How to craft a Winning Pitch Deck
Syed Haris Hussain
Manager Marketing Pitch Deck Guru
What’s new in this blog?
We always invite our readers to think and view from a different angle that leads to innovation rather than following something old and obsolete. The term pitch deck is well established and familiar to the business community that recently launched a startup or planning to do so shortly and the services providers, especially the designers, developers, and content creators-editors. However, making new ways from the available knowledge demands new research, study, experiments, and compilation of the new outcomes. Let us give you an insider to the features, standards, and the need for a pitch deck in an entirely new way.
What is a pitch deck? A quick recall
A pitch deck presentation or investors pitch deck is a brief overview of a startup, or an existing business presented to a group of potential investors to achieve a target investment.
Why are Pitch Decks Needed?
For the last many years’ pitch decks are considered a result-oriented method of seeking startup investment and for running businesses as well. It is a meetup for the desired business partners. Sharing well-defined startup business ideas directly to the investors (can be an angel investor or maybe a venture capitalist) has eliminated many hurdles in raising seed funds or other series investments.
Why professionally designed pitch decks are preferred?
Generally, it belongs to a general outsourcing phenomenon. We commonly hire different professional services permanently or temporarily to achieve our business targets. IT professionals, network administrators, legal advisors, and tax consultants are some of the common examples. Simply pitch deck designers are expert enough in preparing different kinds of presentations and their knowledge and skills are well-polished to assist you in preparing a money-making startup pitch deck. That’s why sensible businessmen and well-informed entrepreneurs prefer to hire a professional pitch deck designer agency to launch their startup.
2 Unique Properties of Pitch Deck
Flexible Layout
Portable Soft Document
The portability of electronic documents has made deck pitching easier than ever before. As prepared in slides format (mostly in MS PowerPoint), the pitch deck can be carried in any small storage device and presented at any digital forum easily. Even if an investor during a presentation session requests a soft copy you can email deck slides within no time. Its portability leads it to present conveniently to the individuals (like angel investors) or the formal groups of investors (like venture capitalists).
5 Winning Essentials for a Pitch Deck
1-Length of a deck (number of slides)
Any business bible doesn’t mention the length of a pitch deck presentation or the number of slides. It depends upon the total available time to present excluding the Q&A session. Therefore, it is necessary to decide the time-space first and then prepare the presentation slides accordingly.
2-Audience perspective content
Although you got a better understanding of the issue you are going to highlight but keep in mind your content must reflect the audience’s perspective. Think and view your presentation from the other angle and get prepared to tell the story as an audience representative. This will make your words what the investors want to listen.
3-One slide one idea
The mess of content and illustrations on one slide will waste your time with irrelevant explanations and details. Follow the one slide one idea rule to execute it smoothly.
Important Tip: You can prepare a small presentation by using online templates, especially for PowerPoint google provides thousands of free pitch deck slides available on different platforms
4-Focus the goal over glamour
Pinpoint beautifications and thin-line cosmetics are not the motives for your presentation. Be focused on what you want to achieve and what you have prepared for this purpose. Understanding your business proposal in a simple pitch deck will win the investment competition while a glamorous presentation with deviated content can win a design award, not the investment.
Important Tip: Instead of irrelevant make-up, applying visibly different fonts a pitch deck can create a strong winning impression.
5-Strong communication
Delivering the right content in a perfect and peaceful manner is an art that needs a lot of practice. Make sure that you have memorized your slides on your figure tips. A confidently presented pitch deck produces three times better results as compared to an ordinary non-professional presentation. The efforts made by a designer, the research made by a content creator, and the price paid by the organization can be destroyed by an irresponsible ordinary presenting attitude.
10 Exclusive Features of a Top Rated Pitch Deck
Pitching your business idea to potential investors is an art form. You need to convince them in a short period that your startup is worth their time and money. The more successful founders know how to make this process as smooth as possible through effective preparation. A comprehensive presentation of a company moves you halfway to success. That’s why we have prepared this blog post with the top 10 essentials of a winning pitch deck presentation. This article will help you understand what makes an investor ready to invest in you and your business idea, not just hear about it for the first time but again and again should the initial funding not be enough for further development of the company.
