The Bigger Picture
VCs bet on the person, not the pitch
95% of institutional VCs call the team an essential factor in their investment decision, and 47% say it's the single most important one—ahead of product, market, or business model. This widely cited study proves the exact dynamic Tom describes. Source: Chicago Booth Review, "What Are Venture Capitalists Looking for in Start-Ups?"
Nobody remembers your data
Only 1 in 10 students chose to tell a story instead of citing statistics in a Stanford classroom study. But 10 minutes later, just 5% of listeners could recall a single statistic, while 63% remembered the stories. It's the experiment behind Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick, the book Tom credits for some of his best storytelling techniques. Source: MIT Communication Lab, "Stop Presenting. Start Storytelling."
Investors don't give you long
3 minutes and 44 seconds is the average time investors spend reviewing a seed-stage pitch deck, based on DocSend's analysis of millions of real investor sessions. And only 58% of decks get viewed all the way to the end. Source: DocSend, "What VCs Really Want to See Inside Your Seed Deck"
Japan's startup funding is picking up speed
$4.25B was raised across 376 equity rounds in Japan through the first half of 2026, up roughly 130% from the same period last year. There’s momentum behind D4V's work backing founders in Japan. Source: Tracxn, "Startups in Japan"
