How To Draw A Deck Plan

If you lot're raising money for your business, having an impressive pitch deck is a cardinal component in your fundraising toolkit. A bully pitch deck gets potential investors excited about your idea and engages them in a conversation about your business, hopefully leading to an investment.

In this article, I'm going to give you lot the formula for what y'all should include in your own pitch deck.

I'one thousand leveraging the knowledge I've gained from listening to hundreds—if non thousands—of elevator speeches and pitch presentations. I've seen all unlike kinds of pitch decks and presentation styles and found that at that place's a simple formula that just works.

I've also congenital my own and presented to major Silicon Valley VC firms over the years and have learned a lot about what works and what doesn't.

What is a pitch deck?

A pitch deck, too known equally a slide deck or commencement-up deck, is a presentation that provides a cursory only informative overview of your business. It should cover the key points of your business programme, the products and services yous provide, high-level financial projections, and funding needs. Your pitch deck should work well on its own as a visual document, but information technology will primarily be used as a tool to tell the story of your business.

What is the purpose of a pitch deck?

This may audio counterintuitive, merely the goal of your pitch deck is non to raise money. What? I know that doesn't sound right, but the real goal of your pitch deck is to get to the side by side meeting.

Retrieve, your pitch deck and pitch presentation are probably some of the first things that an investor will see to larn more near your company. And because investments rarely are fabricated after just one meeting, your goal is to spark involvement in your company. You want investors to ask for more than after they hear your pitch and not merely prove you to the door.

So, while a solid pitch deck is disquisitional to raising money, the central goal of the deck is to get to the next footstep—another meeting and a request for more information.

What to include in your pitch deck

While every business is unlike, I've establish that the following format works for most businesses and is most likely to generate involvement from potential investors.To get started, download our complimentary pitch deck template, and read on for insight into the importance of the following 11 slides every bit y'all develop your own deck.

ane. Vision and value suggestion

This is a quick one-sentence overview of your business and the value that you provide to your customers. Proceed it short and uncomplicated. A great way to recollect about this slide is to imagine it as a short tweet—describe your business in 140 characters or less in a way your parents would understand.

It'southward common for tech companies to make their value suggestion a comparison to some other well-known visitor. For case, y'all see many pitches that commencement with things like:

"We're the Uber for Pets"

"We're the Netflix for Video Games"

This tin work, just be careful to make sure your comparing makes sense and you're not just using a high profile company like Uber to signify growth potential. Your business organisation model has to truly exist similar to the company you lot are referencing.

2. The problem

If yous aren't solving some problem in the globe, y'all are going to have a long uphill climb with your concern.

Use this slide to talk nearly the problem you are solving and who has the problem. You can talk about the electric current solutions in the marketplace, but don't spend too much time on the competitive mural on this slide—you'll take a gamble to do that subsequently on.

Ideally, try and tell a relatable story when you lot are defining the trouble. The more you lot tin can make the problem as real as possible, the more than your investors will empathise your concern and your goals.

3. Target marketplace and opportunity

Utilize this slide to aggrandize on who your ideal customer is and how many of them in that location are. What is the total market size and how exercise y'all position your company in the market place? If you lot tin notice the data, investors will desire to know how much people or businesses currently spend in the marketplace to get a sense of the total market size. This is where y'all tell the story nearly the telescopic and calibration of the problem yous are solving.

If it makes sense for your concern, you lot'll want to divide your market into segments that you volition address with different types of marketing and perhaps different types of product offerings.

Be careful with this slide, though. It's tempting to endeavour and define your market to be as large as possible. Instead, investors volition want to see that you have a very specific and reachable market. The more specific yous are, the more than realistic your pitch will be.

iv. The solution

Finally, you get to swoop into describing your production or service. Describe how customers apply your product and how it addresses the problems that you outlined on slide two.

Yous'll be tempted to motion this slide closer to the get-go of your pitch deck, but endeavor and resist the temptation. This is classic storytelling where you build up the problem and draw how bad it is for lots of people. Now your production or service is coming to the rescue to help solve that trouble.

Most entrepreneurs are very focused on their production when instead they need to exist focused on their customers and the problems those customers face. Try and keep your pitch deck focused with this format and you'll tell a better story.

If possible, use pictures and stories when you describe your solution. Showing is about always better than telling.

five. Revenue model or business organisation model

Now that you lot've described your product or service, you need to talk about how it makes coin. What do you charge and who pays the bills? For some businesses (content sites, for case), advertisers pay the bills instead of users, then information technology's important to flesh out the details here.

You tin can also reference the competitive landscape hither and hash out how your pricing fits into the larger market. Are yous a premium, high-toll offering, or a upkeep offer that undercuts existing solutions on the market?

