Perfecting a pitch deck is a never-ending quest. Our team members have crafted 100+ pitch decks that have brought home hard cash for new businesses. We’ve found that while there’s no exact recipe to a perfect pitch deck - there are some key messages that will help you close your next investment round.
Below we’ve outlined the slides to use and the questions to ask yourself while creating the content for your pitch.
Mission Slide
You’ve spent hours crafting the perfect mission statement for your company. Let it speak for itself here. Keep the slide simple with large text that’s easily digestible and memorable for investors to recollect.
Haven’t written your mission statement? Here are some questions to consider:
1. What do we do?
2.How do we do it?
3.Whom do we do it for?
4.What value are we bringing?
The Problem Slide
Here’s your chance to communicate that you know your customer extremely well. Use language that's packed with empathy and a deep understanding of said customers' pain points. Oh, and don’t forget to back it with statistics - investors love statistics.
Try to condense the problem down to three simple sentences with as little industry jargon as possible.
Questions to consider:
1. What is the pain point in the market?
2. How do you solve it?
3 .How can you do it better than anyone else?
Simplify the language:
Instead of:
“Pricing is the linchpin of profitability for hotels, and yet most hotels lack systems that automate and optimize pricing and offers across the customer lifecycle based on actual market demand, relying instead on Excel spreadsheets or managing static rates and offers in disconnected, legacy systems."
Try:
"Pricing structures within the hotel industry are antiquated and costing billions in lost revenue every year. Without the ability to automate prices and offers in real-time - hotels miss crucial pivot points to close deals."
Or, try something a little punchier:
"The hotel industry at large is still using excel as a primary source to track and source how they price rooms. Massive excel sheets. For a $525 Billion dollar industry. Time for a change."
The Solution Slide
Use this slide to describe why your company is uniquely positioned to solve the problems your customers face TODAY.
Talk about specific benefits your company/product has to solve the problems discussed in the previous problem slide.
Questions to consider:
1. What is the least complex way to answer the problems proposed in the ‘problem’ slide?
2. How do you solve it?
Why Now Slide
Time to flex your industry knowledge. Markets evolve quickly - a smart investment six months ago doesn’t necessarily mean it holds its worth today. On the flip side, investors are keen to put money into evolving markets to capitalize on bigger opportunities before the market becomes overly saturated.
This slide is your chance to make investors understand why putting capital into your idea today is a guaranteed win for them.
Questions to consider:
1. What is the market and where does it have the potential to go?
2. Why is now the time to capitalize on this problem?
3. What is the market landscape?
4. Why does this problem need an answer now?
Go-to-Market Strategy Slide
Three words: volume, cost, conversion. Show investors how you’ll do all three.
Questions to consider:
1. What’s your customer acquisition process?
2. What is your projected timeline for critical team hires?
3. What roles will these new hires have and what is your budget to bring in this talent?
4. What are your expected unit economics? How much does your customer acquisition cost and how long does it take you to recover that money based on your business model - this should tie into how much money your company needs to raise.
Unfair Advantage Slide
It's time to sharpen your knives. You’ve set up the groundwork to describe why your company is poised to kill it in the market. This slide should articulate exactly how you’ll solve the problems posed in previous slides - better than anyone else.
Questions to consider:
1. What makes you different?
2. What is your strongest asset?
3. How are you going to survive in the long term?
4. Why are you poised to succeed?
Market Potential Slide
One word, and buckle up because you’ve certainly heard it before, but: TRACTION. Here's where you prove to investors your company is ripe for the pickings and worth every cent they put into your efforts.
Use these three items to prove how you’ll thrive in the market:
- Provide examples of the product
- Show early signs of revenue
- Examples of user/consumer excitement
Demo/Product Slide
Put your well-spent time on marketing/crafting your product on display. Show investors exactly what you do - start a live demo or showcase your clickable prototype here.
Let your product speak for itself:
1. Provide screenshots that encapsulate your product/user experience
2. Highlight core benefits of your product
3. Link out to your demo
Competition Slide
Lay out who your competitors are, why they’re terrible and why you’re better.
Differentiate your company from the pack:
1. Describe your competitors and prove that the market isn’t too crowded for your product.
2. How are you breaking the “Status quo” of the industry?
3. Describe how your product cannot be replicated - provide patents or specific features.
Business Model Slide
Investors want to know the money they put into your company will in turn - make them substantial money. You need them to believe in you + your product. Show investors you have a concrete business model that will create great returns for them.
Questions to consider:
1. How does your company already demonstrate financial growth?
2. What financial wins have you achieved in the past - either via past investors or sizable deals?
Team Slide
Role call, show investors your line-up. Your innovators, experts, and thought leaders. Prove why your team is a step above the rest.
Questions to consider:
1. Provide background on the founders/crucial team members. What unique industry insight/perspectives do they bring to the table?
2. Why are you the team that can scale?
Financials Slide
Time for a call to action! Here’s where you lay out the initial investment you’re looking to secure, and what is predicted to happen from this investment. Create a clear roadmap for investors to see exactly how you’ll spend the capital they invest.
The ask:“ We are looking for X amount of funding to reach X amount of transactions for our company”
Tell investors the amount of money you need and how you plan to use it:
1. Marketing
2. Growth
3. Product development
4. Operations
Vision Slide
What’s next for your company? Where would you like to take it after you get funding? Lean into storytelling and strong data points to paint a clear future for your company. Investors should leave with a clear understanding of where your company plans to go.
Questions to consider:
1. How will your company adapt and help solve your customer's pain points in the future?
2. Use predictions according to what you have already achieved to back up your point
All Engines Go
Now that you’ve got the bones to craft the content for your pitch deck. It’s time to start the design process.
Contact us to check out examples of our award-winning pitch decks for inspiration or get one of our scouts to create a custom deck for you!
