When you want to raise money for your business, having an impressive pitch deck is critical in your fundraising toolkit. A good pitch deck piques potential investors’ interest in your idea and engages them in a discussion about your company. This reaction hopefully leads to an investment.
This article will give you the secret to creating your pitch deck.
What is Pitch Deck?
A pitch deck is a killer and compelling brief presentation, often created using PowerPoint, Keynote, or Prezi. It’s used to provide your audience with a quick overview of your business plan. You will usually use your pitch deck during physical or online meetings with potential investors, customers, partners, and co-founders.
Purpose of Pitch-Deck
The purpose of a pitch deck is to generate interest and excitement with investors about your startup company. It can lead to another meeting and the potential for investment discussion. A pitch deck is the only first step in a process which is a critical tool in raising money for a business.
Elements to Include in a Pitch Deck
Though every pitch deck outline is different, there are some essential pieces of information that you should include: Introduction, problem, target market, solution, traction, marketing, and sales strategy, competition, team, financials, investment, and funding.
5 Tips for Making a Pitch Deck
Consider these tips when making your pitch deck:
1. Be straightforward.
As a startup entrepreneur, you might be tempted to overload investors with too much information on their first pitch deck, but keeping it less is often better. Try to make it straightforward, clearly-explained ideas, and well detailed in bullet points. Use infographic content as they are more appealing than lots of text and can lead to questions and even subsequent meetings.
2. Focus on storytelling over stats.
A pitch meeting engages potential investors to see reasons to invest in your startup or business. You need to know a list of facts and metrics will have less impact than a narrative approach to telling stories tied to emotions. Entrepreneurs should provide relatable stories about their companies that investors will find captivating, for instance how customers use their products or services to improve their lives.
3. Make it a standalone deck.
There is a high possibility that a potential investor may want to refer to the pitch deck after the presentation. You need to ensure that the deck contains the most critical information they need in print or PDF format.
4. Keep it updated.
Startup businesses can typically pitch to many potential investors before they secure funding. While doing this, ensure that your pitch decks are up-to-date with the latest information. It should include critical metrics and recent milestones before every pitch to maintain professionalism and avoid presenting out-of-date information.
5. Ask for the money.
At times entrepreneurs sometimes forget to ask for the money in their slide presentation deck. When you ask, it’s essential to outline what you will spend money on intelligently. Your detailed financial projections should also take an influx of cash into an account.
Conclusion
After successfully pitching to your investor, you need to prepare a follow-up with the necessary planning documentation to support your presentation. It should include an executive summary of your startup, technical documentation, detailed financial models and market research.
