What should be included in a pitch deck? – If you’re soliciting funds for your company, possessing an appealing pitch deck is a must-have weapon in your funding arsenal. An excellent pitch deck entices the interest of potential investors in your concept and involves them in a discussion about your company, ideally resulting in investment.
In this essay, I’ll walk you through the process of creating your personal pitch deck.
I’m drawing on our company’s experience hearing thousands of elevator speeches and pitch decks. We’ve observed a diverse variety of pitch decks and speaking styles and discovered a basic strategy that succeeds every time.
A pitch deck sometimes referred to as a slide deck or start-up deck, is just a presentation that presents a concise but detailed summary of your company. It should include the main features of your company strategy, your goods and services, high-level financial estimates, and capital requirements. Your pitch deck should stand alone as beautiful documentation, but it would be largely utilized to convey the story of your company.
Important Slides To Included in a Pitch Deck?
Although it may appear paradoxical, the aim of your pitch deck would be not to acquire funds. What? I understand it doesn’t seem right, but your pitch deck’s true aim is when you’re at the next conference.
Note that the pitch deck is likely to be among the first items an investor would view in order to understand further about the business. And, since investments are never approved after only one encounter, your objective should be to stimulate people’s interest in the organization. You want investors to request more information after hearing your pitch, not just send you to the exit.
While every firm is unique, I’ve discovered that the main structure helps for the majority of them and it is most likely to capture the attention of interested investors. You can get our expert to help you (Get your Pitch Deck Today) and also keep reading to see why the next 15 slides are so important to include in your own deck.
1. Vision and value proposition
This may be a one-sentence summary of your company and the value you deliver to your consumers. Keep it brief and to the point. Consider this slide as a brief sentence describing your company in 140 characters or fewer in a manner that your grandparents could grasp.
It’s usual for IT firms to compare their business offer to that of another well-known firm.
It can help, but make absolutely sure your connection makes perfect sense and that you’re not merely picking a high-profile firm like Uber to indicate prospective development. Your business approach must be strikingly close to that of the firm you are mentioning.
2. The Problem
You would have a hard uphill struggle with your company if you’re not even fixing any crisis in the globe.
Use this slide to discuss the problem you’re attempting to solve and who is responsible for it. You can discuss existing market options, but just don’t waste too much effort on the competitive environment on this slide—you’ll get an opportunity to do it again afterward.
When identifying the issue, it’s best if you can provide a relevant tale. The more realistic you can portray the situation, the more your investors would comprehend your company and its aims.
3. Target market and opportunity
Use this slide to elaborate as to who your target consumer really is how much were there. The entire market size, and how is your firm positioned in it? If the data is available, investors would want to understand how much money people or firms are actually spending in the market to obtain an understanding of the overall market size. That’s where you explain the story of the size and magnitude of the issue you’re attempting to solve.
If this makes perfect sense for your company, separate your market into groups which you would approach with distinct sorts of advertising and may be various kinds of products and services.
But be cautious with such a slide. It might be enticing to define the market as broadly as possible. Investors, on the other hand, would want to see that you have a very particular and approachable market. The more precise your pitch, the more believable it’ll be.
4. The solution
Lastly, you may begin to describe your product or service. Explain why your product is used by consumers and how well it solves the challenges you mentioned on slide two.
You’ll be enticed to relocate this slide nearer to the start of the pitch deck, but avoid the urge. This is a typical example of storytelling in which you ramp up the situation and illustrate how horrible it is for a large number of individuals.
Therefore your product or service is stepping in to assist address that issue.
Many founders are overly preoccupied with their products when they should be overly focused on their clients and the difficulties they encounter. With this structure, make sure to keep your pitch deck focused and you’ll convey a good story.
When describing your answer, include photos and narratives if appropriate. Demonstrating is almost always preferable to explaining.
5. Revenue or business model.
After you’ve introduced your services or products, you should discuss how it generates revenue. What do you cost, and who is responsible for paying the bills? Advertisers, not consumers, pay bills in certain companies, therefore it’s critical to get the facts right there.
