Successful startup pitch deck

If you have presented your project to a potential investor at least once, you know for sure: you have only one chance to get this angel investor interested. That’s why, startup pitch deck reminds the classic game of Minesweeper: a step to the left, a step to the right… an explosion. Or the board is cleared (success).

Over the past few years, I’ve presented my projects, probably hundreds of times. Sometimes we became winners, sometimes we failed to convey information to future investors. But we always drew a lesson from it and did better next time.

I’m sure, you will come to an ideal pitch deck by your own experience, but I will tell you a few main life hacks from my experience. It would probably be beneficial.

Numbers

The most important thing. In fact, it’s what investors are interested in. Therefore, you must figure out the numbers that you will present. Don’t be afraid to be confident with your financial calculations, consider different options for the economic development of the company. Try not to overthink. If you get carried away and unreasonably start to overestimate the numbers, an experienced investor will see that just by looking at it and probably decide to refuse you until the end. You could see why: would you invest in something that is hidden from you?

Financial and economic modeling

An additional Excel spreadsheet with a clear financial model of the company’s future would be a great bonus: when we get things done and permit relatively short payback periods. Your task is to show him when — not in an ephemeral future, but in a specific time frame.

Road map

As we said above, any investor must be informed of ideas and lines of company development. All that thing is explained in table, while on the slides it is enough to consider three key periods: a year, three and five years with the most global results.

Team

Let’s not forget that you ask for money for a product that doesn’t even exist. So at first, he invests in the idea (albeit carefully written) and in the team. The last one becomes a key point. Introduce your team, your achievements, let your mentors and accelerators be known. More details about your business skills and experience will demonstrate how well you can handle the project you are presenting.

Brevity

The first rule of any pitch. Don’t oversaturate it with details, even if it looks “cool” for you. For the first acquaintance. Otherwise it will work against you, creating ecess noise. No more than 10–15 slides with short texts of 15 words will be enough to clearly formulate the image of the project and not distract from its essence.

Visual content and personalization

The visual should be specially developed to be bright, precise and unambiguous. If you know exactly an investor you are presenting your project to, rework the pitch for him. Assess him, his business approach and personalize the visuals for him (color effects, gamma, icons, etc.). So you can create a product that will be pleasant to him on an unconscious level, so you are meant to earn additional attention to your startup.

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