What makes a good investor pitch deck?
I always tell clients that there’s an art to creating a pitch deck that makes for a compelling investment ask, while also generating an emotional response from the right investors for your startup, i.e. “I get it and I am interested to learn more”.
Imagine you were looking through several pitches every day or week – you would no doubt think positively when the next one you opened was concise, easy to digest and clear on the investment opportunity - making it easy for you to decide whether it was a potential match for you.
So how can you save everyone’s time and create a good investor pitch deck?
A COMPELLING STORY
Take time to craft your story. This is super important because a pitch deck is a story that needs to run throughout the pitch. The first slide should give the summary of the story, the opportunity, who you are and why you’re different. The rest of the deck should be a sequential storytelling exercise that builds slide after slide, a red thread from the beginning to the end.
SMART DESIGN
The key here is not to just give your deck to a designer and ask then to “make the slides look better with some design”, rather to use the power of design to simplify the information on each slide and guide the reader through the key points. Design is your superpower here; we call it smart design, where design meets strategic thinking to create a crafted slide that’s looks simple and easy to digest and yet can house quite a bit of detail.
KNOW WHO YOU WANT
The whole deck is geared around appealing to the right investor for your start-up and having a clear ask.It’s surprising how many people are so focused on creating a pitch deck, they don’t stop to think about what type of investor they need or want. It’s not just about the money. Are you clear on what your ask is outside of a pure capital injection?
If you think you have something worth investing in, then have the confidence to be clear on what you’re offering and who you want. Write a pitch deck for them.
Need some help to get started? Click on the link below to download our free pitch deck template, built with insights from VCs.