One-liners and investor messaging
Live Investor Ratings of One-Liners and Brand Names (Part 2)
Live Investor Ratings - Hear Investor's First Impressions on a Brand Name and/or 10-Second Pitch
Founders, fund managers and real estate sponsors who send cold emails or pitch at events and want a clearer one-sentence description of what they do.
Five points worth keeping
- Each document has one job. Mark says the one-liner only needs to earn a look at the one-pager. The one-pager earns the pitch deck, and the deck earns deep due diligence.
- Lead with the bottom line. Panelists kept saying the first line is all that is needed. One suggested starting with the outcome, such as creating and preserving more wealth, and cutting the extra detail.
- Say something others cannot say. A multifamily one-liner that any competitor could use scored poorly. The panel liked a niche example of a club member who buys multifamily only in Indiana, because it is easy to remember.
- Use numbers and track record. Numbers such as 24% annualized returns got Mark to ask for the one-pager. Richard also noted that few one-liners mention revenue, team size or years in business, which show a company is not a startup from this morning.
- Drop the long paragraph. Several submissions were two or three lines, or full of separate points. Richard calls a very long message a form of laziness, since the writer did not take time to narrow it down. Avoid repeating the company name or starting with I.
Summary
Mark, who says he is pitched about 300 private placement offerings per year, explains the job of each piece of investor material. The one-liner gets him to the one-pager, the one-pager gets him to the pitch deck, and the deck gets him to deep due diligence. He decides within 5 to 10 seconds whether to open a one-pager, and he stops if none is attached.
At a Family Office Club event, Richard C. Wilson and a panel of investors rated submitted one-liners from 1 to 10. Common faults were length, vague niches, repeated words and names that say nothing. Praised examples used specific numbers, a clear niche and a name tied to the product. Richard also reminds founders that feedback depends on the audience, so a one-liner should fit the investors a founder actually targets.
Facts and figures
- Mark says he is pitched about 300 private placement offerings per year and that around 200 of them have no one-pager.
- One rated one-liner targeted 500 self-storage stores by 2050 with an average equity multiple of 2.2 and 24% annualized returns.
- Mark says a good tagline can be done in six words, and his company boiled 16 benefits down to three.
Sources
From Richard C. Wilson's Centimillionaire Strategies YouTube channel: Live Investor Ratings - Hear Investor's First Impressions on a Brand Name and/or 10-Second Pitch. Quotes come from the video captions, lightly edited for readability. Figures are the speakers' own estimates and experience.
General education only. Not legal, tax or investment advice.
Talk to a securities attorney to explore options around private offering materials, return claims in pitches and investor outreach rules. Do not use AI to write your own legal agreements.
In their words
"The purpose of the one-liner is to get me to the one-pager. The purpose of the one-pager is to get me to the pitch deck."
"It's almost a form of laziness to send over a really long email to someone, like, I didn't have time to see who you were or what you'd care about."
"Instant death in the investment world is like, oh yeah, I've heard that 900 times before, and I don't know how that makes you different."
- 1One-liner
- 2One-pager
- 3Pitch deck
- 4Deep due diligence
Related questions
- How do I create a pitch video for investors?Record a one to three minute video of the founder talking straight to the camera.
- How do I close a funding round?I close a funding round by focusing on investors who fit the opportunity and moving each interested prospect through clear, consistent follow-up.
- What documents do investors request during due diligence?Prepare a clear, organized package covering your operations, investments, compensation, team, and track record.
Questions about this video
What is the purpose of a one-liner?
According to Mark, it is not to describe everything a company does. It is to get the investor to open the one-pager, which then leads to the pitch deck and deep due diligence.
How fast do investors decide whether to read more?
Mark says he decides within 5 to 10 seconds whether to look at the one-pager. Richard adds that a subject line or voicemail has about half a second to four seconds to earn attention.
Should the feedback you get on a one-liner always be trusted?
Richard says to take feedback with a grain of salt, because the person may not be your target investor. A one-liner should fit the audience you raise capital from most often.
Put this into practice with the one-liner builder. See all one-liners and investor messaging resources.
