First impressions are often the last impression. Nowhere is that truer than while pitching your business to investors. Presenting a pitch deck is often your first and only chance at convincing potential investors to fund your business.
No wonder the process of building a pitch deck for startups and pitching it to investors can be a stressful experience. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We’re here to help you make your life easier.
Here’s a complete guide to building a pitch deck for startups. Let’s begin with the basics.
What is a Pitch Deck for Investors?
Pitch decks provide a snapshot of your startup’s business model for potential investors. It helps build an understanding of your products for your stakeholders. Which, in turn, helps them decide whether or not to invest in your business. To be effective, your pitch deck needs to include:
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- Problem Statement: The issue your startup addresses.
- Solution: How your product or service effectively solves the problem.
- Market Opportunity: The size and potential of your target market.
- Business Model: How your startup will make money.
- Competitive Analysis: Your positioning relative to competitors.
- Financial Projections: Summarised forecasts and funding requirements.
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Knowing what you need in a pitch deck is just half the battle won. Understanding how to phrase your pitch to make it more attractive makes the real difference. Here are 7 tips you should keep in mind while creating your pitch deck.
1. Develop a Strong Elevator Pitch
Far too many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of providing every piece of information, thinking it would lead to maximum clarity. But that can be a slippery slope because how much information is too much information?
Instead, you should start with an elevator pitch that includes the following: problem, approach, solution and action – within a line or two. From here, you can build your pitch deck to support this narrative as strongly as possible.
2. Leverage Emotional Storytelling
It’s time to move beyond simplistic storytelling, where you solve a customer’s problem and then you and your customers live happily ever after. Brand storytelling has moved beyond the problem/solution approach.
Today, brand loyalty is developed more through emotional storytelling that consistently remains at the top of your potential customers’ minds. That’s why your brand’s presentation for investors should focus on building an authentic image that your audience resonates with.
3. Include a Clear Roadmap
Your vision, mission, and plan for your startup will be the roadmap that your investors will refer to when looking at the future potential of your business. So, you cannot keep these as vague guidelines or moral principles.
It means establishing your business direction, listing out your priorities, and detailing out the plans for achieving your business goals. For example, if you want to increase your brand’s reach, don’t just say you will use social media; list which platforms you will use and how you will use them to increase your reach.
4. Define What ‘Success’ Means
What matters more to your investors? The journey or the destination. Well both. They are not only interested in the business roadmap but also tin he end goals you set for your business. So it might be best not to put templatised numbers that are not backed by data.
Identify the key metrics that will matter to your business. These metrics might shift and change depending on what stage your business is at. You should also have your projected numbers for these metrics backed by reliable data.
5. Size up Your Market and Audience
The goal is not to impress investors with a large market size with huge numbers. It’s more important to provide accurate numbers that can be backed up by proof.
You need to have a clearly defined Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Available Market (SAM) and Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM). You should also include how your product will appeal to these markets.
6. Identify Your Competition Correctly
Investors are keenly interested in knowing which other businesses you will be going up against. Infact, for pre-seed startups, investors can spend almost 55 seconds just taking in the competitor’s slide. So you need to ensure your research makes it worthwhile for them.
Your pitch deck should include the standard 4-quadrant SWOT analysis because it’s a tried and tested framework. However, you can also include a section highlighting how your product or service will help you form a niche in the existing or new markets.
7. Show a Demo If Needed
Showing is always better than just telling. The best way to convince investors is by making them believe your product or service really solves challenges in the market.
This could be a hands-on experience with the product. Alternatively, you can even show focus groups giving honest feedback about your product after testing it.
What to Keep in Mind While Creating a Pitch Deck?
Remember, practice is the key to delivering a presentation for investors. Start early and keep fine-tuning your pitch deck with every rendition to ensure you put your best foot forward. At Stack’D, we will help you reach out to the right VCS, angels & accelerators that can take your business to the next level.
