There’s a godawful variety of pitch deck templates on the market, and there’s one factor that the majority of them get fallacious: They neglect to say that the template is (meant to be) versatile. For some corporations, utilizing the template as-is works, however for others, it offers you a narrative that doesn’t movement, at finest, or doesn’t work, at worst. In my teardown for Encore’s pitch deck this week, for example (TechCrunch+ subscription required), the corporate begins with a staff slide — that’s daring, and it really works for some corporations, however not for others.
In broad strokes, the content material that goes into pitch decks is just about the identical — that’s form of the purpose, and it helps traders rapidly get a complete overview of the corporate they’re . You know the way it goes: What’s the issue, how are you fixing it, how massive is the market, what’s the competitors, what’s your staff, how a lot cash are you elevating… the same old.
But when there isn’t a set order, how do you identify what the fitting order is?
After I assessment pitch decks, whether or not for TechCrunch, with the assorted accelerators I work with or in my capability as a pitch coach, I typically come throughout an ungainly drawback. Many, in all probability most, of the individuals I work with haven’t given sufficient thought to the order of the slides. The essential factor to bear in mind is that you just don’t inform your story so that they match your slides; it’s the opposite method round. You utilize the slide to assist and improve your story.
The primary slide is the reply to “What’s uncommon about this firm.”
Which means two issues: In case your slides don’t work, or you’ll be able to’t get the pc to connect with the display screen (it occurs greater than you would possibly assume), should you for some motive can’t share your display screen (thanks Zoom…), or should you for another motive can’t use your slides, it is best to have a adequate deal with in your story to have the ability to current with out your slides. Extra importantly: The slides shouldn’t be the main focus of your consideration: Your story is. In case your Keynote or PowerPoint is stealing the present, you’ve already misplaced. The traders don’t have to place confidence in your presentation wizardry; they should place confidence in you and your capability to run an organization.
In different phrases: Lead together with your energy. Buyers see tons of pitches daily, and the temptation is to put in writing you off earlier than you’ve actually gotten began. To catch their consideration, your first slide needs to be one thing that surprises and delights. When you have unbelievable traction, lead with a graph displaying that. When you have the one staff that would presumably run this firm, that’s your first slide. Do you will have patented know-how? Is the issue uncommon and fascinating? Is the market shocking and rising quickly?
The primary slide is the reply to “What’s uncommon about this firm.” From there, inform the story the best way you’ll inform any story — discover a crimson thread you can observe throughout to its conclusion. A fundraising pitch isn’t a linear story, so there are not any guidelines to the place you can begin — so long as it helps a compelling narrative arc that you just observe from starting to finish.
There’s no “proper” order to the slides — however there’s a fallacious method. If you end up leaping forwards and backwards in your narrative so much, you’ve discovered the latter.
So how do you combat the fitting order? Write the titles of your slides on Submit-its or index playing cards, hand them to a good friend who hasn’t heard the story of your organization earlier than, and simply pitch your good friend the best way that feels probably the most pure. Ask your good friend to maintain monitor of what order you advised the story, and to place the index playing cards in that order. It feels kinda bizarre at first, however it works the overwhelming majority of the time. The one gotcha right here: If you end up circling again to the identical a part of the story (say, market dimension comes up greater than as soon as, otherwise you maintain coming again to your product), it’s an indication that you could tidy up that a part of the narrative. “Cut up slides” — i.e. the place you inform a part of the, say, go-to-market story at one level, and one other a part of the story at one other — signifies that you could consolidate. It will get complicated for the listener to maintain monitor of the message you’re attempting to get throughout.
Maintain a watch out for my weekly series of pitch deck teardowns to be taught from some unbelievable instance decks. And should you’ve already raised cash, why not submit your own deck to be shared with the startup ecosystem?
Leave a Reply