How to Create a Winning Pitch Deck: An Entrepreneur’s Guide

Are you a budding entrepreneur? Do you have a stellar business idea but just need that kickstart to launch your business? As a startup launcher, investors are often the gateway to getting your business off the ground. Investors want to know you can sell your idea, so if you sell it to them, they’ll be more likely to offer you funding. Thus, you need a winning pitch deck, one that you can manipulate to multiple file formats so you can present it in person and send it to potential investors.

In this guide, we’ll share how to make a winning pitch deck so you can pitch your product with confidence and style.

Chapters

Make Sure your Pitch Deck is Accessible

The first step is naturally to make sure that your optimised pitch deck can be sent over with zero formatting issues. This means that .ppx format actually isn’t the best file type for your presentation – especially if you’re sending it over email as a downloadable file. 

Instead, we recommend converting your pitch slides into PDF format with a PDF converter to ensure they’re readable and can be opened on all devices. PDFs are also preferable for investors and other stakeholders as they can edit and make notes on your PDFs using PDF tools like Adobe Acrobat. This added flexibility can also make it easier for follow-ups and negotiations if or when your pitch is given the green light!

Catch Their Attention From the Start

You need to hook people’s interest from the get-go for a winning pitch deck. The first one to three slides are absolutely crucial to get right and make a positive first impression. But the ‘get right’ part can vary depending on your business, industry or product. Do your research to understand what investors are looking for, and outline how your business meets a need succinctly in one of the first slides.

Ensure your cover slide is polished and you have a tagline or catchphrase that is eye and ear-catching. You might also consider the “elevator pitch” in your opening remarks, which is a brief description of the product or service you’re pitching, kept within the time it would take to catch an elevator with someone. It also helps to have a sleek and appealing design, so make use of some design tools to help make it look professional.

What Problem Are You Solving?

Innovative products and services need to solve a problem; it’s how they succeed. Your next slides need to quickly and efficiently describe the problem and how your company can help to solve it. This gives your audience a clear frame of reference and an excellent starting point and primes the audience to appreciate the impact of your product or service.

This is where a persona or personal touch can have a big impact. If you present an imaginary person and their problem and then outline how your company can solve that problem, you’re on your way to winning. Ideally, a video or animation presenting your product or service and visually demonstrating how it solves a user pain point is the best approach here. 

The next step in this part of your pitch deck is to show the scale and scope of the problem and the key market opportunity that you can present. You can show data on the size of your target market and demographic market research that you have undertaken. You should also show a potential return on investment (ROI) for your potential investors. 

The last part of this section needs to clearly explain why no other viable solution to this problem exists, or why your solution is markedly better. This should demonstrate your unique approach and set the audience up for the next section, which is your product or service. 

Demonstrate Your Unique Offering

Now, it’s time to introduce your unique product or service offering, having primed the audience and introduced them to the pain point or points you’re aiming to solve. This is where your pitch deck needs to focus on the product’s key features to elicit the pin drop or “aha!” moment from investors. 

You should demonstrate a sound business model as well through a detailed slide that will build on the market context and your offering’s unique value proposition. This will show how your company will make its revenue from customers, which investors are keenly interested in, as it will showcase how they’ll make their return on investment.

And remember – your pitch deck also needs to convey why your particular business model best fits the product offering and the customer need, all while solving that problem you introduced a few slides ago. Providing a concluding summary in your final slides can help drive your major selling points home, ensuring prospective investors are left with compelling bullet points to guide their decision-making process.

Revenue Generation and Traction

A successful slide deck needs to demonstrate that your business plan is not merely an abstract idea but is indeed a viable, valuable strategy that can deliver on its promises. While startup businesses (and even later-stage companies in some sectors) may not yet have revenue actively generated, there are other methods to show traction. These might include financial projections, user numbers, market research data, waiting lists or early minimum-viable product engagement. 

The deal is that you need to be able to demonstrate that potential customers are interested in the product or service and that they’ll be willing to pay for it at some point. A survey results slide is a great way to do this. 

Also, be certain to include social proofs, such as adoption by known brands, media and strategic partnerships, awards, positive press and any initial investment from recognised VCs or angel investors aside from those who are the audience for this pitch deck.

Your Team

Finally, your pitch deck should include an introduction to your team, which includes their qualifications, a brief outline of their prior experience, a professional headshot and something to humanise them. You can also include a sentence or two about your team’s culture and growth plans.

Creating A Winning Pitch Deck Strategy

In this guide, we’ve shared everything you need to know about creating a winning pitch deck to woo investors and generate buzz for your product or service. Follow this to a tee and you should have an intelligently designed and compelling pitch deck to support your proposal.

Remember, first impressions matter to investors. Start strong with an elevator pitch, and follow the steps to outline the customer, the pain points and how your product will solve their problem. Then gather as much information about revenue production as you can to help seal the seal for investors seeking a return on the funding they’ll offer you.

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