If you are an entrepreneur or startup owner who wants to get the attention of potential investors, an investor pitch deck can be a powerful tool to get your foot through the door. It can allow you to neatly present your message and value proposition to potential investors.
However, keeping your audience engaged throughout your presentation can be challenging, especially if they have a busy schedule and you include too many slides in your pitch deck. This is why it’s important to understand the basics of pitch deck design, in order to ensure that your audience stays engaged throughout and manages to find all the relevant information in your presentation.
In this article, we will help you determine the right number of slides to include in your investor pitch deck and also suggest the ideal structure or order for the slides that make it easy for potential investors to process all the information you’re presenting to them. But before we dive in, let’s understand what the ideal goal for an investor pitch deck is.
What’s the Ideal Goal for an Investor Pitch Deck?
When you’re creating an investor pitch deck, consider what’s your ultimate goal behind it. Of course, you want to get potential investors interested in your idea and raise funds for your business. However, you also want to engage them in a conversation regarding your company and plan subsequent meetings with them. Only if you make your pitch deck appealing enough, can you expect someone to discuss the investment opportunity with you further and make the decision to put their hard-earned money into your business idea.
How Many Slides to Include in an Investor Pitch Deck?
When it comes to the ideal length of a pitch deck, less is always more. However, the typical length of pitch decks that get the best response from investors is 12 slides or less. In fact, the famous venture capitalist and brand evangelist, Guy Kawasaki, has coined one of the best rules for deciding on the number of slides that go in your pitch deck. It’s known as the 10/20/30 rule. According to this rule, you should have 10 slides in your pitch deck, the ideal length of your presentation shouldn’t be longer than 20 minutes, and the font size used in your slides should be at least 30 points or bigger. Now, that we’ve answered the main question of how many slides you need to include in your pitch deck, let’s have a look at what goes in those slides.
Which Slides to Include in an Investor Pitch Deck?
The following slides are essential to include in a pitch deck:
Information about your company
The first slide is all about making a solid first impression. Begin your presentation by setting an impressive tone for your potential investors to notice. This slide should tell the story of your company and the vision behind it. Make sure you deliver a narrative that speaks a good deal about your goals and values and makes your audience highly interested in what you have to present in front of them.
The problem
Use this slide to hook your audience to the best of your ability by clearly stating the problem you are able to solve with your product or service offering. Talk about the kind of challenges your potential customers might be facing and why it’s a suitable market to target.
The solution
In this slide, highlight how you are planning to solve the problems you addressed in the previous slide. Showcase your creativity and ingenuity as you present your proposed solution. This will not only get your audience to better empathise with the nature of the problem you have previously stated, but also realise the true value of your proposed solution.
The product/service
In this slide, mention the key benefits of your product or service along with a well-written description. Also include any pictures, videos or demos you can show to your audience.
Market size
As mentioned earlier potential investors would like to know why you think your target market is worth going after. Needless to say, the overall success of your business idea relies on this determining factor. This is why it’s important to share with them the market size of the kind of audience you are planning to target and also an estimated percentage of the market you are hoping to capture with the help of your offerings. Make sure you know your target market inside out, just so that you can respond effectively to whatever questions arise in the minds of potential investors.
Competition
With just about any kind of business, it is important to know your competition really well. When it comes to pitching your business idea to potential investors, you will need to do plenty of market research to not only have a clear understanding of your competition’s status, but also to be able to highlight your competitive advantage in the market. Perhaps, you have done this already. Make sure your depth of research and confidence are visible in this slide of your pitch deck.
Business model
It goes without saying that potential investors would be very keen to know what your business model is and how you plan on generating revenue through your business idea. So, make sure you share as many details about your business model as possible and also make it easy to grasp for potential investors. Tell them how the money flows, what your entire business cycle looks like, what kind of value your customers will find in your offer, and the kind of profitability you’re expecting from your business model.
Traction
When it comes to impressing potential investors and getting them interested in your business opportunity nothing works better than showing them that your business has provable traction in the market. If you have current sales figures or any piece of data that can show that things are already going well with your business, it can work as validation in front of potential investors. With that being said, the information you share in this light doesn’t have to be exclusively financial. In fact, you can even share things like the responses you have received regarding your offer from your target audience on social media.
Team
Sometimes potential investors are looking for a great team they can trust with their money. That’s understandable, because it’s a prerequisite to having a successful business. In this slide of your pitch deck, you need to tell them how your team is your biggest strength, showcase the unique talents or skill sets of each of your team members, talk about the kind of experience they bring to the table and explain how they will play a key role in growing your business.
Marketing Plan
It’s important to tell your potential investors about your customer acquisition strategies and how you plan to reach your target audience with your offer. Just like any other slide of your pitch deck, your marketing plan should appear realistic instead of over-ambitious. Find a slide template that can help you present your marketing plan in the best way possible.
Fundraising
This slide of your pitch deck will play a key role in your fundraising journey. This is where you have to highlight how much funding you need for your business idea and where exactly you’re planning to allocate the funds. Make sure you’re very specific with your requirements and include a call-to-action in your presentation, in order to achieve the expected outcomes.
The list of slides shared above isn’t definitive, so feel free to switch any of the slides for a different one for better relevance. Just make sure you do that for a valid reason and don’t omit any pieces of crucial information that may affect your presentation.
Final Thoughts
Your potential to raise funds for your company relies on your pitch deck’s design and your presentation skills. Paying close attention to these important aspects of your pitch can go a long way in helping you not only secure the required funds, but also the future of your company.
If you need assistance with designing your pitch deck or improving your presentation skills, feel free to contact our team of presentation experts today!
