A pitch deck is a document that presents your business idea to potential investors, customers or partners. A perfect pitch deck will help you attract attention, create an impression and convince viewers about the potential and feasibility of your startup project.
What is a pitch deck?
This is a question that many startups often encounter when preparing for a presentation calling for investment. A pitch deck is a set of documents that presents your business idea, products, services, market, competitors, marketing strategy, financial plan and team. The purpose of a pitching deck is to attract attention and convince investors that your project has potential and deserves support.
A pitch deck is not a detailed business plan, it’s a short and concise summary of the project’s strengths and differences. Pitch decks are often presented as a slide show, with about 10-20 slides, each slide stating only one main idea. The pitch deck presentation time is not too long, only about 10-15 minutes. Therefore, you need to choose the most important information and convey your startup idea slide in a clear, convincing and attractive way.
A quality pitch deck can help you make a good impression with investors, creating opportunities for you to access valuable capital and resources for the project. On the contrary, a poor pitch deck can cause you to be eliminated right from the preliminary round, or unable to attract the attention and trust of investors. Therefore, preparing an effective pitch deck is very important for any startup.
What is needed in a pitch deck?
A good pitch deck must have the following contents:
- Cover: Introduce your company name, logo, slogan and contact information.
Problem: Describe the problem you want to solve for your target market. Clearly state the importance, urgency and potential of the problem. - Solution: Showcase how your product or service solves the stated problem. Clearly state the features, benefits and competitive advantage of your product or service.
- Market: Analyze your target market, including size, growth, trends and segments. Demonstrate that you understand the needs and behaviors of your target customers.
- Business model: Explain how you make money from your product or service. Clearly state selling price, costs, profits and other important metrics.
- Marketing strategy: Present your marketing plan to attract and retain customers. Clearly state the marketing channels, tools and campaigns you use or plan to use.
- Team: Introduce key members of your team, including roles, experience and achievements. Demonstrate that you have a capable team that is passionate and committed to your business idea.
- Results achieved: Show off the successes you’ve achieved to date, including revenue, number of customers, market feedback, awards or positive reviews. Prove that you have validated your business idea and are making tangible progress.
- Development plan: Set goals and development strategies for the future, including products, markets, marketing and finance. Demonstrate that you have a clear and actionable plan to grow your company.
- Investment requirements: If you want to raise capital from investors, you need to clearly state the amount of money you need to raise, the percentage of shares you are willing to cede and how you will use that money. You should also talk about the value you bring to investors.
Why do startups need a pitch deck?
Some of the main reasons why startups need a pitch deck are:
- Help startups identify and communicate their core values. Pitch deck helps startups summarize and explain their strengths, differences and potential in a concise way. This helps the startup gain attention and trust from listeners.
- Help startups attract capital from investors. Pitch deck is an important tool for startups to express their vision, goals, strategies and achieved results. Pitch deck also helps startups demonstrate market demand, competitiveness and profitability potential. This helps the startup attract the interest and participation of investors.
- Help startups build relationships with stakeholders. Pitch deck is not only used to build the startup’s image and reputation, but also helps the startup connect with customers, partners, suppliers, potential employees and other stakeholders. Pitch deck helps startups understand the needs, desires and problems of stakeholders, thereby finding ways to cooperate and solve them.
Thus, the pitch deck is an important and necessary document for startups. Pitch deck helps startups express their identity, value and potential, while attracting the attention and cooperation of stakeholders. To create an effective pitch deck, startups need to pay attention to the content, presentation and duration of the pitch deck.