The pitch deck is a fundamental fundraising instrument, regardless of whether you're hoping to raise $100,000 or $100,000,000. Each startup needs an incredible pitch deck that talks about its main goal, business plan, financial projection, team, and company outline. Regardless of whether you're looking for seed financing, developing your startup to fulfill needs, or beginning to grow new products, a startup pitch deck template will help you to reach your funding objectives.
First of all: Your audience definitely realizes why you're there, what their identity is, and what day it is. So there's no reason to include "Investor Presentation" in the title or take up space with the date or the VC company's logo. Simply add the name of your company and a short explanation of what you do. Try not to get excessively charming with the slogan on this slide. For some in the room, this will be their first exposure to your company and product, so a direct and straightforward product description is better than an optimistic promoting message. Try not to stress, you'll get an opportunity to show off your marketing language somewhat later.
After you've briefly presented both yourself and your startup on the title slide, your next task is to clarify what you do, yet why you exist. There are a couple of approaches to accomplish this: - You can focus on the value you're giving to your clients, the gigantic jump in innovation you are bringing to market, or the size and scope of the change you are delivering to the world. This gives the investor understanding of you as a founder just as your own connection with the market you are entering. The key here is to tune this reason to your investor, not your client. Your motivation should be both honorable and profitable. At the end of the day, it should be unbelievably easy to draw an obvious conclusion from why you exist to the size of the chance in front of you.
With a firm establishment in what you do and why you do it, this is your chance to dive deeper into the problem you are solving. In doing so, you need to set up the extent of the issue, yet its size, also. It very well might be true that it's hard for shipping organizations to do coordinations (and you should make this understood), yet it's stunningly better in the event that you can evaluate the expense of this issue: Are they investing a ton of energy or resources attempting to solve it? Is the lack of a solution costing them cash? There are obviously various approaches to respond to these questions. You can utilize existing market data, anecdotal evidence, an example/case study, or a blend of the three. However, you decide to do it, outlining the problem effectively is incredibly important on the grounds that it is the channel through which your audience will pass judgment on the remainder of your pitch.
As you would imagine, it makes a lot of sense to follow up your description of the problem with an overview of your solution for that problem. (We never said this was advanced science. That is except if you're pitching rocket innovation, in which case it might be.) It's not difficult to get carried away in this section of the presentation, so it's critical to identify which of the following next are most important for your audience to understand: - the product, the approach, or the core technology. You need to lead with the most compelling answer to this question so the VC you are pitching obviously understands what you are doing that is truly unique. From that point, you can move through the other two, if need be.
In the event that your company has been around sufficiently long to demonstrate its worth, investors anticipate that this should be reflected in your metrics. The key is to distinguish the metrics that matter for your business—regardless of whether that is growth, revenue, transaction volume, and so on—and afterward, explain to the VC why those metrics are critical and how you’ve been able to make the success you have. Be careful here. In many cases—especially at the earliest stages of your company—the traction data you have is preliminary, at best, and possibly even misleading. Attempting to set up flimsy information is never a smart thought—investors can smell it from a mile away—so if you don’t have enough hard data to share, consider finding other ways to communicate your traction. For example, you might feature some of your more impressive customers with a logo slide or a representative case study.
You don’t typically see this topic included in startup pitch deck templates, but it addresses a critical question that investors will invariably have about your company, i.e. Why hasn’t someone done this before? Answering this question effectively gives VCs the impression that they are investing ahead of the curve. In most cases, the answer to “Why Now?” falls roughly into one of three categories: (1) the problem was too expensive to solve before, (2) the technology didn’t exist to solve the problem, or (3) the problem was not as apparent or pervasive as it is now. Generally, the case you’re making will include some combination of the three, so prioritize them and present them systematically.
This section of the VC pitch is fraught with pitfalls. The conventional wisdom is that you want to show as big an addressable market as possible, and we’ve seen way too many entrepreneurs try to pitch their company into a $1T market. The truth is that, beyond a certain point, the size of the market is far less important than the thinking you apply to get there. Whether you’re sizing your market top-down or bottom-up, show your work so that investors clearly understand the opportunity in front of you. It’s also important to think about the “story” you are telling about your market. Market size is just a number, so you’ll need to add context to help investors understand the dynamics of the market. For example, is this a market that is growing significantly (or expected to do so)? Is it a collection of adjacent markets that you can attack in sequence? Or is it a whole new market that swallows up a collection of existing markets? Whatever the story, you’ll want to use a compelling visual to communicate it clearly.
Founders often like to claim that there is “no competition” for their product, but investors know that this is never truly the case. Your goal is to position yourself as an expert in your space, and this is nearly impossible without a thoughtful discussion of competition. If your competitive set can be compared on a common set of characteristics, then an XY Plot or Quadrant diagram is a great way to visualize the dynamics of your market. That said, sometimes it isn’t that simple—in these cases, dividing your competition into distinct categories and addressing them one-by-one is often the best course.
