Making a Pitch Deck

If you are looking to get investors for a startup that you are creating you will need a pitch deck which is a presentation of your startup’s mission and research. It will show your potential investors the hard work that you have put in, the knowledge you have on your industry, and the problem that your company will solve. In this section we will break down how to make a professional pitch deck step by step.

Before even getting started on your pitch deck be sure to Google pitch deck examples and try to find some from the biggest competitors in your industry. This will give you a great idea of what the structure of a pitch deck consists of. Keep in mind you will be presenting this pitch deck to investors, so think of it as a simple slideshow that helps illustrate your key points as you present.

The first section of your pitch deck will be an introduction. If you read any of our sections on marketing, you will remember us talking about great hooks that will capture the attention of your potential customers. The same principle applies to your introduction. You want to come up with an opening that makes your investors want to listen to how you are solving a problem that the world is facing. An example of a great opening line for the Black Sheep Project would be, “31% of the world experience anxiety or depression today, people are no longer as ambitious or happy as they used to be. We are living in a world of people that have become so used to comfort that they have forgotten to live.” This opening line foreshadows our project and presents a large problem (customer base) that exists in the world today. Once you have a great opener you will want to briefly go over your solution and continue grabbing their attention for the rest of your presentation. “We have developed course that can help people find direction and high quality clothing that resonates with our audience to fund our mission.” Would be an example for us.

The first slide that you will make for your pitch deck will be a cover slide. This slide should show the logo for your brand and a visual that grabs the attention of your potential investors. It can show someone dealing with the problem you solve, or someone using your product to solve their problem. The best cover slides will foreshadow a great presentation.

The next slide in your pitch deck will be your problem slide. With this slide you will present the state of the industry you are in and the problem you will solve. For The Black Sheep Project we would go over the high costs of professional courses and in-depth information. We would also go over the problem with scattered unorganized free information on the internet, that keeps people from finding it in the first place. Lastly, we would touch on the problem of anxiety and depression again with the statistics we stated in our opener and tie it back to the fact that people have dreams they fail to chase and tasks that would make them happier. This shows the problem we are solving and provides a transition to our next slide. Make sure that the problem you are presenting is clear and it cannot be questioned. If the entire premise is doubted at all, the rest of your pitch will be questioned as well. Find empathy from your investors and make them feel for the people you are trying to help.

The Next slide is the solution slide. Make sure that you have segwayed into your solution well from the problem slide to grab their attention again. Go over 3 or 4 functions of your product or service that will solve the problems you have laid out before. For the Black Sheep Project, we would go over how our courses catch the short attention span of people today, provide thousands of dollars’ worth of information compared to traditional course sites, and allows people to follow along in a step-by-step fashion. We would also go over our products and see how they capture the attention of our target audience and provide funding for our project. We would tie all the functions back to the problem of anxiety and depression today and how our functions solve these problems. Make sure to focus on benefits more than features themselves here. Your investors will be more intrigued by the problems you solve rather than the functions themselves.

After your solution slide will come your product demo. If you are presenting live, I would recommend using a video presentation to show your product in action so that you can ensure that everything goes smoothly. If you do wish to present in person you risk a malfunction that can ruin your pitch. If you do present your product live, I recommend presenting it yourself rather than handing out your software to be used so that you can control the flow of your presentation. The basic rule of thumb for this section is to inspire an Aha moment in your potential investor in 30 seconds or less. This is where everything comes together to show how your product solves the problem you have presented in real time.

The next slide is the, why we will make you rich section. Here you will relay how everything you have gone over so far will lead to their investment making a great return. Almost no investor is going to invest with you simply because they like you. Here you will need to paint a clear picture of how wealthy they will become by investing in you. You will need to show how your team, led by you, can take advantage of the problem you are solving, create a profitable business around it and scale that business into a large company that will make them a lot of money.

