A pitch deck is critical when it comes to attracting investors and raising funds to expand your startup. It is a valuable resource that any entrepreneur can use to convince investors to become partners in their vision and invest their money.
A pitch deck is a slide presentation that summarizes the company, the solutions offered, the market opportunity, the company’s products and software, team members, and other relevant information. To create an ideal pitch deck, you must strike a balance between including just enough material to pique an investor’s interest and keeping it simple and clear.
Here are five tips to help you avoid common mistakes and create a strong pitch deck:
- Keep a simple, minimal, and on-point pitch deck structure.
Including and disclosing a great deal of information in your pitch deck does not inherently indicate hard work or credibility to an investor. It might even wear them down while going through it, so try to impute just the right amount of information and nothing extra.
The goal is to keep an investor interested in your idea and convey how important your company is in terms of the solutions it offers. The basic standard is up to 20 slides, and while you may be tempted to add everything that comes to mind, remember that the shorter the better.
- Point out the problem that your company is trying to solve.
Properly articulate and describe the issue that your company is trying to address and convince investors that it is a significant enough problem that, if solved, would generate considerable profits.
After outlining why, it is important to address the issue, include your proposed solution and how it differs from other existing solutions in terms of features, cost of use, functionality, and other key components.
- Choose a sleek and clean pitch deck template.
When building your pitch deck, make sure to pick a clean layout and design. Along with definition of your company in words, it is also important to build a visual language that conveys the message. Making use of a simple appealing layout, images and color that suits your company brand can strengthen your message and increase the perception of quality.
Avoid using poor quality graphics and send the deck in PDF format to avoid problems with layout and alignment that sometimes happen. Always remember to use the images and visual representations in moderation.
- Have a well thought-out financial plan.
Your presentation should include a clear financial model as well as reasonable financial projections. Your business model should back up your pitch deck and explain the revenue and expense dynamics over a three-to-five-year projection period.
Make sure you can back up your numbers with credible assumptions while working on your financial projection.
- Clearly outline what you are looking for.
Although your pitch deck is a preliminary step in the fundraising process, you should clearly outline your intentions since, at the end of the day, you want to raise funds.
Inform investors about how much money you will need, what they can expect in return, and how you intend to use the funds, including a timeline.
These are five important tips to remember when creating a pitch deck. A startup pitch deck is often the startup’s initial introduction and first impression, and you definitely want to make a good one. Before creating your own pitch deck, do some research and look at several deck examples.
