Lori Berenberg

Refocus your demos around the user, and you’ll see a better reaction from everyone you show it to.

- “You might be wondering…” which answers questions before people ask them.
- “You know when [XYZ annoying things happen]...” which shows you know their struggle.
- “This was my least favorite thing to do when I was a …” shows you have real, hard-fought user empathy.

- Enter: your product. You show how much time, money, and effort users save. This is a good time to mention how much it helps the overall company’s initiatives too.

If you go in with this approach, you get to say things like:

- Then walk through their workflow today: you want to illustrate the point of friction in a way that either feels relatable (to a customer) or shocking (to an investor). This works well even when you do a clearly abridged version.

- Set the stage by describing who the user is, and what their main goals and problems are. Start with a specific task the user is trying to accomplish.

Personally, I think that’s a missed opportunity, whether you’re demoing to a potential customer or an investor.

Here’s how I think about demoing:

Demos are one of those things that followed me from the world of product to venture. I went from being the one demoing to watching hundreds of other people demo to me.

I see people make the same mistake every day: walking through every screen of the product to show what each button does.

When you’re demoing your product, put yourself in the shoes of the user. Even if it means showing something that isn’t your product.

1/

If you're paranoid about what's in your deck but freely introducing customers to every investor who asks, your priorities are upside down. Your customers' time is your most valuable resource, not your deck.

If there's truly sensitive information like proprietary tech, specific customer names, competitive intel...keep it out entirely. And requesting NDAs at pre-seed? Exceptionally rare, and signals inexperience with how early-stage fundraising works.

4. If you're worried about it leaking, don't include it

Password protection is theater. Once your deck hits an inbox, it can be forwarded, screenshotted, and shared (hello DocSend2PDF!).

(It’s why we publish our operating manual (bloombergbeta.com) for everyone to see!)

Budget diners pass on $50 entrées. Your deck should work the same way: give investors the full picture so they can decide if there's a match. You're not tricking anyone into a meeting, you're finding investors who genuinely fit your stage, sector, and vision.

3. Give investors everything they need to self-filter

The restaurant posts their full menu with prices in the window because they want the *right* customers to walk in. Vegans skip the steakhouse.

2. Distribute it everywhere

Restaurants print hundreds of menus and put them everywhere. Your deck should be attached to the first email you send an investor, not guarded like a state secret.

1. Make it easy to understand, not difficult to access

Your neighborhood Thai restaurant doesn't password-protect their menu. They make it dead simple because they want you to order. Do the same: clear value prop, straightforward problem/solution, zero jargon.

If you're a pre-seed startup, your pitch deck should resemble a local restaurant menu more than an NDA-filled McKinsey presentation.

I often hear founders worry about protecting their "most valuable" information until after they meet investors. That's backwards.

Here's why:

lots of “drop your startup idea” threads act like VCs care primarily about the concept.

ugly truth about pitching VCs: the idea matters less than who you are and how you frame yourself as the right person to solve the problem.

eleven labs: ai for audio

twelve labs: ai for video

...and they are not connected in any way?

the story goes like this...

startup a sells api tools to startup b
startup b sells hr software to startup c
startup c sells dev infra to startup a

all three backed by "tier 1" funds
all three report “growing enterprise adoption”
all three just raised at 100x arr

nothing to see here folks!

... with @angela-martin.bsky.social there since day one, and @mostlyfables.bsky.social an ally from the jump, and now working directly with us

... supported by team members past and present who we adore. @loriberenberg.bsky.social and others who have yet to fly in these blue skies.

extremely disappointing, not a bop

When picking among the 9 AI models from OpenAI the rules are easy:
1) The model with the biggest number is mostly not the best
2) Mini means worse, except for the mini that is the second best
3) o1 pro beats o3-mini-high beats o1 beats o3-mini, naturally, except for creative work which is 4.5 or 4o

we are mere moments away from ChatGPT Stories

with gpt-4.5, OpenAI has finally made a personality hire

chatgpt has such a distinctively millennial voice

related: many pitch decks now include AI agents on the team slide...

at this rate, people will be building 401(k)s for AI agents before anyone in the real world actually uses AI agents

why does every email unsubscribe landing page look like it's from 1999

this is the conversation i have every day with tech-forward people who have busy jobs. they’ve tried it all but no AI tooling has actually saved them enough time to be useful.

most people i know in the real world have zero patience for AI that's wrong/slow/unreliable!