As the name sounds, Pitch Deck is a ‘deck’ of slides you can use to ‘pitch’ your business to generate interest from potential investors or partners. It is a concise presentation, usually in the form of a slideshow.
Pitch Deck is used to introduce a business idea to potential investors, partners, or customers. You will want to make sure your Pitch Deck has a visual narrative that quickly outlines the key aspects of a business.
However, I am not here to teach you how to design one but to show you want the content should be like.
What Should the Content of a Pitch Deck be?
The business deck should have the following pages and content
Slide 1: Vision and Value Proposition
A quick one sentence overview of your business and the value that you provide to your customers. Keep it short and simple. A great way to think about this slide is to imagine it as 140 characters word limit and that you describe it in a way your parents would understand.
Slide 2: The Problem
Describe the REAL problem you are solving and who has the problem.
Slide 3: Target Market and Opportunity
Describe who your ideal customer is and how many of them. Ask yourself, what is the total market size and how do you position your company within the market? Then go ahead and describe answers those questions here.
Slide 4: The Solution
Describe your product or service. Describe how customers use your product and how it addresses the problems that you outlined on slide 2.
Slide 5: Revenue Model
Describe how your business makes money. What do you charge and who pays the bills?
Slide 6: Traction and Validation/Roadmap
If you already have sales or early adopters using your product, describe that here. Investors want to see that you have proven some aspect of your business model as that reduces risk, so any proof you have that validates that your solution works to solve the problem you have identified is extremely powerful.
Slide 7: Marketing and Sales Strategy
Outline your marketing and sales plan. You’ll want to detail the key tactics that you intend to use to get your product in front of prospective customers.
Slide 8: Team
Highlight the key team members, and the key expertise that they bring to the table.
Slide 9: Financials
Include your sales forecast, profit and loss statement, and cash flow forecast for at least three years.
Slide 10: Competition
Describe how you fit into the competitive landscape and how you’re different than the competitors and alternatives that are on the market today. What key advantages do you have over the competition or is there some “secret sauce” that you have and others don’t?
Slide 11: Investment and Use of Funds
State how much money you are looking for. You should state why you need the amount of money you are asking for and how you plan on using the money.
Slide 12: Partnerships
Here, showcase your key strategic partnerships.
Slide 13: Exit Strategy
This last slide should inform your potential investors how you intend to pay them back. You can pay them back through Initial Public Offering (IPO) where you get people to buy your business stocks. You can also pay them back through selling your business to another company.
These 13 Slides are very important for Pitch Deck. However make sure you are getting to the main points for each slide when your are presenting to generate interest in your business.
