The Winning Pitch Deck
‘Sell the problem you solve, not the product’ is one of those gems of business insights that most entrepreneurs have heard at some point in their journey. While there are many ways to apply this, we’ve found it particularly useful when preparing a pitch deck.
So, what exactly is a pitch deck? When presented with an opportunity to sell your idea, win over potential investors, or land that major client, a founder uses a pitch deck to help their audience understand and buy-in to their idea. It is simply a presentation created to tell the story of your business, what it does, how it does it and why it’s important. There are at least a half-dozen types of pitches that a founder should know, but in this article, we’ll be looking at two versions of a pitch deck.
The first is the email pitch or the ‘read-me’ version. This pitch is often used when a founder does not have the chance to physically pitch their product or service. Rather, they may be sending an email to a long list of potential investors or clients in the hopes of securing a meeting. The recipient would have to read and understand the information, draw conclusions and decide whether or not to pursue the opportunity.
This type of pitch deck tends to have more detailed information to help the reader make decisions about the company, without leaving too much room for unanswered questions.
Unless a founder is in an accelerator program like Tech By Her, which offers direct access to investors and the opportunity to pitch for investment, the email pitch is more often the first step in generating investor interest in a business.
In preparing your email pitch, here are a few pointers:
- Do your homework! Understand your prospective investor or client and let this knowledge be reflected in how you present your pitch. A pitch for an angel investor interested in the triple bottom line type of business may not work for a capitalist investor looking purely for potential profits.
- Be honest with your numbers and have evidence to back your claims. Don’t bloat your figures. Investors will always do due diligence before investing and lying about your numbers is sure to create distrust before you even have a foot in the door.
- Research effective email subject lines. It is critical that your subject line be creative enough to entice the recipient to open your email. No point in having a well-crafted pitch if people won’t even open the email in the first place.
- Choose the right time to send out your emails. An email at 4:50 pm on a Friday is probably not the best idea.
- Keep it short and sweet. A lengthy email can be negative especially with incredibly busy VC’s who have to scan through dozens of pitches a day. The trick is to keep it brief while providing just enough details for them to want to continue the conversation.
The second version which we will delve in shortly is the pitch deck that entrepreneurs present to investors or the ‘listen-to-me’ version, which should typically be between 10–15 slides. Why?
“What is important is to not go into the weeds of all the details because what you’re trying to do is give them enough information that they want more information. Your goal at meeting №1 is to get people interested enough that they want meeting №2”
- Jenny Lefcourt, General Partner at Freestyle Capital
So, what should your 10–15 slides contain?”
1. The Cover Slide:
This is the first thing investors see on your pitch deck. Make it count! It should ideally contain your logo, the name of your organization and a tag-line or a memorable catchphrase. You could also include the logo of the investor or VC you are pitching to. It adds a personalized touch, unless, you are pitching in front of a room full of investors as happens at the Mest Africa Challenge. In such cases, it’s best to keep it neutral. The cover should be visually appealing and should draw attention. You can find some design principles here to guide you in creating a beautiful cover slide.
2. Summary Slide:
This slide is optional, but it’s great to include when your presentation is being timed, to ensure that if you run out of time, you would have still highlighted key issues. The summary is a teaser of what’s to come and highlights the business and investment opportunity.
3. The Problem Slide:
StartUps often evolve out of efforts to solve challenges that exist within society. This makes it important to address the problem you are solving through your business in your pitch deck. Not clearly articulating the problem is one of the Biggest Mistakes Startups Make with their Investor Pitch Deck.
The problem validates your idea and supports the value placed on the potential market need for your product or service. The bigger the problem and the number of people facing it, the bigger the potential of your business. When talking about the problem, also highlight who and how many people are facing it, capturing demographics where possible and relevant. In presenting this slide, you may consider also offering a brief anecdote on how you discovered the problem.
4. The Solution Slide:
When proffering the solution in your pitch, demonstrate how valuable your solution is, the unique selling proposition that makes it different from competitors on the market and your ‘secret sauce’. Show, Don’t Tell. Use screenshots or visual representation where you can. Highlight the benefits of the solution to the customer and proof your solution works (have a sample of the product with you). Use this opportunity to justify why investors should have faith in your idea or product. You can hint on how people manage the problem now and how ineffective it is versus what your solution offers.