Like traction data, this is another case where the amount of time you’ve spent in market should dictate how you address this topic. If your revenue model is already clearly defined, explain how you arrived at it. A detailed explanation of your unit economics, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value is also relevant here. However, if you’re in the earlier stages of your company—either before you’ve gone to market or if you’re in a free beta period—this is an exercise in speculation and hypothesis. In this case, educate the investor on how you propose to monetize, why you’ve chosen that course of action, and a projection of how that model translates to revenue over time. It’s important, though, to focus on just one or two ways you intend to make money; while it’s tempting to highlight all the ways you could monetize, investors may perceive this as a lack of focus or conviction.
This is a fairly straightforward slide, but there are a few important things worth noting. First, keep in mind that investors are interested in who is on your team, not merely how big it is. Rather than including all 15 of your employees, choose the three or four members of your leadership team who you believe will most impress the investor, and spend a sentence or two discussing their expertise and explaining their value to your company. And if you have key positions to fill, identify them and talk through the kind of person you are looking for.
Financial projections are often taken with a grain of salt, in part because everyone in the room knows that they’re, at best, educated guesses. The important thing is to present a realistic picture of the key metrics of your business and how they evolve over time. For example, you might want to illustrate how revenue grows over time, how your headcount scales with that growth, and how your operating costs change as you achieve economies of scale. It’s OK if this slide looks a bit busy—investors are used to seeing financial models in this format and can quickly scan for the information they’re looking for—but try not to overwhelm them with unnecessary rows of data. In terms of how far out to project, one rule of thumb is to go as far as you think the next round of financing will take you (or, more specifically, when you expect to raise your next round). Start with a monthly projection for the next six months and then a quarterly or annual projection after that.
The natural instinct of most presenters is to close their pitches with a bulleted list of “key takeaways” or reasons to invest. There’s nothing wrong with a synopsis at the end of your presentation, but the goal of your presentation should be to start a conversation, not end one. To that end, try to leave your audience with a closing statement or question that gets them brainstorming with you. If the 20-40 minutes after your pitch ends up being a discussion about how to grow your business—rather than a grilling about your business model—then you know you’ve been successful.
Building a winning Pitch Deck was never easier
Fast & easy to edit
The pitch deck template is completely editable with PowerPoint (.pptx), Keynote (.key), and Google Slides.
30+ components
Each of the templates' 30+ slides includes design proposals & predesigned components.
Beautiful design
Every slide is designed with the purpose to look stunning and convey all the necessary information.
Proven structure
The template structure is based on an analysis of 70+ startup pitch decks in different industries. Additionally, it is pre-loaded with our company story, so you can see which content you need to include.
Build a Stunning Startup Pitch Deck
Every slide in your startup pitch deck has an important purpose. Photos, graphs, charts, diagrams, and sales funnels will make your presentation memorable and engaging. Some potential slides to include in your presentation are:1. Title Slide
First of all: Your audience definitely realizes why you're there, what their identity is, and what day it is. So there's no reason to include "Investor Presentation" in the title or take up space with the date or the VC company's logo. Simply add the name of your company and a short explanation of what you do. Try not to get excessively charming with the slogan on this slide. For some in the room, this will be their first exposure to your company and product, so a direct and straightforward product description is better than an optimistic promoting message. Try not to stress, you'll get an opportunity to show off your marketing language somewhat later.
2. Company Purpose
After you've briefly presented both yourself and your startup on the title slide, your next task is to clarify what you do, yet why you exist. There are a couple of approaches to accomplish this: - You can focus on the value you're giving to your clients, the gigantic jump in innovation you are bringing to market, or the size and scope of the change you are delivering to the world. This gives the investor understanding of you as a founder just as your own connection with the market you are entering. The key here is to tune this reason to your investor, not your client. Your motivation should be both honorable and profitable. At the end of the day, it should be unbelievably easy to draw an obvious conclusion from why you exist to the size of the chance in front of you.
3. The Problem
With a firm establishment in what you do and why you do it, this is your chance to dive deeper into the problem you are solving. In doing so, you need to set up the extent of the issue, yet its size, also. It very well might be true that it's hard for shipping organizations to do coordinations (and you should make this understood), yet it's stunningly better in the event that you can evaluate the expense of this issue: Are they investing a ton of energy or resources attempting to solve it? Is the lack of a solution costing them cash? There are obviously various approaches to respond to these questions. You can utilize existing market data, anecdotal evidence, an example/case study, or a blend of the three. However, you decide to do it, outlining the problem effectively is incredibly important on the grounds that it is the channel through which your audience will pass judgment on the remainder of your pitch.
4. The Solution
As you would imagine, it makes a lot of sense to follow up your description of the problem with an overview of your solution for that problem. (We never said this was advanced science. That is except if you're pitching rocket innovation, in which case it might be.) It's not difficult to get carried away in this section of the presentation, so it's critical to identify which of the following next are most important for your audience to understand: - the product, the approach, or the core technology. You need to lead with the most compelling answer to this question so the VC you are pitching obviously understands what you are doing that is truly unique. From that point, you can move through the other two, if need be.
