How to create a winning Pitch Deck

Pitch Deck is a document that an Investor studies, to understand and learn more about any business. Typically, the document in made in a Presentation format (MS Power Point, Google Slides, Apple Keynote), and consists of 10 to 30 slides. 10 – 12 slides for start-ups and 20 – 30 slides for a matured business.

A Pitch Deck Presentation should have following information / details:

1. Introduction: Give a brief introduction about your company
2. Problem: Identify & Describe the Key Problem your product / service will solve
3. Solution: Present the Solution. This should be done in a concise but abundantly simple fashion. It should be so simple, that a layman can easily understand the offered solution.
4. Opportunity: How big or large the opportunity is. The defined opportunity should be as per the Market you intend to target. So, if you are going to sell domestically, do not talk about the global size. Also, this should be clearly defined in absolute terms.
5. Product / Service: Present your product / service to the viewer. The actual product can be showcased through Pictures, Infographics, UI / UX screenshots etc.
6. Team: Introduce thew core team, clearly defining and outlining what each team member brings to the table. A diversified Team always adds value.
7. Milestones: Outline milestones achieved so far, and then focus on immediate goals and plans, and how it will bring growth to the business.
8. Competition: Who your competition is, where they lack and how you are going to do things differently.
9. Financials: Build a business plan and a financial model before you start building the Pitch Deck presentation. A brief snapshot of your Financial Model is covered in the Pitch Deck, broadly describing Revenue, Expenses, EBITDA and Operating Cash Flow for next 5 years.
10. Why you are there: What do you want from the viewer, if he / she is an Investor – how much money do you really need – briefly outlining the purpose of the fund raised.

Some other Key points to remember while building a Pitch Deck

1. Title: Introduce each subject with a Title heading.
2. Fonts: Use the same font through out your Presentation. Do not change the font, from one slide to another. Even the labels in graphs should have the same font.
3. Bullet Points: Use Bullet points, to tell your story. Do not put too much text.
4. Annexures: For more detailed financial numbers, competition analysis or other details, put in Annexures towards the end of the Presentation. The annexures can be more detailed, giving the viewer the choice to go through it / skip it.
5. Infographics: Infographics are pictorial representation of any topic you want to convey easily to the viewer. They can be used at the right places to make the presentation more meaningful.
6. Charts: Charts can be used, specially to convey financial numbers more easily.
7. Proofreading: Ensure that you proof read your document in the end. Check for spelling and grammatical mistakes.