With startups and ventures brutal realities, one is too easily reminded of a labyrinth to avoid. A thousand pitch decks presented to investors but never even read by them, typically because they are reworded strategically, sparingly at best, for the only reason that normally follows. And so, then why do some of those pitch decks succeed, i.e., generate interest and result in the much sought-after money?
Here, in this piece, we are cutting through the pursuit of building successful pitch decks. We’re going to learn how to leap from visionary bravery to narrative power, how to position your deck so you capture investor attention, and how to use results-based design thinking. Whatever. You are—founder. Market. Agency pro who’s seeking to raise the pitch deck stakes, and you’ve got sound advice to appropriate so that your ideas don’t fall through the cracks,
The Power of a Strong Vision
The very first part of any pitch deck is the vision. Your vision is the seed that germinates the future of your startup, and it’s essential to communicate it with clarity and passion. Whether you’re crafting it yourself or collaborating with a pitch deck design agency, the foundation remains the same. Questions to ask yourself while creating your pitch deck: What problem does my product or service solve? What is the problem worth, and why is my solution going to revolutionize the industry?
Tip: Be Bold and Authentic
Your idea must ring true at a basic level to your investors. They don’t care about an idea, but they do care about seeing passion and authenticity. They hear a thousand ideas, but they invest in the folks who are passionate about their idea. Clarify the “why” of your firm, and spell it out relentlessly blunt in your pitch deck.
Actionable Strategy:
On your first slide (slides), say the problem your business or company is addressing. Short and catchy is ideal. That is what the rest holds together afterwards.
Example:
If your business is focused on sustainability, don’t stand up and say some fluff like, “We produce green products.” Be specific. Like, “The world waste crisis is a ticking time bomb and it will explode and there’ll be 3.7 million tons of plastic in the ocean in 2030. Our products cut down 80% of plastic consumption today.”
Structuring Your Pitch Deck for Maximum Impact
Investors do not have the time to go through dozens of slides. Most important is the organization of your pitch deck, and getting it right is more of the art of telling a good story from start to finish. A good deck does not simply inform you about your company—it takes investors on a journey through your vision, your product, your market opportunity, and your financial upside.
Core Sections Every Pitch Deck Needs
- Introduction / The Problem: The hook. Grab people’s attention immediately by presenting a problem that investors can relate to.
- The Solution: Present your product or service as the solution to this problem. Make it strong, easy, and differentiated from existing solutions.
- Market Opportunity: Highlight the market potential and why the time is right for your product. Here you demonstrate that the time is now and the opportunity is enormous.
- Business Model: Investors need to understand how you are going to make money. Let them know how your business generates money and how scalable your model is.
- Go-To-Market Strategy: Outline your sales and marketing strategy, with concise messaging. How will you sell to customers and build your brand?
- Traction: Show that you’ve gained some traction already. User acquisition, revenue, or partnerships — show that your company is gaining traction.
- Financial Projections & Ask: Provide concise financial projections and outline how much money you’re raising, and how you will spend it.
Actionable Strategy:
Be brief. Each paragraph must have as much detail to seize people’s imagination without bogging the reader down. Use graphs, charts, and diagrams to express clear arguments concisely at a pace.
Tip: Focus on the “Why Now?”
Timing, everything, is when it comes to rival startup teams. Show with complete assurance why now your solution will be needed.
Fact: 51% of smartphone shoppers discover new products when they’re shopping on their smartphones. Your pitch needs to capture that momentum by catching up with current behavior and marketplace trends.
The Role of Design in Your Pitch Deck
Pitch deck design and decking out a deck, too many times in the hands of a contracted-up design firm specialist, isn’t about making it pretty—this is about serving your story and bringing out the best in your show. Amazing work can gain your trust, enable others to learn more, and communicate your personality as a brand.
Key Design Elements That Convert
- Consistent Branding: Your design for your pitch deck should look and feel like your brand. Photos, typography, and color should appear as consistent as your website and product. That lends it credibility and trust.
- Visual Hierarchy: Utilize typography, color, and white space to naturally lead the reader through the deck. The important information should be readable and readable, and natural flow achieved. Your aspiration should be that investors would be reading the highlights for longer than taking the time to figure out your design.
- Data Visualizations: Investors love data but loathe raw data. Show your financial projections, market metrics, and traction through charts, graphs, and infographics in an easily digestible format.