You may also demonstrate whether your price falls into the bigger market by referencing the competition environment. Are you a luxury, high-priced product, or a low-cost product that undercuts established market options?
6. Traction as well as validation/roadmap
Discuss any sales or early adopters you have with your product in this section. Investors would like to see evidence that you may have validated some component of your business strategy since it minimizes risk, therefore any evidence you really have that verifies that your solution functions to address the issue you recognized is pretty powerful.
You may also utilize this slide to discuss your accomplishments. What main goals have you accomplished thus far, as well as what important next actions do you intend to take? A product or company plan outlining major milestones is useful in this situation.
7. Strategy for marketing and sales
How do you want to attract clients’ interest, and what will your sales process entail? Outline your marketing and sales strategy on this slide. You should describe the major techniques you plan to utilize to bring your business in front of potential clients.
Acquiring and retaining consumers might be the most difficult issue for a business, therefore it’s critical to demonstrate that you understand how you want to approach your target audience and also what sales methods you intend to use.
If your marketing and sales mean the difference from that of your rivals, make it clear here.
8. Team
Why would you and your staff be the best fit to build and operate this business? What expertise do you possess that everyone else does not? Show the main team members, their previous accomplishments, and the significant skills they offer to the room.
Although if you still don’t have a complete squad, define the essential jobs that need to be filled and why some roles are crucial to the business’s future.
9. Financials
Investors would request to view your financials for at 3 years, including a sales estimate, income statement, and cash flow prediction. However, in-depth statistics that are complicated to understand and digest in a presentation manner should not be included in the pitch deck. Restrict yourself to graphs that indicate total sales, total customers, total costs, and total profits.
You must be ready to describe the basic estimates that you used to get at your sales targets, as well as the primary expenditure drivers. Try to be as accurate as possible. Investors are constantly bombarded with “hockey stick” estimates and will subconsciously slash yours in half. If you really can justify your progress depending on existing traction or in comparison to a comparable firm in a similar sector, it is immensely beneficial.
10. Competition
Every firm faces some type of competition. Although if you are entering a completely new industry, your potential clients are already adopting other options to handle their issues.
Explain where you belong in the competitive environment and also how you vary from rivals and solutions currently on the market. What important benefits do you even have over your competitors, or do you even have any “secret sauce” that others might not?
The objective is to describe how you vary from the competing market participants and why customers would select you.
11. Investment and use of funds
Finally, it’s the moment to make a formal request for funds. Isn’t that why you’re putting up this pitch deck? I understand I mentioned this pitch deck wasn’t about being financed. That is still correct, but interested investors must realize how much capital you are seeking.
Most important, you must be willing to clarify why you require the sum of funds requested as well as how you intend to use it. Investors would want to understand how their capital is getting spent and how this will enable you to reach the goals you have set for your company.
12. Exit strategy
If you’re looking for investors, you’ll have to demonstrate to them how you intend to pay them back. This is done in the shape of an “exit strategy” slide, which details who your possible investments may be if you succeed to expand and flourish with your firm. Going public through an IPO is a feasible choice for several high-growth firms, whilst other companies are much more likely to be purchased by larger competitors in your field.
13. Partnerships
Some firms rely on essential strategic alliances to ensure their success. This is frequently in the kind of intellectual property license from an institution or a major distribution company that might help you get your product to market. If your survival is dependent on these sorts of collaborations, it is critical to highlight it.
14. Other documentation
It is crucial to keep the pitch deck as brief and simple as feasible. Keep in mind that your purpose is not to present investors with all of the data they require to make an investment choice. Its main goal is to convey a tale, generate enthusiasm, and facilitate the all-important demand for further data and a follow-up appointment.
In addition to the pitch deck, one must possess additional detailed, extra material on hand which you may present if asked. Preparing these extra materials might also assist you to avoid overloading your presentation.
