Magic Leap and augmented reality are going to be huge, but with the success of ARKit it may not be too long before more companies start jumping on the bandwagon.
This slide set is meant for people who want their company to take advantage of this opportunity, so if you’re a gamer or have any interest in spatial computing feel free to use these slides!
The “best pitch decks 2021” is a slide deck that includes 11 slides that are needed for any business to have in their pitch deck. The slides cover the basics of what should be included in a pitch, and what not to include.
If you’re trying to raise money for your company, an excellent pitch deck is an important part of your fundraising toolset. A successful pitch deck piques the interest of prospective investors and engages them in a discussion about your company, ideally leading to an investment.
I’ll offer you the formula for what you should put in your own pitch deck in this post.
I’m drawing on my experience listening to hundreds, if not thousands, of elevator speeches and pitch presentations. I’ve seen a lot of various pitch decks and presentation methods, and I’ve discovered that there’s a basic formula that works every time.
Over the years, I’ve also constructed my own and presented to large Silicon Valley venture capital companies, learning a lot about what works and what doesn’t.
What is a pitch deck’s purpose?
A pitch deck, also known as a slide deck or start-up deck, is a concise yet useful description of your company. It should include your company plan’s main themes, the items and services you provide, high-level financial estimates, and capital requirements. Your pitch deck should be able to stand alone as a visual document, but it will largely be utilized to communicate your company’s narrative.
What is the purpose of a pitch deck?
The aim of your pitch deck is not to generate money, which may seem paradoxical. What? I realize it doesn’t make sense, but the true purpose of your pitch deck is to get you to the next meeting.
Remember that an investor’s initial impression of your firm will most likely be based on your pitch deck and pitch presentation. Because investments are seldom made after only one encounter, you want to pique people’s interest in your business. After hearing your presentation, you want investors to beg for more, not simply show you the door.
While a strong pitch deck is essential for collecting funds, the deck’s primary objective is to bring you to the next step—another meeting and a request for additional information.
What should you include in your pitch deck?
While every firm is different, I’ve found that the following structure works for the majority of them and is the most likely to pique prospective investors’ attention. Download our free pitch deck template to get started, and keep reading to see why the next 11 slides are so important when you build your own.
1. Value proposition and vision
This is a one-sentence summary of your company and the value you bring to your clients. Keep it brief and straightforward. Imagine this slide as a quick tweet—describe your company in 140 characters or fewer and in a language that your parents would understand.
It’s usual for IT firms to compare their value offer to that of another well-known firm. Many proposals, for example, begin with something like:
“We’re the Uber for Pets,” says the company.
“We’re the Netflix of video games,” says the company.
This may work, but make sure your comparison makes sense and that you’re not merely utilizing a well-known firm like Uber to demonstrate growth potential. Your business approach must be eerily similar to that of the firm you’re mentioning.
2. The issue
You’re going to have a long uphill climb with your business if you’re not solving some problem in the world.
Use this slide to discuss the issue you’re trying to solve and who the problem belongs to. You may discuss the present market solutions, but don’t spend too much time on the competition environment on this slide—you’ll have another opportunity to do so later.
When explaining the situation, strive to present a narrative that people can relate to. Your investors will comprehend your company and aims better if you can make the situation as vivid as possible.
3. Market potential and target market
This slide may be used to elaborate on who your ideal client is and how many there are. What is the entire market size, and how is your firm positioned in it? Investors will want to know how much individuals or firms are presently spending in the market to obtain a sense of the entire market size if the data is available. This is where you describe the breadth and magnitude of the issue you’re attempting to solve.
If it makes sense for your business, you should segment your market and target different types of marketing and possibly different types of product offerings to each segment.
But be cautious with this slide. It’s alluring to attempt to define your market as broadly as possible. Investors, on the other hand, will be looking for evidence that you have a very definite and approachable market. Your proposal will be more believable if you are more explicit.
4. The answer
Finally, you will have the opportunity to describe your product or service. Describe how consumers interact with your product and how it solves the issues you identified on slide two.
You may be tempted to relocate this slide closer to the start of your pitch deck, but resist the urge. This is a typical example of storytelling, in which you build up the situation and illustrate how horrible it is for a large number of individuals. Now your product or service is stepping in to assist address that issue.
Most entrepreneurs are preoccupied with their product when they should be preoccupied with their clients and the difficulties they confront. With this approach, you can keep your pitch deck focused and tell a better narrative.
When describing your answer, utilize drawings and anecdotes if at all feasible. Almost often, showing rather than explaining is preferable.
5. Business model or revenue model
Now that you’ve detailed your product or service, it’s time to discuss how it generates revenue. Who pays the bills and how much do you charge? Advertisers, not consumers, pay the bills in certain organizations (content sites, for example), therefore it’s critical to get the specifics right.
You may also illustrate how your price fits into the bigger market by referring to the competition environment. Are you a high-end, high-priced product, or a low-cost alternative to the market’s current solutions?
