What's the purpose of your highlights?
Your highlights are a tl;dr of your campaign. If you could only tell people 3-8 facts about your company to make them want to invest, what would they be?
What to include in your highlights
Your goal is to show investors that your company has what it takes to succeed.
- Have you built something people want? → Include at least 2-3 highlights on your traction (even if you’re pre-revenue).
- What’s your best proof that you can execute? → Include 1-2 highlights about your team’s unfair advantages.
- Why now? → Include your best evidence that your vision is real.
- What makes your company special? → This could be product differentiation, intellectual property, notable partnerships, a moonshot mission, a strong community, a memorable founding story, or any other facts that have elicited people’s excitement.
How to highlight traction
In order of most to least powerful, here are some ways you can present highlights on your traction:
- Growth (especially organic)
- Revenue
- Retention
- Customers
- Social Proof
Growth Highlight Examples:
- $3M run rate in just 5 months, growing 20% MoM (Lumina)
- Doubled investment volume and revenue each year since 2018 (Wefunder)
- $2.2M revenue run-rate with 567% DTC growth (Cusa)
- 500% YOY subscription growth (Rasa)
- $1.52m revenue run rate with 387% average annual growth rate (Tampon Tribe)
Retention Highlight Examples:
- Astonishing 96% repeat clients rate (Kidcaboo)
- Direct-to-consumer sales boast a 74% returning customer rate (Tampon Tribe)
How to highlight your team
What gives your team an unfair advantage in this space? Here’s a non-exhaustive list of potential team highlights:
- Previous exits from the founding team
- Unique expertise on the problem
- Blue-chip brands in team’s past experience
Previous Success Highlight Examples:
- CEO previously built $100M co without VC capital (Lumina)
- CEO sold last company Bebo to Amazon & has scaled companies to 1 billion users (Atom Limbs)
Blue Chip Highlight Examples:
- Team from Google, Microsoft, YC, & top Andreessen-Horowitz-backed startups. (Immersed)
- World-class leadership team from Apple, Tesla, Nike, Intel & IDEO (Atom Limbs)
- Founding team are MIT, Syracuse and Carnegie-Mellon alum (Farm to Flame Energy)
Other highlight ideas
Some highlights fall outside the above categories, and that's okay, too. Here's a selection to give you ideas.
Mission-Driven Highlight Examples
- Zero waste warehouse, 100% solar powered manufacturing, 100% sustainable supply chain (Cusa)
- 1,236 lbs of ocean plastic retrieved via CleanHub plastic-neutral partnership (Tampon Tribe)
- Public Benefit Corp for sustainable supply chain, compostable packaging, & changing lives. (Rasa)
“About The Product” Highlight Examples:
- Users have 5 virtual screens + a virtual whiteboard in a distraction-free private virtual office! (Immersed)
- Certified organic products with zero sugar and no artificial flavors or impurities (Cusa)
Market Size Highlight Examples¹
- Total Addressable Market (TAM) of $173B and 53M children in the US alone (Kidcaboo)
- Taking on the $465B global coffee market; featured in Bon Appetit & Rolling Stone as leading coffee alternative (Rasa)
- Positioned to disrupt the fast-growing $800B physical disability market (Atom Limbs)
Social Proof: