Share on
To kickstart a fundraising campaign, a startup needs two things – A professional startup pitch deck and investors to contribute to the campaign.
A professional startup pitch deck, also known as an investor pitch deck, is a startup’s introduction to investors. It is an elaborative multimedia presentation that startups put together when looking to raise funds.
The main intention behind creating the pitch deck is as follows -
It exhibits the overview of the startup, which helps investors to evaluate the startup. Therefore, it is essential to include key details in the pitch deck before sending them to investors.
There are numerous pitch deck templates available on google proclaiming “best pitch deck templates for seed funding” and “best pitch deck template for investors” ironically, they all have one thing in common – these 11 slides -
Every professional pitch deck starts with a small overview capturing the startup’s who, what, where, how, and why.
It is the hook startups use to reel investors’ attention through short and concise communication.
Example of ‘Vision and Mission’ slide – YouTube Pitch Deck
A great pitch deck is about getting potential investors excited about your idea, and YouTube successfully manages to do that with short, crisp copy and visuals.
Investors want to finance the idea because of the following two reasons –
It is an excellent opportunity to emphasize “What gap your product is filling in the market?” in your pitch deck.
Example of ‘Problem’ slide – Uber Pitch Deck
The way Uber conceptualized the pain points of commuters while defining the problem, it helped the investors to understand their business and goals.
It is time to emphasize how your product or service alleviates the problem of the masses. Mind you, it's not the problem; it's the solutions that investors invest in.
Describe how your product or service addresses the problems outlined in slide two with less content and visuals.
Example of ‘Solution’ slide – Airbnb Pitch Deck
Airbnb uses visuals to describe the solution, as showing is always better than telling.
Through the ‘Market Size’ slide, expand on the following –
Example of ‘Market Size & Opportunity’ slide – Airbnb Pitch Deck
"Big market size excites the investors. The probability of raising funds diminishes if the market size is small, irrespective of the business idea.”
Startups add a comparative narrative to establish themselves, among the alternatives available in the market, as the dominant force in the competitive landscape.
It is the opportunity to showcase to investors the impact your product and service can make.
Example of ‘Competitive Advantage’ slide – IUVA Foods
Use a graph or chart to make it convenient for the investors to review and compare.
No matter how bright the idea is, it doesn't go very far if it doesn't make money. So investors want to know how a startup intends to generate revenue.
Through the ‘Revenue Model’ slide expands on the models (subscription-based, one-time payment model, etc.) your startup is employing to generate revenue.
Example of ‘Revenue Model’ slide – Chance App
This is the ‘make or break’ slide in your pitch deck. Since this slide offers validation to your business model, investors use this slide to evaluate the credibility of your business model.
Any proof that showcases that a business idea works in real-time is a plus. In addition, getting traction at the early-stage or BETA phase is a bonus that a startup should highlight in the pitch deck.
Example of ‘Traction’ slide – ZeroPay
The traction slide validates the ‘Financial Projection’ slide and justifies the valuation of the fundraising campaign. Adding figures to showcase that the startup has proven some aspect of the business model and scaling in the right direction is essential.
Why Financial Projections? What’s the need for financial projections? Before signing the cheque, investors expect to see the startup's growth, and that growth should also reflect in financials like a sales forecast, income statement & loss, etc.
Example of ‘Financial Projections’ slide – Geliose Mobility
Considering the current business model, investors want to know how the startup will grow. Creating a three-to-five-year financial forecast with key metrics, such as the number of customers and conversion rate, helps investors evaluate the growth and make a consciously-driven decision.
Use this slide to brag about your startup! Highlight all the milestones, rewards, awards, recognitions, and grants your startup accumulated, any competition the startup has won, and other events and press releases in which the startup has been featured and recognized.
Example of ‘Highlights’ slide – Dectrocel
"How are you going to utilize the capital?" Presenting a clear idea of the distribution of funds in the pitch deck enables investors to measure the feasibility of your business model.
Example of ‘Use of Funds’ slide – IUVA Foods
Breakdown the funding into specific departments – expansion, marketing, R&D, etc. to present a clear picture to investors.
Anyone can have an idea and a plan, but at the initial stage, investors look for the people backing this idea and the team working to make this idea into reality.
Key details to include in the ‘Team’ slide are -
Don't hesitate to showcase any good thing that your core team members have been recognized for.
Example of ‘Team’ slide – ThatMate
Integrating these 11 slides into your pitch deck will improve the odds of your fundraising campaign.
Want to test our theory?
Submit your pitch deck on POD and raise funds within 21 days.
POD is owned by Crowdpouch Ventures Services Private Limited and reserves all rights to the assets, content, services, information, and products and graphics in the website but third party content. Crowdpouch does not solicit, advertise, market any of the users registered with POD, neither does it solicit investors by offering leagues/schemes/competitions etc. related to securities markets. POD hereby clarifies that it does not carry any resemblance to the stock exchange nor does it facilitate trading of securities nor does it act like a broker/agent/media for raising funds. Investment through POD does not carry rights of renunciation. Investors are cautioned that POD operates in an unregulated space hence, investment through POD is subject to investment risk. Investments in startups are highly illiquid.