You may have a brilliant business idea but to bring it on the surface you need capital. You will have to raise funds to convert your plans into reality. The question here arises, how do we raise funds? To raise funds, you will have to approach investors, and there are different types of investors like Angel Investors, Venture Capital Firms[1], and Corporate Investors etc. whom you can approach for investing in your startup. Once you know who to pitch, then it’s all about creating a compelling Investor Pitch Deck .
Investor Pitch Deck is a brief presentation that provides investors with an outline of your business. The pitch deck generally consists of 15-25 slides in a PowerPoint presentation showcasing the key highlights of your business idea. In order to get investment, you will have to create a strong, meticulous and engaging pitch deck. This blog will help you understand how you can create a captivating Investor Pitch Deck.
To make your Pitch Deck more compelling and captivating, it is advised to use more visuals in your presentation, as it would keep the investors more engaged and focused. It should be easily comprehensible and easy to act on. You should avoid making your pitch deck wordier since your investors don’t have the time to read every line.
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What should be included in your Investor Pitch Deck to make it more appealing?
To make the Investor Pitch deck more appealing, the following details should be essentially included in your presentation:
Overview of the Company
In this slide, you should provide a brief summary of your Company which includes the name of the Company, logo along with your contact number. Other details like the location of your business, the experience of your management team etc. can also be added in the slide.
The vision of the Company
In this slide, you can give a crisp summary of the mission/vision of your Company. What your business is all about and what you are aiming to achieve in the near future. This slide is extremely important as it will serve as the basis of your pitch deck. an effort should be made to make this slide more captivating which catches the attention of the investors.
Details of the Team
For any business to run successfully, it is very important to have a competent team. Many investors believe in the fact that the Company’s team is one of the most important determinants of deciding on whether or not an investment should be made. You can give a short summary of the prior employment of the team showing their experience and their relevant expertise.
The Problem
This slide should describe the problem area on which your business is focused. As it is said, you really don’t have a business if you are not solving a problem; through this slide, you get the opportunity to describe the problem that exists. In the slide, you can give a detailed description of the problem which you are going to solve. Moreover, you can also mention the potential customers whose problems you will be solving.
Suggest Solutions
Once you have stated the problem that your Company intends to solve, the obvious next step is to provide Solution for the problem. The Solution that you offer will be one of the key factors those investors would lay focus on before offering investment into your business. An effort should be made to make this slide interesting so that it catches the eyes of the investors. Rather than using lengthy sentences, more visuals and infographics should be used to explain the Solution that your Company will offer.
The Solution that you offer should be concise and clear and should highlight how it is different and better as compared to existing solutions in the market.
Description of your Product/Service
In this slide should you should give a description of the product/service that your Company is offering. You must clearly articulate the details of product/service and also mention how your product/service is unique from other existing startups.
The description should be able to impart confidence to the investors about the uniqueness and effectiveness of your product in solving the problem it is set out to solve.
The Target Market
This slide of your Investor Pitch Deck should elaborate on the categories of customers your product/service will cater to. Before you launch any product/service, it is very important to conduct market research as it helps to decide the relevancy of the product in a particular market. Investors prefer investing in big opportunities with large addressable markets; therefore; it is advised to show in your pitch deck that your Company will be addressing a large part of the market.
Describe Your Competitors
When you enter into a business, it is obvious that you are going to face competition from existing businesses. And if you don’t have any competitors, it shows that your business is not lucrative enough, that is why others are not interested. Every business faces competition; it could be direct or indirect. In your pitch deck, you can give details of your competitors, and talk about the differentiating features from your competitors.
Having a better knowledge of your competitors will surely help you develop a better strategy to compete with them. Portraying your market research in Investor Pitch Deck will create a good impression in the minds of investors, as it shows that your product/service is a result of a thorough analysis of the market and the competition present.
Describe the business Model
This is one of the key slides that investors pay utmost attention to. This is because it is through your business model, that investors will be able to make out from where actually your business is going to earn money. After watching the slide, your investors should have a clear idea of certain questions like
- How will you make money in your business?
- On what pricing model will the business operate?
- What is going to be your exit strategy when you decide to end the business?
Talking about the exit strategy in your presentation may seem like an unnecessary thing to add, however, it holds great importance in the minds of investors and shows that you are not building castles in the wind and have a clear strategy in case things don’t go as per the plan.
Marketing Plan
Businesses need to build a relationship of trust and understanding with their customers. Marketing is a tool essentially used to create and maintain demand, relevance, reputation, competition and more. Without effective marketing strategies, your business is likely to close down due to the lack of sales. In your “Marketing Plan” slide you can talk about the strategies that you are going to opt for to market your product/service. Since marketing has such an important role in deciding the fate of any business, it becomes imperative to have a good marketing strategy and the same should be portrayed in your Investor Pitch Deck.
Financial Projection
In this slide, you give your financial projections for upcoming years. Generally, a three or five year’s projection is ideal. Although projections are a shot in the dark when dealing with startups, however, they do provide a basic idea of where the business is heading, and it’s potential outcomes. While presenting your financial projections, you need to make sure that your projections are not unrealistic. Don’t set unrealistic goals those which might be immediately questioned by investors.
Specify Finances
Even though this is the last slide to be presented, it is one of the most important slides of your investor pitch deck. After stating all the amazing pointers mentioned above, you have successfully gained the attention of the investors; this slide gives you an opportunity to state what you want.
In this slide, you specify the range within which you require financing from investors. It’s better to showcase a range of amount from minimum to maximum that you need for your business. This allows you to reach a large number of investors who can invest a suitable amount within the investment bracket.
What should you avoid while preparing an Investor Pitch Deck?
- Avoid making your pitch deck longer than 15-20 slides.
- Too many wordy slides should be avoided.
- You should avoid covering everything in the pitch deck. The information you provide should be concise and to the mark.
- Avoid using a lot of acronyms that investors may not understand immediately.
- Be cautious of poor layout, bad graphics or low quality “look and feel”.
Take Away
A compelling Investor Pitch Deck increases the probability of gaining investment for your startup. To make your Investor Pitch Deck more appealing and captivating the slides that you add in your presentation should be kept crisp, concise and engaging. You should avoid making your pitch deck wordier instead use more visuals and info graphics to make your presentation more engaging.
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