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10 Slides to Include in a Great Pitch Deck

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July 27, 2016

- Blog

The presentation you use in your pitch deck is of utter importance because it will either intrigue your investors and get them interested in your startup, or bore them to death and make them feel like watching your presentation was a complete waste of time. Your presentation has to inform, intrigue, explain, and convince all in just 6-10 very basic slides. Most of your pitch deck will be you speaking to the audience and explaining your startup, corresponding to the slides of your powerpoint. However, that does not mean that the presentation is not just as important. So here are 10 slides that should be included in a great pitch deck to make a good compelling pitch for your startup.



1. Vision
This is a good place to start. Explain your vision and what your startup is about. Basically an introduction to the rest of the pitch deck. Here you can explain the values of your company and what you stand for.

2. Problem
Here you explain what problem that your startup is solving. There could be an issue or situation that needed improving in some way and your startup provides that. So in this slide, you explain the problem that your startup will help solve.

3. Target Market & Opportunity
Since you described the problem, now you describe who your startup is going to benefit/help. Explain your target market and how there is an opportunity there for your startup to succeed.

4. Solution
In this slide, you will elaborate precisely how your startup is going to solve that “problem” that you spoke about earlier. You can describe in detail how your startup provides a good, efficient solution and why it is a good idea to invest in such a startup.

5. Revenue
Investors want to be convinced that your startup can make them money. So here is where you explain how exactly your startup will make revenue. Try to be specific here (possibly using charts and other visuals) to prove to investors that your startup will be successful.

6. Validation / Progress / Goals
 In this slide, you will show validation for the success that you claim in the last slide. So here’s where you can show proof that your startup will make revenue. If you already had some trials that were successful or companies interested in your startup, mention them here.

7. Marketing Strategy
Now you explain the plan you have for your startup. Talk about the marketing strategy that you’re going to use in developing and executing your business.

8. Sales Forecast
This is slightly different than the revenue slide. It does show the money that your startup will make if invested in, but it will show exactly how. Here you explain the finances needed for your startup, profit prediction, and exactly how your startup is going to obtain that profit. Here’s a good spot to compare your startup to other companies/businesses that are similar to yours and have found great success.

9. How Much Money Needed
Now that you explained how you’re going to make money, it’s time to ask how much money you will be needing from the investors. That is, after all, the purpose of the entire pitch deck. Since you explained the revenue and sales forecast, here you will just be asking for whatever amount needed to get that profit. If you already have other people who have invested in your startup, here is a good place to mention them and explain why they chose to invest in what you pitched.

10. Appendix
 So you have covered all other 9 slides and your presentation is done. However, there could still be several minor details that you didn’t want to overload the other slides with. That’s what this final slide is for. It holds all of the “extras” that you didn’t put in the rest of the presentation. You can also add frequently asked questions into this one, because at the end of your pitch investors are going to have questions and this could answer them before they ask, making you look better prepared.

Hopefully, these 10 slide ideas are helpful for when you put together your pitch deck. Good luck! Want an awesome pitch deck to be designed? Reach us at hi (at) crisptalks.com
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Blog

What Makes a Good Pitch Deck?

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July 21, 2016

- Blog

If you are a startup you quickly realize how much you may need some help with funding. Finding investors who will contribute to your business is a great way to boost your business and get more people involved. In order to gain investors, it’s a good idea to have a good pitch deck prepared. A pitch deck is basically a powerpoint presentation that you will prepare and explain to potential investors when you have gotten a meeting with them. The presentation will describe your startup and all of the details to gain investor interest and potentially gaining funding. 

Structure

Simplicity:
The powerpoint itself should be kept very simple. Don’t make your audience have to think too much or figure out what the slides mean. Investors don’t want to have to decode your business. They’re simply there to see if your startup interests them, and decide whether they want in. Keep the slides simple and do most of the explaining yourself when speaking about and describing the presentation.

