e. use a system diagram, sample work)
Do you have proof points? (i.e. testimonials, sample work, screenshot of app)
Sample 1 Pager from LeapMotiv portfolio company:
We have proof points of closing $50-100k deals on a well-structured sales deck and landing page. This takes a lot of practice to get good at. Being able to produce these assets quickly and iterating based on new feedback is a core skill for any go to market team.
Considerations
There is such thing as spending too much time on collateral creation and too little time on it. In principle, we should follow the same ideology as a piece of software - it should work but does not need to be perfect (otherwise you’ve waited too long). As with anything, just by putting it out there in the world, you will see how the external market reacts to it and so you can then use that new data to iterate on your existing collateral. Do not build or write in a silo for our purposes.
Getting good at one CMS (or set of tools) is a very useful skill set. For instance, being able to learn the Framer.com framework so that you can easily spin up landing pages is a superpower, given that you will likely do it over and over again throughout your career. Investing in learning these kinds of systems is worthwhile.
Don’t over-engineer the language. Generally, simpler words and terminology is better. If someone needs to ask “what do you mean by that?” it leaves too much room for interpretation and that confusion is likely a turn off. Simpler is better in this case.
Additional resources
