🕶️ Is your pitch deck a walking red flag?

Six bullets of updates

• 🎶 TikTok given 9 months to disentangle from ByteDance or face US ban, amid national security concerns.

• 💼 More companies are appointing chief AI officers, but is it the best move?

• ♻️ Startups are scrambling to reduce the AI sector's carbon footprint, which could cause an 80% increase in global emissions.

• 🏗️ Nvidia is acquiring Run:ai, a company that simplifies AI hardware infrastructure management for developers and operations teams.

• 💎 Lab-grown diamond jewelry startup Pascal shines with nearly $10M in VC funding, with pieces starting at only $70.

• 🧑‍🏭 Ex-Stripe engineer's platform Stainless is helping AI startups build SDKs for their APIs, with 'dozens' of paying beta clients.

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An AI Chamber to Boost Responsible AI Development

Poland is setting up an AI Chamber with nearly 50 local firms, including startups like Iceye and Finiata, in a bid to develop and promote artificial intelligence (AI) responsibly across central and eastern Europe. The move comes as the nation's AI ecosystem struggles to keep pace with Western counterparts, due to limited local venture capital funding and political hurdles.

The AI Chamber will primarily focus on AI's social impact and its responsible development in the region. It plans to conduct market research, publish reports on AI adoption and promote AI-driven solutions across various sectors. The group also aims to engage in creating initiatives focused on leveraging AI to enhance education, health systems and policymaking across the region. Read more!

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These companies just raised money

1. 🤖 Parloa, the 'voice first' AI customer service platform, nabs a cool $66M in Series B funding, boosting total capital to $98M.

2. 🌎 Remittance startup Pomelo secures $35M Series A, plans Mexico expansion with its 'send now, pay later' model.

3. 🎓 Community college startup Campus bags $23M in Series A extension led by Founders Fund, aiming to improve the low 16% of community students who receive bachelor's degrees within six years.

4. 📊 Dataplor, the trusted source for business data, snags $10.6M in a Series A round. Funds to boost sales and brand presence.

5. 💸 Financial platform for creators, Bump, netted $3M in seed funding to refine its infrastructure and expand its services.

6. 🚀 Shoppable video startup Diddo raised $2.8M in seed funding, ready to let viewers shop their favorite TV looks in real-time.

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3 Big RED FLAGS on a Pitch Deck - Avoid them!

Are you about to pitch your startup to investors? Before you do, make sure you don’t make these common mistakes:

 🚩 #1: Bad Financial Projections

Most pitch decks we see have two big problems on the financial slide: they overestimate growth, and they underestimate how much money they need. 

The money that you raise with your pitch deck needs to last through the next fundable milestone. If you’re raising Pre-Seed, your money needs to last through Seed. If you’re raising Seed, your money must last through Series A. 

If you over-estimate growth, you’ll run out of money faster than you think. Make sure to run a good financial model.

 🚩#2: Bad Go-to-Market Strategy

Regardless of what round of funding you are raising, part of your investor’s money is going towards growth, and they want to make sure you use it wisely. 

The financial model is half the answer. The rest comes from running experiments, even with beta products or landing pages; and understanding who your audience is (it’s NOT everyone. Let’s talk!)

 🚩 #3: Design Sucks

Investors are willing to spend ~4 minutes reading your slides (we actually measured this), and if you try to cram too much information into each slide, the result is going to be them skipping rather than stopping to read.

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