Memo An investment memo is a clear and concise articulation of the key components of your company and what the rationale is for investing in it. Writing one helps clarify your company’s story and pitch. VCs also write investment memos of their own, so doing the work for them is a way to incept your vision of the memo into their brains.   A memo is particularly effective if you can write well. It stands better on its own as the deck (sent ahead of time) can miss context provided by your voiceover. Founders tell us that memos sent before meetings in place of a deck provided the necessary to set up an engaged conversation from the outset. For an example of how Rippling used their memo to raise their Series A, see this post by Parker Conrad.   Here is the template we use to guide our founders in drafting their memo:   YC Series A Memo Template Introduction (roughly a paragraph each) What do you do? We bring people together to collaborate, read, and share. With YourKnow you can collaborate in live sessions with people around the world, read works others have published and keep in touch with friends and family. What problem are you targeting? No free ”live” group collaboration workspace, tools and features for the average user. No online platform with “free” unlimited reading and access to shared books and user content. Current collaboration offerings are less robust.   How does the world work now in relation to this problem? The world uses google docs (etc.) to patch-fix this issue. The challenge is that google docs does not have any live collaboration tools where multiple users can work together in a real time collaboration - edits and changes are synchronized across all users in real time.  The Google Docs and Microsoft teams approach is referred to as sequential collaboration.   How do you solve the problem?:  We created a cloud-based ecosystem where users can have a live collaboration experience, and also create, share (publish), read, and manage content.  Future versions of the platform will include audio, video, spreadsheets, presentations and other enhancements to accommodate collaboration across multiple mediums.   How does solving the problem change behavior and make you money? With YourKnow, users now have the ability to collaborate in real time (live), but also to manage content, groups, discussions and schedules.  We believe that    What is the scale of the opportunity? Education institutions - the current market is highly fragmented with numerous companies and tools targeting various areas.  There is no platform that consolidates data storage, calendars, teacher feedback, parent communication, etc. in a single login/platform.   YourKnow seeks to be the platform of choice for educators and students.  YourKnow offers more powerful capabilities while also allowing administrators and teachers to reduce “platform creep.”  For example, teachers may be using several different offerings including: Google Docs, Google Classroom, Zoom, Canvas, Blackboard, School Loop, etc.  The problem is even worse for students as they must adapt to the technology solutions selected by each of their instructors. The result is mass confusion, inefficient use of student and teacher efforts, frustration and anger.   Writers Musicians Hobbyists   Traction / Metrics Discuss traction up to now (include a chart).   Discuss main related metrics, such as churn, ACV, rake. No churn.. no ACV Discuss revenue drivers.   What does go-to-market look like?   Challenges to Growth What's prevented you from growing even faster? YourKnow has been limited in financial resources.  Investment to date has been spent on platform development and testing.  We are now turning our attention to revenue growth, strategic hiring and…...   How will raising money solve this problem? Series A will allow YourKnow to conduct a comprehensive marketing campaign to attract users and advertisers.  It will also allow for additional infrastructure enhancements and strategic hiring.   Market Who are the customers? Education Institutions - market size?  Total annual segment spend? Students  Writers, Musicians, Hobbyists   How do they think/act? Target customers are predictable and consistent: they require structure and management for collaboration and data sharing.   How big is the opportunity they represent? As discussed above, the educational segment presents a massive revenue opportunity for YourKnow.  We expect to address the needs of other industries and sectors as our platform and company matures.  Long-term, we seek to be the platform of choice for live collaboration.   Future States What happens to the market as you start to win? The current market is highly fragmented and cost based.  As we acquire users, we expect the market to congeal around our platform. YourKnow will dominate this global market.   How do you change the market and where does that lead your company? YourKnow is a disruptive platform and technology. We will dramatically reduce the cost of access to live collaboration and document management tools.  YourKnow will be pioneering this effort of making knowledge and information available to users for free.   Competitive Landscape What is your competitive landscape and how do you defeat it? Team Who are you and what makes you special?   FAQ Surface the main objections you are likely to face, and eloquently knock them down. Data is good here. Eric… Who are the biggest education focused competitors?   Can’t someone easily replicate the live collaboration capabilities of YourKnow?  Isn’t it made easier since the software is open source? This is probably the part where the memo is most powerful relative to a deck.   Use of funds How much have you raised in the past? To date, YourKnow has been funded by nearly $1 million in founders capital as well as approximately $1.5 million in founder sweat equity.   How much are you raising and what are you going to do with it?... YourKnow is seeking to raise $10 million in Series A funding.   Milestones?