Perfecting your pitch is crucial for fundraising, and a solid slide deck should obviously accompany your well-rehearsed speech. It is important to keep the deck relatively short and to the point, highlighting the key pieces of information and avoiding anything overly verbose or detailed. Here are six slides that should definitely make the cut:
1. The Demand and How Your Company Intends to Fill it
A good startup recognizes a consumer demand and focuses on filling it with a clever product or service. It is important to explain during the pitch the precise need that your company has identified and how the company will provide the specific good or service to meet consumer expectations. Of course, it is particularly important to emphasize the value and potential profitability of the venture as it relates to the demand that has been identified.
2. The Current Market and Competition
In some cases, there may already be a healthy market in existence, with several competitors vying for business. It is unwise to gloss over this fact in an effort to appear like a pioneer if that is not the case. The key is to distinguish your company from the competition and establish why it is you will ultimately prevail as the industry leader.
3. Your Business Model and Marketing Plan
This information may not fit on just one slide, so spreading it out across several separate slides is certainly reasonable. The hardest thing about this portion of the slideshow is providing enough information to make it clear that the company has a viable plan while simultaneously ensuring that it is at least somewhat interesting and does not go into all of the tiny details.
4. Your Leadership Team and Company Vision
Investors are as interested in the people behind the business as they are the business itself, if not more so. The reality is that running a business boils down to managing relationships, and likable people tend to attract interest and dollars. There should be a slide with some brief biographies that include information on education, work backgrounds, and specific expertise, if any. In addition, any similarities and differences between leaders can be tied into the company vision and used to explain how each person will contribute to fulfilling it.
5. The Company Numbers in Easy to Understand Charts
There is no doubt that potential investors will pepper you with questions about the company’s financial status, both current and future. Rather than try to memorize the various figures and percentages, it is wise to have as much of this information in a chart or table as possible. In addition to serving as a way to jog your memory to discuss each item, the visual portrayal better facilitates the audience’s understanding.
6. Graphics that Summarize and Emphasize
Of course, there should be other graphics besides the charts that address the financial piece. You may want to have pictures of the actual product if it is a concrete good or examples of the competitors’ products to make distinctions. The goal is to make the presentation as aesthetically pleasing as possible and graphics that summarize and emphasize the key points will help with this.
