If you’ve got a meeting with a group of investors to discuss a safe note financing on the horizon, using a pitch deck could be the perfect way to display essential information. They make it easy to communicate with your audience, while also lessening the strain on you personally. This article is packed with everything pitch deck related, including the benefits, points to cover and a wide selection of valuable tips for creating your own.

What Is A Pitch Deck?

A pitch deck is a visual presentation, in the form of a slideshow, that is shown by a business owner to potential investors. This is usually done at a pre-arranged meeting place and time, however can be delivered one on one if necessary. Each pitch deck should be accompanied with a bit of verbal communication throughout the presentation. It’s also highly recommended to open the floor for any questions after the pitch deck has concluded, just in case your presentation didn’t entirely clarify everything. 

The main aim of a pitch deck is to ultimately receive an investment from members of your audience. However this isn’t the only objective. Other goals should include giving investors a clear understanding of your business model, while helping them to understand your USP. You could also look to address the valuation of your company and the required amount of financial capital you require in total. 

Why Should You Use A Pitch Deck?

Every business owner or representative that opts to use a pitch deck has their own reasoning behind this form of communication, however the most common benefits include: 

• Less Memorizing – Standing in front of a group of angel investors or investment specialists requires a professional touch. Walking up to pitch with a handful of paper might put them off. As opposed to memorizing each key point, you can put them all inside a powerpoint to reference with ease. 

• Better Structure – A pitch deck typically allows for a better flow to the presentation as a whole. You can organize everything in advance, laying it out in a way that makes perfect sense.

• Emphasise Key Points – While doing this during a verbal pitch can seem awkward, it’s much easier to highlight key points with the aid of a powerpoint. You can put important statistics into their own section, or utilize bold text to draw the eyes of your audience.

• Easy To Update – Pitch decks can be altered between briefings. If you’re pitching to a group of investors with different needs, or simply spotted an error in your previous run, you can make the necessary adjustments. However, memorizing a speech can sometimes cause confusion.

What To Include In A Pitch Deck

While each pitch deck has a sense of uniqueness, the following information is usually covered in all: 

Problems (And The Solution)

This section should include the problem that your business provides a solution to. You can expand into as many areas as possible, but keep it short and sweet with each bullet point. This could also be split up into 2 sections, one section focusing on the problems, with the next mentioning how your business will address them. 

If your company solves multiple problems, list them all. However, make sure you take into account the structure of each slide. 

Business Model

The basic principle that should be featured in every pitch deck. Your business model should essentially contain how your business will operate, as well as how funds will be generated through the operations. This will be completely different from company to company, so try your best to shorten it down using your own words. 

Product Or Service 

On this slide, you can go into more detail about what your business actually offers. If it’s a product, you can talk about the manufacturing process, sourcing of materials and cost per unit. With a service, you can mention the associated costs (Labour, items or materials required to perform the service etc.) and the price point you hope to achieve per sale.

Target Audience

Describe your target audience within this section. Things such as age, average earnings and location are things you could touch on briefly. You may also include the methods you used to find out this information, or explaining the reasoning behind each. Statistics from questionnaires, research quotes and product analysis will work perfectly. 

Competitors

Who are the largest competitors within the niche you plan on targeting? Finding out a bit about their background, operations and market share will give potential investors a better understanding of the market they may be entering. You could keep this information brief if you are pitching to a group of people that are already knowledgeable within your chosen industry. 

Staff Members

This slide presents a great way of allowing your audience to know a little bit more about the team working within the business. Introduce the key members of staff, mentioning their qualifications, key attributes and anything else they do that adds value to the company. Obviously, you as the founder will also feature in this section. 

Objectives

Plans for the future and current goals should be discussed here. If you’ve recently met a certain objective, you should feature it on this slide. Deadlines for meeting goals could be incorporated too, as long as they are realistic and can be achieved. 

Investment Size

After covering your objectives, you can now introduce the size of investment that you require to meet them. This point can be covered at the beginning, or at the end of a pitch deck, but many experts recommend adding this as a closing point. They feel like the prior information is often enough to capture the imagination and interest of investors, who may be more willing to budge on their planned investment size. 

Author Bio

Alejandro Cremades is a serial entrepreneur and the author of The Art of Startup Fundraising. With a foreword by ‘Shark Tank‘ star Barbara Corcoran, and published by John Wiley & Sons, the book was named one of the best books for entrepreneurs. The book offers a step-by-step guide to today‘s way of raising money for entrepreneurs. 

Most recently, Alejandro built and exited CoFoundersLab which is one of the largest communities of founders online. 

Prior to CoFoundersLab, Alejandro worked as a lawyer at King & Spalding where he was involved in one of the biggest investment arbitration cases in history ($113 billion at stake). 

Alejandro is an active speaker and has given guest lectures at the Wharton School of Business, Columbia Business School, and NYU Stern School of Business. 

Alejandro has been involved with the JOBS Act since inception and was invited to the White House and the US House of Representatives to provide his stands on the new regulatory changes concerning fundraising online.