What are the most important things in your pitch deck as a startup founder looking for funding?
There are a lot of ideas out there on the web about pitch decks. There are volumes of advice on what slides you need, what your design should be, and how long your pitch should be. What it really comes down to is what are the key points of a pitch deck? The most important things you need to get across to potential investors.
Here's what you need to include to get the funding for your startup, and what investors are really looking for to write serious checks.
Your Contact Information
It may sound obvious and silly, but imagine creating an amazing pitch deck and putting it out into the world. Then some really great investors actually view it and want to give you money. Only you forgot to really obviously put your best contact information on it. They are crazy busy. They have hundreds, and thousands of other pitch decks and pitches to check out and fund. You don't want to miss out on the money and benefits of those investors on your side for something so seemingly small and basic.
Show You Are Solving An Urgent Problem That People Will Pay For
If you are tackling a good problem and have the right team and financial backing, virtually everything else can be brought to fall into place. At least, eventually.
If you aren't tackling a worthy problem, then nothing else matters.
So, how do you know? How do your investors know this is a worthy problem to fund?
Is it a personal or business frustration that they can individually relate to? If not, what proof do you have that it is a real problem? What market data do you have to support it? How many customers have you interviewed and surveyed? How many are actually willing to pay for a solution for this?
Show It Is A Really Big Market
Investors are looking for 100x returns. They are looking for multi-billion dollar exits. So, how big are this market and potential opportunity? Being focused and starting small can be a good thing. You have to be honest about the true size of your addressable market. Yet, there has to be a huge upside potential. This may mean hinting at other potential verticals and market segments you can expand into later. Make sure you are thinking in billions and trillions.
As a follow up to this slide you may also want to show how you are intending to raise the capital if it is via equity or via a safe note.
Show You Have A Viable Solution
How are you going to solve this problem? What are your solutions and products? If you can show features, benefits, and prototypes or a screenshot that is a great bonus. As an early-stage startup you may not have all of this yet. Though you can again lean on the problem and your findings from talking to customers. Is this the solution they've described they need and will pay money for?
Show You Know Your Numbers
Many things will change over time. Yet, you have to prove you have a good comprehension of your industry, business mechanics, and the numbers. Your financials will show your comprehension of profit margins, sales volume, and cash flow.
What's Your Business Model
Investors can be very picky about the business models they are willing to fund. This changes over time with trends. They may not always be right about what's best, but you've got to find a match if you want to get funded. Sometimes they are into an enterprise. In other periods it has been hardware or software and SaaS. You might be direct to consumers or a marketplace. Show how you are a good fit for their thesis and portfolio.
Show You Can Focus And Make Progress
There is probably nothing more important in your pitch deck than showing you are able to focus and make progress.
It doesn't matter how grand the vision is, how catchy the slogan or pretty the website design, or even the potential revenue size. Not if you can't focus on the next small task at hand and keep crossing them off the list quickly.
So, what progress have you made? What traction do you have? You can demonstrate this by showing the milestones you've achieved in a brief bullet-point format. Then show your growth rate. Pick one metric which you will focus on and can keep growing. Show how fast you are growing it. This may be annually, monthly, or weekly, depending on your stage in business and the class of investors you are approaching.
Show You Are Capable
Especially for early-stage startups, almost everything can ride on the founders. You have to convince investors that you are capable, can convey your message well to others, you won't give up, and have a team that covers the skill sets you need.
The fun part is that in your pitch deck you only have a very small amount of space to accomplish all of this. Often just a few words to a sentence for each co-founder and advisor.
Remember, that the best team always wins. How are you the best team to solve this problem and bring this solution?
Show You Know How To Use An Investor's Money Well
Even if you've aced all of the above there is the big question of if you can use your investors' money well. If you can't, it doesn't matter what degree you have from a fancy college, how big the market is, or how amazing or technically correct your technology is. You can still go broke in months. Just like most lottery winners. Then there are others who can make a lot with just a little funding and stay solvent. Which entrepreneur would you rather fund yourself?
Investors will see this depending on the amount of your ask and what your stated use of funds is. On whether you are asking for seed money before you launch or ask friends and family to help out, or whether you've bootstrapped and done well with a little so far.
BIO
Alejandro Cremades is a serial entrepreneur and the author of The Art of Startup Fundraising. With a foreword by 'Shark Tank' star Barbara Corcoran, and published by John Wiley & Sons, the book was named one of the best books for entrepreneurs. The book offers a step-by-step guide to today's way of raising money for entrepreneurs.
Most recently, Alejandro built and exited CoFoundersLab which is one of the largest communities of founders online.
Prior to CoFoundersLab, Alejandro worked as a lawyer at King & Spalding where he was involved in one of the biggest investment arbitration cases in history ($113 billion at stake).
Alejandro is an active speaker and has given guest lectures at the Wharton School of Business, Columbia Business School, and at NYU Stern School of Business.
Alejandro has been involved with the JOBS Act since inception and was invited to the White House and the US House of Representatives to provide his stands on the new regulatory changes concerning fundraising online.
