Slides from a talk on the preliminary results of a study of 290 3-minute Slush pitches and 1047 investor questions, and around 1041 answers during the period of 2015 to 2017.

1. @glebmaltsev
MODERN MYTHS AND DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS

3. All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither
– J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Riddle of Strider"

4. The Hero
ACT I
Statue of Hercules capturing Cerberus, by Lorenzo Mattielli. Hofburg Palace, Vienna

5. Return
The
Ordinary
World
The Call to
Adventure
Refusal
Mentor
Helper
Crossing the
Threshold
Test/
Allies/
EnemiesApproach
Ordeal
Reward
Road Back
Atonement
1
2
3
4
5
67
8
9
10
11
12
PART4–
ROAD
BA
C
K
/
H
E R O ’ S R E T U R N
PA R T
1
–
C A
LL
TO
ADVENTURE
PART3–UNIFICATIO
N
/
T R A N S F O R M AT I O N PA R T 2 – S U P R E M
E
O
RD
EAL
/INITIATION
Hero’s
Journey
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998

6. The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998
Reluctance
to change
Increased
awareness
Limited
awareness of
a problem
The
Ordinary
World
The Call to
Adventure
Refusal
1
2
3
PA R T
1
–
C A
LL
TO
ADVENTURE

7. The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998
Experimenting with
first change
Commiting
to change
Overcoming
reluctance
Mentor
Helper
Crossing the
Threshold
Test/
Allies/
Enemies
4
5
6
PA R T 2 – S U P R E M
E
ORD
EAL
/INITIATION

8. The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998
Attempt at
a big change
Preparing for a
big change
Consequences of
the attempt
Approach
Ordeal
Reward
7
8
9
PART3–UNIFICATIO
N
/
T R A N S F O R M AT I O N

9. Final attempt at
a big change
Rededication
to change
Final mastery of
the problem
Return
Road Back
Atonement
10
11
12
PART4–
ROAD
BA
C
K
/
H
E R O ’ S R E T U R N
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998

10. Final attempt at
a big change
Rededication
to change
Confronting
change
Preparing
for change
Experimenting
with first change
Commiting
to change
Overcoming
reluctance
Reluctance
to change
Increased
awareness
Limited
awareness of
a problem
Consequences
of the attempt
to change
Final mastery of
the problem
Return
The
Ordinary
World
The Call to
Adventure
Refusal
Mentor
Helper
Crossing the
Threshold
Test/
Allies/
EnemiesApproach
Ordeal
Reward
Road Back
Atonement
1
2
3
4
5
67
8
9
10
11
12
PART4–
ROAD
BA
C
K
/
H
E R O ’ S R E T U R N
PA R T
1
–
C A
LL
TO
ADVENTURE
PART3–UNIFICATIO
N
/
T R A N S F O R M AT I O N PA R T 2 – S U P R E M
E
O
RD
EAL
/INITIATION
Hero’s
Journey
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998

11. How did Odin lose his eye?
Old Myths
‘Odin Enthroned’ by the sculptor Wilhelm Engelhard, 1888. Museum of Lower Saxony in Hanover, Germany

12. Odin did not tell the other gods about it.
His wife found out and told him to stop
brooding, and to go see The Norns.
One day, they brought news
of shadows and forebodings.
Odin was greatly disturbed.
Odin had two ravens, Hugin and
Munin. They told him of things they
saw in the world.
The
Ordinary
World
The Call to
Adventure
Refusal
1
2
3
PA R T
1
–
C A
LL
TO
ADVENTURE
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998

13. The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998
Disguised as Vegtam the Wanderer, Odin enters
Jötunheim. There he meets the wisest of all the
giants. They play a game of riddles.
Odin decides to leave
Asgard to wander Midgard,
the World of Men, and seek
wisdom at Mimir’s Well.
Odin visits The Norns at the Well of Fate, at
the foot of Yggdrasil. In the eyes of Skuld
he sees the future of Asgard and the days
of Ragnarök.
Mentor
Helper
Crossing the
Threshold
Test/
Allies/
Enemies
4
5
6
PA R T 2 – S U P R E M
E
ORD
EAL
/INITIATION