6. Traction and validation/roadmap

If you already take sales or early adopters using your product, talk about that here. Investors want to see that you have proven some aspect of your business model as that reduces risk, then any proof y'all have that validates that your solution works to solve the problem you have identified is extremely powerful.

You can also use this slide to talk about your milestones. What major goals accept yous achieved so far and what are the major next steps you plan on taking? A product or company roadmap that outlines key milestones is helpful here.

7. Marketing and sales strategy

How are you planning on getting customers' attending and what volition your sales process expect similar? Utilize this slide to outline your marketing and sales programme. You'll want to particular the key tactics that y'all intend to use to get your product in front of prospective customers.

Finding and winning customers tin can sometimes be the biggest challenge for a startup, so information technology's of import to testify that you have a solid grasp of how you will reach your target market and what sales channels yous plan on using.

If your marketing and sales process is dissimilar than your competitors, information technology's important to highlight that hither.

viii. Team

Why are you and your squad the right people to build and abound this company? What feel do you have that others don't? Highlight the fundamental team members, their successes at other companies, and the key expertise that they bring to the table.

Even if you don't take a consummate team yet, identify the key positions that y'all nonetheless demand to fill and why those positions are critical to company growth.

nine. Financials

Investors will wait to run into your financials: sales forecast, income statement (likewise called profit and loss statement), and cash menstruum forecast for at least three years.

Merely, for your pitch deck, y'all shouldn't accept in-depth spreadsheets that will be difficult to read and consume in a presentation format. Limit yourself to charts that show sales, total customers, total expenses, and profits.

You should be prepared to discuss the underlying assumptions that you've made to go far at your sales goals and what your central expense drivers are.

Remember to attempt and be realistic. Investors see "hockey stick" projections all the time and will mentally exist cutting your projections in one-half. If you tin can explain your growth based on traction you already accept or compared to a similar company in a related industry, that is extremely useful.

10. Competition

Every business has competition in ane form or another. Even if you lot are opening upward an entirely new market, your potential customers are using culling solutions to solve their problems today.

Draw how you lot fit into the competitive landscape and how y'all're different than the competitors and alternatives that are on the market place today. What cardinal advantages do you have over the contest or is there some "undercover sauce" that you accept and others don't?

The key here is explaining how y'all are different than the other players in the marketplace and why customers will choose you.

11. Investment and use of funds

Finally, it's time to actually ask for the money. That's why you're doing this pitch deck, right? I know—I said that this pitch deck isn't about actually getting funded. That'southward yet truthful, but your potential investors do demand to know how much money y'all are looking for.

More importantly, you need to be able to explain why you demand the amount of money you are request for and how y'all plan on using the money. Investors will desire to know how their coin is being used and how it is going to help y'all achieve the goals you are setting out for your business.

If you lot already have some investors on board, now is when you should exist talking most those other investors and why they chose to invest.

Other slides you might include in your pitch deck

While you exercise desire to keep your pitch deck short, sometimes you may need or want to include a few extra slides that assist explicate your business. You likely won't utilize them when you present, but it tin can be a neat resource for investors to review afterwards the fact.

Hither are a few boosted slides that are ofttimes found in investor presentations.

Exit strategy

If you are raising coin from investors, y'all'll demand to show them how y'all plan on giving them a render. Yous practise this in the grade of an "exit strategy" slide that outlines who your potential acquirers might be if you manage to grow your company and be successful. Having an IPO and going public is a feasible option for some high-growth startups, while other businesses are more than likely to be bought by larger players in your market.

Partnerships

Some businesses accept key strategic partnerships that are critical to their success. This tin oft be in the form of intellectual belongings licensing from a university or a central distribution partner who will be taking your product to market. If your success relies on these types of partnerships, it's of import to showcase them.

Demo and screenshots

If you have a prototype of your production, screenshots of your online service, or any other "show and tell" opportunities, it's bang-up to include a placeholder slide in your deck where you lot volition actually show your potential investors how your product works and what information technology does.

Other documentation

Keeping your pitch deck every bit short and succinct as possible is critical. Call up, your goal isn't to provide investors with all the information they demand to make an investment decision. Its primary purpose is to tell a story, build excitement, and help get that all-of import asking for additional information and a follow-up meeting.

In addition to your pitch deck, you should take more than detailed, additional information that you tin can provide if requested. Preparing these boosted documents tin as well assist ensure that you don't try and fill your presentation with too much overwhelming information.

Tips to make your pitch successful

Here are a few tips to make your presentation as successful equally possible:

Keep your pitch unproblematic

All entrepreneurs spend endless hours "in the weeds" thinking about every last detail about their business organisation. Simply, for an investor pitch, less information is better than too much. You want your slides to be simple, convey loftier-level ideas, and leave room for questions. Simple and straightforward presentations always do better than detailed presentations total of bullets.

