presentation for a pitch

How to do a Pitch Deck Presentation (plus free templates!)

If you are in any kind of business or enterprise, you’re probably looking for every chance to make your company grow. Sadly, such opportunities don’t usually just fall from the sky. You need to convince your potential investors, clients, or partners to get the resources you need. And how do you convince them? With a Pitch Deck Presentation .

Here you can find a step by step guide on what your Pitch Deck should include. But since it is not always easy to do everything from scratch, here you can also find amazing templates, completely free. Their amazing visuals and diagrams will assure that you don’t only get your point across, but that you also stay on the mind of your audience after the presentation has already ended.

What is a Pitch Deck Presentation?

To get the funding you need for your company, you should look for investors. Now, there are thousands and thousands of businesses looking for wealthy investors. The way to stand out among all those other competitors is making them aware of your business potential. And how do you do this? Through a Pitch Deck.

A Pitch Deck is a brief presentation that you give to potential investors to convince them to bet their money in your company. It can be used face-to-face, or online. You can make a Pitch Deck presentation for a customer, or a client, or even a partner. The objective is to showcase your business plan, your product, and your over-all growth projections. In other words, you have to sell to your audience not only what your product is, but also what it could be .

You should plan carefully your Pitch Deck presentation. For a truly great presentation you’ll need a good understanding of both your own business and your potential investors. Consider the things that could be interesting for them. Maybe it is something that shows your business’ stability. Maybe it is the business model you’re going to implement. Or the expected ROI. But also consider the things about your company that are astounding and that differentiate it from the competition.

What to include in a Pitch Deck Presentation

There is some debate on how long a Pitch Deck presentation should be. Some say 10 slides should be more than enough to give a brief look over your business. Some say it should be 12. Others say 20 slides should be the absolute limit. So, which one is it?

One thing is for certain, it should not feel long. After all, you can have 40 slides and go through them faster than a 7-slide presentation filled with text. But, most likely, if anyone sees a 40-slide presentation their reaction will be of complete dread.  Boring your public even before you start is the worst idea, so try to keep it short and sweet as much as possible.

I suggest a 12-sections for an ideal Pitch Deck. This will allow you to give a complete overview of your business without being overwhelming. Ideally, each of these sections should have each one slide. However, this is not a rule written in stone. Maybe it is worth to expand a little more on a specific topic. The golden rule is to keep one idea per slide , even if that means making more slides. This way it will clearer for your audience, and it will be easier to keep their attention right where you want it.

On the opposite side, you don’t need to make a slide for every single one of these sections. Maybe some of these won’t apply to your business. Consider these sections more as a guideline of what you can use to show your company’s potential. Take, for example, the famous early Facebook Pitch Deck .

Early Facebook Pitch Deck from Ilya Friedman, CFA

As you can see, this Pitch Deck has no “Problem” or “Solution” sections. This is because Facebook wasn’t tackling any existing problems, but creating a new necessity. Focusing on a non-existing problem would have been useless to justify its importance. Instead, what they do is focus on what it does have: market validation. They expend several slides going through media data that shows how incredibly popular they are and their users’ demographics.

1- Introduction

Your introduction should be able to catch your audience’s attention from the get-go. Look at the Facebook Pitch Deck. Their introduction is just a quote. But it is a quote that presents them as a revolutionary idea that is changing the way people interact. This is what you should look for an introduction. A short way to present your business in a forward way, while also leaving your public wanting more. Storytelling can be a great tool for this.

Not every Pitch Deck includes a Team slide, but it can be extremely useful. Presenting the people making the decisions and showcasing their previous achievements can make investors more at ease. If you have members in your team that add a plus on how execution will be managed in your business, it can certainly be a good idea to dedicate a slide to it. Of course, it is up to you to decide if it’s useful or not. You can even change where exactly the slide should go, depending on which topic you feel it connects better.

This is a vital slide in (almost) any Pitch Deck Presentation. As Forbes mentions, it is more likely for an investor to bet on you if he can relate to the problem you are putting on the table. Or, in any case, if you can explain it well enough so he can understand its importance. The more inescapable a problem is, the more likely a solution for it will have a big demand.

4- Solution

This slide needs to be as concise and clear as possible. It should answer directly to the problem. Try to avoid offering different solutions. Even if you have a multi-faceted project, simplifying the solution you’re offering will make you look more focused and more trustworthy. Afterward, in the product description or the business model, you can elaborate on what else makes your product or services so special, but here, try to keep it as straightforward as possible.

There is also the possibility to join the problem and the solution in just one slide. You can see that in some of the templates below. This can be useful to show the direct relationship between the two of them. You can always do that, just remember that the priority is to be as clear as possible.

5- Product/Service

Here you can show your product in action. Show how it implements your solution and its effectiveness. The Facebook Pitch Deck is a great example of that. Even if there is no solution in this presentation, it makes an awesome job of portraying its product uniqueness. From its users’ profile to the networking value it offers, it gives the public a short but complete overview of what the product is about.

6- Traction and Market

This slide should also be straight to the point and data-based. There is nothing speaks better of growth and traction than a data-based graph. Slides such as this one are great to show everything you need with very few words. This is the moment to show your business is already successful, and that, with enough resources, it can become even bigger.

You should have done a good in-depth research on your target market before your Pitch Deck presentation.  Your market can determine your potential exit with investors. The market’s size, its willingness to expend their money can be a key factor when deciding where to invest. Showing statistics and customer feedback can be very useful to show how successful your product already is. Just check out the Facebook Pitch Deck. Many of its slides are focused on showing their popularity and reach. This is, after all, what attracts investors.

7- Business Model

This slide is not a requirement, but if done well, it can be a huge plus in your presentation. Show your audience how you are planning to make money. Proving that you have a concrete idea of how your whole business will operate will give you a great image in front of investors and clients. For this, slides with graphs such as funnels can be a great option to display how you plan your business to work.

8- Financial Forecasting

This section is where you show your projections to where you see your business going in the future. For example, you can present the expected growth in 3 or 5 years. Sometimes this section can be directly related to the investment section and how would you invest the money to make your company grow.  As always, this depends on your own presentation and the order you want to give it. Just remember that having a realistic, transparent approach to what to expect in the future can really make a difference for your audience.

9- Competition

Even if your idea is great, it is highly unlikely that you are the very first person who came up with something like that. In most cases, you’ll have to deal with some competitors offering similar products or services to the same target market. It is important that you have a deep understanding of your business and its differential value. Only then you can really show investors what makes your business unique and why they should be on you instead of any of the others. Yo need to know where you are standing on compared to your competitors and diagrams are a great way to showcase that. SWOT analyses are also a great way to convey both yours and your competition’s strengths and weaknesses.

10- Desired Investment

Even if everything else is great, your Pitch Deck won’t be really successful until you actually get the fundraising you need. And to get it, you have to eventually ask for it. Presenting a plan of what you expect to do with it and how it will be used to grow the business will show your audience how grounded the management is.

11- Closure/Contact

Finally, you should invest some time in making a good closure for your presentation. In Facebook’s Pitch Deck, is another great quote, that makes the presentation end at a high note. You should certainly aim for that. But even if it’s not possible, you should at least have a slide dedicated to contact information. After hearing your presentation, your audience should be completely clear on how to invest and what would be the next steps. At the bare minimum, they should know how to contact you again. After all, the whole purpose of the Pitch Deck is to build relationships with potential investors.

The 4 Best Pitch Deck Templates Online

Here you can download for free some of our best Pitch Deck Templates. Some are long, up to 24 slides. Others are sample slides that you can add in even if you are already halfway through your presentation. As always, all of these are easy to edit, so you can pick which fits better with what you’re trying to convey.  These templates will give you that little extra that will take your presentation to the next step.

If you need any help editing these templates, you can always check our Ultimate PowerPoint Template Guide .

Start-up Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template

As its title says, this template is ideal for start-ups. You will find anything you’ll ever need for your Pitch presentation in this 19-slide pack. It has slides for showcasing your product, from the ideation process, to the prototype, all the way to the finance planning stages. This template has all kinds of diagrams that will help you make a consistent case to get your investors’ attention. It starts with an overview slide that will allow your audience to know exactly where they are standing on each part of the presentation. Or, you can also use the overview slide as a closing summary. As always, your imagination is the limit of what you can do with these templates.

This pack includes Venn diagrams to show innovation and start-up ecosystems, maps in case you’re aiming for a worldwide plan, pyramid visuals, and much more. It also includes a target audience slide that you can use to showcase your market analysis and several charts.

You can also find this template’s version for Google Slides here.

Copywriter Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template

This template is ideal for those looking to get their services as a copywriter in the spotlight. It will help you showcase your strengths and abilities as a professional, while also exposing the different types of services you offer. While this is a pack focused on copywriting it can also be edited and used for any kind of service you offer. Slides for topics such as your portfolio and your working process will be useful even if copywriting isn’t exactly what you do.

For those that do copywrite, the slide of the content writing cycle is amazing. It will allow you to show your audience in a really thorough way what is exactly what you do and how you do it. This will help your potential clients to understand your work better. But it is also a great way to showcase where you think your value is and what differentiates you from other professionals.

This template also includes slides ideal to show the Competition section of your Pitch Deck presentation. It has charts and graphs to showcase the differences between you and others. It also helps you connect pricing to the value of the services you offer.

For this one there is also a Google Slides version you can download here.

Playful Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template

This 10 slide Pitch Deck template will give you the tools to make a straight-to-the-point presentation, but without losing your playful side. It has great tools that will make you able to show every part of your business and get your point across. This presentation template is data-based, so you’ll find graphs and diagrams that could be useful to convince potential investors.

This slide, for example, is great for showing your business growth. Investors are more likely to bet on a business with good and stable growth. This slide could help you not only show off your financial milestones, but also your growth expectations and financial forecasting.

The playful visuals of this pack will certainly stay in your audience’s minds for a while. Take this puzzle slide, for example. It is great to connect the problems you have identified with the solution your business brings forward. It will make a memorable way to represent your solution and make sure it stands out from others.

We also have a Google Slides Template for this design.

Ultimate Product Hunt Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template

This megapack of 24 slides has a little bit of everything. Circle graphs? You got it. Process diagram? You got it. Bar graphs? That too. You can pick from the amazing assortment of types of slides on this pack, and use those that will showcase your business better. With this template, it is up to you to show the best and to cause a great impression on your audience.

With slides such as this, you will be able to convey what you think will give a better idea of what your business really is about. For example, this great SWOT analysis template. By showing you know you are aware of both your strengths and weaknesses, you’ll show potential investors or clients that aware of your surroundings and your own shortcomings.

This Pitch Deck pack comes with over a dozen slides of different graphs, diagrams, and visual aids. It has maps if you want to show your worldwide reach, it has different types of pyramid graphs, process diagrams, and more. It really has everything you could need for an outstanding Pitch Deck presentation.

Independent slides

These templates, while they are not enough on their own to make a complete presentation, they can be a great complement for others. All of these bring different things to the table you can take advantage of and make a better-rounded Pitch Deck.

Pitch Deck Presentation Templates

This template pack has 3 incredible slides that would fit perfectly into any Pitch Deck. First, its vision and mission slide will allow you to give your audience a more in-depth look at what your business is really about. It also has a great geometrical process diagram. And finally, it has a roadmap slide, that will allow you to showcase the steps to be taken to achieve a specific goal. All these slides have beautiful bright colors that will assure that your audience’s attention remains exactly where you want it: In your presentation.

Investor Relations Presentation Template

Even if this pack is not directly a Pitch Deck template, its slides can be extremely useful as part of one. Its slides are great to convey what kind of investment would you be interested in, and what they would get from the partnership. It has an Investing Strategy Slide that is useful for the “Desired Investment” section of your Pitch Deck. If your audiences are aware of what their resources could be used for and the impact they could have, they will be more likely to consider making an investment.

This template also includes a Company Strategy slide, which is great to show the overall workings inside your enterprise. This template is great for showing your business model and introducing your audience to your goals and objectives.

Pitch Deck 3

This is another 3-slide pack with great visual aids that would fit amazingly into any Pitch Deck. It has an introduction slide that could be used to present your company or your product. But it also has a really eye-catching business model slide. This one is a vital part of your Pitch Deck since it will allow your audience to understand how your business works and make them feel more confident in investing. It also includes a Problem-Solution slide. This will allow you to present the relationship between the two points, rather than presenting each by their own side.

Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template

Here you can find some more amazing independent slides, ready to be used in a Pitch Deck. You can use the Start-up Project Timeline to show the steps required to complete a specific task or goal. The introduction slide is great to give a general overview of your business or your product. It includes several icons, so you can showcase different aspects of your company. Finally, this template pack also has a Market Slide. A slide like this one is vital in any Pitch Deck, since being able to prove your knowledge of your market is a big step for being trusted by investors.

Creative Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template

Finally, you can use this creative Pitch Deck Slides pack to complement any presentation you want, whether it’s one of the above or one completely of your own. It has a market segmentation slide, great to introduce your segment to your traction/market section. There are many different aspects that can be part of your differential value. One thing that can distinguish yourself from other competitors can be the way you present yourself to your potential customers. That is why a slide for your Marketing Strategy can be so important.

Making Your Own Pitch Deck

So, which one should you use? Sadly, there is no easy answer to this question. How long your presentation should be, and what slides you should use for your Pitch Deck depends entirely on you. It depends on what you believe are your strengths, what do you think your differential value is, and so on. It depends on what numbers you have that could be eye-catching for potential investors.

Good thing is, there is no wrong answer either. Think carefully about what you want your audience to get out of it, and what specific information will convey this idea the best. Do you think one of the best things your business has is its stability? Then showing a graph of steady growth might be a good idea. Or maybe the best aspect is that there is a huge market to tap on. Then making an extra effort in the market slide is a must. Really, really knowing your business is the only way to make a truly great Pitch Deck presentation.

And, as always, remember that the slides are just a tool. There is a limit on how much a good presentation design can do when the speaker is not at their best. The delivery is a vital part of every presentation, and even more in this kind of presentations. A Pitch Deck should be highly persuasive. Whether it is to an investor, a client, or a partner, the challenge is to convince them of the potential of your business. To make them see not only what the company is but what it can become (with their help). This is why the speaker should be someone who believes in the product and is passionate about it.

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How to create a successful pitch presentation

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Anete Ezera December 18, 2023

When it comes to startups and entrepreneurs, getting that first big deal can be tricky. It can be hard to put your business idea forward in a way that’s going to convince potential investors or partners. This is where pitch deck presentations come in handy as they are often short and precise. The goal is to explain your idea in a way that gets straight to the point and is easy to understand. These quick, punchy presentations are critical for those looking to make a strong first impression and secure funding for their business venture. Let’s talk about what a pitch presentation is and how you can create one with the help of Prezi. 

What is a pitch presentation? 

To get a better understanding of what a pitch presentation really is, let’s look at some of the important elements that make one: 

Conciseness: It’s typically short, usually 10-20 slides. This fast pace enables the presenter to captivate the audience and maintain attention. 

Clarity: The aim is to keep the content clear and straightforward, avoiding complicated jargon so that the message is understood. 

Powerful storytelling: It will often tell an interesting story about the problem being solved, the solution offered, and the potential market opportunity. 

Key information: Because of its fast-paced nature, it will often be packed with vital information like the business model, financial projections, and the unique value proposition of the product or service being pitched. 

Appealing visuals: Like other styles of presentation, having visuals that can draw in the audience is a must. Pitch deck presentations will often use graphics and minimal text to convey information better. 

To get a visual understanding of what a pitch presentation is, explore the following pitch presentation:

The evolution of pitch presentations: a look back and ahead

Ever wondered how pitch presentations became such a big deal? They started as simple PowerPoint slides but have evolved into something much more dynamic. This journey reflects changes in business, technology, and what investors look for. In the early days, pitch decks were pretty straightforward – just a few slides outlining a business idea. But as technology advanced, so did the expectations. Now, we see pitch presentations with interactive elements, attractive visuals, and even storytelling elements. This evolution shows how we’ve learned to communicate complex ideas more effectively. Understanding this history helps us understand how pitch decks have evolved into what they are today. 

Is a pitch deck the right presentation style for me? 

A pitch deck is perfect if you’re looking to present a business idea, especially if you’re aiming to attract investors or partners. It’s designed to be concise yet impactful, focusing on the key aspects of your business or project. Think of it as showcasing your business- you’ve got a limited amount of time to make a strong impression. So, if you’re in the early stages of a startup, seeking funding, or trying to win over some stakeholders with a clear, compelling story about your business or idea, a pitch presentation could be just what you need.

People who might also benefit from pitch presentations 

Pitch presentations are a versatile tool that can greatly benefit a wide range of individuals and organizations. We’ve discussed the role of pitch decks for startups and entrepreneurs, so let’s look at some other instances where these presentations might be particularly useful: 

• Business executives: Established business owners can use pitch decks to propose new projects or strategies to stakeholders, boards, and investors. 
• Sales and marketing professionals: To pitch products or services to potential clients or partners, highlighting their unique selling points.
• Non-profit organizations: For presenting their mission, impact, and funding needs to donors, sponsors, or grant agencies.
• Researchers and academics: To secure funding or collaboration for research projects, especially when presenting to funding bodies or at academic conferences.
• Inventors and innovators: To attract investors, partners, or attention to their new inventions or innovations. 
• Freelancers and consultants: To pitch their services and unique value proposition to potential clients or agencies.

What makes a good pitch deck presentation?

When we talk about pitch presentations, it’s important to compare the differences between a great pitch deck and the ones that just don’t hit the mark. 

What a pitch deck should look like 

A successful pitch deck should have a clean, uncluttered design . This way your audience can take in the information without being distracted by over complicated slides. Any images used should be of high quality, and be relevant to the text. A pitch presentation should flow logically , so the information provided tells a story about what you’re aiming to achieve. 

The colors used should match that of your brand, often logos and fonts will correspond with the theme of the brand, organization, or company. This is a great way to reinforce who you are and what you stand for. A good pitch presentation will captivate the audience by using each slide to convey a single key point, this way, the message is concise and easily absorbed. 

Pitfalls to avoid 

Now, let’s talk about what a pitch presentation shouldn’t look like. If you want to entice your audience, don’t cram too much information onto your slides . This is going to overwhelm your audience and make their attention span drop. Don’t stray away from key points by including irrelevant information. You want your pitch deck to persuade people to take action and have faith in you and your product, so don’t go off on a tandem.

Use a language tone that’s relatable to everyone – don’t use overly technical terms or industry-specific jargon. This can be off-putting for potential investors who don’t work in your field. One of the biggest mistakes you could make is to be inconsistent with your theme, color, and fonts. Remember, the idea is to appear professional, and inconsistency screams amateur. 

Things to consider when preparing to create your pitch presentation

Although it might be appealing to dive straight into making your presentation, there are certain points you should consider to get the best out of your pitch. Here are some things to think about when planning: 

Know your audience

Consider who you’re presenting to and include criteria that are going to be appealing to them. For instance, what resonates with venture capitalists may be different from what appeals to potential partners or customers. 

Engaging storyline

You want to hold your audience’s attention throughout the whole presentation, so tell your story in a way that builds anticipation and makes them want more. 

Keep each slide simple. Your audience will respond better to clear, concise content that’s not too busy and complicated. Keep text easily readable and appropriate for all levels of knowledge. 

Key messages

Plan out the purpose of each slide beforehand, that way you can be sure the key messages come across well. 

You can include things like graphs or charts to simplify complex data, but do this in a way that doesn’t overcrowd the slides. Remember to stay consistent with colors and fonts to reinforce clarity. 

Data and validation

Do your research when preparing to make your pitch presentation. It’s crucial to back up your claims, such as market research, growth projections, or case studies. Using real-world examples is a good way to back up your credibility. 

Business model

Think about how you’re going to explain your business model in a way that comes across clearly. Always be honest about your revenue streams, pricing strategies, and your position in the market. 

Investors often invest in people as much as they do ideas, so think about how you can highlight the strengths of yourself and your team. 

You need to clearly state what you’re asking for. Whether it’s funding, support, or a partnership, make sure your audience knows what you need from them. 

Practice your pitch so that it flows well and fits with the time constraints. Rehearsals are great for realizing flaws, which means you can rectify where needed to ensure the best possible pitch on the day. Be prepared to answer questions and address potential concerns- you can do this by listing some possible queries and preparing an adequate answer. 

Beginning and ending

How can you draw the audience in from the minute you start speaking? A successful pitch presentation often starts with a bang, such as a powerful punch line, a vibrant image, or a brain teaser. When it comes to ending your pitch, summarize the main points and offer a chance for discussion. 

Discover other crucial and noteworthy tips on creating and delivering pitch presentations by watching the following video:

Presenting your pitch deck presentation

Your presenting skills must be just as effective as the pitch presentation you’ve created. Imagine spending all that time and effort on making each slide perfect, to go and blow your opportunity by poorly presenting it. Here are some tips to help you own the stage for your pitch: 

Body language

• Posture: Stand tall and proud. A good posture reflects confidence and keeps you physically engaged. 
• Gestures: Gestures should be natural and purposeful. For example, you might use hand gestures to emphasize important points. Avoid being overly dramatic with gestures as this can be distracting. 
•  Movement: Moving can add energy to your presentation, but be careful not to pace around the stage, as this can make you appear nervous. A simple step forward when you’re reaching the punchline of your story can elevate impact. Similarly, turning your body to face different sections of the audience can make everyone feel included. 

Facial expressions

• Eye contact: Make eye contact with your audience, and maintain it. Don’t just focus on one area, move your gaze around the room to add a personal element to your presentation. This is going to help you build a connection and keep them engaged. 
• Smiling: Smile where appropriate. This is going to make you seem approachable and passionate about your subject. However, you don’t want to unnerve your audience by wearing a forced smile throughout the whole presentation. 
• Expressiveness: Your facial expressions should match the tone of what you’re saying. They can be a powerful way of transporting emotions from the screen onto the audience. 

Voice control

• Volume: You want everyone in the room to hear you, so speak loudly, but avoid shouting. 
• Pace: Remember that your audience needs to clearly hear every word for maximum impact, you can do this by keeping a moderate pace throughout. Speaking too fast can be hard to keep up with, and talking too slowly can become boring. 
• Tone: Use a varied tone to maintain interest, as monotone speech can be disengaging. For instance, you could change the pitch and intensity of your tone when discussing something positive or exciting. 
• Duration: Stick to the allotted time for your pitch presentation. Running too long can lose your audience’s interest, while cutting it too short may not deliver enough information. 
• Pauses: Pauses are handy for creating suspense, or allowing key points to sink in. They can also be helpful for a smooth transformation from one topic to another. 

Dealing with nerves

• Practice: The more familiar you are with your content, the less nervous you’re going to be. Practice your body language cues, speaking clearly, and using the right facial expressions. 
• Visualization: Envision a successful pitch presentation. It’s when we worry about the things that could go wrong that causes anxiety to kick in. 
• Relaxation techniques: Before taking the stage, simple techniques can help with nerves, such as mindfulness practices and progressive muscle relaxation. 
• Deep breathing: Practice deep breathing to control nerves and keep a steady voice. This helps in delivering a calm and confident pitch. 

If you’re struggling with nerves, watch the following video on how to not be nervous for a presentation:

Audience interaction

• Question prompts: To make your pitch presentation more interactive, encourage audience participation and questions. 
• Read the room: Always be aware of the audience’s reactions and adjust accordingly. If they seem disinterested, you might need to change your approach or pace.

As a pitch deck presenter, your role is to deliver your content in a way that makes an impact. Mastery of body language, voice, and timing all play a crucial role in yielding the results you want. 

Prezi: Your tool for creating pitch presentation

If you’re aiming to create a pitch presentation that sets you apart from competitors, Prezi is the tool for you. Here’s why: 

Unique presentation style

Unlike traditional slide-by-slide presentations, Prezi allows you to create a more fluid and dynamic pitch deck. You can move freely around the canvas, zooming in on details and out to the bigger picture. This helps in structuring your pitch presentation in a way that best suits your story, making it more engaging for your audience.

Zooming user interface

This is one of Prezi’s signature features. You can zoom in to focus on specific details and zoom out to show the overall context of your idea. Since pitch presentations are all about emphasizing key points, this feature is essential. 

