I'll take "What's a pitch deck?” for 500 please.

So we all know I am a new founder. Like, I was reborn as a founder barely a year ago. I’m like a toddler now. Pat my head, give me a sippy cup (of wine) and make sure I don’t get lost please.

About a month into my journey, our very first connection was Greg, who is now one of our advisors. Sweet, sweet man…. asked for my pitch deck. I looked at my co-founder after receiving that email, “Anna, what the eff is a pitch deck?” We googled it. “Oooh! It’s like a presentation! I like this better than writing a business plan, PERFECT".

Spent long hours for like a week on it, and proudly sent it on it’s merry way to Greg. Again, sweet, sweet man… at least acknowledged I had a cool business idea. And gave us a cheat sheet on how to make a good deck. That basically meant our deck sucked, but he was nice enough to wade through our mess to find the opportunity.

The funny thing was, I thought we had the deck in the bag! I am still changing this sucker DAILY, and it’s a year later.

What I will give myself though, is that I have an immense amount of perseverance… and zero pride. In my opinion, in this world as a founder, as soon as you start to feel embarrassed and overwhelmed about not getting something right, you’re not cut out for the road ahead of you. Do not let your pride get in the way of an opportunity for you to grow and learn something new.

Being confident is one thing, and good Lord is that valuable in this space. But coming in hot and thinking you are the next Mark Zuckerberg, and that your talent and idea is going to be the next God-like gift to the world, will only get you as far as your first meeting.

So, if you’re new, and thinking that being a founder is about showing how much you know, think again. And ask some one who eats humility for breakfast (raising my hand).

Oh, and a pitch deck does not replace your business plan, in case you were wondering.