6. Validation and traction/roadmap
If you have any sales or early adopters who are utilizing your product, mention it here. Investors like to see evidence of some component of your company model since it minimizes risk, so any proof you have that your solution solves the issue you’ve identified is incredibly valuable.
You may also use this slide to discuss your achievements. What main objectives have you met so far, and what important future measures do you intend to take? A product or business roadmap with major milestones is useful in this situation.
7. Strategy for marketing and sales
What is your strategy for attracting clients’ attention and what will your sales process entail? This slide should be used to define your marketing and sales strategy. You should describe the primary strategies you plan to utilize to bring your product in front of potential clients.
Finding and retaining consumers may be one of a startup’s most difficult tasks, so it’s critical to demonstrate that you understand how you’ll reach your target market and which sales channels you’ll use.
It’s critical to emphasize how your marketing and sales technique differs from that of your rivals.
8. Team
Why are you and your team the best candidates for building and growing this business? What expertise do you possess that others lack? Highlight the main members of the team, their previous triumphs, and the significant knowledge they bring to the table.
Even if you don’t have a full staff yet, figure out what crucial jobs you still need to fill and why they’re important for business development.
9. Financials
Investors will demand to examine your financials for at least three years, including a sales projection, income statement (also known as profit and loss statement), and cash flow prediction.
However, in-depth spreadsheets that are difficult to understand and consume in a presentation manner should not be included in your pitch deck. Limit your charts to sales, total customers, total costs, and total profits.
You should be prepared to talk about the underlying assumptions you used to arrive at your sales targets, as well as your main spending drivers.
Remember to keep your expectations in check. Investors are used to seeing “hockey stick” estimates and will subconsciously chop your projections in half. It’s tremendously helpful if you can justify your growth based on existing traction or in comparison to a comparable firm in a related sector.
tenth, competition
In one way or another, every firm faces competition. Even if you’re entering a whole new industry, your prospective clients are already looking for alternate solutions to their issues.
Describe how you fit into the competitive landscape and how you vary from the current market’s rivals and alternatives. What important advantages do you have over your competitors, or do you have some kind of “secret sauce” that others don’t?
The idea is to explain how you vary from the other market participants and why clients should select you.
11. The usage and investment of finances
Finally, it’s time to make a formal request for funds. Isn’t that why you’re putting up this pitch deck? I know, I claimed that the goal of this pitch deck isn’t to be sponsored. That remains true, but your prospective investors must be aware of the amount of money you need.
More essential, you must be able to explain why you need the amount of money requested and how you intend to spend it. Investors will want to know how their money is being spent and how it will aid you in achieving the objectives you’ve set for your company.
If you already have some investors on board, now is the time to tell them about the others and why they decided to invest.
Additional slides to add in your pitch deck
While you should keep your pitch deck brief, you may need or want to include a few more slides to better describe your company. You’re unlikely to use them during your presentation, but they might be a valuable resource for investors to evaluate afterward.
Here are a couple more slides that you could see in an investor presentation.
Strategy for Leaving
If you’re looking for investors, you’ll need to demonstrate them how you intend to pay them back. This is done in the form of a “exit strategy” slide, which details who your possible acquirers may be if your firm grows and succeeds. For certain high-growth enterprises, an IPO and going public is a possible option, while other businesses are more likely to be purchased by bigger competitors in your field.
Partnerships
Some firms rely on important strategic alliances for their success. This might take the shape of intellectual property license from a university or a major distribution partner who will help you get your product to market. It’s critical to highlight these sorts of collaborations if your success is dependent on them.
Screenshots and demonstration
Include a placeholder slide in your deck where you will really demonstrate your prospective investors how your product works and what it does if you have a prototype, screenshots of your web service, or any other “show and tell” chances.
Additional documents
It’s crucial to keep your pitch deck as short and sweet as possible. Keep in mind that your purpose isn’t to provide investors all of the information they need to make an investment choice. Its main goal is to create a tale, elicit interest, and facilitate the all-important request for further information and a follow-up meeting.
You should have more specific, extra information available in addition to your pitch deck, which you may supply if required. Preparing these supplementary materials may also assist ensure that you don’t attempt to cram too much information into your presentation.
Suggestions for a successful pitch
Here are a few pointers to help you make your presentation a success:
Keep your pitch short and sweet.
About entrepreneur spends many hours “in the weeds,” pondering every tiny element of their company. In an investment pitch, however, less information is preferable than too much. Your presentations should be straightforward, explain high-level concepts, and provide opportunity for inquiries. Simple, clear presentations usually outperform elaborate, bullet-heavy ones.
Leave the bullets out.
When it comes to bullets, avoid them. Bullet-pointed slides are tedious and do not aid in the telling of a story. Use big fonts and keep the amount of words on each slide to a minimum. Use visuals to assist communicate your tale and create an emotional connection to your ideas wherever feasible.