14. The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998
The giant reveals to Odin the
price he will need to pay for
wisdom. The All-father wants to
turn back, yet he goes on to
Muspelheim, where he sees
Surtur, his sworn great enemy,
with his Flaming Sword.
Odin answers all the
riddles and starts
asking questions of
his own. He asks
about his own last
words to his son.
Odin understands that to
save the world he would
need to gain wisdom.
Approach
Ordeal
Reward
7
8
9
PART3–UNIFICATIO
N
/
T R A N S F O R M AT I O N

15. The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998
Mimir expected him, and asks Odin whether
he will pay the price. The god agrees. Mimir
gives him a great horn to drink from. Odin
sees the terrible future.
He turns and goes back to
Mimir’s Well, where he meets
the Guardian of the Well.
Odin returns to his
people without his
right eye, yet with
wisdom to guide
their future.
Return
Road Back
Atonement
10
11
12
PART4–
ROAD
BA
C
K
/
H
E R O ’ S R E T U R N

16. Return
The
Ordinary
World
The Call to
Adventure
Refusal
Mentor
Helper
Crossing the
Threshold
Test/
Allies/
EnemiesApproach
Ordeal
Reward
Road Back
Atonement
1
2
3
4
5
67
8
9
10
11
12
PART4–
ROAD
BA
C
K
/
H
E R O ’ S R E T U R N
PA R T
1
–
C A
LL
TO
ADVENTURE
PART3–UNIFICATIO
N
/
T R A N S F O R M AT I O N PA R T 2 – S U P R E M
E
O
RD
EAL
/INITIATION
Odin’s
Journey
Mimir expected him,
and asks Odin
whether he will pay
the price. The god
agrees. Mimir gives
him a great horn to
drink from. Odin sees
the terrible future.
He turns and
goes back to
Mimir’s Well,
where he meets
the Guardian of
the Well.
The giant reveals to Odin
the price he will need to
pay for wisdom. The
All-father wants to turn
back, yet he goes on to
Muspelheim, where he
sees Surtur, his sworn
great enemy, with his
Flaming Sword.
Odin answers all
the riddles and
starts asking
questions of his
own. He asks
about his own last
words to his son.
Disguised as Vegtam
the Wanderer, Odin
enters Jötunheim.
There he meets the
wisest of all the
giants. They play a
game of riddles.
Odin decides to
leave Asgard to
wander Midgard, the
World of Men, and
seek wisdom at
Mimir’s Well.
Odin visits The Norns
at the Well of Fate, at
the foot of Yggdrasil.
In the eyes of Skuld
he sees the future of
Asgard and the days
of Ragnarök.
Odin did not tell the
other gods about it.
His wife found out and
told him to stop
brooding, and to go
see The Norns.
One day, they brought
news of shadows and
forebodings. Odin was
greatly disturbed.
Odin had two
ravens, Hugin and
Munin. They told
him of things they
saw in the world.
Odin understands
that to save the
world he would
need to gain
wisdom.
Odin returns to his
people without his
right eye, yet with
wisdom to guide
their future.
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998

17. The Hobbit
Modern Myths

18. Bilbo doesn’t want to go, yet invites
Gandalf for tea. Big mistake.
At the age of 50, Bilbo is visited
by Gandalf, who sees through his
BS and invites him on a quest.
Bilbo Baggins leads a
respectable life in Bag
End. He’s bored and
ignoring it.
The
Ordinary
World
The Call to
Adventure
Refusal
1
2
3
PA R T
1
–
C A
LL
TO
ADVENTURE
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998

19. The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998
Thorin and co. meet Tom, Bert, and Bill. They’re
stone trolls, and become such. Literally. Also,
the elves give them food.
Bilbo buys into the
dwarves’ pitch. In the
morning, they set off from
The Green Dragon Inn.
To give Bilbo a little push, Gandalf invites
the dwarves over to Bag End. Bilbo does
not like it, at first.
Mentor
Helper
Crossing the
Threshold
Test/
Allies/
Enemies
4
5
6
PA R T 2 – S U P R E M
E
ORD
EAL
/INITIATION

