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A pitch deck is a full-fledged company presentation for investors, partners, and other interested parties. The goal is to attract significant investment. Let's figure out how to create a competent pitch deck for investors and who can help.
Key Elements of a Successful Pitch Deck
A competent pitch deck helps to raise interest in the product and allows you to gain the trust of investors and the necessary monetary resources. Here are the fundamental principles of the pitch deck for startup, which any professional consultant will point out to you:
- One slide filled in with one thought.
- Font size must be at least 30 pt not to complicate the audience's task.
- The presentation size is 10 to 15 slides, no more.
Further, you may need a professional tip at each stage of creating a presentation. Moreover, you can order one-time consultations on issues of interest or ask a professional consulting company like Waveup to accompany your project from the beginning to the moment of presentation to the investor.
Here's what you need to do:
Researching Your Target Investors
Before presenting your company to an investor, you should define your target audience and understand who exactly your investor is. Each of them has their interests in the project and their requirements for the information they want to receive.
Consultants specialize in content preparation for investors. They know what different types of investors expect from the company and will look at examples of previous works from their practice to see what should be in the materials of a modern company.
Structuring Your Pitch Deck
One of the most common mistakes of startups is a too-long pitch deck for investors. Experts recommend allocating at most 20 minutes for a pitch, even in a full-fledged personal meeting with investors. At the same time, the rest of the time is devoted to questions and communication.
Crafting Your Elevator Pitch
Creating a great pitch deck for a startup is not as difficult. If you have little time, you can use templates or special tools and create a design in just a few minutes. You can start from scratch the old-fashioned way and create slides individually.
Developing a Compelling Story
Tell a story, be consistent and logical: investors hear and see dozens of pitches daily. If you speak (and write in the pitch deck) interestingly and efficiently, this will set you apart from the crowd. Tell your audience an engaging story that will allow them to feel why your business is solving a specific problem and how it will affect them.
Using Visuals to Enhance Your Pitch
The task of the cover is to explain in 2 seconds what product will be discussed in the pitch deck. The cover may include a logo, a concise and precise description of what the product does, and visuals (a mockup, your client using the product, etc.).
Critical about the visuals:
- one clear picture is better than any number of words because visual information is absorbed by the brain 65 thousand times faster;
- the image should be straightforward – what this picture means or why it is in this place should be resolved.
Tips for Delivering Your Pitch
Here are some simple phrases that will always come in handy during a pitch deck investor presentation:
- Don't focus on one statistic. Any statistical data will sound dry and dull.
- Lengthen and shorten your speech as necessary. Evaluate your audience and conduct the presentation so it will sound interesting.
- Don’t read from the slides.
Of course, a pitch deck for investors is not a panacea. Presentation is like wrapping a gift. The more interesting it is, the more pleasant it is to open it. If you are confident in your idea, the pitch deck will only strengthen and embellish it, so its use should be in your portfolio of tools.