\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s pitching season again and I\u2019m drowning in bad pitch decks. Each one is overwhelming me with information, far more than I can process, and that\u2019s the problem.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with first principles: what\u2019s the point of a pitch and pitch deck?<\/p>\n
You almost certainly think it\u2019s to get investment. It\u2019s not. Not right away. No serious investor is going to write a check after thumbing through 15 slides or listening to a 10 minute pitch.<\/p>\n
The point of the pitch deck, and tattoo this onto the back of your hand:\u00a0is to get to a deep dive meeting<\/em>.<\/p>\n The pitch deck is just one part of a long process towards investment: The goal at each stage before diligence is not to get someone to write a check. It\u2019s to get them excited enough in your startup to get to the next stage. That means the pitch deck doesn\u2019t need to tell investors everything. It shouldn\u2019t overwhelm them with information. Instead, it needs to get them excited, and not about the product but about the investment.<\/p>\n You have 10 minutes to pitch and you have\u00a011 topics to cover<\/a>. That gives you less than a minute for each topic. There\u2019s no time for details. There\u2019s barely time for the basics. Which is fine. Get us excited about the opportunity, and we\u2019ll schedule a two hour deep-dive meeting to dive into everything.<\/p>\n So keep the story simple and slides even simpler. Give us the broad outline instead of trying to answer every question and counter every possible objection.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve heard thousands of pitches. Most of them follow the template: here\u2019s the problem, here\u2019s our wonderful widget, look at this $10B market ripe for change, here\u2019s our all-star team. Give us money and here\u2019s what we\u2019ll accomplish.<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing wrong with the template. It covers all the topics in a way that\u2019s easy for investors to follow. But listen to a hundred of these in a week and frankly, it\u2019s hard to keep paying attention.<\/p>\n Tell us a story instead. It doesn\u2019t need to be a story about how your mother died of cancer so you dedicated your life to finding a new cancer treatment (though use that if it\u2019s true). It can be a lot simpler than that.<\/p>\n In 10 minutes or less, you don\u2019t have time for a 2 hour movie plot. Save that for the deep dive. Instead, this is a 30 second commercial. It\u2019s short, simple, to the point with no wasted time or words.<\/p>\n Tell a simple story with a happy ending: investors will make a lot of money by investing in your startup.<\/p>\n Simple is difficult. Simplicity takes thought. It takes understanding what matters to the audience.<\/p>\n And what matters to investors is not your product or what problem it solves but how we\u2019ll make money by investing in your startup.<\/p>\n So tell a simple story. Eliminate complexity from the deck.<\/p>\n If you have a complex market where you\u2019ll start with a beachhead and transition to a larger market later, presenting multiple use cases is too complicated for the pitch. Simplify. If the beachhead is a $100M opportunity, focus on that story, adding 2\u20133 bullet points with expansion opportunities near the end of the pitch. If the beachhead market is less than $100M, then tell the story of the big market with a quick mention that your initial customers are in a particular sub-market.<\/p>\n If you have multiple revenue streams, same thing \u2014 simplify. Pick the most important one and talk about that. We can get into the other revenues streams later.<\/p>\n Team \u2014 same. We want to know what the founders bring to the table, not your life stories. Your roles and a couple of employer logos is all you need. Same for other key employees \u2014 what do they add to the team? If they don\u2019t fill a big gap, there\u2019s no need to mention them. Same for advisors. Only list the ones that fill important gaps. We\u2019ll assume you have plenty of other advisors \u2014 but unless you need to mention them, don\u2019t.<\/p>\n If it takes more than a quick glance to understand the point of a slide, throw it away and start over.<\/p>\n A good rule of thumb is no more than 15 words on each slide of a presentation deck and 30 words on a sending deck.<\/p>\n The slides in a presentation deck should have only a few bullets to emphasize and reinforce what you\u2019re speaking.<\/p>\n If we\u2019re reading the words on the deck, if we\u2019re trying to figure out a complicated diagram, if we\u2019re examining the screenshots, if we\u2019re squinting to read the fine print, we\u2019re not paying attention to what you\u2019re saying.<\/p>\n So focus on telling the story in your pitch, and use the deck to hit us over the head with the key takeaways from each slide. Anything more than that is information overload that we won\u2019t process or remember.<\/p>\n For a sending deck, you\u2019ll need to include a little context, but not much. Investors will skim your deck in a minute or less rather than examining the details, so there\u2019s no room for explanations or complex diagrams. Just get us excited and we\u2019ll schedule a meeting to discuss.<\/p>\n The easiest way to create a short, simple, compelling deck is to write an outline of your story. Set down the outline in Word or Docs rather than your PowerPoint or Canva. Instead of headers like problem and solution, just outline what you want to convey:<\/p>\n This is a story that sells itself in a total of 50 words.<\/p>\n Now, copy each line to a single slide. And you\u2019re done writing text.<\/p>\n Add any details you need to convey in simple, easy-to-understand graphics like TAM\/SAM\/SOM and revenue projections.<\/p>\n The goal is for viewers\/readers to look at each slide and at a glance, immediately grasp the takeaway.<\/p>\n A trick I recommend is to close your eyes, relax, clear your head, then open your eyes again. Without focusing or reading. What do you see?<\/p>\n If it isn\u2019t immediately clear what the slide is trying to say, throw it away and start over.<\/p>\n Keep each slide to a single, clear takeaway. If you have to say more than one thing, put them on separate slides.<\/p>\n Less is more when it comes to pitch decks. Made it short, simple, and compelling. Get us excited about the investment and we\u2019ll schedule a follow up to dive into all those details later. And eventually, as you move from deep dive to diligence, you can begin thinking about how to get that investment check signed.<\/p>\n If your startup is building a teleporter, how do you write a compelling pitch deck? On the team slide, you probably don\u2019t want to mention the Chief Elephant Officer is missing. And that he\u2019s not only responsible for the critical job of elephant procurement but leads the metaphysics team. <\/p>\n Where is he? The founder isn\u2019t talking and the chief of police refuses to look. So his sister recruits her ex-boyfriend, the hacker, Ted Tatsu Hara, to find him.<\/p>\n
intro or application \u2192 pitch \u2192 deep dive \u2192 diligence \u2192 investment<\/p>\nTell a Story<\/h2>\n
\n
Make a Compelling Deck<\/h2>\n
Simplify the Story<\/h3>\n
30 Words or Less Per Slide<\/h3>\n
\n
Just the Outline<\/h3>\n
\n
Grasp the Slide at a Glance<\/h3>\n
\n