20. The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998
The hobbit escapes Gollum and
goblins. The group strays off
the path in the Mirkwood
Forest. They escape. Meet
elves. Reach Lake-town. Bilbo
meets Smaug. They chat. Bilbo gets a new
sword and armor,
reaches the Misty
Mountains, and is
left alone. He also
finds a... ring.
Smaug meets his end due to
a bare spot. The dwarves
get back their treasure.
Approach
Ordeal
Reward
7
8
9
PART3–UNIFICATIO
N
/
T R A N S F O R M AT I O N

21. The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998
Elves join the humans and the dwarves in
battling the Goblins and the Wards. Thorin
dies from his wounds in battle, and thus
redeems himself.
The humans and dwarves
have a disagreement.
They negotiate.
Bilbo returns to the
Shire with wisdom to go
beyond “respectability”.
Return
Road Back
Atonement
10
11
12
PART4–
ROAD
BA
C
K
/
H
E R O ’ S R E T U R N

22. Return
The
Ordinary
World
The Call to
Adventure
Refusal
Mentor
Helper
Crossing the
Threshold
Test/
Allies/
EnemiesApproach
Ordeal
Reward
Road Back
Atonement
1
2
3
4
5
67
8
9
10
11
12
PART4–
ROAD
BA
C
K
/
H
E R O ’ S R E T U R N
PA R T
1
–
C A
LL
TO
ADVENTURE
PART3–UNIFICATIO
N
/
T R A N S F O R M AT I O N PA R T 2 – S U P R E M
E
O
RD
EAL
/INITIATION
Bilbo’s
Journey
Elves join the
humans and the
dwarves in battling
the Goblins and the
Wards. Thorin dies
from his wounds in
battle, and thus
redeems himself.
The humans and
dwarves have a
disagreement.
They negotiate.
The hobbit escapes
Gollum and goblins.
The group strays off
the path in the
Mirkwood Forest. They
escape. Meet elves.
Reach Lake-town.
Bilbo meets Smaug.
They chat.
Bilbo gets a new
sword and armor,
reaches the Misty
Mountains, and is
left alone. He also
finds a... ring.
Thorin and co. meet
Tom, Bert, and Bill.
They’re stone trolls,
and become such.
Literally. Also, the
elves give them food.
Bilbo buys into the
dwarves’ pitch. In
the morning, they
set off from The
Green Dragon Inn.
To give Bilbo a little
push, Gandalf invites
the dwarves over to
Bag End. Bilbo does
not like it, at first.
Bilbo doesn’t want
to go, yet invites
Gandalf for tea.
Big mistake.
At the age of 50, Bilbo
is visited by Gandalf,
who sees through his
BS and invites him on
a quest.
Bilbo Baggins leads
a respectable life in
Bag End. He’s bored
and ignoring it.
Smaug meets his
end due to a bare
spot. The dwarves
get back their
treasure.
Bilbo returns to the
Shire with wisdom
to go beyond
“respectability”.
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998

23. Saku’s Journey
TalentAdore

24. The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998
The
Ordinary
World
The Call to
Adventure
Refusal
1
2
3
PA R T
1
–
C A
LL
TO
ADVENTURE
When I worked as a hiring manager at a corporation with over
10,000 employees, I'd always always wanted to give personalized
feedback for every candidate, but I could not. Instead, I’ve sent
thousands of copy-paste rejection emails.
For the candidate themselves, the problem is even bigger.
It's personal. The candidates don't even often know what's
going on in the process and at the end they end up hating
the company and stop applying to that company again.
It would have taken me 1,485 minutes to give personalized
feedback in the typical recruitment process where you have
a 100 candidates, one is selected, and 99 rejected.
Average Answer
Length — 61 words
The Human Touch
Back in Recruitment

25. The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, 1998
We have now had 10 weeks... eight weeks our solution
in the market and we already secured for paying
customers and 10 customer pilots. This is our unified
one-family-team and truly proud of them.
How did we make this magic happen? So we took the old crappy
applicant tracking systems to support candidates need for
social interaction, and we added intelligent automation into it.
Our virtual recruitment system is handling every job
application as a love letter. It can... you can handle the
entire recruitment process, but the true magic lies in the
possibility to communicate with every single candidate.
Mentor
Helper
Crossing the
Threshold
Test/
Allies/
Enemies
4
5
6
PA R T 2 – S U P R E M
E
ORD
EAL
/INITIATION
TalentAdore has raised over
$2.11M* in funding since Dec 2016*Source: Data from PitchBook as of February 2019

