I share short, partly visual emails, crafted through my lens as a creative director in deep-tech. Join me for insights on effective communication, marketing, design, psychology, and the philosophy of value.
How to compress complex ideas
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You’ve been immersed in your venture for years, fine-tuning every detail until it’s a vivid HD image in your mind. What’s your move? What’s the optimal compression mechanism to convey the essence of your venture in a one-hour meeting? The rational instinct might say: "Pick the most relevant facts, present them objectively, and the value will be obvious." The problem? Value does not reside in facts. Value is an effect—it emerges from the interaction between objective facts and the deeper human context they live in. Separate facts from context, and you lose the value as well. The image projected becomes a shallow, two-dimensional symbol of your venture. So what can you do? Think of image compression algorithms: Start with values—your values. What are the values that YOU see in your venture? Identify them clearly, and then focus on sharing them as directly as you can. Only include facts that support these values—not the other way around. The clearer you understand your values, the closer the investor will see them as you do—no matter the bandwidth. Yours, Sagi |
Creativity in Deep-Tech
I share short, partly visual emails, crafted through my lens as a creative director in deep-tech. Join me for insights on effective communication, marketing, design, psychology, and the philosophy of value.
There are certain words that, as soon as you utter them, investor attention spikes. These words are not what you’d expect. They’re not buzzwords like “artificial intelligence” or “cybersecurity.” Nor are they money words - ARR, traction, or revenue to date. The magic words are: “Imagine you are…” Founders think they need a big story so they build their pitches almost entirely from abstractions and generalizations: The Problem, The market, the unmet need, the solution - trying to extract value...
In the previous newsletter, I shared a talk I gave at Nest Catalyst about investor pitching. That first talk focused on the mindset behind pitching complex ideas. This second talk is more practical. It focuses on how to approach shaping your pitch - through principles and examples. The last five minutes are especially practical: an easy framework to help you craft your narrative. This was quite challenging. After years of doing this work, a lot of it has become intuitive. Breaking it down to...
If you've ever struggled to move people toward a complex new idea, or if you just want to finally understand what it is that I do (like my parents), Or you just feel like watching something interesting … I finally had the opportunity to record a talk I’ve been piecing together for years. I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of scientist-entrepreneurs at Nest Catalyst - a Bay Area program supporting life science founders building companies in the biotech ecosystem. The talk is visual,...