Perfect Pitch: How to Build a Deck that Wows Investors

Photo by Josh Rocklage on Unsplash

Your pitch deck should reflect your careful thinking about exactly how new funding will advance your company’s growth to the next level. Leave nothing to the imagination.

A good friend who’s very talented in his field is launching an app, which I think is going to be very successful. He is raising money to support his launch and he asked me to have a look at his pitch deck. I told him it was a bit of a mess and that, as a potential investor, I wanted to see something cleaner and crisper.

So I wrote him an email basically outlining how to put together a clean, crisp, pitch. I also recommended that my friend put together a nice, succinct executive email to send investors outlining the key points made in the pitch deck. The point is that there is a discipline to making it easy for any prospective investor to understand your business and determine whether it would be a good fit with the investment criteria of their company.

The outline I sent him, for both the pitch deck and the exec email, looks like this:

1. There is a need with the customer (back it up with data)

2. The marketplace is currently solving it this way (competition, analysis, back it up with data)

3. There is a gap in the market (outline the gap that exists, which your solution will fill; back it up with data)

4. There is an opportunity for a new solution based on my expertise (outline the model, app, especially how it is different; show your screens and make the app/solution real; often I see a table that outlines the differences to other apps, which is good to include)

5. We are raising $1MM to launch (set terms)

6. We will use that money to x, y, and z (outline how the capital will be utilized in buckets, such as development, marketing, G&A)

7. We have the right team to execute the plan and run the business (outline the experience of the team)

8. We have a vision for the future (outline the financial growth targets in terms of revenue and profit, other platform offerings if any, and a vision for an exit for the investor, i.e., “how will I get my money out?”)

9. Call to action. “Can I count on you for your investment? If not, will you help me out by telling me why?”

You can see where a pitch deck would go deeper on these questions and the executive summary will briefly touch on each point. You can also apply this to any product, service, app, etc.

While this outline uses clear, unambiguous language, it also reflects the Findaway Growth Model, which you can learn more about at this link.

I wrote about the growth phases startup companies go through, and what they should do at each phase, here.

Your pitch deck should reflect your careful thinking about exactly where you are in each of these phases and how new funding will advance your company’s growth to the next level. Leave nothing to the imagination. When it comes to pitch decks, imagination has to take a back seat to thoroughness and clarity.

But by all means let your passion come through. Most investors I know love passion as much as they love clarity. And let me know what you’re doing to keep your pitch decks simple and clear to attract more investors.

Sincerely,

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All credit to my ghostwriting partner, Dave Moore, who is instrumental in getting my thoughts out in a coherent manner & into these blogs. Thanks Dave!