“Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like.”
—Brian Chesky
Slide Resources + Templates
How to Design a Better Pitch Deck - Y Combinator
Daniel Strangfeld Pitch Deck Example
Investor Deck Tips
Minimize words on the slides. People aren’t capable of reading and listening at the same time, so it is important that you speak most of the information while only providing a key visual or statistic to support what you say. The only exception to this is when you will be emailing the pitch deck (Pitch Book) instead of presenting in front of a live audience. It is still important to minimize words so the investor doesn’t have to read a novel to understand your product and ask. In this case it is acceptable to include more words because they are not competing with what you verbally share.
Include customer validation. By the time you are actively pitching to investors, having and demonstrating customer validation is key. During the early stages of the process it is recognized and accepted that you most likely won’t have a full-fledged customer base, but it is important that you can prove your product or service is on the right track and people are interested. This could look like showing a list of companies you are in talks with, results of customer interviews you’ve conducted, traction with a Kickstarter campaign – and on and on.
Visuals need to be clean and easy to understand. Do not show complicated charts. If your investor is trying to decipher a crazy chart, you have lost their attention and they are no longer listening to what you have to say.