Startup Pitch Deck – 7 Rules to Win Over Investors

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creating a pitch deck

‍Creating a high quality startup pitch deck is an important topic within our series of articles on startup funding, business model, and potential investors from angel investors to venture capitalists.

A good pitch deck can make or break your startup – investors look at thousands of pitch deck examples a year. You have a limited amount of time to grab the attention of investors, an original pitch deck design is essential for you stand out from thousands of others’ pitch deck templates.

I recommend that your business pitch deck always covers the most important sections. From your USP, growth metrics including revenue run rate, and MoM growth to the management team, market trends, the growth capital required and how this will be used, market potential, exit mechanism, and more. To tell a story of how your startup will grow include expansion opportunities with existing potential customers, adding to social proof, demonstrating how you plan to achieve rapid growth.

For first-time entrepreneurs, it can be challenging to prepare their slide deck for prospective investors. At 7startup, our team of expert consultants and investors has years of experience in developing a successful pitch deck for startup and scaleup founders.

A Successful Startup Pitch Deck

‍In essence, the key components of a successful investor pitch deck that get funded are — clarity of content, compelling and easy to act on. A pitch deck must have a proper structure and be both complete and concise, enabling startup owners to transform a complex business idea into a straightforward investment opportunity.

Startup Pitch Deck

Keep it Short

‍Potential investors have a vast number of investment opportunities presented to them. To capture their interest and save time, it’s essential that the startup pitch deck is short and concise. Avoid exceeding 20 words per slide. Keep it simple, a headline phrase and one-sentence caption. Slides are a visual guide for your audience, therefore everyone in the room should grasp a slide the moment they glance at it.

BIG Vision

‍Having a compelling vision for where you want to take your business is important, but most first-time entrepreneurs think too small. Venture Capital Investors are continuously looking for innovative and disruptive business ideas. By including a big and compelling vision, you can entice the interest of potential investors.

Tell a Story

Building an effective startup pitch deck is a unique topic of conversation in the startup ecosystem. Like a building with walls, windows, and a foundation, your investor pitch deck must have a proper structure and its own unique characteristics. However, a pitch can fail if it’s not framed as a story. The problem you’ve identified should logically be solved by your product. Investors make a decision with both their head and heart, give them the “aha” moment.

The Problem

‍This is probably one of the most important slides in your pitch deck. Describe the high-level view of the market and the problem that exist and the megatrend you’re tapping into. It needs to be intriguing enough to get the attention of your audience while provoking a need to learn more. The reason why Dave McClure advocates, “pitch the problem, not the solution,” is because too many entrepreneurs try too hard to sell their solutions without educating their potential investors on what the problem is.

The Solution

‍While the problem is an important slide in your startup pitch deck, the solution is equally important. Deep-dive into your problem statement, market size, and competitive landscape slides, but keep it concise. Don’t bore investors during your product demo but do provide product context and a level of detail to onboard investors as willing users.

Unique Go-To-Market

‍The success of a disruptive business idea depends to a great extent upon the target market. Consequently, the Go-To-Market (GTM) slide in your investor pitch deck should be in-depth and ensure that potential investors have a comprehensible understanding of your target market. Additionally, the GTM slide should describe one of two things: either your strategy around who you’re targeting and the momentum you’ve had to date.

What Should a Startup Pitch Deck Include?

Creating an investor pitch deck can be an intimidating task, especially for first-time startup founders. In summary, these are the slides that should be a part of your startup pitch deck:

  1. The company
  2. The problem/hook
  3. Competition
  4. The solution
  5. The demo/use cases
  6. The value proposition
  7. Traction/revenue
  8. The business model
  9. Future growth/plans
  10. The TAM/market size
  11. The team
  12. The amount of funds you are seeking and, most importantly, show what you will do with them
  13. Contact information (reiterate traction)

‍Successful startups are known for their disruptive approach. At 7startup we help ambitious founders take-off. If you are serious about your pitch deck and getting funding, talk to one of our pitch deck experts. We help founders embed sales and investor psychology in their deck.

Although there’s no magic trick to landing an investor, you should try and follow our 7 rules to get funded! Learn more about how partnering with 7startup can fuel your startup growth.

This piece originally appeared on Medium on 02/07/2020.

Amit Khanna // Deep Tech Startups

Amit Khanna, 7startup Founder

Amit has 18 years of experience in the industry and an MBA. He supports entrepreneurs with every aspect of their business including concept and product development, investor presentations, and fundraising. Amit & 7startup assist startups in the pre due-diligence process and help connect them to our vast network of investors. Reach out to us today and see if we’re a fit!

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