This next slide will go over the market size for your industry. You can do this by taking what is called a top-down approach or a bottom-up approach. A top-down approach is calculated by researching the total number of potential customers and then breaking down the portion of that market that you plan to obtain. For example, if you sell ice cream in a city. You could say this percentage of people eat ice cream, this is how many people are in the area, and this is the percentage of the market we plan to capture based on this strategy. A bottom-up approach can take more research but is typically more accurate. It is determined by calculating the total potential number of sales to obtain a sales figure. A bottom-up study calculates the sales of comparable products and the slice of those sales that you can take for your business. In this section it is good to go over a worst-case scenario for your company, a realistic scenario for sales and a best-case scenario that shows the potential if you become the market leader in your industry. You should also give reasons for why the realistic and best case are possible and focus mostly on those scenarios.

The Business model slide is the next slide in a pitch deck, and it will go over how you charge people to solve the problem you presented. This slide should be very simple and clear for your investor to understand. You just have to relay how you are going to collect money for your business. With The Black Sheep Project we charge individual prices for our clothing based on the line and with those sales we fund educational courses that can be accessed for free by anyone. You should also go back over how big you could grow based on the projections you laid out before.

The next slide will be your competition slide. Here you will show your competitors and talk about how your company sets itself apart from these brands. Some of the best pitch decks use illustrations like a grid approach that shows what each company is strong at and what their weaknesses are while showing how your company excels at all the key areas. Steve Jobs used this same approach with Apple and I think it’s safe to say they did pretty well.

The underlying advantage slide comes next, and it shows your potential investors in more detail how you have the upper hand on your competition. For The Black Sheep Project, I would outline the fact that we truly relate with our audience and have lived the lives they have. Our clothes speak to this audience because we know these people well and how we specialize in marketing so we are willing and able to get this in front of a lot of people. It would paint us as more of a marketing company that markets at much higher volumes than our competitors, giving us a much bigger advantage when it comes to new customers. Most Brands are focused more on the product than an actual vision while we are creating something people will feel and get behind. We would also show how we are able to market cheaper and use connections to get in front of the right people.

The Next slide is the marketing slide. As you can see, we have transitioned into this slide by talking about how our marketing sets us apart. Here you will go over your plans to get your product or service in front of enough people to grow to your projected value and sales numbers. Read through our marketing section and get some ideas you can use in this deck that will help your business grow to monumental stature. Show your potential investor the volume you will market with and how your projections are fair based on the number of people you will reach.

After you have gone over your marketing you will present your team on the team slide. This will go over the members of your team and the importance they have for the growth of your business. Go over each of their roles and some positive personality traits that make them perfect for their job. Also go over why they are better than most people in that same position if you can.

The next slide is your traction and milestones slide. This will cover the accomplishments you have made so far as a business and the timeline you expect for the growth and development of your company. For the Black Sheep Project I would go over the number of resources we have already built up, the designs we have created for our clothing and why it resonates with our audience, the ads that we have created and saved up and the research we have done on the market. This should be the final blow that makes the person you are presenting to become an investor. You need to wow them with the progress you have already made so they have faith in the fact that you will continue to work effectively and grow quickly. Also, if you have revenue already be sure to share this revenue as well and how it will grow in the milestones section. For the milestones you can use a standard road map template for this online with different quarters or dates and what you plan to achieve by these times. Make sure it is realistic based on the progress you have made so far and that they understand these milestones are more than achievable for you.

The final slide will go over the fundraising information. It should go over your current valuation and what round of investments you are on. It shows what you are asking for from your investor and what percentage of the company or benefit you are offering them. Be sure that if you are in the U.S., you are following SEC regulations when sharing financial information about your company. You can learn more about the SECs regulations on their website.

When I was first learning about creating pitch decks a few years ago I learned a lot from the people over at Slidebean. They offer great templates and services to design pitch decks so if you do not want to deal with the design of your pitch deck be sure to check them out online. If you wish to create your deck on your own a simple slide show software like power point will do the trick. However you create your deck, be sure that it grabs attention yet remains professional and upholds the quality of your brand and mission.