01- Be clear and concise
First and foremost, you need to make your presentation clear and concise. You don’t have much time to pitch your company to potential investors. If you ramble or go off-topic, you risk losing their interest and attention. That’s why it’s critical that you keep your presentation short and to the point. You want to convey the most important aspects of your business in the shortest amount of time possible.
2- Know your audience
The key to getting your audience onboard with your pitch is to understand who they are and what they want to hear. It’s not enough to know your potential investors; you also need to know their motivations. And while these details may seem trivial, they’re extremely important. Your investors are looking for a reason to invest in your company. You need to give them a reason to care by connecting with them on an emotional level. For example, if your potential investors are venture capitalists, then you need to know that they’re interested in scalable, high-growth businesses with a high rate of return. For angel investors, on the other end, the focus is on high-risk, high-reward businesses.
3- Company overview
The first part of your pitch deck presentation will be your company overview. This is where you’ll give your potential investors a snapshot of your business. You’ll explain what your business does, which financial model is currently applied, and how it makes money. You may also want to include a brief history of your company or founding story. Your company overview will be different depending on who you’re pitching to. For example, your company overview should focus on potential growth opportunities if you’re pitching to venture capitalists. On the other hand, if you’re pitching to an angel investor, your company overview should focus on the strength of your team.
4- Problem and solution
You want the investors in your pitch to understand why your business was established. You want them to know what problem your business is solving and why it’s important. You can’t just tell your investors that your company exists because you want to create a product or provide a service that people need. You need to explain to them why your customers/end users need your product or service. For example, let’s say that you’re pitching an idea for a new fitness app. Your investors likely want to know why your app is better than the dozens of other fitness apps out there. During your pitch, you could discuss how your app will encourage customers to be more active by setting fitness goals and tracking their progress.
5- Key features
Next, you want to describe the key features of your product or service. You’re going to talk about how your product works. You should include information about the product’s function, target market, and how it benefits the user. You could also include information about the product’s unique features and competitive advantages. If your product is still in development, then you could discuss what you plan to include in the finished product.
6- Market analysis
Your pitch deck presentation should focus on the market analysis of your product or service. You want to give your investors an overview of the current state of your industry. You should discuss how your industry has changed over time, what it looks like today, and where you think it’s going shortly. You’ll want to include information about other companies that are competing in your industry. You could also include information about your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and strategies. You should also discuss ways that you can differentiate your company from its competitors. Whatever data you choose to include, make sure that it’s up-to-date and accurate. Otherwise, your investors may lose trust in you and your business.
7- Product roadmap
You should discuss your product roadmap for a couple of reasons. First, it gives your investors a better idea of your long-term goals for the product. It also helps you to establish credibility by showing that you have a plan for the future. For example, let’s say that you plan to launch a new fitness app in the next few months. When you’re pitching to investors, you could discuss your product roadmap by highlighting the various steps you need to take to launch the app successfully.
8- Talk about ROI
Finally, don’t forget to talk about ROI. Your potential investors are concerned with their ROI on the investment. They want to know how much money they will make from the investment. They want to know if they’ll earn a profit on their investment and when they’ll see that profit. You can help to ease their concerns by discussing how your product or service can generate revenue. You can also discuss how much money you need to start your business and how long it will take to break even. Having read this far, you are well aware of the importance of a winning pitch deck presentation. It is these 10 essentials of a winning pitch deck presentation that make all the difference between an investor saying yes to your business idea or no. Now it’s up to you to make your dream happen.
9- Team and advisors
The next part of your pitch deck presentation should be team member biographies. You want to give your investors a brief bio of each member of your team. You need to highlight each team member’s previous experience and expertise and how they can help your company succeed. You should discuss each team member’s background, education, experience, and résumé. This helps to establish trust with your potential investors because they can see that your team is qualified to handle the job. It also shows that you’re serious about your business and you’re not just in it for the money. You may also want to include a photo of each team member. This helps your investors to visualize the team and connect with them on a personal level.
10- Conclusion
Finally, you’ll want to end your pitch deck presentation with a conclusion. You could discuss plans for your company or product. You could also discuss the next steps for your business. You can wrap up your presentation by summarizing your main points and highlighting your company’s strengths. You could also use the conclusion of your pitch deck presentation to answer any questions that your investors may have. This will help you to avoid any awkward pauses and allow you to end your presentation on a high note.