Visual storytelling

The best way to tell a story through your pitch presentation is to turn complicated information into digestible parts. With Prezi, you can use appealing visuals to simplify ideas and make data easier to interpret. Prezi supports images, visuals, graphics, and animations, so you can create a pitch that captivates your audience. 

Experience visual storytelling in action in a Prezi presentation:

Templates and customization 

Prezi offers a variety of templates , which can be a great starting point for your pitch presentation. These templates are fully customizable, meaning you can align the design with your brand’s look and feel. 

As an example, take a look at this product launch template by Prezi. This would be a solid choice for a pitch deck presentation, particularly if you’re about to launch a new product or service. It provides a structured layout that guides you through the essential elements of a pitch. If you’re hoping to make a good impression, the design of this template looks clean and professional while focusing on key points. It allows you to highlight what sets your product apart in a compelling way. 

Like most Prezi templates, it offers customization options. You can tweak colors, add your images, and moderate the content to align with your brand and product. These are all essential elements for creating a personalized and relevant pitch. 

Collaboration tools

Prezi’s collaboration features come in handy when you’re working with a team. Multiple people can work on the pitch presentation at the same time, offering valuable inputs and different ideas. This way, your pitch deck presentation can reach its full potential. If you like to delegate tasks and give each team member a role in the creation, this feature is great for coordinating efforts. 

Prezi Video

For remote pitching, Prezi Video is the perfect solution as it allows you to add a video of yourself presenting alongside your content. This enables you to make your pitch just as personal as it would be in person. 

To explore how Prezi Video works, watch the following video:

Path tool for story flow

To help create a natural flow for your story, Prezi lets you set paths to move between topics. This easily guides your audience through your presentation in a logical way, which is crucial when it comes to pitch decks. 

Prezi is keeping up with the AI revolution by bringing you a set of AI presentation tools: AI text editing and layout features. These features give you text and layout suggestions, so you don’t need to stress about finding the right words or structure. It can adjust to your writing style, keeping your pitch personal to you but with added clarity and relevance. Discover more about Prezi AI features here .

Successful business pitch presentation examples

Many well-known companies famously used pitch decks in their early stages to secure funding and partnerships. Here’s some you may know: 

Back in 2008, Airbnb was just starting out and needed funding, so they created a pitch deck. This wasn’t just any pitch deck—it was really clear and straightforward, showing off their business model and what they hoped to achieve. They ended up raising $600k from an angel investment round. Their pitch presentation was so successful that people still talk about it today. It’s a classic example of how a good pitch can really set a company on the path to success.

Did you know about Uber’s beginnings? On their ninth anniversary, Garrett Camp, one of the co-founders, shared their first pitch deck. It was a 25-slide presentation that they used way back when they were just starting out. This pitch presentation was a major part of their strategy and really helped in the company’s early growth and evolution. It’s pretty impressive to think how those early slides contributed to making Uber the giant it is today. 

We all know how significant Facebook is when it comes to social media platforms, but it’s all down to their original pitch presentation back in 2004 that propelled them into such success. The pitch deck contained mix-and-match slides for summarizing Facebook’s value proposition, key metrics, and audience demographics. Shortly after the launch of facebook.com, Eduardo Saverin, who was 21 at the time, took their presentation to New York. He was there to pitch Facebook’s Ad platform to potential clients. Now, fast forward to today, Facebook for Business has grown massively. It’s the second biggest digital advertising platform, just behind Google, and holds more than 25% of the market share.

These examples are not only inspirational but show just how important pitch presentations are. A strong pitch is critical for making a good first impression, forming business relations, and opening up opportunities for scaling your business. 

Final thoughts on pitch deck presentations

To wrap up, pitch decks are more than just presentations; they’re your chance to make an impact. They’re vital for anyone looking to get their idea off the ground, especially in the startup world. So when you’re putting one together, keep it straightforward, focus on your key points, and make sure it reflects what you and your business are all about. A well-crafted pitch presentation can open doors, attract investment, and set the stage for your future success. Remember, simplicity and clarity are your best tools. Good luck, and here’s to making your ideas shine!

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Blog Graphic Design 30+ Best Pitch Deck Examples, Tips & Templates

30+ Best Pitch Deck Examples, Tips & Templates

Written by: Ryan McCready Jul 04, 2023

A startup is, by definition, a fast-growing company. And to grow you need funding.

Enter the pitch deck.

In this post, we’ll look at the best startup pitch deck templates from heavy-hitters such as Guy Kawasaki, Airbnb, Uber and Facebook. We’ll also uncover the secrets of their successful startup pitch decks, and how you can leverage them to attract investor dollars, bring on new business partners and win new client contracts.

Haven’t created a winning pitch deck before? Then, use Venngage’s Presentation Maker to easily edit the templates — no technical expertise required.

 Table of contents (click to jump ahead):

• What is a pitch deck?

30 pitch deck examples for businesses

What makes a good pitch deck, what is the difference between a pitch deck vs business plan, pitch deck faq, create a pitch deck in 4 easy steps, what is a pitch deck .

A pitch deck is a presentation created to raise venture capital for your business. In order to gain buy-in and drum up financial support from potential investors, these presentations outline everything from why your business exists, to your business model, progress or milestones , your team, and a call-to-action.

The best startup pitch decks can help you:

• Prove the value of your business
• Simplify complex ideas so your audience can understand them (and get on board)
• Differentiate your business from competitors
• Tell the story behind your company to your target audience (and make that story exciting)

What is a pitch deck presentation?

A pitch deck presentation is a slideshow that introduces a business idea, product, or service to investors. Typically consisting of 10–20 slides, a pitch deck is used to persuade potential investors to provide funding for a business. It serves as a comprehensive overview of your company, outlining your business model, the problem you solve, the market opportunity you address, your key team members, and your financial projections.

1. Buffer pitch deck

Industry: Social Media Management

Business model: Subscription-based SaaS (Software as a Service)

Amount raised: $500k, according to Buffer’s co-founder Leo Widrich .

Location: San Francisco, California, USA

Website: Buffer.com

Key takeaway : The traction slide was key for Buffer: it showed they had a great product/market fit. If you have great traction, it’s much easier to raise funding.

What’s interesting about Buffer’s pitching process was the issue of competition, as that’s where many talks stalled. Investors became confused, since the social media landscape looked crowded and no one was sure how Buffer differed.

Eventually, they created this slide to clear the air:

To be frank, I’m still confused by this addition to the Buffer pitch deck, but perhaps their presentation would have cleared things up.

In any case, we’ve recreated Buffer’s pitch deck with its own traction, timeline and competitor slides, plus a clean new layout and some easy-to-customize icons:

Design tip : don’t forget to add a contact slide at the end of your pitch deck, like in the business pitch example below.

Because sometimes you’re going to pitch to a small room of investors. Other times, it will be to an auditorium full of random people in your industry. And I can guarantee that not everyone is going to know your brand off the top of their head.

You should make it extremely easy for people to find out more info or contact your team with any questions. I would recommend adding this to the last slide, as shown below.

Alternatively, you could add it to the slide that will be seen the longest in your pitch deck, like the title slide. This will help anyone interested write down your information as event organizers get things ready.

Related:  Creating a Pitch Deck? 5 Ways to Design a Winner

2. Airbnb pitch deck

Industry: Hospitality, Travel, and Technology

Business model: Online marketplace (peer-to-peer) for lodging and travel experiences

Amount raised: $20k at three months and $600k at eight months (seed), according to Vator .

Website: airbnb.com

Key takeaway: A large marketplace, impressive rate of traction and a market ready for a new competitor are the factors which made Airbnb stand out early on, says Fast Company. The organization’s slide deck clearly demonstrates these points.

Your pitch deck should explain the core information in your business plan in a simple and straightforward way. Few startups have done this as well as Airbnb.

We’ve re-designed Airbnb’s famous deck as two light and airy sample pitch deck templates. The focus here is on engaging visuals, with minimal text used.

Airbnb fundraising slide deck

This type of deck is also called a demo day presentation .  Since its going to be viewed from a distance by investors while you present, you don’t need lots of text to get your message across. The point is to complement your speech, not distract from it.

Another great thing about Airbnb’s fundraising slide deck format is that every slide has a maximum of three sections of information:

As one of the most popular presentation layouts , the rule of three design principle has been drilled into my head. And for good reason!

Here’s one of the slides that demonstrates why this pitch deck design tip works:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:  Learn how to customize this pitch deck template by watching this quick 8-minute video.

Minimalist Airbnb pitch deck template

This simple sample pitch deck template is clean and incredibly easy to customize, making it perfect for presentation newbies.

Don’t forget to insert your own tagline instead of the famous “Book rooms with locals, rather than hotels” slogan. Hint: your tagline should similarly convey what your business offers. Airbnb’s pitch deck offers up tantalizing benefits: cost savings, an insider’s perspective on a location and new possibilities.

Design tip : Click the text boxes in our online editor and add your own words to the pitch decks. Duplicate slides you like, or delete the ones you don’t.

Related:  How to Create an Effective Pitch Deck Design [+Examples]

3. Uber pitch deck

Industry: Transportation, Technology, and Logistics

Business model: On-demand transportation network and logistics platform

Amount raised: $1.57M in seed funding in 2010, reports Business Insider .

Website: uber.com

Key takeaway : Successful pitch decks clearly highlight the key pain point (the inefficiency of cabs) and a tantalizing solution (fast, convenient 1-click ordering).

Uber co-founder Garrett Camp shared the company’s very first pitch deck from 2008 via a  Medium post .

While there’s a surprising amount of text, it still manages to hit on every major part of their business plan succinctly — including key differentiators, use cases and best/worst-case scenarios.

Want something similar? We’ve updated the classic Uber pitch deck template with a sharp layout:

Uber investor deck

Many of the best pitch deck presentations out there are rather brief, only covering a few main points across a handful of slides. But sometimes your deck needs to provide more information.

There’s nothing wrong with having a longer investor pitch deck, as long as you switch up the slide layouts throughout — no one wants to see basically the same slide (just with different metrics or points) 25 times over.

This sample pitch deck template we created based on the infamous Uber deck has 20 or more slides and a diversity of layout options:

Design tip : Replace the photos with your own or browse our in-editor library with thousands of free professional stock images. To do so, double click any image to open our “replace” feature. Then, search for photos by keyword.

Blue Uber slide deck

In this navy version of the Uber pitch deck template, we’ve added bright colors and creative layouts.

Again, it’s easy to swap out the icons in our online editor. Choose from thousands of free icons in our in-editor library to make it your own.

Related : 9 Tips for Improving Your Presentation Skills For Your Next Meeting

4. Guy Kawasaki pitch deck

How much did they raise?  Guy Kawasaki’s Garage Capital raised more than $315 million dollars for its clients, according to one estimate .

Key takeaway : Avoid in-depth technical discussions in your pitch deck. Focus on the pain point you’re solving, how you’ll solve it, how you’ll make money and how you’ll reach custvomers.

Guy Kawasaki’s 10 slide outline is famous for its laser focus. He’s renowned for coining the 10/20/30 rule : 10 slides, 20 minutes and no fonts smaller than 30 point.

While you may be tempted to include as much of your business plan as possible in your pitch deck, his outline forces you to tease out your most important content and engage investors or clients within a short time span.

We’re recreated his famous outline in two winning templates you can adapt and make your own:

Gradient Guy Kawasaki pitch deck

This clean pitch deck template has all the sections you need and nothing you don’t.

Kawasaki’s format steers you towards what venture capitalists really care about : problem/solution, technology, competition, marketing plan, your team, financial projections and timeline.

Read our blog post on persuasive presentations for more design and speaking tips.

Design tip : Quickly add in charts and graphs with our in-editor chart maker. You can even import data from Excel or Google sheets.

Blue Guy Kawasaki pitch deck

This more conservative pitch deck template design keeps all the focus on the core information.

Remember: opt for a 30-point font or larger. This will force you to stick to your key points and explain them clearly. Anything smaller, and you’ll risk losing your audience — especially if they’re busy reading while tuning out what you’re actually saying.

