Founders need to remember that while a pitch deck might be formal, it’s still just a tool for getting funding — and like any other tool, the more you use it, the better you get. But don’t forget: It’s also something your audience will use to make an impression on you and your business every day.
There are certain things I personally feel belong in a pitch deck. Others definitely do not (and should not), no matter how good they may look when displayed on one of those fancy presentation slides with motion graphics and transitions between each slide:
1. Your Resume
Founders often think this is necessary since they usually come from established companies or institutions where their background is known. However, I believe this goes against the entire point of an investor pitch deck. The point is to make your audience want to invest in you, not learn about everything you’ve done before coming up with this company idea.
2. A Detailed Product Roadmap
It may be tempting to put together an exhaustive list describing exactly what features will be delivered over the next 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years out. However, that’s simply too much information for anyone to digest at once (including existing investors). At best, it will only serve as “proof” of how good you are at throwing ideas around without doing anything about them; at worst, it’ll scare off any investor who thinks your business plan is too far out there. Investors want to know what you’re doing next — they don’t necessarily need to know the exact order in which things will be implemented.
3. Your Detailed Financial Plan
This is not unlike the product roadmap scenario above but applies specifically to your financial forecast that would go into great detail about how much money you’ll burn during each month of the first 12 months after launch. Then, give accurate projections for revenue over the subsequent 24 months. While this might seem like a good idea (and it’s definitely something your auditing firm will appreciate), all you should put here is an estimated monthly burn rate. Perhaps add an indication of what percentage of that number will come from institutional funding versus customer purchases or other internal sources. Anything beyond these two items is too prescriptive for early-stage investment.
4. A List of Potential Investors
Founders are often tempted to include a section listing some obvious choices they have in mind for investors. But, unless you’ve already had some direct talks with them, all this does is put off your audience by making it seem like you’re not even trying to secure funding. Even if you know the right person at every VC firm in town, don’t come across as arrogant. Remember, these firms exist to find great companies and make them better. So there’s no shame in admitting that you need help improving yours (in fact, most angel investors love nothing more than helping out with early-stage investments).
5. Any Form of Roadmap or Timeline
This includes any mention of iOS or Android compatibility, version 1.0 of your product (and all the subtasks associated with it), etc. At some point, you probably had a great roadmap which included everything you wanted to do. However, right now, what’s most important is conveying to investors what you’ve already done — not necessarily what you want to do next. By putting this in the context of existing milestones (such as having already built an inter-app social networking platform, and currently focused on adding mobile support) it makes it clear that you’re thinking ahead without overwhelming everyone with information that might be unnecessary at this stage of the fundraising process.
6. Why I Should Invest in Your Company
I know I said there should be no talking from the founder in a presentation deck. Still, for this last item, I’ll make an exception. Suppose you’re trying to raise money directly from individual investors (i.e., not through a VC firm). In that case, they’ll also want to know why they should invest in your company. They don’t care about how much work you’ve put into it or what metrics will prove its effectiveness. All they want to know is whether or not their investment will pay off and how soon until that happens. So, if you’re making a direct appeal for funding via an investor deck, just give them the cold hard facts: over the next X years, they will get an annualized return of Y% on their investment; additionally, they can expect Z% of the company at the time of exit. So, if you can give them a clear picture from day one, there’s a good chance they’ll invest.
7. Your Company’s History
Imagine, if you will, that two founders have decided to make a pitch presentation deck together: one has already been involved in three other ventures which failed, but the second has had four successful exits. So who should be the face of the investment firm? The guy with experience or the one who can actually deliver success? Unless your company was started by someone well-known in the industry (or perhaps just very charismatic), then you’re probably better off showing investors why they should invest in you — not telling them how many people have already given up on your idea.
8. Why Now?
The “why now” section is basically an expansion on #6 above. It explains why this is the right time for your company to be started. However, this depends entirely on the type of business you’re trying to start, so it’s not nearly as universal as the previous item. Again, this is something that should go in a one-page summary — or maybe even an executive summary (see #11 below) — but definitely doesn’t belong in your pitch deck.
9. The NDA
Let me explain why investors hate this with an example: Investor A gives Company X his standard two-week window during which they can look at their investment opportunity without signing anything. However, he wants nothing more to do with them unless they sign an NDA before continuing negotiations once those two weeks are up. Two years later, Investor B decides to give Company X the same two-week time period to see what’s going on — but Investor A doesn’t want them touching anything until they sign an NDA. Do you think this will help or hurt the company when raising money? If you answered “hurt,” then you are correct.
Whether you’re raising outside capital for your business or simply making a pitch deck, remember that investors aren’t just putting their own cash at risk; they’re risking other people’s money as well. No wonder they want to be so careful with every detail!
On your end, ensure you’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s. Creating a pitch deck is daunting, let alone making the best pitch decks. But, it’s not impossible, especially if pitch deck examples are accessible for inspiration. An easier way is creating one from a ready-to-use template, and Venngage is one of the most influential and easy-to-use platforms of our time – and convenient when you need to incorporate more visuals with Venngage infographics ! Signing up is effortless and free.
