Petrified About Your Pitch Deck?

Whether you're a baby entrepreneur or you've successfully attracted investors to dozens of new businesses, sitting down to create a pitch deck is a pain at best and terrifying at worst. No matter how enthusiastic you are or how fantastic your idea is, there's something tremendously off putting about putting together a single document that effectively communicates it to the people on whose future it may rest.

The good news is that there are plenty of people who have gone before you - procrastinating, sweating the small stuff, and having nightmares about fateful mistakes. These pioneers have been generous with their advice, and have even provided their successful pitch decks to serve as inspiration. 

The top takeaways from their own experiences include:

• Don't be shy about your vision - When you came up with our idea, you saw the sky as the limit, but it can feel uncomfortable to use superlatives when you're asking others for buy-in. Your pitch deck should be bold in its assertions about the value you're providing. After all, if you don't think it's brilliant (and show it in your presentation), why would they?
  
  
• Be specific about your plans - If somebody asked you for a ton of money, chances are that you'd want to know how they were going to use it, and you'd want more than generalities.  If you need cash for marketing, describe your strategy. If you need money for research and development make sure you provide details about what and how you're going to test. If you'll be renting an office, provide information about where and for how many employees and what equipment, office supplies, and other inventory you're going to need.
  
  
• Be ready for questions. The worst answer you can give to an investor's questions about your metrics is "I don't know." Again, pretend you're being asked to invest your own money in a stranger's business. You'd want to know about their estimates on every single thing, whether it's the number of employees they need, the amount of profit they're projecting, or the number of clients they anticipate closing in the first year. Make sure that when they ask you what your numbers are (and what you're basing them on,) you have a firm, detailed answer that you can back up.
  
  
• Explain the problem and how you're solving it. Every good business idea is built on a problem that's being solved. Don't assume that your investors understand (or have even heard of) the problem. Tell them the story of what it is and how you first realized that it was a pain point, as well as how your product or service solves the problem.
  
  
• Keep things short and sweet. We know that once you get talking about your idea, you have a lot to say. But your investors' time is limited, and so is their attention span. As much as you'd like to include every possible detail, stick to the basics of the main idea and all of the supporting documentation that goes into the appendix. Keep it to no more than sixty slides in the deck, and make sure that you spend some time on the people who are going to help you make it happen because investors want to know that you have a strong support team.  

Once you've prepared your deck, make sure that you know it backward and forward and can present it smoothly, without hesitation, and without looking at it. Talking about your idea should be as natural to you as singing your favorite song in the shower. You should do it without hesitation and with full confidence.

Need inspiration? Here are some of the world's most iconic companies' successful pitch decks. 

1. Sample Dropbox Deck

2. Sample Linkedin Deck

3. Airbnb Pitch Deck

4. WeWork Pitch Deck 5. Uber Pitch Deck

6. BuzzFeed Pitch Deck

7. Intercom Pitch Deck

8.Coinbase Pitch Deck

9. Snapchat Pitch Deck

10. YouTube Pitch Deck

11. Facebook Pitch Deck

12. Crunchbase Pitch Deck

13. Wise (TransferWise) Pitch Deck

14. Wayfair Pitch Deck

Get tax and accounting tips in your inbox

Subscribe

All Articles by Sonu Shukla, CPA, CFP