How do you pitch investors without a slide deck?
In this episode of From a Woman to a Leader, I’m back with Naama Nicotra, founder and CEO of NakedPak, the first brand making microplastic-free meals with edible, hot-water-soluble packaging.
We talk about:
– The bonds women in tech don’t build with each other (and why we should),
– How to walk into a room of strangers and actually start a conversation,
– The three pitch versions Naama keeps in her back pocket,
– Why Naama throws out the slide deck in investor meetings, and
– The single best piece of fundraising advice she’s ever received.
If you’ve ever frozen at the door of a networking event or sat in front of a deck wondering why nobody seems to care, this conversation is for you.
About Naama Nicotra:
Naama is the founder and CEO of NakedPak, the first brand to offer edible, hot water-soluble food packaging with no plastic, no waste, and no chemicals. She studied industrial design and served as the first training officer in a new IDF commando brigade. Her path into entrepreneurship came from being willing to walk into rooms where she knew absolutely no one.
Connect with Naama:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naama-nicotra-1b9232174/
Naked Pak: https://www.nakedpak.com/
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome + thank you to Google for Startups
00:18 Meet Naama: Naked Pak’s edible, dissolvable food packaging
00:52 The two men at the event
02:05 The pilot course: how a room changes when women walk in
03:02 The bond women can build – our unfair advantage
05:58 Why those bonds aren’t forming yet
07:12 What drove Naama to start NakedPak (instead of the corporate path)
09:32 Walking in knowing nothing, by design
10:31 The Bank story: pitching the CEO by accident
11:42 The demo day moment, she read it wrong
13:00 What runs through her head when walking into a room of strangers
13:57 The night she met her husband
15:46 Posting publicly vs. approaching in person
16:44 Investors are people, and they want to be early
18:12 Why it’s okay if they think you’re a fool
21:35 The pitching playbook starts here
22:02 The three pitch personas every founder needs
22:39 Research first, then ask the investor to talk
26:21 Why she ditched the slide deck
27:49 "So you don’t have a deck at all?"
28:46 Why fundraising is the hardest thing she’s done
32:02 The single best fundraising advice: don’t raise when you need the Money
33:00 Product vs. business model: what investors actually evaluate
34:23 How to keep going through constant rejection
36:40 The mission has to be bigger than you
39:13 The personal recycling close
41:01 Wrap and well-wishes
41:37 Update: where Naked Pak is now
Listen to the full podcast and connect with Limor:
Podcast: https://limorbergman.com/podcast/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/limorbergman/
Substack: https://limorbergman.substack.com
Questions this episode answers:
How do you pitch investors without a slide deck?
When should you actually start fundraising?
How do you walk into a room of strangers and start a conversation?
What’s the difference between selling a product and selling a business?
Why do women in tech struggle to build the bonds men do?
How do you handle constant rejection from investors without giving up?
