What goes into a great pitch deck when presenting in front of investors?
I often use this structure:
- Cover: “We are X for Y” (e.g. we are Ebay for VIP club nights)
- Elevator pitch in ONE sentence
- Contact info
- Team intro
- Mgt, Bios, Relevant experience, responsibilities, Advisors and contact info
- Why are we the right team for the problem we are about to show?
- Our big idea → Our big vision
- What is our big vision?
- What problem we solving and for whom?
- Where do we want to be in the future?
- The current problem
- What are the main customer / consumer pains?
- How are they solving them now and why are these solutions inferior?
- Our solution. Why now?
- How will the customers solve their problems with us? / What is our value proposition to the customer? / What kind of ROI can our customers expect by using buying your product/service?
- How is it different?
- What pain are we eliminating?
- Why is the solution possible today?
- Why is it right for today, tomorrow?
- What is our business / revenue model?
- Who is our target customer → Use specific customer examples where possible.
- How do we earn money?
- What is required to become profitable?
- What is our sales, marketing and distribution strategy?
- Traction & Validation
- How big is the market?
- How big can we be?
- What value are we creating?
- Is our product resonating with the users? / Is it trending up? / Engagement data, user acquisition, other KPI
- Competition
- Who is our existing & likely competition?
- Who is adjacent to us (in the market) that could enter our market (and compete) or could be a co-opted partner?
- What are their strengths/weaknesses?
- Why are we different and better?
- What’s the future?
- What are the next 12-24 months of
- product
- people
- performance
- finances
- What are the next 12-24 months of
- The ask
- What size investments are we looking for?
- How long does it get us?
- How will we spend it?
- What are our goals before raising the next round?
- How else can investor(s) help?
General tips
- Max 2 people should do the pitch. Don’t lose time to switch microphones back and forth: The best person to pitch should do the whole pitch.
- Investor questions are extremely important. Brainstorm critical questions and practice the answers. Address questions immediately and have additional slides ready with more details (e.g. financial metrics)
- Keep demos short. Show screenshots or a (locally hosted) video, no live demo, as it takes too long and too many things can go wrong.
- The product market fit is more important than how the product works.
- Describe your target group narrow and easy to understand. Differentiate between the people who you’re solving the product for and the people who will write the cheque.
Good luck!