Story

Author

Jorian Hoover
October 27, 2025

Hey friends, it’s Jorian—welcome to Into the Ring. I’m a startup fundraising coach and have worked with 50+ founders who’ve raised over $190M.

Today’s newsletter has a new format & content sections, and I’m increasing the cadence to weekly. My aim is to share where the puck is going in VC, plus share the latest thinking on running a high-quality startup fundraise.

In that vein, please give me your feedback on the new format & content sections, both positive and negative. Anyone who emails me back with feedback will receive one* curated dad joke in return.

Thank you for being part of the Into the Ring tribe—I’m immensely grateful for this community of 1.7K+ startup founders and operators/investors from OpenAI, Anthropic, a16z, Lightspeed, etc.

(*rules and restrictions may apply, void where prohibited and if your name is Saswat Panda)

In today’s issue:

  1. Jorian’s 1min take on the latest in VC: “Are we in an AI bubble?”

  2. What funding rounds did a16z, Sequoia, USV, and other Tier 1 VCs lead last week? (Oct 18-24, 2025)?

  3. This week’s recommended VC essays & podcast episodes

  4. Today’s deep dive on how to fundraise like a pro: Start (or fix) your pitch deck in Google Sheets

1. Jorian’s 1min take on the latest in VC: “Are we in an AI bubble?”

Over the past several weeks, I’ve traded a dozen notes with my friend Benton Moss on if we’re in an AI bubble. And my newsletter, podcast, X, and LinkedIn feeds are overflowing with opinions on this debate.

For me, it all comes down to what revenue growth rates AI companies can hit over the next three to five years. I agree with Azeem Azhar: if AI companies can keep growing revenue by over 100% for the next three years, then today’s record capex investments and seemingly circular investment deals will likely be worth it.

When everyone is yelling that we’re in an AI bubble, it begs the question on if we’re really at the precipice, or if we have lots of runway left to go. Many of these AI companies are in their infancy. I’m eager to see how revenue growth rates land in 2026. It’s too early to judge if we’re in a bubble or not—it’s like seeing an airplane taking off from a runway and questioning why it hasn’t hit altitude yet.

So that’s my feeling for now: I’m not convinced we’re in an AI bubble. I need more time to see how this plays out.

Do you believe we’re in an AI bubble? Email me by replying to this newsletter and let’s start a conversation.

3. This week’s recommended VC essays & podcast episodes

  • Newsletter: “Do something important, quickly.” (link) by Yoni Rechtman, Partner at Slow Ventures

    • I enjoyed Yoni’s take on what kind of momentum really matters in venture.

  • Newsletter: “Product-Market Fit is No Longer Static” (link) by Tomasz Tunguz, General Partner at Theory Ventures

    • A quick take (though longer if you watch his embedded TBPN video) on why product-market fit must be continually re-established nowadays

  • Podcast: “Reinventing K-12 Education Using AI” (Spotify link; Apple Podcasts link)

  • Podcast: “Why Creativity Will Matter More Than Code” (YouTube link; Spotify link; Apple Podcasts link)

On the topic of “Are we in an AI bubble?” here are some of my favorite essays & podcasts:

Which VC essays and podcasts have I missed? Email me by replying to this newsletter and let me know your recommendations!

4. Today's Deep Dive on How to Fundraise Like a Pro: Start (or fix) your pitch deck in Google Sheets

In my job as a startup fundraising coach, I receive a couple dozen pitch decks each week. And I’ve started to notice a common problem amongst the pitch decks of founders who went to HBS/GSB/Wharton.

Typically their pitch decks already look beautiful, with a crisp design. And as I scan through the 14 slides they’ve sent me, there’s not a single slide I can argue with:

  • the problem & solution slides are clear and coherent

  • the team slide shows robust backgrounds

  • the market slide shows a massive opportunity

  • and so on…

But after I flip through the 14 slides a second time, I can’t help but realize that I’m not feeling any emotional draw to their pitch deck. Each slide is making sense individually, but collectively there’s no story.

The problem: your head is completely stuck in the slides

These founders have spent dozens (if not over 100) hours crafting their pitch deck. And so it’s really hard for them to see the forest from the trees.

Often, they can acknowledge that their pitch deck is missing a compelling story. But when they come back to me a few days later with their fixes, the story is still lacking.

The issue is that these founders are lost in the sauce in their pitch deck. They keep tinkering with individual slides, but it’s not affecting the overall story.

The solution: let’s move over to Google Sheets (or somewhere that’s not the slides)

I know it sounds counterintuitive, but the best way to fix this story problem is to get the hell out of the slides. There are too many moving components and bells & whistles in the slides to work on the story there.

So for the founders I work with, or friends who I give advice to, I often suggest moving to Google Sheets.

In this Google Sheet I’ll make three columns.

  1. Column A has the slide # (I usually recommend 10 to 14 core slides)

  2. Column B has the type of slide (i.e. Problem, Solution, Business Model, etc.)

  3. Column C is what we’ll be working on - a one sentence key takeaway

Now that we have no slides distracting us, I ask the founder to share one key takeaway for each slide that they want a VC to remember.

Once they’ve written all the key takeaways, I then have the founder read all the key takeaways in a row. And usually, without me asking, the founder says “oh crap, this doesn’t sound like a story at all.”

Your story should be cohesive and position your startup as the hero

Now the goal is to re-write the key takeaways and rearrange the slides so that together, they create a cohesive story.

One tip: think about how you can position your startup as the hero in the story. You want a VC to think, “Wow, someone should fix this big problem,” right as you hit them with your solution, technology, and business model.

Putting together a pitch deck story isn’t rocket science. Most founders can often craft a great story in just 10 minutes. They just need to shift their focus from slides to a simple Google Sheet.

Avoid this issue by starting your pitch deck in Google Sheets

If you’ve reached this point in the deep dive and are wondering “how can I avoid this issue in the first place?” my answer to you is to start in Google Sheets. You can follow the exact steps outlined above with the three columns, except you’ll be starting with a blank slate.

If you spend a few hours nailing down your pitch deck storyline BEFORE you start building out the slides, you’ll save yourself dozens of hours later on. And, you’ll have a compelling story from the get-go.

Hope this helps as you’re thinking through your pitch deck. If you have any questions, feel free to reply to this email.

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I’ve helped 50+ founders run high-quality fundraises and raise over $190M. Check out jorianhoover.com to read founder testimonials and learn more about my approach.