Creating a pitch deck for your startup is an essential part of fundraising. A well-crafted deck will help you to communicate your company’s value proposition quickly and effectively to potential investors. However, with so much pressure to make a good impression, it can be challenging to know where to start.
Luckily, recent research has shed some light on what makes a successful pitch deck. Studies have shown that investors only spend 3-4 minutes reading pitch decks, so keeping the presentation concise and focused is vital. Therefore, a pitch deck should ideally have no more than 10-15 slides.
Additionally, the content should be straightforward, with critical information highlighted in a way that captures the reader’s attention. This article will examine what makes the perfect pitch deck and provide some critical examples from some well-known and successful companies whose compelling and impressive pitch decks helped get them funded.
By following these simple guidelines, companies and startups can increase their chances of making a successful pitch.
How can I create a great pitch deck?
Before entrepreneurs can get investors to open their wallets, they must create a convincing pitch deck. A pitch deck is a presentation that gives an overview of your business plan, products, services, and vision, and it is primarily used to raise funding. So, what goes into a great pitch deck?
According to thorough research conducted by TechCrunch, the most crucial pages to include are the financials, team, and competition. This is based on how long investors spend studying these pages when they are evaluating a startup.
Also, it is significant to note that when investors who evaluated companies such as Airbnb and Uber on their pitch decks found that 82% of them featured product visualization throughout the presentation. Therefore, telling your story well and showing it through creative visuals is essential.
Here are some tips on how to create a winning pitch deck:
1. Start with a strong executive summary.
Your executive summary should succinctly describe your company, its products and services, and its target market. It should also outline your business model and how you plan to generate revenue.
2. Highlight your key metrics.
Your key metrics are the most important indicators of your company’s success. Be sure to highlight any metrics that demonstrate substantial growth or traction, such as monthly active users (MAUs), total addressable market (TAM), or gross merchandise volume (GMV).
3. Tell a compelling story.
Your pitch should tell a story that captures the essence of your company and its mission. Investors want to invest in companies with a clear vision and a strong team that can execute that vision. Make sure your pitch highlights your team’s strengths and the unique selling points of your product or service.
4. Use images and videos to add visual interest.
Investors are bombarded with pitches, so making yours stand out from the crowd is essential. Images and videos can help break up the text and add visual interest. Just be sure not to overload your deck with too much information, or you’ll lose your audience’s attention.
Key information to include in your pitch deck
A pitch deck is a presentation that startups give to investors to raise money. The purpose of a pitch deck is threefold:
- To introduce the company.
- To present the problem that the company is solving.
- To explain how the company plans to make money.
A good pitch deck will be clear, concise, and persuasive. It should tell a story that captivates the audience and leaves potential investors wanting to know more.
Here are some critical segments (not in the right order) to consider including in your deck:
- Target market and opportunity: You first need to define your target market—who are your potential customers? What needs does your product or service address? Why do they need it? Once you’ve answered these questions, you can begin discussing the opportunity within your target market. How big is the market? What is the growth potential? How much of it can you realistically capture? Answering these questions will give potential investors a clear picture of the opportunity for your business.
- Financials: Investors will want to see proof that your business is viable and has the potential to achieve profitability. To that end, you’ll need to include financial projections in your pitch deck. These should cover both the short-term and long-term financial health of your business, including revenue streams, operating expenses, and capital requirements. You should also include information on previous funding rounds and how those funds were used.
- The problem: What problem does your product or service solve? This is perhaps the most critical question you’ll answer in your pitch deck because it directly speaks to the needs of your target market. Be specific when outlining the problem—what are the consequences of not solving it? How does it currently impact those who experience it?
- The solution: Now that you’ve defined the problem, it’s time to discuss how your product or service solves it. Again, be specific here—what are the features and benefits of your product or service? How does it address the needs of those who experience the problem? How is it different from any other solution currently on the market? If you can effectively answer all of these questions, you’ll be well on putting together a successful pitch deck.
- Vision and value proposition: Your pitch deck should accurately describe your business and what it does. This means having a clear vision statement and a strong value proposition that tells potential investors why they should care about your product or service. Without these two key components, getting anyone on board with your idea will be difficult.
- Investment and use of funds: For potential investors to take you seriously, you need to have a solid plan for how you’ll use any money you raise. This means including an accurate estimate of the funding you’ll need and a detailed breakdown of how the company will spend that money.
- Competition: Any good investor will want to know who else is working in the same space as you and how you plan to differentiate yourself from them. This doesn’t mean that you should badmouth the competition; instead, you should focus on highlighting the unique aspects of your business that set it apart from everyone else.
- Revenue or business model: You will need to include the income or business model in your pitch deck. This will give investors an idea of how your business makes money and how it is structured. When explaining your revenue or business model, it is essential to be as clear and concise as possible.
