Because first impressions last the longest, it’s important to get off the mark with a bang with your startup pitch deck. This article will help you do just that. Your pitch deck can either make or break your fundraising efforts. Too much information and you’ve lost the crowd’s interest. Too little, you’ve made a classic business pitch deck blunder. Read on to know how the best pitch decks better engage and convince the audience that investing in the business is the right way to go.

What Is A Pitch Deck?

A pitch deck is a visual representation used to provide an outline of a business idea or firm to potential investors. It includes slides that show the business model, product or service offering, market analysis, team, financial projections, and other key information. A well-designed pitch deck can stand out and convey its value to its audience. Knowing these Do’s and Don’t will help you do just that.

The Do’s

Keep It Simple

You should include pictures and graphics in your VC pitch deck. They help make things easier and are the best ways to remember complicated data. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Another point to remember is not to try and fill too much of the screen in your pitch deck ppt. White space is a friend in pitch deck slides – just not too much of it!

Focus On What Matters

This point builds on the last. When you keep your investor pitch deck sweet and simple, there isn’t too much room to miss out on the important points that matter. Focus on these pitch deck presentation slides;

• Cover slide: remember; first impressions last the longest!
• Problem slide: define the problem in your pitch deck. The best pitch decks are honest about the challenges that need to be faced.
• Financial slide: money talks. Make sure you’re clear with your numbers. Investors need facts and figures. Make sure you use data across your entire investor pitch deck and have a legitimate source for your info.
• Team slide: the team is even more important than your startup idea. Boast your team’s skill set in your pitch deck ppt and you’ll strike gold.

Show You’re Not All Talk

You’re progress and milestones are important – especially when you’re trying to prove your credibility. A good pitch deck example would always include some sort of achievement in the past. This is not to say that you show off – so much so that it feels like you’re talking down – it just means that your business pitch deck needs to show a few accolades to validate your business to the audience.

Prove You Need The Money

While this might seem like a no-brainer, investors are always doubtful about how the funds would actually be used once received. This is why asking for too much, or too little is a no-go. Your startup pitch deck should show why you need the funds; for hiring? Scalability? To build a prototype? In that case, include the reason in your product pitch deck.

Get Feedback

Get help from advisors regarding the effectiveness of your pitch deck. You want as much outside opinion as possible to understand where you might be wrong. The last thing you need is to go to great lengths only for your pitch deck to go to waste on the big day. Look up winning samples made by entrepreneurs. Understand how they present their slides, how they look, and how the entire deck flow appears to be. Then compare yours and see where you lack.

The Don’ts

Don’t Be Boring

Ideally, you want to keep your VC pitch deck under 20 slides. Shoot for 12 slides or under. This helps you grab attention with more powerful pitch deck slides in a shorter time. Going too long and adding way too much info in your pitch deck presentation that no one really needs is a huge ‘no-no.’ The best way to practice is by creating sample pitch decks that can be refined over time.

Don’t Put Anything That Needs NDAs

If you have proprietary things you worry about, simply don’t have the details added to your product pitch deck! Forcing people to sign can sometimes dramatically drain your chances of fundraising. Instead talk about the things that you can talk about, and ask for an NDA only when you think it’s absolutely needed.

Don’t Try And Be Different

That’s for your business to do. Your deck should instead have a format that is actually expected. It’s far more effective and safer to use a proven pitch deck example as a template or edit a sample pitch deck according to your needs.

Don’t Forget Your Contact Info – Duh!

While obvious, it needs reminding. Double-check if your contact info is added to your deck. Better to be safe than sorry! During Q&A time, if any other correspondence is asked for, oblige.

Don’t Add So Much Detail

Your investors don’t need to know too much about how the inner workings (for now). Instead, focus on the relevant figures that take into account the bigger picture. Investors don’t have a lot of time nowadays and expect you to accommodate their timetable.

Tying It All Up

Sure, things can seem a bit confusing – especially at the start. What’s important is that you have all the data you need, your asking price clear right from the start and a clear plan of action that can be conveyed to your audience. If you need more help, here at Marquee Equity, we can support your efforts to fundraise and boost your business way beyond your wildest dreams. We act as a bridge between potential investors and clients. Our network comprises of HNIs, family offices and institutional investors. Call +1-213-600-7272 now!