An investor pitch deck is without doubt one of the most vital paperwork you’ll create as a founder.
An investor deck, and the corresponding presentation, will help you safe funding to scale your corporation and construct a profitable, sustainable firm. On this article you’ll study the important thing data you have to embrace, and on the finish, you possibly can obtain an investor pitch deck template to make sure you present enterprise capital corporations with all the data they should decide.
Learn how to Pitch Buyers
It’s vital to notice that each investor can have totally different standards they search for in a startup. So do your analysis and customise your deck each time you ship it.
Additionally, take into account that you could be not need to blindly ship your full deck to each investor in your listing. You would possibly have the ability to inform a greater story and supply significant context as you stroll them by means of an investor pitch presentation over the telephone or Zoom.
“I’d ship potential VCs a one-pager that succinctly instructed our firm story and confirmed our proof of idea,” says Heather Margolis, founding father of York IE portfolio firm Spark Your Channel, which efficiently exited in 2021. “It offered sufficient information to clarify the corporate, with out sharing all our playing cards from the beginning. Your closing line of an electronic mail could be, ‘I’d like to take you thru the pitch deck when you will have a while.’”
Earlier than your presentation, you must also put together some inquiries to ask the investor. Perceive their thesis and mannequin. Do they supply passive or energetic capital?
What to Embody in an Investor Pitch Deck
Comply with this pitch define when placing your deck collectively:
Cowl slide or icebreaker (1 slide)
Drawback and resolution (1-2 slides)
Firm imaginative and prescient (1 slide)
Firm particulars (10-15 slides)
Monetary validation (1-2 slides)
The ask (1 slide)
Thanks and subsequent steps (1 slide)
Introduction
Like each good story, a pitch deck wants a starting, a center and an finish.
The typical enterprise capital agency used to spend about 4 minutes a deck, however that quantity is now down to 2 minutes and 24 seconds, in response to DocSend. And meaning you actually need to nail your introduction.
The primary slide of your investor pitch ought to embrace an icebreaker — some kind of reality or temporary anecdote that may seize the reader’s consideration.
Within the subsequent one or two slides, present an outline of the issue your organization is addressing and the way you’re going to unravel it. This may naturally lead right into a slide about your broader imaginative and prescient: The place do you see your organization in three, 5 or 10 years?
After laying this all out within the introduction, it’s time to dig into the meat and bones of your startup.
Firm Particulars
The vast majority of your investor pitch deck ought to cowl these pillars:
Firm and crew overview
Market alternative
Product and mental property
GTM and traction
Firm and Staff Overview
Have you ever and your co-founders (if relevant) began an organization earlier than, or are you able to in any other case show that you already know what you’re moving into? And what about the remainder of your management and different workers?
It’s vital to indicate that your crew has the expertise — and the range of expertise — wanted to really disrupt a market. Embody related enterprise successes and academic backgrounds as essential.
Market Alternative
That you must present traders that there are sufficient prospects keen to pay sufficient cash to your product to justify your goal valuation.
Do that by counting on top-down analysis from market analyst corporations and in addition by taking a bottoms-up method: multiplying the anticipated variety of potential prospects by the typical deal measurement to calculate your complete addressable market.
Product and Mental Property
Your product is the important thing to tapping into the market alternative you’ve recognized. Clearly clarify to traders the way it works and the way it’s totally different from different merchandise available on the market, and showcase any mental property behind it that traders could discover notably worthwhile.
GTM and Traction
Clarify the way you market and promote your product. Use gross sales information and buyer tales to indicate that your go-to-market technique is working. Spotlight any distinguished prospects and key use circumstances to display confidence in your organization.
Miscellaneous
Don’t depart your investor presentation wishing you’d stated one thing extra. If there’s the rest about you and your organization that stands out, akin to compelling statistics or fascinating tales, embrace them in your deck.
Typically it’s this stuff which have the largest affect on traders.
Conclusion
And on the finish of your investor pitch deck, you have to display monetary validation and clearly lay out what it’s you’re asking for.
Buyers will probably be on the lookout for some proof factors of product market match, and there’s no higher technique to display that than with paying prospects producing annual recurring income. Different metrics it’s possible you’ll need to embrace are:
gross margin
month-to-month burn
common contract worth
web income retention
buyer acquisition price
product utilization and engagement
Buyers will even need to see your gross sales pipeline worth, however that’s sometimes a request made later through the diligence course of.
When you’ve executed that, it’s time to get to the entire level of the pitch: asking for cash. Specificity is vital right here. Don’t simply say, “We’re looking for traders in a $1.4 million Seed spherical at a $9 million valuation.” As an alternative, say:
how a lot you need to increase;
why you need to increase that quantity;
the important thing investments you’ll make with that financing; and
the milestones you hope to attain.
Lastly, ensure to finish with a thanks and subsequent steps slide. The extra you possibly can construct connections with traders — even when they cross in your particular alternative — the extra doorways that may open up for you over time.
Investor Pitch Deck Template Obtain
To learn how to correctly put all these items collectively inside a full presentation, click on right here and obtain our investor pitch deck template for startups.