5. Traction
In the event that your company has been around sufficiently long to demonstrate its worth, investors anticipate that this should be reflected in your metrics. The key is to distinguish the metrics that matter for your business—regardless of whether that is growth, revenue, transaction volume, and so on—and afterward, explain to the VC why those metrics are critical and how you’ve been able to make the success you have. Be careful here. In many cases—especially at the earliest stages of your company—the traction data you have is preliminary, at best, and possibly even misleading. Attempting to set up flimsy information is never a smart thought—investors can smell it from a mile away—so if you don’t have enough hard data to share, consider finding other ways to communicate your traction. For example, you might feature some of your more impressive customers with a logo slide or a representative case study.
6. Why Now?
You don’t typically see this topic included in startup pitch deck templates, but it addresses a critical question that investors will invariably have about your company, i.e. Why hasn’t someone done this before? Answering this question effectively gives VCs the impression that they are investing ahead of the curve. In most cases, the answer to “Why Now?” falls roughly into one of three categories: (1) the problem was too expensive to solve before, (2) the technology didn’t exist to solve the problem, or (3) the problem was not as apparent or pervasive as it is now. Generally, the case you’re making will include some combination of the three, so prioritize them and present them systematically.
7. Market Size
This section of the VC pitch is fraught with pitfalls. The conventional wisdom is that you want to show as big an addressable market as possible, and we’ve seen way too many entrepreneurs try to pitch their company into a $1T market. The truth is that, beyond a certain point, the size of the market is far less important than the thinking you apply to get there. Whether you’re sizing your market top-down or bottom-up, show your work so that investors clearly understand the opportunity in front of you. It’s also important to think about the “story” you are telling about your market. Market size is just a number, so you’ll need to add context to help investors understand the dynamics of the market. For example, is this a market that is growing significantly (or expected to do so)? Is it a collection of adjacent markets that you can attack in sequence? Or is it a whole new market that swallows up a collection of existing markets? Whatever the story, you’ll want to use a compelling visual to communicate it clearly.
8. The Competition
Founders often like to claim that there is “no competition” for their product, but investors know that this is never truly the case. Your goal is to position yourself as an expert in your space, and this is nearly impossible without a thoughtful discussion of competition. If your competitive set can be compared on a common set of characteristics, then an XY Plot or Quadrant diagram is a great way to visualize the dynamics of your market. That said, sometimes it isn’t that simple—in these cases, dividing your competition into distinct categories and addressing them one-by-one is often the best course.
9. Business Model
Like traction data, this is another case where the amount of time you’ve spent in market should dictate how you address this topic. If your revenue model is already clearly defined, explain how you arrived at it. A detailed explanation of your unit economics, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value is also relevant here. However, if you’re in the earlier stages of your company—either before you’ve gone to market or if you’re in a free beta period—this is an exercise in speculation and hypothesis. In this case, educate the investor on how you propose to monetize, why you’ve chosen that course of action, and a projection of how that model translates to revenue over time. It’s important, though, to focus on just one or two ways you intend to make money; while it’s tempting to highlight all the ways you could monetize, investors may perceive this as a lack of focus or conviction.
10. Team
This is a fairly straightforward slide, but there are a few important things worth noting. First, keep in mind that investors are interested in who is on your team, not merely how big it is. Rather than including all 15 of your employees, choose the three or four members of your leadership team who you believe will most impress the investor, and spend a sentence or two discussing their expertise and explaining their value to your company. And if you have key positions to fill, identify them and talk through the kind of person you are looking for.
11. Financial Projections
Financial projections are often taken with a grain of salt, in part because everyone in the room knows that they’re, at best, educated guesses. The important thing is to present a realistic picture of the key metrics of your business and how they evolve over time. For example, you might want to illustrate how revenue grows over time, how your headcount scales with that growth, and how your operating costs change as you achieve economies of scale. It’s OK if this slide looks a bit busy—investors are used to seeing financial models in this format and can quickly scan for the information they’re looking for—but try not to overwhelm them with unnecessary rows of data. In terms of how far out to project, one rule of thumb is to go as far as you think the next round of financing will take you (or, more specifically, when you expect to raise your next round). Start with a monthly projection for the next six months and then a quarterly or annual projection after that.
12. Closing Thought
The natural instinct of most presenters is to close their pitches with a bulleted list of “key takeaways” or reasons to invest. There’s nothing wrong with a synopsis at the end of your presentation, but the goal of your presentation should be to start a conversation, not end one. To that end, try to leave your audience with a closing statement or question that gets them brainstorming with you. If the 20-40 minutes after your pitch ends up being a discussion about how to grow your business—rather than a grilling about your business model—then you know you’ve been successful.
Tips for building your Startup Pitch Deck
Create different pitch decks
One pitch deck for in-person presentations will rely mainly on visuals, while an email version can help give your presentation more context with text.
Make it visual and on-brand
Investors want to get a feel for the company and the energy behind your team and your offers. Don’t be afraid to show personality with graphics, visuals, and brand colors/fonts to show just how much your startup stands out.
Be brief and concise
A pitch deck should be clear, compelling, and straightforward. About 10 to 20 slides should be enough to hit all the key points.
Leave investors wanting more
Your startup pitch deck should spark interest, leaving investors hungry for more information about your company. Don’t give away too much in your presentation.