Fundraising is a very challenging task. Even for seasoned entrepreneurs and well-established companies, the fundraising process comes with a lot of challenges.

Convincing investors that your company has massive growth potential and, in some cases, set for disruption is not easy. But to get the resources needed to scale your startup, fundraising is the phase your startup has to go through.

This phase is important for every entrepreneur, but to get an investor excited about an idea is very tough and requires a lot of right resources.

What Gets The Investors Excited?

Investors usually get involved with any venture because of either of the following three things:

• Having experienced the same problem
• See an ROI in the future
• Understanding of the business

But as venture capitalists and angel investors get hundreds of requests each week, you need to make the most of any opportunity given to you, and this is where a pitch deck becomes very essential. 

Idea – Check! Team – Check! Resources – Need funds to implement? Now is when enters the Pitch deck!

Funding Ready Pitch Deck

A pitch deck is a collection of slides that acts as the backdrop for your presentation. It acts as a visual guide and reference to the key points you want to make to potential investors, and it can be the difference between a failed pitch and one that lands you funding.

A funding ready pitch deck weaves a compelling narrative about a problem in the world, what the inevitable solution is, how your product is that solution, and why your company will succeed. This story should lead to your product being the logical response to the problem you’ve identified. A pitch deck can help you:

• Prove the value of your business in difficult economic times.
• Simplify complex ideas so your audience can understand them (and get on board).
• Differentiate your business from its competitors
• Tell the story behind your company (and make the story exciting).

Let’s have a look at a few tips and must-have slides that differentiate a great pitch deck from a good pitch deck.

Know your Audience

The audience is the single, most important factor in shaping your pitch deck. Some factors to think of while assessing your audience are:

• Familiarity with the audience with the market. It tells how much of the presentation should be dedicated to educating your audience.
• What is the forum in which the deck is being presented? Whether it is being emailed or presented in a big room or it is a one-on-one meeting, prepare accordingly and start your presentation with a simple statement to set the tone.

10/20/30 Rule

Don’t try to fit too many words, graphics, data, colours, bells, and whistles on one slide. You’ll end up visually overwhelming your audience, and your message is likely to get lost in the shuffle.

When you’re putting together and presenting your pitch deck, follow the 10/20/30 Rule. As per the rule, your deck should not be more than 10 slides long, take no more than 20 minutes to talk through, and should be typed in no less than 30-point font.

Tip: Create clear, concise pitch deck slides that tell a story investors can understand in seconds. Avoid in-depth technical discussions in your pitch deck. Focus on the pain point you’re solving, how you’ll solve it, how you’ll make money, and how you’ll reach customers without maxing out on marketing dollars.

The Summary/Vision

This is a quick one-sentence overview of your business and the value that you provide to your customers. It puts down the essence of your story and should have the points that you would want to communicate if you get told to distil everything into one or two slides.

An easy way of making it is to think of it as a simple explanation for your parents. Tip: Say why you started your company in one pitchy sentence!

Existing Problem

This is classic storytelling, where you highlight what is broken in the market and try to scope out the size of the market opportunity. It is best if you can build a narrative to which the investors can relate and show that you are solving pain points and friction that existing players are not being able to address adequately.

You should also talk about the current solutions in the market to make it clear to your audience that market participants are spending real dollars on less helpful products that do not adequately address their needs.

Tip: Use screenshots in your pitch deck to show the problem you’re solving, or use a simple flowchart to visualize a problem your company will solve!

Your Product/Solution

These slides should describe how your product meets the unmet market demands highlighted previously. It should include how your product is differentiated – whether it is borne out of your technology platform or otherwise.

To make it even more powerful, add screenshots of your product in action or testimonials of some of your existing clients talking about how your product solves their problems. 

Market Mover

Investors look for companies that will not only transform or disrupt their industry but have the potential to fundamentally reshape the way consumers interact with a market. Illustrate who your primary customer is and how large is the potential market. Show this through quantifiable data like how much the customers spend on less helpful products. 

While bringing out the scope and scale of the problem, in terms of units sold or revenue, ensure that it is specific and reachable; because the investor wants to be confident that you can reach the primary market.

Tip: Make sure to devote a slide to traction. It shows that you have a great product/market fit. If you have great traction, raising funding becomes easy. And, if you don’t have revenue traction yet, lean heavily on other metrics like customer base, user engagement, and growth. Use a timeline to tell a story about your company.

Team

A successful startup is 10% idea and 90% execution. Only a good team will make the execution part thrive, making investors happily invest in your team, your passion, and your dedication.

Surely, there will be many other entrepreneurs who have the same business idea as yours, but what separates your startup from its competitors is a good team.

Show the investors why your team will be able to build and grow the company. You should highlight the strengths of your team and make it clear that they are committed to building something big and are going to be great to work with.

Tip: Make sure to include a single slide about your team and highlight what makes them truly exceptional!

Use of Funds

While asking for money, you should be able to explain why you need that money and how you plan on using it. Thus, it becomes necessary to put down projections around your business, both on the revenue and cost side.

In these slides, you can demonstrate an appreciation of the capital you are raising and how it is going to help you achieve the goals you are setting out for your business. Even though investors take projections with a pinch of salt, you can at the least bring out that your business is scalable in which they can invest to have the wheel turn much faster.

Funding Ready Pitch Deck | Visuals And Aesthetics

Let’s work on the aesthetics now!

• Create a minimalist title slide to build anticipation for your presentation. Choose background images carefully–make sure they have a similar colour palette.
• Use a contrasting colour to draw your audiences’ attention to key information.
• Add visual cues such as illustrations and icons to help explain your company to investors, and add instant text. Use them as visual anchors!
• The best pitch decks add icon headers to their important content. 
• Pull out the main metrics from your graphs and charts to make your slide a snap to understand. Use similar charts and graphs for easy comparisons across slides. Huge graphs! The bigger, the better.
• For long pitch decks, switch up the slide layouts.
• Pick a consistent theme for your presentation background images.
• Don’t just list your ideal users, create visual personas.
• Use a timeline to show how your company has grown.

Lastly, do mock runs of your pitch with trusted friends and advisors. Ensure that there are no holes in your story which you might have missed. 

Make sure to mention your past or present investors. Keep your pitch deck as short and succinct as possible. Approach it with a cynical eye and question all your assumptions. As you continue to pitch to multiple audiences, you often will be asked the same questions. Take note of these questions, incorporate and address them in the presentation.

In addition to your pitch deck, you should have more detailed, additional information that you can provide if requested. Preparing these additional documents can also help ensure that you don’t fill your presentation with too much overwhelming information.

Additionally, if you need legal assistance for your startup, contact us.

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