What is Startup Pitch Deck and How to make Startup Pitch Deck?

What is Startup Pitch Deck

Startups do prepare a “Pitch Deck” to present their company to prospective angel or venture capital investors or for a competition. The startup pitch deck typically consists of 10-28 slides in a PowerPoint presentation and is intended to showcase the company’s products, technology, innovation and team to the investors and audience in target.

Raising capital from investors is difficult and time consuming. Therefore, it’s crucial that a startup absolutely nails its investor pitch deck and articulates a compelling, interesting  and unique Pitch deck that differs them from another.

What are the Key Slides one should include in their Pitch Deck?

Following are the basic titles and short description about what the slides of the Startup Pitch deck should consist of:

1. Company Overview
2. Mission/Vision of the Company
3. Problem Targeted
4. Solution Provided
5. Market Opportunity
6. Product/service
7. Customer
8. Technology
9. Competition
10. Revenue Model
11. Financials
12. The Team

1. The “Company Overview” Slide of the Pitch Deck

The page after the cover page should be a “Company Overview” where you summarize in 4-6 bullet points your business, what problem it solves, where you are located, the experience of the management team, and any key products/services already established.

Your company overview page should grab the reader and convince them that your company has the opportunity to grow big.

2. The “Mission/Vision” Slide of the Pitch Deck

In this slide, you want a crisp summary of the mission/vision of the company. Some examples of a mission include:

• “Our mission is to provide a easier platform for people to transact and get benefits of….”
• “Our mission is to be the enterprise solution for cyber security holes in a company’s data storage.”
• “We are the mobile solution for bulky booklets and vouchers.”
• “We are the Uber-like on demand solution for house cleaners.”

The “vision” can be the goal you think you could become, such as “Our vision is to become the leading e-commerce company for individuals recuperating from injuries.”

3. The “Problem Targeted” Slide in the Pitch Deck

You need to define the problem or need your startup is solving, or would be solving sooner or later including:

• How big is the problem?
• Why is it important?
• Who are you solving the problem for?

4. The “Solution Provided” Slide in the Pitch Deck

Since the prior slide articulated the problem, “The Solution” section of your pitch deck should articulate your proposed solution and why it’s better than other solutions already in the market. This deck should be carefully coordinated with the “Product” slide of the pitch deck, as there may be some overlap. Make sure you give the best explanation of the solution you are providing to the existing problem.

5. Pitch Deck “Market Opportunity” Slide

Investors want to invest in big opportunities with large addressable markets. On your “Market Opportunity” slide you want to:

• Define the market you are in.
• Set forth the targeted market size.
• Include graphs showing that your company will be addressing a large part of the addressable market.

6. Pitch Deck “Product/Services” Slide

You must clearly articulate what your company’s product or service consists of and why it is unique, so “The Product/Service” slide of the pitch deck should answer:

• What are the key features of the product?
• Why do users care about the product?
• What are the major product milestones?
• What are the key differentiated features of the product?
• What additional product features are planned?

Images, visuals, and videos can play an important role here—don’t just have lengthy written explanations. Try to keep simple explanations about the uniqueness of the product.

7. The “Customer” Slide of the Pitch Deck

If the company has early customers, a “Customers” slide can be powerful and add credibility. This slide is optional as only those startups already having got their customers can mention the same in this slide. Normally, the logos of customers that are well known are included in this slide page.

8. "The Technology" Pitch Deck Slide

Audience will be particularly interested in your underlying technology (both existing and that in development). This slide of the pitch deck can address:

• The basic technology backbone.
• Key intellectual property rights the company has applied for or have been granted (patents, patents pending, copyrights, trademarks, domain names)
• Why the technology is or will be superior than the others?
• Why it will be difficult for a competitor to replicate the technology same as yours.

9. "Competition" Pitch Deck Slide

The company’s competitors will always be an issue to investors. Your “Competition” slide should anticipate the following questions:

• Who are the company’s competitors?
• What gives your company a competitive advantage?
• What are the key differentiating features from your competitors?

You really have to show an understanding of the competitive landscape and must have a proper study about your USP and that of your competitors to clearly differentiate between the two. If you don’t understand your competitors, then the investor may conclude that you really don’t understand the market.

10. "The Revenue Model" Pitch Deck Slide

The investors will want to understand your business model. So this slide can address key issues like:

• Stages of generation of revenue.
• What is the breakeven point?
• What is the pricing model?
• What is the long-term value of a customer?
• What are the customer acquisition channels and costs?

11. "The Financial" Slide in Pitch Deck

Projected profit and loss account and other capital investments to be made are an important source about the feasibility of the project or the startup. Hence, you should clearly give the projections about the same which must be real and not just few imaginary figures.

12. "The Team" Slide Pitch Deck

Many people believe that a company’s team is the most important determinant of whether or not to the startup shall grow. “The Team” slide will typically include:

• Pictures of the key team members
• Titles of the team members
• Short summary of their domain experience and relevant expertise

Important Do’s and Don’ts for Investor Pitch Decks

Too many startups make a number of avoidable mistakes when creating their Pitch Decks. Here is a list of preliminary do’s and don’ts to keep in mind:

Pitch Deck Do’s

• Do convince the viewer of why the market opportunity is large and particularly why have the opportunity over others..
• Do include visually interesting graphics and images. Images interest and depict more than texts.
• Do plan to have a demo of your product as part of the in-person presentation.
• Do tell a compelling, memorable, and interesting story that shows your passion for the startup.
• Do show that you have more than just an idea, and that you have gotten early traction on developing the product, getting customers, or signing up partners.
• Do use a consistent font size, color, and header title style throughout the slides.
• Do include this wording at the bottom left of the pitch deck cover page: “Confidential and Proprietary. Copyright (c) by [Name of Company]. All Rights Reserved.”

Pitch Deck Don't

• Don’t make the pitch deck more than 15-20 slides long (Audience have limited attention spans).
• Don’t have too many wordy slides.
• Don’t provide excessive financial details, as that can be bit risky if you are not sure about your projections.
• Don’t try to cover everything in the pitch deck. Just highlight key information.
• Don’t use a lot of jargon or acronyms that the people may not immediately understand. Keep it simple.
• Don’t underestimate or belittle the competition. Know about them the most.
• Don’t have your pitch deck look out of date. You don’t want a date on the cover page that is several months old (that is why I avoid putting a date on the cover page at all).
• Make Sure to Review Other Pitch Deck Examples. A great many pitch decks are available online.