Length:
Keep the presentation concise and straight to the point. You will most likely not need more than 6-10 slides in total, and no more than 3-5 bullet points in the slides. Not every slide has to have bullet points. Too many slides with bullet points will start to feel repetitive and might lose the audience’s interest. Guy Kawaski, a venture capitalist says he’s tired of hearing hundreds of entrepreneurs whose “pitches are crap.” He has created a rule that he believes will guarantee your pitch stay concise, relevant and interesting. He created the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. Kawaski says, “a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.”

Be Compelling:
This is your opportunity to gain the interest of people who can help fund and expand your business, so you have to awe them. Be compelling and use a lot of images. Visuals help captivate your audience and maintain their interest, not only in your presentation, but your startup as well. Remember, Don’t pack too much information into your slides. Most of the information should be coming from you explaining your startup and your presentation. Keep the presentation simple!  

Tell A Story

Your pitch deck will be a lot like short papers from school. They have to explain your point, use sources, have transitions, have an introduction and a conclusion. This is very similar to what you’ll be doing with your pitch deck.

Flow:
Make sure your presentation flows throughout the entire duration. Find ways to keep the audience intrigued and do not bore them with repetitive looking slides. Include visuals, stay enthusiastic and keep that audience interested with a good flow. Connect your slides in transitional ways to help maintain the flow of your presentation. This will help keep everything in order so that your presentation doesn’t confuse anyone. It will also help the audience in understanding the process of your startup. This helps the audience avoid over thinking or losing interest in your startup.

Sources:
A good paper uses sources to back up your points and help with credibility. A good pitch should do the same thing. Give examples. Answer the question “why?”  Why should the investor fund your startup? Why is your startup a good idea? How can you prove that this is a good idea? This helps with credibility and makes you look professional while offering valid points as to why your startup is a good one to invest in.

Story:
Tell your story. Tell the story of your business. Explain who you are and what your business is. Describe how the business is going to layout and how it’s going to make great changes.  

Practice Makes Perfect

Practice Your Pitch
Practice the whole pitch deck before you go face-to-face with investors. Practice in front of friends to get comfortable with it. Saying things aloud usually help more with noticing mistakes than just rereading something. So present your pitch deck to people you’re more familiar with before you take it to the big guns.

Analyze Feedback:
One of the best things about practicing your pitch deck is that you’ll get tons of feedback. Feedback will help you tweak your pitch and improve it to better intrigue the audience. Don’t just take the feedback, analyze it. Consider the feedback given to you first, and then you can pick and choose what you want to keep, change, or discard.   Pitch, get feedback, rewrite, repeat. Until you’re confident with the results.

Memorize Pitch Deck

Be Prepared:
Practicing your presentation will help with memorizing your pitch deck before you go to the big guns. This is important to make you prepared for anything that may happen during your pitch deck. You may be asked questions that could throw you off, but if you practice and memorize your pitch deck, it will help improve your performance under pressure. You will be better prepared and this will help keep you calm and ready for anything.

Memorizing Slides:
Memorizing the slides is incredibly helpful for when you go up in front of investors. Whenever you are asked a question, you will be able to return quickly and smoothly to the relevant slides. This ease to slides will keep your audience interested because you look like you know what you’re doing and like you are beyond prepared and eager to begin your business.

Confidence

Last but definitely not least, be confident! This is probably the most important tip of all. Confidence attracts people, not only to you, but to whatever you will be presenting. If you practiced and memorized your slide, you will be ready and this will help with your confidence on the day of your meeting. Make sure to smile and be excited for your startup. If your audience sees you eager and excited it will make them excited for it as well. Your positive attitude contributes tremendously to the compelling pitch deck. Show pride in your product, business, company, etc. If your audience sees that you are delighted by your startup, and your confidence is radiating, they will get the impression that this could be a potentially great thing. Hopefully, these 5 tips have been helpful and can assist you in being prepared to go up in front of your potential investors. Want an awesome pitch deck to be designed? Reach us at hi (at) crisptalks.com

Wish to read more about pitch decks? Check this informative article from Slidebean
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