5. Sequoia capital pitch deck

How much did they raise? Sequoia Capital is actually a Venture Capital firm. According to TechCrunch , they’ve raised almost $1B for later-stage U.S. investments.

Key takeaway : “If you can’t tell the story of the company in five minutes, then you’re either overthinking it or you haven’t simplified it down enough.” – Mike Vernal, Sequoia Capital

VC firm Sequoia Capital has its own  10-slide pitch deck format to rival Guy Kawasaki’s famous example that we’ll take a look at a little later on. Its highly-curated, clarified format shines a spotlight on innovative ideas.

As the video above suggests, effectively communicating your mission, not just listing features, is key. Below is our take on the Sequoia Capital pitch deck example; you’ll find it clean, clear and easy to create.

Design tip : Click the blue background and select a new color from our color wheel (or one of your own brand colors via My Brand Kit, available with Venngage for Business ) to create a pitch deck with your branding.

Related:  How to Make Successful Financial Pitch Decks For Startups

Blue and pink iconics pitch deck

Ready to try it for yourself? Add a pop of color to your version of the Sequoia pitch deck template with this pink and blue slide deck. The contrasting colors will make your information stand out.

6. Facebook pitch deck

How much did they raise? $500K in angel funding from venture capitalist Peter Thiel (first round).

Key takeaway : If you don’t have revenue traction yet, lean heavily on other metrics , like customer base, user engagement and growth.  Use a timeline to tell a story about your company.

The best pitch decks tell the real story about your company or brand. You should not only want to sell the audience on your product but also on the hard work you’ve done building it from the ground up.

Design tip: Try data visualizations to relay a company or product timeline . Since people are familiar with the format and know how to read them quickly, you can convey the information impactfully and save room while you’re at it.

Here, Facebook’s classic pitch deck shows the incredible schools that’ve already signed on and describe when future launches will happen.

The sample pitch deck template featured below shows another example of a company or product timeline . This would have been a great fit in the Facebook pitch deck, don’t you think?

Plus you can summarize a ton of information about your brand on a single slide. Check out how well the timeline fits into this pitch deck template below:

If the designer wouldn’t have used a timeline, the same information could have been spread over five or six extra slides! Luckily, Venngage’s timeline maker can help you visualize progress across a period of time without any design experience required.

7. TikTok Pitch Deck

How much did they raise? $150.4M in funding in 2014 (back when TikTok was called Musical.ly), says Crunchbase .

Key takeaway : Use icons as visual anchors for written information.

(The full slide deck is available to Digiday subscribers , though you can view some of the key slides in this Medium post . Keep in mind: this TikTok pitch deck was created for potential advertisers, not investors. No other TikTok pitch decks are publicly available.)

What TikTok does really well in the above example is use icons as visual anchors for their stats. (I could write a whole article about using icons in your presentations correctly. There are so many ways you can use them to upgrade your slides.)

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, just look at the slide deck template below.

Each of the main points has an icon that gives instant visual context about what the stat is about to the audience. These icons draw the eye immediately to these important facts and figures as well.

Design tip: Remember to use icons that have a similar style and color palette. Otherwise, you run the risk of them becoming a distraction.

8. Y Combinator pitch deck

How much did they raise? This startup accelerator has invested in over 3,500 startups to date, according to the company website . They state their combined valuation nears $1 trillion.

Key takeaway : Create clear, concise pitch deck slides that tell a story investors can understand in seconds.

The classic Y Combinator pitch deck is incredibly simple, and for good reason. Seed stage companies can’t provide much detail, so they should focus on telling a story about their company.

That means your slides should tell a story investors can immediately understand in a glance.

Note that one of Y Combinator’s key components is the problem (above) and solution (below) slides.

Explaining how your startup is going to solve a pain point is a vital part of any slide deck. According to Y Combinator , startups should use the problem slide to show the problem your business solves, and how this problem currently affects businesses and/or people. Additionally, if you’re starting a new startup, forming an LLC could be a great choice to launch your business in the right direction, especially if you are focused on asset protection .

Without that information, investors are going to be left with more questions than answers.

The solution slide should show the real-world benefits of your product/service. I recommend using data visualization to show traction, like the chart above, with a couple of notes for context.

To ensure your problem and solutions slides are easily understood, use a similar layout for both, as shown below.

This will help the audience quickly recall the main problem you want to solve, and connect it to your solution (even if the slides are separated by a few other points or ideas).

9. Front pitch deck

How much did they raise ? $10M in Series A funding

Key takeaway : Use a simple flowchart to visualize a problem your product/service solves.

Not everyone is going to be able to explain their problem and solution as succinctly as the previous examples. Some will need to take a unique approach to get their point across.

That’s why I want to highlight how Front masterfully communicated the problem to be solved. They likely realized it would be a lot easier (and cleaner) to create a flow chart that visualizes the problem instead of text. (Did I mention you can make your own flowcharts with Venngage?)

Also, I really like how they distilled each down to a single phrase. That approach, combined with the visuals, will help it stick in investors’ minds as one of the best pitch decks.

Here’s another example pitch deck that uses a chart to convey their problem/solution:

It splits the competition slide right down the middle to illustrate the differences. It also shows exactly how the processes differ between the two entities using mini flowcharts.

Helping the audience make the right conclusions about your company should be an important part of your pitch deck strategy. Without saying a word, the visual choices you make can greatly impact your message.

10. Crema pitch deck

How much did they raise? $175K in seed funding .

Key takeaway : Choose background images carefully — making sure they have a similar color palette.

The best pitch decks keep things consistent, mainly because there are so many moving parts in any presentation. You want each of your slides to feel like they’re connected by a singular feeling or theme. An out-of-place presentation background image can throw that off.

Keeping things consistent when you use a solid background color or pattern isn’t hard. But things can get tricky if you want to use different photos for your backgrounds.

However, if you pick presentation background images that have a similar color palette, you’ll be fine. Check out the images Crema used in their startup pitch deck below:

If you’re struggling to find exactly the same colored photos, you can use a color filter to make things more uniform.

11. WeWork pitch deck

How much did they raise? $6.9M in seed funding in 2011, says Crunchbase .

Key takeaway : Put your metrics on display.

The behemoths at WeWork still have one of the best software pitch decks, despite recent troubles (layoffs, and a valuation that dropped from $47 billion to $2.9 billion).

In fact, this investor pitch deck actually helped them raise money at a $5 billion valuation.

My favorite thing from this is how their key metrics are on the second slide. They waste no time getting down to business!

A lot of the time brands hide these metrics at the end of their presentation, but WeWork made sure to put it front and center in their slide deck.

This approach puts the audience in a positive state of mind, helping them be more receptive to the pitch.

12. Crew (Dribble) pitch deck

How much did they raise? $2M in seed funding

Key takeaway : Start your presentation with a simple statement to set the tone.

Sometimes you have to set the mood of the room before you jump into your slide deck. A simple way to do this is by adding a powerful statement or famous quote at the beginning of your slides.

This may sound cliche, but the creatives over at Crew (now Dribbble ) used this approach well in their pitch presentation.

By claiming that every business is an online business, they instantly change the way that people think about the business sector.

Additionally, the designers used this straightforward statement to set up the rest of the presentation. In the next few slides, the potential market is explained. Without the statement, I don’t think these numbers would be as impactful.

Let’s take a look at the graphs and charts the Dribble team used in their slide deck. In the below business pitch example, you can see that the line charts use the same color palette, size, and typography.

One of my favorite tips from my presentation ideas roundup article states you should never make the audience do the math.

You can also use this mantra when you’re adding data visualizations to your slides. Make each slide extra easy to consume, as well as, easy to compare to other visualizations.

Below the pie charts use the exact same color palette, size, and typography as well:

If the designers would have used a different example, the audience would be distracted trying to decipher the information.

But consistent design across multiple visualizations will ensure your audience can make comparisons that lead to the right conclusions.

Pro Tip: You can use a comparison infographic to summarize key points you’re comparing.

13. Aspire Food Group pitch deck

How much did they raise? $1M from the Hult Prize in 2013 to scale their project.

Key takeaway : Simple graphics clearly illustrate the problem (food security), the size of the market and Aspire’s unique farming project (spoiler alert: it’s insects).

Nonprofits pitching donors or social enterprises pitching for funding have a slightly different challenge than other organizations. They need to present a unique solution and  make an emotional connection to their audience.

Aspire’s simple pitch deck graphics allow investors to grasp their unique business idea at a glance. Plus, by introducing the audience to one of their customers and describing how insect farming has impacted her food budget, the concept is made relatable to many.

Another simple design hack is to choose a unique background for your nonprofit or social enterprise pick deck. Take this sample pitch deck template:

There are millions of stock photos out there for you to pick from, so finding one that will work shouldn’t be too hard.

However, when you’re picking your presentation background images , it’s important to make sure it matches your message or brand.

In the above example, the pitch deck’s slightly crumpled paper background fits an eco-friendly startup well.   Especially because eco-friendly living and minimalism share similar tenants.

Another great example is this sponsorship pitch deck above. It elevates the message by opting for a simplistic background choice.

With a beautiful yet minimalistic slide deck like this, who wouldn’t want to donate?

Most of the time your pitch deck background images are supposed to be used in a supporting role. However, you can also design your presentation around the background images to create some of the best pitch decks out there.

As you can see in this pitch deck template, we added written content to the white space in each of the stock photos:

Plus no one can really copy your pitch deck layout, so you will instantly stand out from other companies.

Be sure to pick photos that share the same color palette and theme. Otherwise, the benefits of using these presentation backgrounds will be lost.

14. Mattermark pitch deck

How much did they raise? A total of $17.2M so far, says Crunchbase .

Key takeaway : Use screenshots in your pitch deck to show the problem you’re solving.

Highlighting digital problems is tough when you have limited space and time…like when you’re pitching your new digital product to a room full of investors.

That’s why some of the best pitch decks include screenshots of the problem being solved.

As you can see above, the people from Mattermark used screenshots to show how unorganized SAAS reporting was. At that time it was spread over a ton of different sites, with different reporting standards and values.

It would be difficult to sell an investor on their product just by talking about the market. Mainly because not a lot of people have experience in that specific niche.

But with a handful of screenshots, they were able to highlight the product potential almost instantly.

In terms of design, the team at Mattermark stuck to the rule of three (see slide below). This rule will help you keep your team from overwhelming the audience with a flood of stats or figures.

They also decided to make these figures easier to consume by highlighting them in different colors

Compared to a boring list of figures, it’s a lot easier to remember three distinct colored numbers. Plus because the background colors darken as they go, it naturally guides the reader’s eyes down the slide.

15. Dwolla pitch deck

How much did they raise? $12M in funding as of 2018.

Key takeaway : Give the reason your company was founded in one quick sentence.

In many of our own presentations, we talk about how Venngage started from humble beginnings before undergoing tremendous growth in just a few years.

That’s because people love origin stories — they help your audience connect with your brand and appreciate all the work put into it.

Take a look at the pitch deck slide from Dwolla above. In a single sentence, they outline their reason for doing business, and what they hope to solve.

Just be sure to talk about your company founding in the first few slides of your pitch. Otherwise, it won’t have the same impact.

On another note, as a design company, we always love to see people create great visualizations in their pitch decks — particularly when these visuals communicate key information well….like when it comes to your ideal users!

I have seen a lot of brands just talk about their users, but I recommend creating visual user personas instead. Our persona guides can help you with this!

As you can see above, Dwolla visualized their user personas for each use case.

These visual user personas allow audiences to put a “real” face to your user base. And if you have many ideal users (like Dwolla), it helps keep each group organized.

16. Kickfolio (App.io) pitch deck 

How much did they raise? $1M in seed funding.

Key takeaway : Go for huge graphs! The bigger, the better.

Be proud of your brand’s growth and metrics in your slide deck.

You worked hard to grow a company from nothing, and that’s a big achievement! So why would you want to make that growth hard to see?

However, I’ve seen a lot of people inadvertently hide their key metrics by using small graphs or charts.

The only solution to this problem is…get bigger with your graphs! And I mean huge, like the ones App.io deployed in the pitch deck above. Their graph is so large and imposing, every audience member could see it clearly.

Venngage’s  graph maker can help you do this for your own pitch decks too.

17. Yalochat pitch deck

How much did they raise? $15M in Series B funding, says TechCrunch.