- Minimalism: Keep your slides simple. A complex slide will confuse or overwhelm the reader and cause them to look away. Less is more—put one message on each slide.
Actionable Strategy:
Create a clear, simple, branded pitch deck using design software such as Canva, Figma, or PowerPoint. As much contrast as possible between text and background for visual clarity.
Pro Tip: New images and rewritten copy added to your existing content can boost organic traffic by 111.3%. Same principle here—new design and improved messaging drive engagement.
What Investors Look For
Whether your pitch deck is just loaded with all the good stuff, the reality is that investors don’t care about good ideas, nor even good design. What they care about is confidence, traction, and scalability.
Insights from Industry Experts:
“Investors don’t want to hear you fixing a real problem for a real market with a scalable solution. Your best pitch decks are narratives where the journey of the company and why the moment is appropriate for this product to succeed.”
Key Factors Investors Consider:
- Market Size: Investors will be interested in knowing if your target market is large enough to sustain actual growth and provide good returns on their investment. A clearly defined, large market means potential and scalability. Having good data and information to support the demand for your solution in hand, be ready to present it.
- Team: Your skill and ability are non-replaceable. Investors seek out founders and excellent teams of the right mix of ability, industry background, and enthusiasm to bring the company’s vision to life. Emphasize any qualification, experience, or talent your team possesses that transfer into the business, because an excellent team can so quickly be the difference between success and catastrophe.
- Growth potential: Scalability matters. Investors will expect you to have a strong vision for scaling your business, either via new markets, product lines, or innovative means. Demonstrate that you understand how to scale and the resources you’ll need, and any early signs of traction that demonstrate your business has the potential for high growth on a sustained basis.
- Competition: You need to know your competitive landscape. Your investors will want to know why you’re unique and how you’re going to stay ahead. Explain your differentiated value proposition, barriers to entry, and how you will stay competitive in an over-saturated market. To show that you know who your competitors are—and have a plan to beat them—is proof of confidence to win.
Actionable Strategy:
Do your research. The more you can show that your product has a good fit to be in a growing market and why your team is especially well-suited to get it done, the stronger your deck will be.
Mistakes to Avoid
- Too Much Text: A pitch deck is not a business plan. Instead, it must be a high-level, concise overview of your idea, with the crème de la crème and not the median. Avoid sentences of text or bullet points to fill out slides. For conciseness and simplicity, use graphics, charts, and brief phrases to make your point in a few words. Your goal is to generate interest and controversy, not to document all questions that will be asked.
- Unfocused Slides: Each of your pitch deck slides must have a solid reason for existing and solid evidence supporting your overall story. Avoid having slides for each minor piece of information about your company, since it dilutes your message and takes away from your most important value proposition. Keep your workout brief on your narrative—merge similar information, don’t duplicate, and make each slide push forward your highest priorities. A slim deck holds investors’ attention and allows them to discern promptly what is distinctive about your company. If you are unsure how to do this, employing professionals like Arounda Agency can get your message aligned and give you a good deck.
- No Financials: Investors don’t require evidence that you know how to create momentum on your model and possess a sensible growth strategy. Omitting financial projections or key numbers leaves a giant hole in your pitch. Allow your lean, mean finances—revenue projections, cost structure, and profitability projections—to be present and to speak for themselves. Even rough estimates demonstrate that you have some notion of the market and how you’re planning to return money. Open books establish trust and enable investors to assess the potential for your business.
- Overpromising: Being optimistic and ambitious is fine, but promising the world—presenting your startup as “the next big thing,” for example—without substance will kill your credibility in the crib. Instead, back up your claims with facts, customer validation, or signs of traction in the form of user acquisition, partnerships, or revenue milestones. Investors seek aspiring but realistic founders. Prove your potential with facts instead of hype to build credibility and spark interest.
Conclusion: Craft a Pitch Deck That Works
Creating a pitch deck that works is more about not including all the numbers of your business on it or attempting to complicate it. It is regarding having an excellent narrative to tell, supporting it with facts and data, and putting it in a manner that is simple to adhere to and nice to look at.
By prioritizing actionability, simplicity, design, and traction, you’ll be in a great position to create a pitch deck that will land you investors—and ultimately enable you to get the funding you require to turn your vision into a reality. It’s more about a group of people—i.e., in front of someone—than getting investors to already believe in the potential of your company when they sit down with you.
Lastly, ready to create your pitch deck and make that dream a reality!