- Marketing and sales strategy: Your pitch deck should also include a summary of your marketing and sales strategy. This will show investors how you plan to generate leads and convert them into paying customers. Again, try to strike a balance between providing too much detail and not enough information.
- Teamwork: Investors will also want to see who is behind your business. In addition to including information about yourself and your co-founders, highlight key team members such as engineers, designers, marketers, etc. If you have an advisory board, this is also an excellent place to mention it.
- Traction and validation/roadmap: Last but not least, you’ll want to include some data on your business’s traction and validation and your future roadmap. This could consist of information on your user growth, monthly recurring revenue (MRR), customer churn rate, etc. This is also a good place to mention if you have any notable press coverage or awards.
Here are a few tips for designing a compelling pitch deck:
- Use high-quality images and graphics
- Use branding consistently throughout the deck
- Stick to a clean and simple design
- Use easy-to-read fonts
- Make sure the deck flows logically from one slide to the next If you’re unsure where to start designing your pitch deck, plenty of online templates can help you get started. Canva is an excellent resource for finding templates for everything from PowerPoint presentations to social media graphics.
Other slides you might include in your pitch deck
The same study examined above that compared successful companies such as Uber and Airbnb concluded that not only were these companies use visuals, but 31% of them also showcased testimonies, 27% showcased case studies, and 10% showed their pipeline.
This shows that not only is it important to have an engaging visual presentation but also to back up your claims with real-world examples. People are more likely to believe and be impressed by a company that can show them results rather than just tell them about their product.
Examples of successful pitch decks
A successful pitch deck communicates the company’s unique value proposition, outlines the market opportunity, and sets forth a clear plan for how the business will achieve its goals. In recent years, there has been an increasing trend among startups to make their pitch decks available online. This transparency has helped make pitch decks more crucial than ever.
By examining the pitch decks of different startups that have become billion-dollar companies, we can analyze how these companies communicated their value proposition and articulated their vision for the future.
That being said, the Founders of these companies were certainly successful with their fundraising campaigns. Still, these decks shouldn’t be taken as exact templates for your company because each pitch deck should be unique to its product or services. Instead, they can serve as a guide.
FOURSQUARE
Foursquare is a prime example of a company that uses a pitch deck effectively. Founded in 2009, Foursquare began as a social city-guide app that allowed users to check in at locations and earn rewards for doing so. The company has since evolved into a location data company with 15B+ data points regarding where people spend their time and money.
The company reportedly raked in more than $100M in revenue in 2019 and has transformed drastically since then, splitting into 2 apps and merging with Factual, another location data company, in April 2020. Foursquare’s success story is a testament to the power of a well-executed pitch deck.
A well-crafted pitch deck tells your company’s story, highlights your successes, and sets a clear vision for the future. LinkedIn is another example of a company that used a pitch deck effectively. Founded in 2003, LinkedIn was a relatively new player in the social media landscape when it raised $103M in Series B funding in 2004.
The company’s pitch deck billed LinkedIn as “professional people search 2.0” and highlighted revenue generation as a key priority. This focus on monetization helped LinkedIn attract the attention of investors, and the company went public in 2011 with a valuation of $8B.
In 2016, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26.2B, underscoring the power of a strong pitch deck. As LinkedIn’s story demonstrates, a well-crafted pitch deck can be the key to success for any startup looking to raise capital.
INTERCOM
When raising money for Intercom, former CEO Eoghan McCabe knew he needed a strong pitch deck to convince potential investors. The short, 8-slide deck described Intercom’s vision to build a CRM and messaging tool for SaaS providers. This clear and concise presentation helped McCabe raise $600K from investors, despite the team’s lack of experience at the time. In 2018, Intercom raised a $125M Series D round, and in 2020 the company was reportedly looking at an IPO.
COINBASE
Coinbase’s seed round pitch deck from 2012 is an excellent example of a successful pitch deck. The company raised $600K from angel investors and FundersClub, and it has raised an additional $539M. The short, 12-slide deck highlights the rising popularity of the digital currency bitcoin. Coinbase went public via a direct listing in April 2021 at a $65.3B valuation, a more than 8x increase from its last valuation set in 2018.
How M Accelerator can help
At M Accelerator, we understand that a strong pitch deck is essential for any company looking to secure funding. But crafting the perfect pitch can be challenging, especially for early-stage companies. That’s where we come in. We offer mentorship, funding, and development programs designed to help startups build a successful company and a convincing persuasive pitch deck.
Our Founders Cohorts are an excellent opportunity to learn more about our approach and get reviews and feedback on your deck for 1 year. And our online resources provide access to complete pitch decks from successful companies, so you can see firsthand what works. With Maccelerator, you’ll have everything you need to perfect your pitch and take your company to the next level, so contact us today!
