How to create a pitch deck for investors | Entrepreneur’s Toolkit “For an entrepreneur, life’s a pitch!”—Guy Kawasaki The pitch deck (also known as a slide deck or pitch slide deck ) is the first communication tool to help you raise money with a potential investor. The content of the pitch deck, along with your presentation, can help the investor to determine whether or not to continue evaluating your business opportunity. Guy Kawasaki’s pitch deck template This table, from Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start, summarizes the key information that should be included in the initial pitch deck. Your pitch deck should fit in with your business plan, but is not simply a regurgitation of the plan. The ten slides outlined in the table above provide the core content for any pitch deck. The next step could involve doing further due diligence, referring you to another investor or introducing a strategic partner. Tips for building a good pitch deck Useful links: References Kawasaki, G. (2004).
Pitch Deck: Complete Guide to a Pitch Presentation — Slidebean Blog The next 30 seconds are crucial. A good 5-second intro will get you another 30 seconds worth of attention, and this is where you want to call out your biggest traction achievement to date, and what better accomplishment than revenue? In 500 Startups, founders usually call out two out of the following milestones. Annual Run Rate, based on your last month’s ACTUAL revenue. Contrary to what you might have been lead to believe, an active user base doesn’t excite investors (unless it’s in the millions), so absolutely focus on getting revenue, even if it’s not scalable. 3- Problem and Solution: Next up, let’s talk about your actual business. Make sure that you point out how many people suffer the problem, and if possible, try to tell a story that resonates with your audience, whether if they’re investors, other startups, etc… A good way to approach this is to put a face on it.
Startup Pitch Deck Advice I have been working with several founders recently on their fundraising decks. Having had to do some intense thinking around the subject, what investor side advice do I have to share? For founders on this journey, here are three general sets of resources I have found helpful and seven personal observations. Three general resources Pitch deck contents There are plenty of amazing posts on the slides and info to include in a good pitch deck from the likes of Polaris, Cooley and Sequoia. For example, ffVentures provides a handy list of what they expect to see, and The New York Angels sets out at length the list of “examination questions” to which a pitch is the de facto answer. Sample pitch desks Check out Pitchenvy to review a wide variety of pitch decks. Pitch deck templates Among others, the team at Nextview provides a pitch deck template. Seven Personal Observations Sorry folks, there is no right answer Think about what the audience needs to know, not what you want to say