Key takeaway : Use icons as illustrations to add instant context.

Icons have been making a comeback in the design world over the past few years. According to recent reports on graphic design trends , they’ll continue to be popular.

This presentation from Yalochat is one of the best examples of how to use illustrated icons correctly.

Each icon perfectly illustrates the point being made on each slide, giving instant context. They will definitely catch the eyes of any audience member.

Just remember to follow their lead and  use consistently designed icons !

18. Brex pitch deck

How much did they raise? $1.5 billion to date.

Key takeaway : Include a single slide about your team and highlight what makes them truly exceptional.

Another important part of your story is the people who helped you build your company. These people are the lifeblood of your brand, and what helps it stand out from the competitors.

Corporate card startup Brex does this well by using team member photos, and including their titles and company affiliations to build credibility. You can download the Brex slides for free, thanks to Business Insider .

Let’s tale a look at a sample pitch deck that employs a similar philosophy.

I’m guessing you already planned on adding something similar to your pitch deck. Again, I would recommend using only a single team slide like they did.

You can use a team photo if you want to talk about the whole team, or add an organizational chart instead. Alternatively, like Brex, you can highlight the most important individuals, like this business pitch example:

Whatever you choose to do, don’t forget to talk about your team on a team slide, and highlight the people who make your company truly great.

Read More:  12+ Organizational Chart Examples and Templates

19. Purple Go pitch deck

How much did they raise? Undisclosed.

Key takeaway : Use a contrasting hue to draw your audience’s attention to key information.

Color isn’t just about making your designs look good — it can also draw your audience’s attention to important information.

For example, take a look at this simple pitch deck from Purple Go . They contrast deep purple with white to help certain sentences pop.

This is a simple way to make your slides have a lot of impact; pick colors that contrast boldly with each other.

20. Mint pitch deck

How much did they raise? $31M to date, according to Mint.

Key takeaway : Add visual cues, such as illustrations and icons, to help explain your brand to investors.

I’m guessing your pitch deck is already going to touch on how you stand out from the competition. But just listing a few things that set you apart may not be enough on your slide deck!

You may need to add some visual cues to help the audience out.

We decided to redesign Mint’s original deck for a contemporary take on this.

In this minimalist pitch deck template, our designers used visuals to make the main company stand out even more. And best of all, it doesn’t distract from the minimalist theme.

This simple addition to your slides will help your information jump off the page, providing a rewarding visual break from related companies.

21. Park Evergreen (Plot) pitch deck

How much did they raise? $400k in seed funding.

Key takeaway : Give each metric its own slide.

Generally, slide decks are full of important metrics that you’re supposed to remember. But not all of those numbers are presented in a way that would make them easy to.

Some are hidden in long paragraphs, while others are smashed together with less important findings.

That’s why I’m a huge fan of how Park Evergreen (now called Plot ) included important numbers in this slide deck. As you can see below, each metric is given its own slide:

With this approach, the audience members place their full attention on that number. And they’ll be able to recall the information a lot quicker.

It may look overly simple to some, but the best pitch decks use this tactic a lot.

22. Hampton Creek (Eat Just) pitch deck

How much did they raise? $1.5M in Series A.

Key takeaway : Create a minimalist title slide to build anticipation for your presentation.

You probably know that presentations don’t always run as smoothly as planned. With long breaks and technical problems, the time between presentations can end up running rather long.

Translation: you might spend more time looking at the title slide than the actual presentation itself.

So if you really want to build some anticipation for your pitch, create a minimalist (some might even say, mysterious) title slide. As you can see, the team at Eat Just (once known as Hampton Creek) did just that.

The lack of information makes spectators want to learn more about your brand, effortlessly engaging them.

The only negative is that no one is going to know the name of your company — yet.

23. Sickweather pitch deck

How much did they raise? $2.6M to date, according to Crunchbase.

Key takeaway : Pull out the main metrics from your graphs and charts to make your slide a snap to understand.

Remember when I said: “Don’t make your audience do the math”?

Yeah. That’s because people hate doing math — so you never want to make investors try to calculate your data themselves. Especially when dealing with millions of dollars, tiny percent changes or other complicated numbers.

Out of all the tips in this article, this one might be the most important. Mainly because forgetting this idea all but guarantees your failure.

That’s why I recommend you “do the math” on every slide where you include a graph or chart — like how Sickweather did above.

By pulling out the main growth metrics from the graph, they made this slide a lot more consumable, and showed the audience exactly what they should pay attention to.

24. Dutchie pitch deck

How much did they raise? $35M in 2020, according to TechCrunch .

Key takeaway : Set the tone by putting your most impressive stat(s) in the introduction.

Dutchie, an all-in-one technology platform for eCommerce, POS and payments, wastes no time coming out the gates with one impressive insight: “10% of all legal cannabis in the world” is purchased through their product.

Now I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty tantalizing.

So it makes perfect sense they would pull it out from their market share figures and feature it in their introduction. By doing so, investors get an idea how successful and established Dutchie is right off the bat.

25. Studysmarter pitch deck

How much did they raise?  $15M according to TechCrunch .

Key takeaway : Illustrate your vision over several slides.

Rather than dedicate one slide to their vision for the company, digital learning company Studysmarter continuously brings up how their product will be understood in the future — as “the world’s central hub” for “lifelong” learning, becoming the “largest learning platform in Europe” by 2021.

While this visionary sentiment is not new to the pitch deck industry, it makes sense Studysmarter would want to focus much of their presentation slide deck on this idea: the idea of an unlimited target market and use cases.

Design wise, their illustrations are consistent, using visuals to illustrate their message and various target demographics.

These graphics build off the sleek, modern interface Studysmarter’s brand image invokes. It also illustrates what they want investors to envision for the future of the brand.

26. Clearbanc (Clearco) Pitch Deck

How much did they raise? $70M in series A funding, according to TechCrunch.

Key takeaway : Use flow charts to communicate complicated processes.

As a company that offers startups “growth capital for the new economy” through non-dilutive revenue-share agreements, Clearco (previously known as Clearbanc) wins big by communicating how the process works in less than a slide’s time.

That’s right: the company uses a flowchart .

For complicated business processes that would normally take several slides of text to communicate, a flowchart is a smart way to visualize a process while saving space and keeping your audience engaged.

Particularly for a company like Clearco, this is key for getting investors up to speed. Then you can move on to the other facts and figures they’ll surely want to hear.

27. Foursquare Pitch Deck

Key takeaway : Show how the end-product looks in your presentation.

Okay look, I get it. This slide deck from 2009 is certainly behind on times when it comes to design tips in this current day and age…

BUT take it back to more than a decade ago, and you’ll see why Foursquare’s pitch deck won big with investors.

As one of the first businesses to employ gamification, the company lets this selling proposition shine by using an iPhone graphic to show how the app’s points and badges look to the end-user. These visuals communicate the appeal by showcasing exactly how consumers will interact with, and understand, the product.

In essence, it takes the guesswork out of their pitch.

So while the text-heavy aspect of this sample pitch deck isn’t exactly ideal, their use of visuals can teach us a lesson.

28. TalentBase pitch deck

How much did they raise?   $330K to date.

Key takeaway : Let the numbers do the talking.

Rather than take up a ton of slide space in this pitch deck example, TalentBase, an affordable payroll solution , focused their real estate on the real deal-closers: the numbers.

While this won’t work for every business, as you may need to add more slides to truly explain the environment your organization exists in and your processes, TalentBase uses their positioning to drive forward a captivating narrative.

And this narrative utilizes only numbers to connect the dots in the mind of potential investors about the value TalentBase offers, in terms of market capture.

29. Peloton pitch deck

Key takeaway : Discuss both the tangible and intangible benefits your product offers.

In 2018, back before the real pandemic hey-day of this tech unicorn, Peloton dazzled in a funding round and managed to capture in $550M funding.

Part of this can be attributed to Peloton’s emphasis on the benefits it brings customers.

Across multiple slides, the exercise equipment and media company highlights how customers’ lives are improved in various emotional and functional ways. Since this connection lays the groundwork for long-term B2C relationships, investors can immediately identify the value encompassed by this modern fitness tool.

Looking to try something similar? Check out the below Peloton sample pitch deck, reimagined by our Venngage design team.

30. Ledgy pitch deck

How much did they raise? $ 10M in September 2021.

Key takeaway : Cut down on space with text and graphics that follow a clear logical narrative.

In just seven slides, the equity management and investor relations platform, Ledgy, was able to convince their audience that their product was worth investing in.

By putting their mission first, and following it up with engaging visuals, the company tells a story despite using minimal text.

Yoko Spirig, CEO and co-founder of Ledgy, echoed this sentiment in an interview : “Starting with the ‘why’ lets you build the business case for the product, and create a logical narrative that investors can follow.”

That’s why, design-wise, this is one of the cleanest pitch deck examples in the bunch. It’s one of the shortest too.

I also appreciate how their brand colors are used in conjunction with white to keep everything consistent (something that Venngage’s automated branding feature My Brand Kit can help you out with).

To summarize, some of my favorite pitch deck design tips include:

• Adding icon headers to your most important insights
• Use similar charts and graphs for easy comparisons across slides
• For longer pitch decks, switch up the slide layouts
• Pick a consistent theme for your presentation background images
• Don’t just list your ideal users, create visual personas
• Use a timeline to show how your company has grown
• Always do the math for your audience

Now let’s take a look at what’s the difference between a pitch deck and a business plan.

A pitch deck and a business plan serve different purposes in the world of entrepreneurship, each playing a crucial role in showcasing and strategizing a business venture. The main distinction lies in their format, level of detail and intended audience.

Pitch decks typically consists of a series of carefully crafted slides, highlighting key aspects of the business such as the value proposition, target market, revenue model, competitive advantage and team expertise.

The goal is to pique interest, generate excitement and secure further engagement or funding opportunities. A pitch deck emphasizes storytelling, persuasive visuals, and concise messaging to create an impactful impression.

On the other hand, a business plan is a comprehensive and detailed document that provides an in-depth roadmap for the entire business venture. It outlines the company’s mission, vision, goals, market analysis, marketing strategies, operational details, financial projections and risk assessment.

A business plan serves as a strategic blueprint, guiding the entrepreneur and internal stakeholders in executing the business idea effectively. It tends to be more exhaustive, often spanning several pages or even chapters, and is typically presented in a written format.

What should a pitch deck contain?

A well-crafted pitch deck should contain key information that effectively communicates your business concept, value proposition, and growth potential. While the specific content may vary depending on your industry and target audience, here are the essential elements that a pitch deck should typically include:

• Problem statement
• Market opportunity
• Business model
• Competitive analysis
• Marketing and sales strategy
• Team members
• Financial projections
• Milestones and timeline
• Investment opportunity

Not a graphic designer? No sweat — creating your own pitch deck is a breeze using Venngage’s Presentation Maker . (We’ll go over the basics here; for a more in-depth look, check out this article .)

Step 1: Sign up on Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account. If you already have an account, log in to access the platform.

Step 2: Browse through our selection of professionally designed pitch deck templates and select one that suits your needs and preferences.

Step 3: Once you’ve selected a template, start customizing it to match your branding and content. Venngage’s drag-and-drop editor allows you to easily modify every aspect of the template, including colors, fonts, images and layout. Replace the placeholder text with your own content, such as your company information, product or service details, market analysis and financial projections.

Note: there are hundreds of templates available that you can design and share for free. If you want to access certain designs, take advantage of in-editor features like My Brand Kit/Team collaboration .

Step 4: Once you’re satisfied with your design, you can download it in various formats such as PDF or PNG. Alternatively, you can use also Venngage’s sharing options to present your pitch deck directly from the platform or share it with others via a generated link.

To leave a lasting impression on your audience, consider transforming your slides into an interactive presentation. Here are 15  interactive presentation ideas  to enhance interactivity and engagement.

Now that you know how to create the best pitch decks to communicate your ideas, present your startup or raise venture capital, take action and start designing your own pitch deck today!