Skip the bullets

Speaking of bullets, skip them. Slides full of bullet points are deadening and don't aid tell a story. Try and use large fonts and limit the number of words on each slide. Use images wherever possible to aid tell your story and build an emotional zipper to your ideas.

Tell a story

Don't simply talk well-nigh the facts. Instead, focus on grabbing involvement and getting your audience excited. Your deck doesn't demand to be the complete guide to your business organization. It just needs to generate interest so y'all tin motility on to the adjacent footstep.

Ane of the best ways to do that is to tell stories near how your customers employ your product, how they currently experience bug that need to be solved, and how your visitor volition make the lives of your customers meliorate. The more you can tell stories that investors can relate to, the more yous'll exist able to build excitement for your company.

Go on your presentation short

Make sure you have plenty of time for questions, demos, and discussion near your business organisation thought. If you accept a i-hour meeting, aim for your presentation to take xx to 30 minutes.

Don't enlarge the market place opportunity

Instead of tiptop-down forecasts where yous "only need to get one percent of a huge market" to be successful, focus on lesser-up forecasts where y'all particular your expectations for how you're going to acquire customers.

If you already accept data on how an early version of your product is selling, use those numbers to help bulldoze the rest of your forecast.

Ask for the money

Yes, it'southward a slide in the presentation deck above, but entrepreneurs sometimes forget to ask for the money. When you ask, it's very of import to be able to intelligently discuss how the money will be used. Your detailed fiscal forecasts should also take an influx of greenbacks into account.

Continue your deck current

Fundraising takes time. You'll likely pitch your company many, many times before yous go an investment. Every bit legend has it, Pandora pitched more than 300 VC firms earlier getting investment.

Assuming y'all're working to build your company while you pitch to heighten coin, make sure that you keep your deck up-to-date with your latest progress, roadmaps, and so on. At that place'southward goose egg worse than presenting an out-of-engagement deck to potential investors.

Send your deck as a PDF

You'll well-nigh e'er exist asked to either transport your slides ahead of time to investors or to leave a re-create backside. If this happens, don't send Powerpoint or Keynote files. Instead, ship a PDF. This means that anyone who looks at the deck will run across information technology every bit you intended with your chosen fonts and styles.

Make sure your deck stands alone without your presentation

Your pitch deck will always be ameliorate when you present information technology, simply it should ideally be able to tell some of your story without you being there to tell information technology. Investors might want to flip through the deck again after y'all're done with your presentation and it needs to accept enough content that the deck tin stand alone and communicate some of your core ideas.

Documents to have prepared afterward you pitch to investors

Developing your pitch deck is just the start of your business organization planning journeying. You'll want to follow-upwardly on a successful investor pitch with the necessary planning documentation to back up your presentation. The following are just a few documents that you lot should have prepared to send later you lot pitch.

Executive summary

An executive summary sometimes called a summary memo, is a 2-to-three-page overview of your business. It's a document that investors tin share with their partners and others in their firm to provide an overview of your concern. Your executive summary should embrace what'southward in your pitch deck but in written form.

Technical documentation

If yous are starting a tech company or medical company, you lot may exist asked to provide some additional detail on your engineering. Investors in these types of companies will frequently want to vet your technical claims with an expert, so providing more than detailed documentation, diagrams, workflows, and so on might exist important.

Detailed fiscal models

Any investor that'south seriously interested in your business will desire to come across detailed financial forecasts for at least the next three years and then they tin get an agreement of the underlying assumptions that are driving your forecasts.

Investors will want to meet your plans for hiring and employee-related expenses, R&D expenses, manufacturing costs, marketing expenses, and then on. Be prepared to provide a detailed sales forecast, turn a profit and loss forecast, and greenbacks menstruum forecast. A residue sheet is likewise often required. Whenever possible, visually represent your information with graphics. It'south proven to be more effective.

Detailed market place inquiry

You lot may be asked to provide more details on your target market and the market enquiry you lot've done to engagement. This isn't ever the case, but if you have the information it'south a practiced idea to be ready to present information technology in some format. Over again, this data shouldn't exist part of your initial pitch deck, but instead should be ready if it'due south asked for.

Start developing your pitch deck

Ready to become started? Download our gratis pitch deck presentation templates and start working on your pitch in either PowerPoint or Keynote.

You can besides notice enough of additional advice in our Lift Pitch Guide. Y'all'll learn how to deliver an impactful lift speech and find all the resources you need to perfect your pitch.

Hear more than pitching tips with Peter and Jonathan on the tenth episode of The Bcast, Bplans official podcast:

Click hither to subscribe to The Bcast on iTunes »

Source: https://articles.bplans.com/what-to-include-in-your-pitch-deck/

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