Pitching VC’s? Here’s the deck we used to raise $145M

This time around for our Series B, we weren't expecting to raise money and we had to put together materials on a shorter timeline. So we reused the memo for background (investors were already familiar with it) — and repurposed a board deck for a robust look at our current performance and trajectory.

The deck we’re sharing above includes a Rippling overview section we had discussed with investors previously, as well as a SaaS metrics update. We’re sharing our deck as a template so other entrepreneurs can see exactly what information we presented, slide by slide, and customize it for their own business.

Separately, we provided prospective investors with a product demo, a deeper dive on sales and marketing efficiency metrics, an anonymized file of customer transaction data so they could perform their own analysis, and our summary financials, which are not included.  

Whether you’re updating your board or pitching VC’s, choosing the best metrics to track and share is essential. The best metrics are the ones that reflect how you measure your own progress internally. Vanity metrics don’t do anyone any good. 

One non-standard metric we created and use at Rippling is the sales team’s month zero cash-on-cash payback. It’s a useful measure of a sales team’s cash efficiency — we describe it in detail in the deck so you can plug in your own numbers. 

There are many paths to building a successful company — raising venture capital is just one of them. If it’s the one you’ve chosen, we hope you’ll find this helpful.

Adil Syed is an SVP and GM of Startups at Rippling. Previously, he was CFO.