🎤 Pitch, please!
VC investors analyse hundreds of startup decks every year, skimming a single deck in 4 minutes or less. To stuck out founders must do the impossible: be easy to understand, show traction and create trust. There is no perfect blueprint, but the well written narrative must include the themes below (sifted).
Company Purpose
It is often included in the cover to start with the boom (hackernoon). It is the pitch in the pitch, a powerful and self-explanatory statement condensing the purpose of your startup.
Customer Problem & Solution
The problem should be described from your customers' point of view of. And your solution for it should follow. The latter must focus on benefits, not features (Pitch Deck Fire). Tangible is the keyword here.
Your Business and the Context
The alignment of big enough market, right timing, little-to-no competition and a solid unique value proposition (Medium) is very appealing to investors (Bplans). The questions you must answer are "How much?", "Why now?", "How about the others?", "What's special about you?".
Revenue Model + Go-To-Market
It's time to clarify how you are planning to rack up your profits and to reach your customer. Sales & Marketing channels are key for the success of a product... Coz there is no such thing as a product that sells itself.
Founding Team / Executive Team
Execution beats idea. Why is your team the best fit for executing on the vision? Show that you have the relevant experience and skills for this business.
Track Record AND/OR Testimonials
Be data-driven and provide the most important financial metrics and unit economics (Medium <- worth reading). They are pivotal to give an overview about the company history. Also showing notable testimonials and investors is helpful to create some FOMO.
Funding Round
You are reaching out to investors asking for money. How is that money going to be used? What's the financial prospect for an investor joining the round that you are raising at the moment? In short: what's in it for them?
... Be sharp as a DART
Concise - Essays can't be read in 4 minutes. Keep the presentation well below 20 slides.
Swift - Less is more. An overcrowded slide full of text brings nothing but migraine.
On target - The deck requires adaptation depending on your stage and whether you'll use it for a vocal presentation.
Looking for tangible example of a crisp investor deck? Go here.
Craving more examples? Check this!
|