5. Market Slide:
Investors are looking at the growth potential of the business and the market opportunity here. This is highly dependent on the available market. This slide should summarize the market growth in the past and the future potential growth so that investors can see the upside and quantify the return on their investment. Include ways that your business could potentially disrupt how the market interacts with that industry or business. Make sure to include credible sources for your claims.
6. The Product or Service Slide:
Your solution is embodied in a product or service. Use this slide to describe exactly how you’ve captured the solution in a form that people will be willing to pay money for. Explain how it works and how unique it is from competitors. Use screenshots, pictures and videos of the actual product to make this slide come to life. Show how the market has received what you’re offering and include a powerful testimonial if possible.
7. The Business Model Slide:
Here’s where you describe how the business makes money (or intends to). Are you a premium, high-price offering, operating on a freemium model, or a budget offering with lower prices than the solutions on the market? Alex Osterwalder, in his book “Business Model Generation”, believes that innovation in business models is about creating value for companies, clients and society in general.
This slide is an opportunity to show how your company is using its business model to generate profit. Use data from your current operations, and let the numbers speak to your marketing, distribution, sales and revenue streams. It is important to emphasize profitability, scalability and repeatability to enhance the confidence of your potential investors.
8. Traction Slide:
Prove your business model works with the traction slide. Traction allows you to capture sales, downloads, press mentions, users, previous investors and any other progress your business has made since inception. Feel free to blend various content to offer different perspectives to how your business has traction.
If, however, you are an early growth stage business without much traction yet, you may choose to exclude this slide.
9. Financials/Projections Slide.
The truth is, for most start-ups, projections are a shot in the dark especially if they don’t have traction yet. But they are still essential in giving a general idea of where a business is headed and the likely outcomes with investment and continuous growth. For companies with traction, this slide lends credence to projections. However, don’t overwhelm the slide with too much detail. Make sure you understand what you’re presenting and can answer any follow-up questions that arise after your pitch.
Your financial forecast may also demonstrate how you intend to raise capital and explore other sources of funding. This enhances your credibility as a go-getter and investors will know you have done your homework by looking for more options.
Finally, make sure that the financials are in line with your business plan. You can also share major milestones here, visualizing it with a business roadmap to show you intend the business to grow.
10. The Team Slide:
This usually gets overlooked but it’s one of the most important parts of the pitch. At this stage of a business, investors want to know who’s at the helm of the ship, and what their expertise is to help the company achieve its vision.
This slide should include the business and technology leader (where relevant) and every other important member of your team and any existing investors or advisors. Only list the names and titles of these people. You can create an appendix that offers detailed bios of each person.
Feel free to move this particular slide up if you have a particularly strong team.
11. Closing Slide:
End on a high note! And make sure investors have the details to reach you after your pitch. This slide should ideally contain the contact details of the presenter or company and opens the floor for questions. It would be good to have your logo on this slide to remind the investors of who you are and for what you’ve just pitched.
You can conclude with an anecdote or a great quote. Something that will be sure to keep you in the mind of investors.
Finally, here are some final tips to tip your pitch deck over the edge:
· Dedicate each slide to a particular topic or theme.
· Place your logo on each slide. This is marketing logic and helps in creating brand awareness and association.
· To avoid cramming too much information on one sheet, use the principles of three. That is, no more than three ideas or concepts on a single slide.
· If you’d like to use photos but it’s taking so much of your space, try using the photo in the background, and then overlay your text to utilize space better.
· Keep the design elements consistent, sticking with the same font, colour, size and icons.
These guidelines are basic rules that will help you develop a winning pitch deck. But don’t forget that a large part of the success with your pitch depends on how ready you are, and how well you know your stuff. You need to be able to move in between slides and address various concerns investors may have without missing a bit. That means being flexible and not allowing your pitch deck to become a crutch, without which you can not speak on why your company is worth the time and effort of an investment.
Spend some time practising with your deck, working on your body language, tone of voice and presentation skills.
P.S: The MEST Africa Competition (MAC) has opened its call for application for the 2020 edition and it presents a valuable opportunity to practice pitching to high-level investors and learn from other entrepreneurs. The MEST Africa Challenge is the African tech startup pitch competition for early-stage companies based in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Senegal, Ethiopia, or Tanzania.
Finalists will compete on a global stage in front of entrepreneurs, investors, corporate partners and ecosystem players for the chance to win $50k in investment from the Meltwater Foundation, and the opportunity to join the MEST Africa incubator community.
Apply here.