And if you want to learn more, there are a ton of other presentation design resources you can take a look at next:

• 20+ Business Pitch Deck Templates and Design Best Practices
• 120+ Best Presentation Ideas, Design Tips & Examples
• 15 Presentation Design Statistics to Know For 2019
• 7 Tips for Designing a Persuasive Presentation [Presentation Design Guide + Templates]
• 20+ Consulting Proposal Templates

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How to Create a Pitch Deck (and the 10 Slides You Need)

Table of Contents

In the high-stakes world of startups, a pitch deck presentation is often the deciding factor for securing investment, whether in high-pressure situations like Shark Tank or pre-seed pitching rounds. With limited time to make a first impression, the quality of your pitch deck is crucial in leading to that all-important follow-up meeting with investors or VCs.

In this article, we’ll guide you through how to create a pitch deck and the ten essential slides you need. We’ll also explain what makes a good pitch deck (including examples), the 10/20/30 rule, and how to avoid common mistakes.

Success in entrepreneurship isn’t just about hard work, luck, and timing. It’s also about successfully convincing others to invest in your vision, whether you’re seeking funding, advice, mentorship, or partnerships. A great pitch deck will be your essential tool in persuading investors. Let’s get started!

What is a Pitch Deck?

A pitch deck is a slideshow presentation that succinctly conveys your business idea, market opportunity, and value proposition. Startup founders and entrepreneurs commonly use them to present their business ideas, products, or services, also known as a business or investor deck. It is necessary in securing funding, attracting partnerships, and closing deals.

With a concise format of 10 to 20 slides, this visual tool effectively conveys a business idea and its potential to help entrepreneurs connect with investors, clients, or partners. Suppose your pitch catches the interest of potential investors. In that case, there will likely be an in-depth next meeting (i.e., the start of the actual pitching process).

💡 The most common formats for pitch decks are PowerPoint slides, Google Slides, or Apple Keynote presentations.

Purpose of a Pitch Deck

The purpose of a pitch deck is to clearly and quickly communicate your business’s potential. Used in fundraising pitches, idea support, and forming strategic partnerships, it provides a visual snapshot of your business idea and its market viability.

Pitch decks are not only used by startups but also in a variety of other settings. The structure of your slides should enable potential investors to grasp your business idea’s potential quickly.

Types of Pitch Decks:

• Branding or marketing plan
• Fundraising
• Film & TV

The 10-20-30 Rule for Slideshows

The 10-20-30 rule, coined by venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, offers a structured approach to creating effective PowerPoint pitch decks. This rule is a favorite among startups but applies to all types of presentations. It includes:

• Keeping to just 10 slides.
• Limiting the presentation to 20 minutes.
• Ensuring a font size of at least 30 points.

However, sticking to 10 slides isn’t always the optimal approach for everyone. As David from NextView VC reminds us, it’s crucial to present in a manner that feels authentic to you. Treat pitch deck templates as flexible starting points, and tailor them to highlight the uniqueness of your startup.

What should be in a pitch deck

A pitch deck should concisely outline your business idea, market, strategy, finances, team, and funding needs in an engaging story. You should use between 10 and 20 slides depending on your needs and audience.

In the next section, we’ll guide you through creating each slide.

The 10 most important slides in an investor deck:

• Business overview: A brief introduction to the business, including the mission and vision.
• Problem statement: Identify the problem or need in the market the business intends to solve.
• Solution slide: The product or service offered by the business as a solution to the identified problem.
• Market size and analysis: Information about the target market and industry, including size, growth potential, and customer demographics.
• Product and business model: How the business plans to make money, including the product and pricing strategy.
• Go-to-market plan: The approach to promoting the product or service and acquiring customers.
• Competitors: A look at the competitive landscape and how the business differentiates itself from competitors.
• Financials: Financial projections and current financial status.
• Team: Information about the key team members, their roles, and their experience.
• Ask: The specific funding request and how it will be used to grow the business.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, we’ll move on to how to create a pitch deck.

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How to create a pitch deck

We’ll take a step-by-step approach to making the essential 10 slides in a pitch deck. It will cover the most critical aspects of your business idea and pitch presentation. You may add more slides as you go, but let’s start by looking at each of these 10 slides, their purpose, and what information should be included.

Slide 1: Business overview

The first slide of your pitch deck will set the tone for the rest of the presentation. The business overview (title slide) should briefly capture the core of your idea and stand out to investors.

• Include your logo.
• title slide
• Name of your idea, business, or startup.
• Summarize your concept into a catchy headline.

Slide 2: Problem

Use this slide to lay the groundwork of your pitch by focusing on the problems or pressing needs that your business addresses. Highlight the market gap and illustrate why it’s an important opportunity.

• Present the problem your business solves in the form of a problem statement.
• Emphasize its relevance to your audience.
• Back up your points with solid data like market statistics or instances of current inefficiencies.

Slide 3: Solution

The solution (or value proposition) slide should address each problem mentioned in the previous slide. There could be many ways to solve a problem, so clarify how your solution benefits your target segment.

• The value proposition of your product or service.
• What sets it apart from competitors.

Slide 4: Market size

This slide should provide a clear picture of the market analysis and landscape based on your research. Illustrate the scale of the market you’re targeting or part of, demonstrating growth prospects and business opportunities. Key points to include:

• Break down the market opportunity into TAM, SAM, and SOM.
• Note any important market trends.
• Use visual aids like charts or graphs to effectively depict market size and trends.

Slide 5: Product & business model

Summarize your product and business model in this slide to show how you will make money, scale, and be profitable.

• Highlight your product’s main features or services.
• Add visuals like screenshots or images for clarity.
• Detail your revenue streams, cost structure, and pricing strategy.

Be ready to explain any challenges within your business model and your solutions.

Slide 6: Go-to-market strategy

The go-to-market (GTM) slide outlines your strategy for entering the market and acquiring new customers. Explain how you will distribute your product or service and reach your target audience.

• Outline each phase of your GTM strategy.
• Define your ideal customer or buyer persona and how you provide value to them.
• Explain your sales and marketing approaches to reach customers.

Having a good idea or product isn’t enough to convince investors. They need to know if you have a viable, thought-out strategy to reach and serve the target market.

Slide 7: Competitive analysis

Demonstrate your understanding of the market and the competition in this slide by providing data and market research. Offer data-driven research to map out the competitive landscape, including:

• Identification of major competitors and alternatives.
• Specify your unique selling proposition (USP) and competitive advantage.
• Strategy and positioning against competitors.

Be straightforward in this slide and reassure investors that you are aware of your competition and have a plan to achieve and maintain a competitive edge. You could mention potential challenges, risks, or disruptors.

Slide 8: Team

Many investors often consider the team behind a startup as one of the most critical factors in their decision-making process. A study done on over 21,000 startup founders suggests that the founder’s personality – or the combined personalities of the founding team – is paramount to entrepreneurial success.

• Include all founders, management, and advisors.
• Roles and responsibilities.
• Highlight key skills and relevant experience.
• Mention any meaningful connections.

The team slide has to instill confidence in potential investors that this is the right team for the job, even if you are a solo founder.

Slide 9: Financials

This is a critical slide where investors may spend the most time reading to get a glimpse into the business idea’s financial feasibility and potential return. Describe how you plan to generate revenue and your pricing strategy. Each startup will show different financial figures based on their stage.

Basic financial data:

• Income statement
• Sales forecast
• Expenses and burn rate
• Profitability
• Market size (Total Addressable Market, Serviceable Available Market, Serviceable Obtainable Market)
• Projected revenue growth for at least three years.

Other KPIs you may include:

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• LTV/CAC ratio (indicates how sustainable the business model is)
• Customer growth

Coming up with these figures demonstrates your financial acumen and your understanding of the key metrics that drive business success.

Slide 10: Ask

The last slide should wrap up the pitch with a snapshot of your current standing, any accomplishments, a timeline, and the use of funds.

• The current state of affairs (growth, market share).
• State the amount of funding needed and how you plan to use it.

Investors want to know if your startup/idea is worth investing in, so show them evidence of progress, past successes, or the potential for future success.

What makes a good pitch deck?

A good pitch deck gets your point across to investors and captures their attention. Successful pitch decks are clear, focused, and persuasive. Many investor pitch decks follow a similar structure because they give investors a snapshot of a business’s investment potential.

These are traits of a good pitch deck:

✅ Concise and clear, without fluff or distracting details.

✅ Focused on telling the story of the startup/idea and its potential.

✅ Structured with a logical flow. Each slide supports the overall narrative.

✅ Persuasive , backed by data, research, and appropriate graphs and charts.

💡 Save time by using an AI pitch deck presentation maker like SlidesAI

Best pitch deck examples

Here are some of our favorite pitch deck presentations. The best pitch decks balance detailed information with simplicity. Take a look at these pitch deck examples across different stages of funding:

Airbnb pitch deck (Pre-seed)

LottieLab pitch deck (Seed)

Copy.AI pitch deck (Series A)

Wanderlist pitch deck (Series B)

Crunchbase pitch deck (Late stage)

💡 Check out more free pitch deck templates here .

Top 3 mistakes to avoid with your pitch deck

These common mistakes can diminish the impact of your presentation. Strive for a balance between thorough information and simplicity for maximum impact.

Mistake 1: Overemphasizing aesthetics

Overdesigning your slide deck can detract from your core message while pitching. In most cases, it is safe to leave out PowerPoint animations and excessive graphics. Use brand colors if possible; any image, graph, or chart you include should directly support your narrative.

💡 Pro tip: Maintain a consistent visual theme and leave out flashy design elements.

Mistake 2: Overloading information

It’s natural to want to share a lot of information on each slide, but doing so can make it harder for your audience to tell what’s important. VCs hear hundreds of pitches each year – you need more clarity in your pitch to catch their interest within your allocated time. Focus on the key information and overall structure of the pitch deck presentation.

💡 Pro tip: Prioritize clarity and conciseness to make a lasting impact.

Mistake 3: Lack of personalization

Pitch deck templates are a great starting point, but remember to tailor your pitch and content to your audience. Investors differ in their interests and priorities. Understanding what your audience value can significantly improve your pitch’s impact.

💡 Pro tip: Find out what resonates with your audience and include or address them in your deck.

• No design skills required
• 3 presentations/month free
• Don’t need to learn a new software

A thoughtfully prepared pitch deck is essential for securing investment. View your pitch deck as a brief yet compelling introduction to your startup’s potential, aiming to secure further discussions and, ultimately, funding. By adhering to the 10-slide structure recommended in this article, you can effectively convey your business vision, introduce your team, emphasize your market edge, and outline your financial forecasts.

Organize your slides to ensure your business concept is easily understood. Be succinct and clear, and align your content with what investors typically seek. Steer clear of common pitfalls like cramming slides with information or not customizing your deck to align with investor interests. Wishing you success!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a pitch deck the same as a business plan.

A pitch deck and a business plan are not the same. While a pitch deck visually presents key aspects of your business idea, a business plan is a comprehensive written document that outlines all aspects of your business. A pitch deck can summarize your business plan but cannot replace it.

What happens after a successful first pitch?

Pitch deck guides often focus on the initial meeting with venture capitalists, but that’s just the start. Investment decisions involve multiple meetings, due diligence, negotiations, and paperwork. As NextView VC’s David Beisel puts it, “The purpose of all venture capital meetings is to get another meeting.” Read more about what to expect after a successful first pitch .

What about other slides, like the traction slide?

Traction slides are to showcase proof of any progress, achievements, and market acceptance. For early-stage startups, including pre-seed, traction might not necessarily mean revenue. It can be any evidence that validates your business idea and market demand, such as user sign-ups.

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How to Create a Pitch Deck for Investors [Templates + Design Tips]

Written by: Masooma Memon

A pitch deck is a presentation that entrepreneurs and startups founders use to highlight their business, intrigue investors and potentially raise funding to grow their company.

Because it plays a useful role in telling effective visual stories, you can’t undermine the role a solid pitch deck plays in convincing investors.

But the question is: how do you create a pitch deck that actually wins investors?

Let’s answer that for you in this piece. We’ll look at:

• What a pitch deck is and why you need one
• What slides to include in your pitch deck and what documents to bundle it with
• The secrets to creating a winning investor presentation including design tips to follow

Before you jump in, check out this video to get tips on how to design a killer pitch deck for your startup.

Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit investor pitch deck slides you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more below:

If you're ready to create your pitch deck, head over to our presentation software and put together a powerful investor deck in minutes. Use ready-to-go templates inspired from real-life startups, add your branding and more.

Table of Contents

What is a pitch deck, slides your pitch deck should include, important documents to include with your pitch, pitch deck best practices & design tips.

First, a quick recap: a pitch deck — aka an investor or startup pitch deck — is a presentation that you create to give investors a quick overview of your business and its growth potential.

Think of it as the vehicle that transports your business idea’s value proposition and potential from your mind to your audience’s minds.

The aim? To make it to the next meeting, secure funding, get someone to join your team or anything else, depending on who you’re presenting to.

We talk to Sandy Kory about the best practices for creating winning pitch decks.

Sandy Kory is a founder and General Partner at HorizonVC, a seed-stage, software-focused VC firm. Over the course of his investing career, he's been an early backer of 100+ tech startups, including Palantir, Canva, BillionToOne, Flutterwave, Sendbird, and more.

You can create a pitch deck using any presentation software. But if you want your pitch deck to stand out, you need to make sure it doesn't look like any other PowerPoint presentation.

According to Sandy, pitch decks have evolved, with design standards reaching new heights since tools like Visme have become potent and widely available.

When Do You Need a Pitch Deck?

You need a pitch deck whenever you need to pitch your business to anyone.

This could be anyone from a venture capitalist to someone you think will make a great co-founder. It could also be the astute-looking panel of judges in a startup pitching competition.

"Sandy adds that the purpose of a pitch deck is to tell the story of a startup and its fundraising goals, highlight the substance of a startup as well as show off the founders' story-telling abilities."

In order words, whoever you’re presenting to, you need a pitch deck to succinctly and powerfully convey your ideas and requests.

Sure, you can also explain your idea verbally. But that’s an ineffective way of presenting your business idea considering you could either underdeliver or overdeliver the needed information.

A pitch deck lets you use visuals like images, graphics, screenshots and videos that help convey your message better and leave a lasting impact in the minds of your audience.

For example, you can share your financial projections and showcase your mobile app more effectively with a pitch deck presentation than verbally or without visual aids.

With that, let's look at what to include in an effective pitch deck.

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The key to a successful pitch deck is to make sure you cover your basics and include all the slides your investors want to see.

Typically, good pitch decks include anywhere around 10 slides. This isn’t a set-in-stone rule though, and you can go above or below this number depending on the slides you need.

Or, you can experiment with an infographic-style pitch deck — similar to Piccsy’s infographic pitch deck .

But, a general rule of thumb is to keep your presentation deck short.

Don't make it too short or too long—10-15 slides is usually a good length, says Sandy.”

The reason? When you're fighting for your audience’s attention, a 30-slide long presentation never helps. In contrast, a short and powerful presentation is always a winner.

That said, here’s a brief pitch deck outline of the important slides you need.

The title is the first slide that shows in your pitch deck. So, you can call it your impression-building slide that sets the scene for your business ideas.

Pay attention to the visual elements (colors, fonts and any images) since they set the overall mood — more on this in a bit.

Also, it’s best to be minimal here. Meaning: your name and your business’s name are enough. You can also add a short and snappy tagline if you have one.

2. Introduction

The introduction slide is where you introduce yourself to build credibility. The shorter the intro, the better since you want to focus on the business idea, not yourself.

You can also use this slide to communicate your unique selling point (USP) or value proposition, like in the example above. Or, describe what your business is and what it does quickly.

Up till now, the title and intro slides were a mere formality. The problem slide, however, is where you start building your story.

Use whatever visual cues you need to showcase your problem in the best possible way. You can start with a story that puts your investors in your customers' shoes, like in the example below:

You’ll want to make sure you communicate your target buyer’s problem effectively. Fail here and it’s likely you won’t be able to convince your audience of your product’s need.

Farzad Rashidi , Co-founder of Respona, shares insights on how to make a business pitch stand out to potential investors.

Farzad Rashidi

Co-founder of Respona

Also, you can always start your presentation with the problem and skip the introduction. There are no hard and fast rules — use whatever works to get investors’ attention and make your case.

4. Solution

Once you've presented the problem, it's time to follow up with a viable solution — your service or product.

You can introduce the solution in any number of ways — share your product MVP or a list of the features you offer; whatever makes a convincing case.

If it makes sense, throw in another slide here that shares product features.

But, in your presentation, focus more on the benefits each feature offers instead of the feature itself. Approach this slide in a way that it relates to the problem stated and shows how your business idea can solve it instead of just promoting your product.

That said, it’s best you don’t present a laundry list of features. Keep them to the top 3-4 features of your product or service.

The human brain can only hold seven — give or take two — things in their working memory at a time.

So focusing on a handful of features is your best bet to ensure your audience doesn’t forget your business idea.

Put simply, remember: less is more.

You can also combine your problem and solution slides and present all the information in one slide — this can help your audience connect the dots and see how your solution fits into context.

5. Market Size, Opportunity and Trends

Sure, there’s an itch that your product can scratch. But is it an itch worth scratching?

Put another way: is there a market for those interested in scratching the itch? Answer that in this slide.

“When working on this slide, you need to answer the all important question: what about the market has changed that's created an opportunity for your startup?” says Sandy.

You can show the market size with the help of numbers, or use data visualization like a pie chart or bar graph to make your point.

"Farzad adds that investors want to know that the market you’re entering is significant and that your company is positioned to capitalize on it. This is where you convince them that the opportunity is large and lucrative enough to justify their investment​."

Another way to go about this slide is to focus on the market trends and why it's the right time for your business to come into the picture. You can show this with the help of a timeline that visualizes the evolution of consumer behavior, for example.

The point is, showcase the need for your product. But instead of plainly sharing your findings or numbers, use visual aids like graphs, bar charts, surveys and more to make your point.

Visuals present data in a visually appealing format, therefore, making it easy to understand and digest.

6. Product Comparison

If your product has competitors, you’ll want to pull up a product comparison slide to make a visually engaging case for how your product compares to others.

This way, you won’t lose your audience’s attention while effectively positioning your product as the hero the market needs.

SaaS businesses find product comparison slides especially useful for comparing features and pricing. But you can also use product comparisons for other businesses, such as real estate.

7. Testimonials

Adding customer testimonials brings social proof to the table — a great way to impress your audience, increase trust and further build on the need for your product or service.

Don’t have anyone saying nice words about your product (yet)? No problem.

You can still use this slide to feature complaining customer reviews on your competitors. Make sure the reviews you curate all point out to the same problem that your product will help solve.

If you already have more than one person involved in your company at this point, you’ll also need a slide that introduces your team. Sandy emphasizes the need for you to clarify why your team is the ideal team to win the market.

Your team slide can also show potential investors, or folks you’re convincing to join you and the brilliant minds who are working with you on your idea as advisors.

9. Traction

In this slide, show investors what you have achieved till now with clear and meaningful numbers. If you already have a growing user base, you can visually show it with the help of a line graph.

“Y Combinator suggests that even if your growth curve isn’t perfectly smooth, adding context to your metrics can make them compelling. For Respona, our steady user growth and engagement metrics were key points that demonstrated our momentum,​” says Farzad.

If you don't have any traction at this point, don't worry about this slide. Focus on highlighting your business idea and its potential as much as you can.

10. Financials

This slide features your business idea’s financial projections.

Even at the early stages, it’s important to tell investors how much money you need and what milestones it will help you achieve. Laying out where you’ll be in a year, and how that positions you for future rounds, can be powerful​ says Farzad.

You can present this in the form of a table, or use data visualization to make the information easier to digest.

In this slide, include data on how you’ll charge people, how you concluded that’d pay the amount and how the plan will help you hit your financial milestones.

11. Sales & Marketing Strategy

Interested investors will also want to know the plan you have to reach the goals and financial projections you’ve highlighted — this is where your sales and marketing strategy comes in.

To this end, use a flowchart, a graphic list of steps, timeline or any other visual to summarize your sales and marketing plan. You can also use bullets with icons to showcase key tactics.

12. Call-to-Action

Finally, you’ll need a slide that makes the ask.

You don’t need anything fancy here. If you’ve told a compelling story, your audience will be happy to get in touch, splash out money or take whatever step you want them to.

Don’t forget to add your contact details to this slide.

With what to add to your presentation deck out of the way, let’s look at the documents you need with it to make a strong and compelling case:

1. Cover Letter

Your cover letter shares a 1-2-page long persuasive story that sets the stage for your business idea.

Think of it as an icebreaker that convinces investors or anyone else who is your target audience to view your business idea.

Here's a cover letter template you can use for your own investor pitch:

If you're looking for cover letter designs, head over to our template library and check out our full collection of cover letter templates to find one you like.

2. Elevator Pitch Statement

All of us know the always-wanted-but-much-dreaded one-page pitch that summarizes a business idea.

Essentially, an elevator statement shouldn’t read longer than 20-30 seconds — the time it takes to ride an elevator.

And, to ensure you win your audience’s attention, be sure to make this pitch memorable, to the point and interesting.

3. Business Plan

A business plan includes the A to Z of how you plan to put your business on its feet.

Meaning: you need a detailed marketing plan, sales strategy, competitors analysis, financial plan, risk analysis — just about anything you’ll do when you win funds.

Here's a business plan template you can use to get a head start:

Looking for more templates and design options? Check out our complete collection of business plan templates — fully designed and ready-to-go.

4. Financial Report

If the finances blueprint in your business plan isn’t in-depth enough, you’ll need a separate model.

The plan? Thoroughly explain how you’ll use the investment. And, how you plan to generate profits while factoring in market trends, customer pocket and economic drivers among other things.

Here's a financial report template you can use:

If you’re in a later stage of your startup, provide an up-to-date look at your metrics including an outline of how you’ve used up finances so far.

Providing a data-driven model like this shows you’re well-positioned to responsibly use investors’ money and drive profits.

The slides above are a must-have for a successful pitch deck. But to take your presentation to the next level, there are some best practices and design tips you should keep in mind.

Let's get into the meat and potatoes of how to create a pitch deck so that you have a winner at your hands:

1. Leverage storytelling techniques

Good stories stick.

They’re persuasive.

And, they tug at your audience’s emotions to encourage them to decide in your favor — yes, we make decisions mostly based on emotions with some logic backing it.

Farzad admits pitch decks have evolved over time and the storytelling aspect has also become more prominent.

Try any of these storytelling formulas for your presentation:

The before-after-bridge formula.

Start with describing a world with a specific problem (before). Go on to share a world without the problem (after). Now, introduce your business idea (the bridge).

The PAS formula.

This stands for Problem, Agitate and Solution.

And it goes like this: describe a problem (read: your target buyer’s problem), develop the problem and offer a solution to it (your product or service).

TED talk presenter Nancy Duarte’s formula for great talks.

It involves zooming back and forth between what is (the status quo) and what could be (the future that could be). Then, pack in the climax with your business idea (the bliss).

Whichever storytelling framework you work with, make sure you structure your presentation well for a smooth flow.

Here's a video to help you learn more about presentation structures:

2. Focus on Benefits, Not Features

The more you emphasize the benefits of your business idea, the more effective your pitch will be.

Back in 2007, Dropbox succeeded at raising $1.7 billion in funding . It also got backing from investors like JP Morgan.

And how did they do it? By focusing on the benefits of their idea. To this end, they talked about revolutionizing how people store and share data.

Sandy says his biggest pet peeves are when a pitch deck spends more than 1-2 slides on the market and doesn't clearly describe what a startup's product or service does.

Founder and General Partner at HorizonVC, a seed-stage, software-focused VC firm

So you know what to do, right? Delve into the benefits; how your product will make its customers’ life easy.

3. Show, Don’t Tell

Whenever possible, give people reasons to invest in your idea by showing how it works.

Take a look at Tinder's pitch deck example :

Tinder earned $50 million + in funding in just three rounds with this deck.

How? By showing what their business idea will do.

They start with a relatable story. Then they ‘show’ the solution by featuring their app in their presentation.

You can steal this idea too. Use wireframes, a minimum viable product, even mockup screenshots — anything that helps people visualize the solution you’re offering.

And in case you’re wondering why this works, know that by showing, you’re tapping into your audience’s imagination to get them to say yes. This is the same reason why storytelling is so effective in persuading people .

