THE PITCH DECK
YOUR INVESTMENT PITCH DECK CHECKLIST
Whether you’re a start-up business or looking to grow in size, when it comes to speaking with potential angel or venture capital investors, a “pitch deck” can be an invaluable asset. Typically, it is difficult and time-consuming to raise capital from investors. There are often also many other businesses vying for their attention. Therefore it’s important to create a compelling, inspiring and interesting story in your “pitch deck”.
HOW LONG SHOULD MY PITCH DECK BE?
Typically produced in PowerPoint as a presentation, a pitch deck normally includes around 15-20 slides. It should be brief but visionary, providing investors with a clear introduction and overview of your business, showcase your products/services, key USPs, your financials/what your monetisation strategy is, what makes your team so unique, how your business model works, plans for the future, and how you anticipate the investor being involved.
WHAT DO I NEED TO CONSIDER WITH MY PITCH DECK?
Often you will present your pitch deck as part of an initial meeting, whether face-to-face or over Zoom and similar platforms. Sometimes you may be required to send your pitch deck ahead of time, and therefore, it will need to do the talking on your behalf. It needs to grab the attention of your audience and get them to see what problem you are solving and why the world needs you, as well as what the market is like that you’re operating within.
WHAT ARE INVESTORS LOOKING FOR WITH A PITCH DECK?
Investors care most about what money they will get back from investing in your business; therefore, the financials are going to be really important and will need you to put proper due diligence into them. Also important is showing what the Total Available Market (TAM) is, how much of the market you have the opportunity to access, and what this looks like in terms of return on investment. A growing, prospering industry with lots of space to win will be most enticing.
SOLVING THE PROBLEM...
In summarising, your pitch deck should clearly articulate the solution that you are providing, but also how this compares to that of your competitors. What traction or validation do you have over them? How can you make more money? What part of your business model is unique or compelling? Which KPIs do you work towards that will generate most sales?
...WITHOUT CREATING ONE
But don’t get stuck in the problem/solution dichotomy: if you are not solving a real problem, don’t just call it like that! You might very well taking advantage of an opportunity in the market, there’s nothing wrong with that! Just say what it is and don’t force your way into a standardised scenario (or you’ll end up looking ridiculous).
At the same time don’t forget to cover all the bases: as well as showing how you make money, you also need to express what path you’re looking to take forward and what your future projections are. Why do you need investment and how will you use it? What’s in it for the investors?
GET IN TOUCH
Need more help still? At Matters2, we have put together a guidance document to work through when creating your pitch deck – you can download our Pitch Deck Structure here – or you can send us your deck for a free pitch deck review. But be advised: we tend to be brutally direct and upfront (hey, at least you’ll know the truth about your deck!).
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