How to structuralize your pitch deck

Investment teaser - aka investment deck

INTRO

• Make an impact and hook your audience
• Storytelling is a great way to achieve this, and it is a good idea to implement this so that you can smoothly transition to the next section
• Consider having your logo on this slide

PROBLEM

• Determine what problems your customers have as well as the ones you are solving
• This is supposed to be a direct setup for the next section

SOLUTION

• State how you will solve/tackle these problems, your USPs (Unique Seling Proposition)
• Try to be more specific, (saving X for Y client)

PRODUCT

• Include what your product looks like, as well as its strongest features and added value, and how it changes the customer’s life on the individual level
• If your product is technologically advanced or has a specific process included within its function, include IP protection (utility or design patent)
• Make sure that you do not spend too much time on the technical aspects

MARKET

• How big is the market in general? Make sure to specify with strong currencies (EUR or USD)
• Cover TAM, SAM, and SOM. Include the growth of the market (e.g., CAGR)
• Breaking down your market into more distinct segments can help

BUSINESS MODEL

• Monetary gains overview/your revenue model (be specific, differentiate recurring and non-recurring)
• How willing are your customers to spend their money on your service/product?
• What are your cost levels to generate profit

COMPETITORS

• Do not say you have no competition, basically, every business idea does
• Compare the effectiveness of all solutions and highlight competitive advantages
• You can use tables and/or graphs

TEAM

• Position this slide based on your past startup success (if you are a founder with a successful exit, feel free to put the slide after the introduction)
• Describe the team members of your management team (add pictures, their skills, past jobs, and expertise - anything relevant to show how competent they are). Add mentors, advisors, and investors (highlight success)

FUNDRAISING (ASK)

• How much are you raising
• how much have you raised so far, and from whom?
• What will you accomplish with this sum (e.g., x months runaway to accomplish X users or clients, Y revenue, and Z market presence)

CONTACT

• Leave all the information you consider necessary on the final slide
• Ideally legal form of your company, location, and your contact information

Additional content for a full deck:

GO-TO-MARKET STRATEGY

• Who are you selling your product to, and through which channels (ads, sales promotions, personal sales, partner network)
• Outline the sales process
• Define your barriers and limits, and explain how you mean to overcome them

TRACTION AND MILESTONES

• MRR and ARPU (average revenue per user)
• What are your metrics to date (CAC, LTV, churn)
• Registered users (linear progression, statistics) or indicate deal flow/pipeline if you’re using B2B (ideally including closing rate)
• Partnership, press and what you have overcome and how

FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS

• Show realistic assumptions and use relevant data (Consider including optimistic, realistic, and pessimistic scenarios)
• Show 3–5-year projections (GAAP) – the plan ultimately shows how ambitious you are, include historical data if you have it

Examples of past pitch decks and what could be improved about them today:

Revolut - a strong deck, however, they are missing a team slide, and their business model is a bit unclear

Transferwise - good, but they are lacking in the market size section and differentiators in the competition slide

BuzzFeed - the deck is too oriented on the product and they are missing the necessary financials, but they get away with it mainly because of their overall traction