How you design your pitch deck gives potential investors tons of insights into how you plan on building your product

Creating a good pitch deck is hard, creating a great pitch deck is even harder. We look through applications for our startup services: a lot of them are great, some of them … not so much. Why?

One of the main reasons is that the pitch deck is incorrect or incomplete.

We’d like to share with you a few hints and guidelines on what we expect from a pitch deck. That way, you can up your chances of leaving a lasting impression.

By the end of your pitch deck, we should have the answers to the following questions:

• 1.   Why you?
• 2.   Why this?
• 3.   Why now?

That’s easier said than done, of course. We often see simple mistakes, such as missing information, overcrowded slides, a lack of research, confusing or contradictory statements, typos, etcetera.

Also Read: Pro pitch deck tips for beginners

Take extra care to avoid these blunders, please! This will help us and especially you!

How can you avoid this? Do your research and create a sound structure for your pitch deck. Take us on a journey. Show us all the aspects of your company that we want to and should know about.

A great place to start is to include the following dimensions and answer these sample questions:

• 1.   Problem → What problem are you addressing?
• 2.   Solution → What solution do you offer?
• 3.   Product → What is your product?
• 4.   Vision → What’s your vision today, in a year, in five years?
• 5.   Market size → How big is your (addressable) market?
• 6.   Competition → Who are your competitors (direct and indirect)?
• 7.   Business Model → How does your business work? How do you plan to make money?
• 8.    Status and roadmap → Where are you today? What key milestones do you want to achieve in the next 12 months?
• 9.    Team → Who are you? Why are you the right team to build this?

Last but not least, pitch deck design matters. We don’t expect you to have your corporate identity completely figured out – or even having a logo yet. Just prove to us that you have a good feeling for form and function. After all, an image is worth a thousand words. How you design your pitch deck gives us tons of insights into how you plan on building your product, even if you’re not a designer.

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A previous version of this article first appeared on nfinitiv.

Image Credit: Teemu Paananen on Unsplash

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