26. 5230-45
Companies using
storytelling elements
Personal
stories
~18%
Share of all
290 pitches
@glebmaltsev @andriigorbenko

27. Questions
0
125
250
375
500
124,813
27,620
62,647
@glebmaltsev / @helisaund / @andriigorbenko
Slush 100 Pitch + Q&A 2015-2017
Source: primary data from Slush 100 videos as of 2018
Pitches
Questions
Answers
Words
Words
Words

28. Words Phrases
So, eh, uh, ehm, ehh
Market(s)
People
Team
Data
Time
Year(s)
Company (-ies)
Million(s)
Business(es)
Problem
Platform
App
Based
Today
Work
Good
Hundred
Percent
Users
So we/what/it/far/I
Lot/kind/founder/% of
Business model
Market is
Access to
Team of
Billion dollars
Hundred thousand
Virtual reality
Easy to
TOP Pitch Words and Phrases Comparison 2015-2017

29. 2015 2016
Mobile
Enterprise software
Analytics, big data & AI
Industrial internet & IoT
E-commerce&onlinemarketplaces
Gaming
Health & wellbeing
Communications & media
Wearable technology
Financial & payment services
Analytics
Enterprise Software
Artificial Intelligence
Health Care
Virtual Reality
Marketplace
CleanTech
FinTech
Mobile
Internet of Things
Mobile
Fintech
AI
B2B
Gaming
Big Data
Blockchain
Marketplace
Medical Devices
Waste
2017
TOP 10 Category Comparison 2015-2017

30. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Pitch Words per Minute Distribution 2015-2017Pitches
140-150120-130100-110 160-170 180-190 200-21080-90 220-230
21.4%
15.2%
13.1%
5.2% 5.9%
12.4%
14.5%
Average: ~144 wpm
Fastest: ~222 wpm
Slowest: ~ 82 wpm

31. @glebmaltsev
47
Countries
represented
~28%
Finnish share of
all 290 pitches

32. 87% Male
13% Female
2015
Gender Distribution 2015

33. 86% Male
14% Female
2016
Gender Distribution 2016

34. 2017
76% Male
24% Female
Gender Distribution 2017

35. The Gatekeeper
ACT II
Musée du Louvre: Processional Way of Sphinxes, Ptolemaic Period, 300-250 BCE

36. TechCrunch Disrupt Q&A
2010-2016
Slush 100 Pitch + Q&A
2015-2017
Companies
189 290
Pitch (Minutes)
6 3
Q&A (Minutes)
6 2-4
Source: 'We Ask Men to Win & Women Not to Lose'
by Dana Kanze and co., Columbia University
Source: primary data from pitch and Q&A
transcripts of Slush 100 videos
Kanze, Huang, Conley & Higgins, 2018 @glebmaltsev / @helisaund / @andriigorbenko

37. The 7 Themes
Market
Product
People
Business model
Customers
Competitors
Data
@glebmaltsev

38. Promotion questions
Product "Could you give a short example of who's using and loving your product?"
People "Great. [...] How do you find people to download the app and actually
make an investment?"
Businessmodel "Can you talk a bit more about the business model?"
Market "What would you estimate your potential market size is?"
Customers "So who do you sell to today and how do you acquire the customers?"
Data "How valuable is this data?"

39. Prevention questions
Market "Who suffers most if you take the big chunk of the market?"
Product "Have you deployed the product with anybody yet?"
People "What kind of user feedback are you getting from people who already
are using the product?"
Business "..your business model if I understood it correctly was [..] that you give that
model data to [..] government authorities? I'm not sure I would like that… "
Customers "Are there going to be enough customers for you to be able to build
a real business?"
Competitors "How are you better than the competition in terms of cost, technology or... ?"
Data "Who's providing the satellite data for you and how expensive is that data?"

