Have a Great Investor Pitch Deck
Startups frequently prepare a “pitch deck” to present their company to prospective angel or venture capital investors. The pitch deck typically consists of 15-20 slides in a PowerPoint presentation and is intended to showcase the company’s products, technology, and team to the investors.
Raising capital from investors is difficult and time consuming. Therefore, it’s crucial that a startup absolutely nails its investor pitch deck and articulates a compelling and interesting story.
Too many startups make a number of avoidable mistakes when creating their investor pitch decks. Here is a list of general do’s and don’ts to keep in mind:
Pitch Deck Do’s
– Do convince the viewer of why the market opportunity is large.
– Do include visually interesting graphics and images.
– Do plan to have a demo of your product as part of the in-person presentation.
– Do tell a compelling, memorable, and interesting story that shows your passion for the business.
– Do show that you have more than just an idea, and that you have gotten early traction on developing the product, getting customers, or signing up partners.
– Do have a soundbite for investors to remember you by.
– Do use a consistent font size, color, and header title style throughout the slides.
Pitch Deck Don’ts
– Don’t have too many wordy slides.
– Don’t provide excessive financial details, as that can be provided in a follow-up message.
– Don’t try to cover everything in the pitch deck slides. Your in-person presentation will give you an opportunity to add and highlight key information.
– Don’t underestimate or belittle the competition (and never say “we don’t have any competition”).
– Don’t have a poor layout, bad graphics, or a low-quality “look and feel.” Think about hiring a graphic designer to give your pitch desk a more professional look.
For additional advice and a sample pitch deck, see you can purchase my pitch deck template.
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Dr. Elijah Clark (November 12, 2022). Investor pitch decks [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://elijahclark.com/lesson-128/