How to Write a Fantastic Startup Pitch Deck for Investors
If you have a startup company in your hands, then you will need investments from venture capital investors or angel investors. If someone is to invest in your company, then you are going to need to pitch to them and convince them why they should do so. This is where a pitch deck comes in, and as per the subject matter experts over at runrex.com, this is a brief presentation, presented in as a set of slides and therefore is usually done using PowerPoint, Prezi or Keynote, done by the founders of a startup in order to convince potential investors to invest in their business. Such investors are busy people as you can expect and as such, given how hard it is to get them to meet and to get their attention, when you have a chance to pitch to them your pitch deck, then as per the gurus over at ppchire.com, you should make it count. If you are to get the investment you are looking for, you don’t just need to have a pitch deck, you need to absolutely nail it, making sure that it is convincing, engaging and thorough. To that effect, and with the help of the gurus over at guttulus.com, this article will look to highlight the things to consider if you are to write a fantastic startup pitch deck for investors.
To begin with, as far as writing a fantastic startup pitch deck is concerned, we are going to start by highlighting the key slides that should be in your pitch deck. As per the gurus over at bitgale.com, most startup pitch decks have anything between 10 to 15 slides, although the standard way of writing one involves 12 key slides. The first slide should be an introduction, which should be brief and should be about introducing your company to the investors, telling them which industry you are operating in as well as the customer base you will be looking to serve. Next up, you should introduce your team, describing briefly the role each will be playing as discussed in detail over at runrex.com. The third slide should be you explaining to the investors about the problem your company is looking to solve, showing them how it actually is a problem that needs solving. Next up, you should show the advantages of using your product or service to solve the problem over other solutions in the market. The fifth slide should be about how you intend to solve the problem highlighted earlier with the sixth slide going into detail on how your product or service actually works, showing examples of the same. As per the gurus over at ppchire.com, the next slide should be about the traction as far as your product is concerned with the next slide being you explaining the size of the market as far as your product is concerned. The ninth slide should be about any competition currently in the market followed by a slide detailing your business model and how you plan to make money. The 11th slide should be about telling the investors about the investment you are seeking and finally the last slide should be your contact details so that the investors can know how to reach you.
The above are the key slides that your startup pitch deck should have if you are to be successful with your pitch. As per the gurus over at guttulus.com, while a startup pitch deck can have 12 or even more slides, it is recommended that you cap your pitch deck at 10 slides if you are to write a fantastic one. The more slides you have in your startup pitch deck, the more likely investors are to lose interest in your pitch. As per the subject matter experts over at bitgale.com, if you have to use more than 10 or 12 slides to pitch your business, then chances are that you don’t have a business worth pitching yet. A business worth investing in is able to be explained in about 10 slides. It is also recommended by experts, including those over at runrex.com, that if you are to write a fantastic startup pitch, then you should keep it brief and ensure that it doesn’t last for more than 20 minutes. The more your pitch deck lasts, the more likely that the investors will lose focus so keep it brief.
When writing a fantastic pitch deck, another thing you also have to consider is making sure that you use a consistent font size, color and header style all through your slides as per the gurus over at ppchire.com. This is important as anything else will just confuse the investors. There are also two sets of slides that you should focus greatly on; the slides on finances and the slide on your team. As per discussions on the same over at guttulus.com, you should be able to explain clearly how you are going to make money and how the revenue for your business will look like as well as on the size of investment you are seeking and how you plan to use the money so that they can see if the investment is worth it. Getting your valuation right is key. This is why, the slides talking finances are shown towards the end of the presentation in most cases. You want to close with them. Your team slide is also important as it shows the people you have surrounded yourself with and you should ensure that it sells how highly qualified and successful they are. A fantastic startup pitch deck should also be easy on the eye. Here, among other things, make sure you use high-quality photos and ensuring it is well structured and compliments your speech rather than looking like the slides have just been thrown in together.
The above are some of things to look out for if you are to write a fantastic startup pitch deck, with more on this very wide topic to be found over at the highly rated bitgale.com.