How to Create a Pitch Deck

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How to Create a Pitch Deck for Investors: The Basics

What is a Pitch Deck?
A pitch deck is a brief presentation assembled by entrepreneurs to provide potential investors with a quick overview of your business and business strategy when seeking funding.

Common Questions

1. How many slides should the Pitch Deck have?
   The exact count doesn’t matter. You should have as many as you need to get your point across. That being said, try to keep it to a minimum. People don’t have long attention spans, and the quicker you can convey your information, the better.

2. What Format should I use?
   It doesn’t matter how you make it, but always keep your active copy in a PDF format. Almost every device can open a PDF.

3. Should I tailor my pitch depending on my audience?
   Always, different types of investors will have different levels of sophistication. For tips on how to tailor based on who your audience is, check out this article.

4. What slides should my Pitch contain?
   (Two Options from Different Sources – Use only what makes sense to your product and your audience)

   Example One

   • The problem + your relationship to the problem (Problem)

   • How you plan on solving the problem (Solution)

   • How many people you’ve already helped with your solution (Traction)

   • How many people want your solution (Market Size)

   • How much money you can make with your solution (Business Model)

   • Why you have the right team to do this (Team)

   • What it is that you need to do it (Ask)

   Example Two

   • Company Purpose (The Title slide): Your single sentence distillation of your company and vision

   • The Problem: What customer (or customer’s customer) problem are you solving?

   • The Solution (and your Demo): What is your innovative, better solution to this problem?

   • The Market: How big is the market?

   • The Competition: Who are you competing against and how are you better?

   • The Value Proposition: How is your product or service positioned to customers?

   • The Business & Revenue Model: How will you make money?

   • The Team: Why will this team be successful executing on this vision?

   • The Financials: What kind of return on investment are we expecting?

   • Current Status & Use of Funds: How will the investment be used?

5. What are the most important questions to answer/topics to cover in my Pitch?

   • Tell a narrative – Maybe open with a question.

   • Why is this money the right money for your company?

   • Why you and not someone else?

   • How will your product change the world?

   • Be laser-focused – explain exactly what your product is and what makes it unique.

   • How does your product solve a key customer pain point?

   • Explain your target audience/exactly how you intend to target them.

   • Explain your revenue model.

   • Outline exactly what you need from your investors to be successful and make it easy for them to execute – Don’t overcomplicate things.

   • Be enthusiastic – genuine passion is recognizable and contagious.

6. Should I have a specific ask in my Pitch?
   Always. If you ever find yourself pitching without an ask, you shouldn’t be pitching.
   Tips on your Ask Slide

7. How do I define the market size in my deck?
   Demonstrate a solid understanding of the current market you are attacking without fantastical exaggerations. This will likely be relatively small, but you can discuss the bigger vision (and how the market size dramatically grows) with less concrete data, possibly in another slide so as not to confuse reality with vision.

   Market Size Example:

   • Top-Down: An office furniture company is worth $10B and $1B is spent on chairs. Therefore, $1B is attainable within my market.

   • Bottom-Up: My chairs cost $100 each. There are 200 million people that work in offices, and 10% of them work at standing desks. Therefore, my market is $100 x 200 million (1 - 0.1).

8. What if I don’t have any significant financial information yet?
   In order to convince investors you have traction, you can use projections, or if you have to – industry benchmarks.
   Tips on Presenting Financials

9. Should I follow up after my initial Pitch?
   Always. Here are useful tips on how to do so effectively: How to Follow Up After an Investor Meeting.

Sources included on downloadable version