What Is a Presentation Pitch Deck? 13 Slides You Must Have In Your Deck

Overview

When embarking on your journey to accomplishing your business dream, in most cases, you will reach a state where you can not sustain your business using your own or FFF's funds.

The next logical step is to raise funds from angel investors or VCs.

During these rounds, you will have to give several presentations called Pitch Deck.

The name is derived from back when the presenter used to stand holding a deck of cards holding his notes.

If you have yet to understand the essential glossary and terms in the business world, do not worry. Just read this article and get everything straight.

What is the purpose of the Pitch Deck?

As stated above, the Deck should convey your idea to the investors in the briefest, most direct, and honest way. This is done to meet all of the investor's concerns. Or, in other words - to get them a decent ROI.

How long should a Pitch Deck be?

Well, it depends.

First of all, you have to cover all of the basics that we'll get to later on.

If you are looking for an early-round investment (Pre-seed or Seed), you usually will not have a lot to go for in terms of credentials and POCs.

Therefore, your Pitch Deck will have to count a lot on estimates and "selling the dreams" instead of actually showing numbers. 

Suppose you are at a later stage of investment. In that case, you will have recommendations, paying customers, a revenue stream and maybe even profit, or even significant board members that will be presented in your Deck.

Most people say the magic number of slides is 10.

I would not go much more than that since you have to understand one thing - the investors see many like you all day long, and 95% of the people they see are turned down.

Therefore, time is of the essence.

What are the components of a Presentation Pitch Deck?

You have to follow a clear storyline that will answer every question the investors might ask before asking.

Keep it short. Every slide should have bullet points and ideas that you will elaborate on verbally.

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1. Cover

• Company's Logo.
• Date - important to seem updated and current.
• The company's slogan, significant backers such as accelerators and hubs, etc.

2. Pitch

• Describe the pain in the target market that your idea is addressing.
• Write down the company's concept and vision.
• What is your actual solution to the problem?

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3. Team

• Name the key players on your team: Founders, VPs, etc.
• State the virtues of each key member in terms of experience and education.
• A past entrepreneurial venture is a great asset!
• Principal board members (advisors or directors).

4. Market Problem/Pain Point

• Display the current problem on the market. Be ready for some hard questions regarding the scope of your market research.
• Elaborate on the current solutions on the market. Note: if there are none, you either didn't look hard enough; there is a chance that the pain point you found is not painful enough, or the market size and opportunity is not lucrative enough. 

Find out more on marketing by reading Seth Godin's - This Is Marketing

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5. Market Opportunity and Size

• Numbers are the name of the game. Use different sources to find your market size's revenue over the past five years, at least.
• Make sure you take into consideration just the revenue of the specific target market. i.e., if your idea is to replace human-operated call centers, you should regard the revenue the call centers churn, not the entire IT support market.
• Find a reliable estimate of the market's revenue in the near future (5-10 years).

6. Target Market Specification

• Elaborate on the target market's components. i.e., the segmentation of your target audience (50% of the call centers are working 24/7, 40% from 8 am to 7 pm, and 10% offer on-demand call-back service, for example).
• CAGR. We said numbers are the name of the game. CAGR is the Compound Anual Growth Rate, which is a number that is calculated using a mathematical formula and gives the investors a sense of the market's growth over a period of time. 

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7. Target Audience

• After elaborating on the Target Market, describe your customer. It is crucial to niche-down as much as possible because you could never hit the pain points of a large market from the get-go (find out more in Seth Godin's - This Is Marketing).
• Describe the specific pain-points you found during your market research.
• Offer up-to-date trends that are common in your market (i.e., IT service automation).

8. Your Company's Solution

• Adress the market's pain point directly.
• Emphasize the Unique Value Proposition (UVP) that you offer over your competitors.
• It is preferable to have a live demo or a short intuitive mockup of the product.
• Use a "User Story" type of presentation to convey the message through your customer's eyes.

9. Business Model

• What is your target market? Is it B2B, B2C, B2B2C?
• How do you plan on generating income? For example, transaction revenue from each action being generated by your automated call system.

10. Go-To-Market Strategy

• What strategies will you use to reach your market regarding funds, workforce, and suppliers?
• How are you going to distribute your UVP to the target audience, hence addressing its pain-points?

11. Competitive Landscape

• Name the key players in the market right now
• It is essential to address both markets: 

1. The "old market" - more traditional players such as large companies with thousands of employees who take a large share of the industry's annual revenue.
2. The small, newer players on the market offering competing technologies and ideas.

• State what is their known revenue stream and the share they take up on the market
• Note if they had had any significant investments recently or if they made any purchases of other companies.

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12. Exit Strategy

• What are you planning for the company? How do you see it growing?
• Are you aiming at merging into a large enterprise, or you see the company going public with an IPO (Initial Public Offering) in the stock exchange?
• If so, how are you planning to achieve the above?

13. Use of Funds

• Describe in detail how you are going to spend the money you are hoping to raise.
• Plan for at least 18 months ahead.
• Ensure that your numbers are correct because investors are very experienced and know how much a programmer will cost you an hour.
• Ensure that you put the gross amount before employer fees such as taxes and benefits (401Ks, etc.).

Conclusion

The Pitch Deck Presentation aims to give potential investors an idea about yourself, your team (which is essentially your ability to assemble a talented group around you), and your way of thinking (your vision).

The primary slide portfolio is as follows:

1. Cover
2. Pitch
3. Team
4. Market Problem / Pain Point
5. Market Opportunity and Size
6. Target Market Specification
7. Target Audience
8. Your Company's Solution
9. Business Model
10. Go-To-Market Strategy
11. Competitive Landscape
12. Exit Strategy
13. Use of Funds

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Make it brief, precise, and engaging. Most of all, Make them remember you.

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*Background Photo by The Creative Exchange on Unsplash