Second Opinion - 7/22

Where do Canadian founders go for capital at the earliest stages?

Meet the BDC Seed Venture Fund – a true pre-seed and seed fund leading investment rounds and partnering with audacious founders developing novel technologies and business models across all sectors.

The BDC Seed Venture Fund brings patient, experimental capital alongside hands-on operational support to help founders get ideas off the ground, and ultimately achieve product-market-fit.

To learn more, get in touch with the team.

This is sponsored.

📰 Today’s edition: a VC makes a guest appearance

The team behind Second Opinion LOVES nerding out on pitch decks.

And even though we work with a lot of VCs, we’re not VCs ourselves.

That’s why it’s such a treat to welcome Aaisha Bhuiyan as a guest to this week’s edition of Second Opinion.

Aaisha is a venture fellow at Hustle Fund, and the director of the nonprofit Emerging Founder School.

✨ Today's episode: Aaisha gives real-time feedback on Surmount’s pitch deck.

Here’s the episode:

About the Patient

The startup in today’s episode is Surmount, the “AWS for Modern Investment Management."

Surmount is went from $0 to $3M ARR in less than a year, and is growing fast. They even had case studies in their deck.

Pretty impressive.

The Diagnosis

Aaisha liked Surmount’s traction, and the fact that they already had customers.

Validation from actual buyers is always a good thing.

But ultimately there were some deal breakers that Aaisha said would prevent her from booking a meeting.

Watch the episode to see how it all plays out.

Want a second opinion on your deck?

If you want your deck reviewed and featured in Second Opinion, fill out this form.

Or drop a link to your deck in the video comments and the Docs will reply there.

PS: Trying to create the perfect pitch deck? This is for you.

See ya in two weeks!

– Kera, Alex, and Mark