Make up a tale.
Don’t merely discuss the facts. Instead, concentrate on piqueing your audience’s curiosity and getting them enthused. Your deck doesn’t have to be a comprehensive overview of your company. It just has to pique your attention in order for you to go to the next level.
One of the most effective methods to do so is to share tales about how your consumers use your product, how they presently face issues that need to be addressed, and how your firm will improve their lives. The more tales you can tell that investors can connect to, the more enthusiasm you’ll be able to generate for your firm.
Keep your presentation to a minimum.
Make sure there’s enough time for questions, demonstrations, and debate about your company proposal. If you have an hour-long meeting, make your presentation 20 to 30 minutes long.
Don’t exaggerate the market’s potential.
Focus on bottom-up projections, where you outline your expectations for how you’ll gain clients, rather than top-down forecasts, where you “just need to obtain one percent of a big market” to be successful.
If you already have data on how well an early version of your product is selling, you may use it to inform the remainder of your prediction.
Request the funds.
Yes, it’s a slide in the deck above, but entrepreneurs have a habit of forgetting to ask for money. It’s critical to be able to properly articulate how the money will be spent when you ask. An infusion of cash should be included into your precise financial plans.
Keep your deck up to date.
It takes time to raise funds. Before you secure an investment, you’ll probably have to pitch your firm many times. Pandora is said to have pitched over 300 venture capital companies before receiving funding.
If you’re pitching to raise money while building your business, make sure your deck is up to date with your newest milestones, roadmaps, and so on. There’s nothing worse than showing a prospective investor an out-of-date deck.
Send your presentation as a PDF.
Almost usually, you’ll be required to either submit your slides to investors ahead of time or leave a copy behind. Don’t email Powerpoint or Keynote files if this occurs. Send a PDF instead. This means that everybody who looks at the deck will see it exactly as you wanted it to be shown, using the fonts and styles you picked.
Make sure your deck can stand on its own without the rest of your presentation.
Your pitch deck will always be better when you deliver it, but it should be able to communicate part of your tale even if you aren’t there. After you’ve finished giving your presentation, investors may want to go through the deck again, and it should have enough substance to stand alone and express some of your key points.
Following your pitch to investors, you’ll need to create the following documents.
Your company planning process does not end with the creation of your pitch deck. Following up on a successful investor pitch, you’ll want to provide the essential planning paperwork to back up your presentation. The papers listed below are just a handful things you should have ready to send after your pitch.
a brief overview
A two-to-three-page executive summary, also known as a summary memo, is a two-to-three-page outline of your company. It’s a document that investors may distribute to their partners and other members of your firm to provide them an overview of your company. Your executive summary should be a written version of your pitch deck.
Documentation for technical purposes
If you’re creating a tech or medical business, you could be requested to offer more information about your technologies. Investors in these sorts of businesses will often want an expert to verify your technical claims, thus giving more thorough documentation, diagrams, processes, and other materials may be necessary.
Financial models in great detail
Any investor who is serious about your company will want to see thorough financial predictions for at least the next three years so that they can understand the assumptions that are driving your estimates.
Investors will be interested in learning about your plans for recruiting and employee-related costs, R&D costs, production costs, marketing expenditures, and so forth. Prepare a thorough sales projection, as well as a profit and loss prediction and a cash flow estimate. A balance sheet is often necessary as well. Use visuals to graphically convey your data wherever feasible. It has been shown to be more effective.
thorough market research
You may be prompted to submit additional information about your target market and your previous market research. This isn’t always the case, but if you have the data, you should be prepared to offer it in some manner. Again, this information should not be included in your original pitch deck, but should be available if requested.
Begin working on your pitch deck.
Are you ready to begin? Start working on your pitch in PowerPoint or Keynote using our free pitch deck presentation templates.
Our Elevator Pitch Guide has a wealth of extra information. You’ll learn how to give an effective elevator speech and have access to all of the tools you’ll need to polish your pitch.
On the eleventh edition of The Bcast, Bplans’ official podcast, Peter and Jonathan provide additional pitching advice:
Subscribe to The Bcast on iTunes by clicking here »
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The “best pitch deck template” is an 11 slides that you should have in your pitch deck for 2021. It includes the following: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12
Frequently Asked Questions
What slides to include in pitch deck?
A: The slides you would use would depend on the industry your pitch is for. This includes how many points of contact there are, what type of software or hardware, and specific features that your product has.
How many slides should a pitch deck have?
A: The ideal number of slides will depend on the length of your presentation and what youre trying to say. Typically, a pitch deck has around 6-8 slides with each slide having 2-3 sentences or more.
How do you structure a pitch deck?
A: A pitch deck is used to help make a business proposal in order for you to get investment money. It usually consists of your companys name, legal description and contact information, services offered or products sold, financials (year-to-date revenue), team members involved with the project as well as their qualifications and background info on how long they have been working together.
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