40. What type of question is it?
Juha Ruohonen, Founding Partner of Superhero Capital at Slush 100 2016
"Aa... I like the name 'super' like Superhero, you know. Uhm, so
what's the big picture? What will you be in five years? What's the
vision? Because the numbers are great."

41. 0% 15% 30% 45% 60%
TechCrunch Disrupt Q&A 2010-2016
Slush 100 Q&A 2015-2017
38.9%
56.9%
promotion-focused questions
54.5%
34.3%
prevention-focused questions
2.6%
8.8%
neutral
4%
N/A
Kanze, Huang, Conley & Higgins, 2018@glebmaltsev / @helisaund / @andriigorbenko

42. Kanze, Huang, Conley & Higgins, 2018@glebmaltsev / @helisaund / @andriigorbenko
TechCrunch Disrupt Q&A / N = 1,857 q.
Slush 100 Q&A / N = 1,047 questions
promotion-focused
2015
2016
2017
2010-2016
prevention-focused neutral N/A
37.3%
42.7%
37.7%
56.9%
57%
51.2%
54.9%
34.3%
Questions asked

43. Average Question
Length — 26 words
Questions
46.2%
35%
11.8%
4.2% 1.8% 0.7% 0.1%
0
125
250
375
500
1-20 20-40 40-60 60-80 80-100 100-120 120-140
Words
Question Distribution 2015-2017
@glebmaltsev

44. How did he answer it?
Mikael Thuneberg, CEO of Supermetrics at Slush 100 2016
Currently we bring data to [...] Google Sheets and Excel. [...] we
have this great back-end that connects to all of these different
sources so we could utilize the same back-end to push data into
more places. [Our vision is] to become the platform for connect-
ing all the places where companies have their data and where
they want to use that.

45. Answers
Words
42.4%
37.9%
14.3%
3.8%
1.1% 0.1%
0
100
200
300
1-47 47-94 94-142 142-188 188-235 235-282
Average Answer
Length — 61 words
Answer Distribution 2016-2017
@glebmaltsev

46. What about this one?
Unknown French investor at Slush 100 2017
"How do you make sure the interaction between the employer
and the future employee remains on the platform? So that you
get a fee out of that and [it wouldn’t move] offline [and] basically
[...] cut [you] out of the transaction [sic] ?"

47. What type of answer is it?
Kaarel Holm, CEO at MeetFrank at Slush 100 2017
"[..]We encourage everyone to go out of the platform because
we want to make the initial connection [..]. Now when we talk
about monetizing then we [do it] on [a] monthly subscription fee
[basis], and we're moving over to monetizing added value which
is data."

48. 0% 15% 30% 45% 60%
3.3%
6.1%
19.4%
47.1%
27.6%
43.5%
53%
TechCrunch Disrupt Q&A 2010-2016
Slush 100 Q&A 2015-2017
promotion-focused answers
prevention-focused answers
neutral
N/A
Kanze, Huang, Conley & Higgins, 2018@glebmaltsev / @helisaund / @andriigorbenko

49. Kanze, Huang, Conley & Higgins, 2018@glebmaltsev / @helisaund / @andriigorbenko
TechCrunch Disrupt Q&A / N = 1,718 a.
Slush 100 Q&A / N = 1041 answers
2015
2016
2017
2010-2016
promotion-focused prevention-focused neutral N/A
46.8%
43.4%
41.6%
53%
43.3%
45.9%
50%
27.6% 19,4%
Answers given

50. pro
prev
neutral
N/A
pro
30,3%
4,5%
1,1%
0,0%
prev
7,9%
47,2%
4,5%
0,0%
neutral
0,0%
0,0%
2,2%
0,0%
N/A
0,0%
0,0%
0,0%
2,2%
You're ~6 times
likelier to answer a
prevention question
with a prevention
answer than a
promotion one.
Second questions asked in 2016
@glebmaltsev

51. The Thinker
ACT III
Auguste Rodin's “Gates of Hell”, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, California

52. Who wants to tell their tale?
Let’s get practical

53. “Stories [...] are fragile things.
But some stories, small, simple ones
about setting out on adventures or people
doing wonders, tales of miracles and monsters,
have outlasted all the people who told them,
and some of them have outlasted the lands
in which they were created.”
– Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders