Startup Pitch Deck Quick Tips

Pitch Deck Quick-tips

• Studies show that 3-minutes is the average time an investor looks at a deck. Make the most of the time you have. It’s okay to leave some of the finer details out as you can elaborate in follow-on discussion
• Cap your deck at no more than 15 slides
• Limit yourself to 3-4 points per slide
• If you confuse, you lose. Keep points as simple and clear as possible

Recommended Deck Layout

• Cover/Intro
• Problem
• Solution
• Market Size
• Business Model
• Traction
• Growth Strategy (3-5 year Outlook)
• Competition
• Team
• Ask

Example of Deck Content

• Cover/Intro
  • Company name
  • Logo
  • One to two sentence blurb on your company

• Problem
  • What is the problem that you are trying to solve for people?
  • What is the pain of the customer?
  • How does the customer handle this today?
  • How did this problem affect you personally and caused you to build a solution? 

• Solution
  • What is your solution?
  • How does the solution directly address consumer problems?
  • How is your solution better than what’s available in the market?

• Product
  • Explain your product, including key features and functionality
  • Explain the technology and any intellectual property owned
  • Explain your product development roadmap
  • Discuss any customer feedback to date

• Market Size
  • What is the Total Addressable Market (TAM) and how do you define it?
  • What is the profile of your target customer?
  • What is the projected market growth rate?

• Business Model
  • How does the company make money?
  • Unit economics including product costs
  • Company burn rate

• Traction
  • How many paying customers do you have? Current Revenue?
  • What is the customer acquisition strategy?
  • Define your acquisition channels
  • What is the expected cost to acquire customers?
  • What is the expected customer lifetime value (LTV)
  • Customer retention, engagement and churn metrics
  • Describe any customer traction to date and how you gained those customers.

• Growth Strategy (3-5 year Outlook)
  • How will company growth look over next 5-years
  • How do you plan to get there

• Competition
  • List competitors in the market
  • What are your key competitive advantages?
    • Make a chart with the competitors in columns and features in rows.

• Team
  • Specialties and key responsibilities of each team member
    • List any previous industry experience
    • Include any previous startup experience
  • Board of Directors/Advisors

• The Ask
  • How much are you looking to raise?
  • What will the funds be used for?
  • Explain the proposed deal structure for the financing