4. Make Your Pitch Deck Look Professional

Sandy emphasizes the importance of having a high-quality design for the companies he works with.

Using a DIY design tool like Visme can help with this even if your designing chops aren't all that polished. It will make your pitch deck look different from other presentations that look more or less the same when designed in PowerPoint.

Company Pitch Deck

Housing Pitch Deck

App Pitch Deck

Retail Store Pitch Deck

Product Pitch Deck

Adventure Pitch Deck

Create your pitch deck View more templates

To top that, you can use presentation templates to save your time. Because, realistically speaking, you only need to customize the template to your needs. With our Dynamic Fields feature , you can automatically capture key information like personal and company information across your slides.

Even as you use an amazing tool to create your presentation, keep the following presentation design tips in mind:

Don’t clutter your slides.

We’ve already said this before: use as few slides as you can.

But while you’re at it, make sure each slide is minimally designed to leave a lasting impression.

Farzad remarks that overloading slides with text is one of the common mistakes serial entrepreneurs and startup founders make.

Because, here’s the thing: clutter fails to grasp your audience’s attention. And, the last thing you want is an investor scratching their head, trying to breathe sense into the mess that your slides are.

To create breathable, clutter-free slides: use only visuals that you need — no unnecessary icons or graphics.

Make sure every design element earns its keep by serving a purpose.

Use legible fonts.

Steer clear of a font that demands your audience to squint to read your message.

Instead, work with easily readable presentation fonts like Verdana, Georgia, Montserrat and more.

Make sure the font size is no less than 24 points.

Lastly, stick with 2-3 fonts at most. More fonts will only create distractions and undermine your design’s cleanliness.

Work with good color contrasts.

It’s best to work on your business’s brand identity as early as you can.

The reason? It helps you leave a memorable impression on your audience.

If you’re in the very early stages of pitching your idea though, you might not be focused on it until you get investment rolling. In which case, we recommend you take the time to carefully choose colors for your presentation.

Essentially, colors leave a psychological impact on your viewers. For instance, red communicates passion. Blue inspires trust. Yellow stands for optimism and so on.

This means you can’t randomly play with any color for your presentation slides.

To increase your odds of leaving a lasting impression, study color psychology before finalizing your deck’s color scheme.

Also, make sure you work with a color contrast that’s legible. This ensures the deck is easy to understand.

5. Craft Compelling Pitch Deck Copy

With your design nailed, work on your copy.

The aim is simple: keep your copy simple, succinct and to the point.

A presentation deck is no place to be wordy. Instead, limit to 6-8 lines per slide — roughly 30 words per slide.

You can also try the 5 x 5 x 5 rule of writing presentation copy:

• 5 lines of text per slide with
• 5 words per line and placing only
• 5 lines of text-heavy slides in a row

Or, you can experiment with the 2/4/8 rule that says:

• Change to a new slide after every 2 minutes with
• 4 bullet points per slide and no more than
• 8 words per bullet point

No matter which method you choose to write your presentation copy, the core is the same: limit your text.

To do so, start with writing your copy without worrying about word count. Then go on to edit ruthlessly. Prune words that are too technical or contribute fluff.

Get rid of jargon too — use simple words instead so your audience doesn’t have to stress to keep up with your message.

Plus, avoid abbreviations and rewrite sentences to shorten them.

6. Practice Your Presentation Delivery

Lastly, it’s important you present with confidence. This is key to hitting your funding goals.

Make sure you practice everything — what you’ll say, how you’ll say it (your tone) and how you’ll time your speech and the slides.

You’ll also want to practice speaking at a steady pace. If you go too slow, you risk boring your audience.

On the flip side, going too fast, a common presentation mistake , often means you won’t be able to drive home your message.

And, as you practice: get rid of the ‘umms’ and ‘ahs.’ Keep your presentation delivery natural, even conversational. But never read off from your presentation — it’s a huge audience turn-off .

Not to mention, try to maintain eye contact (despite the fact that it can be overwhelming). Having a hard time doing that? Look at your crowd’s foreheads.

Create a Pitch Deck That Wins Over Investors

And that’s all folks. We’re hopeful you’re feeling confident about how to create a pitch deck.

Remember: it’s all about your target buyers and how your business can help them.

So, focus on the benefits and the problem your product will solve. Tell a relatable story around it. And finally, present it with confidence.

Don’t forget to create a visually convincing presentation deck. If you want a head start, sign up for Visme and start creating an attention-grabbing investor pitch deck now.

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About the Author

Masooma Memon is a pizza-loving freelance writer by day and a novel nerd by night. She crafts research-backed, actionable blog posts for SaaS and marketing brands who aim to employ quality content to educate and engage with their audience.

• Presentation Design

What is a Pitch Deck? Meaning, Example, and Guide

This article will help you understand the concepts and components of an effective pitch deck.

Throughout many years of helping startup founders navigate fundraising, we've come across many pitch decks. We can confidently say that we know a thing or two about writing good pitch decks. In this article, we'll do a deep dive into the definition of a pitch deck and what the ideal pitch deck looks like.

Pitch Deck: What is It?

A pitch deck is a short and concise presentation, usually created using PowerPoint, Keynote, or similar software, used to provide your audience with a quick overview of your business plan. It typically covers key aspects such as your company's mission, business model, market opportunity, product or service, competitive landscape, financials, and team. The goal of a pitch deck is to attract investment by convincing potential investors of the viability and future growth of your business. Most pitch decks are around 15-24 slides long and are used during meetings with investors, demo days, or as a part of the initial screening process by accelerators.

A pitch deck shouldn't be a boring business presentation. It's a narrative that tells your company's story . Depending on your stage and your particular journey, this ‘story' can take different angles: solving a pressing problem, a unique business model, remarkable traction, revolutionary tech, or superhuman founders. Usually, a deck will have between 15-24 slides, but this depends on all the above factors and shouldn't be taken as a rule of thumb. The deck's goal is clear: you need to persuade your investor audience to trust you and your solution so they want to invest their money in your company.

A pitch deck can be used for different purposes , such as emailing it to help you land investor meetings, pitching, and presenting in front of an audience. Depending on these scenarios and time constraints, the presentation can have more or less information, but the structure should generally be the same.

In short: a pitch deck is a quick presentation that outlines your company's business plan to potential investors. The goals of a pitch deck vary, though generally it aims to secure financing from investors, or at least further conversations about investing in your startup.

When will you need a pitch deck?

‍You'll need a pitch deck throughout your journey as a founder and many stages of a startup's life. For starters, almost every U.S. accelerator program will ask for a pitch deck during their initial screening process. Once you're in, get ready for the "pitch practices." These spaces allow you to rehearse your pitch and refine your presenting skills. Rehearsing is crucial; it's designed to prepare you for future demo days. An event where you present your business to a room full of key players think investors and other program coordinators.

However, this is not the most common use of your deck. The most common use for a pitch deck is whenever you and your team decide it's time to seek external capital. Think of your pitch deck as your ‘presentation card.' Often, what will determine whether you can sit in front of potential investors is if your deck has a clear and compelling story that can be understood. The presentation decks can also serve as a pre-meeting brief, allowing investors a sneak peek before a face-to-face conversation, or as a discussion tool during your meetings to walk them through your value proposition clearly and concisely.

A pitch deck serves a dual purpose : not only does it provide investors with an overview of your company, making it easier for them to evaluate the investment potential, but it also helps you, as a founder, as a mental exercise into articulating the key aspects of your startup and pen key information and data about your company.

The ideal structure

Again, think of your deck as a story/journey your reader is going through. Throughout the presentation, the key questions the pitch needs to answer are:

• What market opportunity have you discovered?
• What have you built to tackle it? How does it work, and who is it for?
• How much are you growing, and will you continue to grow?
• And why are YOU and your team THE right ones to change that status quo?

These four guiding questions will frame the structure of your pitch deck First, you want to set the stage with your deck's introduction. This encompasses the cover slide and the status quo section. What's the current landscape, and what isn't working?

Next, we pivot to introduce your solution think of it as the story's hero. This is where the narrative takes a turn. We focus on what sets your solution apart, its features, how it generates revenue, and its target audience.

For seasoned entrepreneurs, this is also the point where we'd highlight any traction gained, demonstrating your understanding of your business's growth trajectory and your concrete plans for expansion.

Then, it's time to size up the market. You should explore how the target market responds and how big it is the stakes couldn't be higher. But that's not all; your audience will also be eager to learn about the competitive landscape and how you are better than your competitors.

Finally, we reach the climax of the pitch deck. Here we highlight the founding team, your unique competitive edges, or perhaps your innovative rollout strategy. We wrap up this section by clearly outlining your funding needs and providing a breakdown of how the capital will be used.

What should be in a Pitch Deck Presentation?

Many authors, venture capitalists, startup founders, and evangelists have developed various iterations of what they believe are the essential components for successful pitch presentations. There is definitely not one correct answer. However, there are certain best practices and highly recommended components the deck should have.

At Slidebean, we've created this visual to show how we visualize the ideal story arc of a pitch deck.

This fits perfectly into the ideal pitch deck structure we tend to use at Slidebean.

Debunking Pitch Deck Myths

As CEOs and founders approach their pitch decks they’ll inevitably come across some myths: like the number of slides they are allowed to use, or whether or not to include an advisors slide. Let me tell you right now, it’s all crap. 

In the end a pitch deck is a summary of your company story , nothing more, nothing less. If your company story is long, and it takes you 25 slides to cover it, great. If you can do it in 10 without leaving anything out, better. 

To me a pitch deck is this blend of storytelling, of building up excitement; with business, and numbers, and a very rational, cold decision which is: will this company make me, investor, money? 

Does Your Company Really Need a Pitch Deck?

Companies come in all shapes and sizes, but only a handful of them are venture-fundable. 

You may hear talk on the startup press about this and that company raising millions of dollars, but for the most part, these are fast-growth, massively SCALABLE companies, and that’s why they can (and must) raise capital to expand.

There’s really no terminology to tell them apart, but I like to use Startups vs. Small Businesses .

Yes, if we are strict about their definitions, all Startups begin as Small Businesses, but the difference I want to make here relates to their scale. 

So let’s draw a line here and paint that picture. 

Small Businesses

Say a developer and a UI designer got tired of their day jobs. They’ve built a name and a portfolio for themselves and they decide to start their agency. 

To me, this is the definition of this category of ‘small business’. This is, by all means, a tech company, but in order to scale they will need to hire more and more designers and developers. Their margins, the profit the company makes after covering expenses, will always be limited because they are essentially selling man-hours. 

Can they reach great scale? They can build an agency with 1,000 engineers, but that is a long-shot. Examples here are the McKisneys and th EYs of the world: massive consulting companies that still sell mostly, services; but those are exceptions. 

Can they raise venture capital? Unlikely. And definitely not at the idea or early revenue stage. 

Those companies are usually formed by 2 or 3 partners who bring in some capital of their own to get started. One of those partners might even be an ‘executive’ co-founder: while the other, or others bring the expertise and the work, the executive co-founder brings the capital. 

But that is not an investor that you find with a pitch deck. It’s probably a relationship that you’ve already built, and that trust you to get in bed with you for this business. 

There’s nothing wrong with being a ‘small business’ type of company. The US economy was built on these small businesses.

The Tech Startup

This is the company that you read about on Techcrunch . A company that has found a transformative market opportunity, and that is using technology to solve it in an extremely scalable way. 

Uber is not a car or a taxi company. It doesn’t need to hire drivers. It operates all over the world and can open an operation in a city with 3 employees, because they are a marketplace. They are connecting drivers to riders. 

Same with Airbnb . They don’t need to buy homes or rooms (like a hotel), they are just connecting the players in this economy. 

Going to Social Media, when Facebook acquired Instagram in 2013, they were bought out for $1 Billion. The company had 250 million users and 13 employees. Because software is infinitely scalable, and you don’t need a massive staff to support it. 

That’s the concept that I like to classify as a tech startup. Once again, technically, the development shop is a tech startup, but I’m not using the dictionary definition. 

The story on how these companies fund their operation is very different. These are companies reaching for the moon, so they will need to raise capital every couple of years (assuming they are doing well). 

On a SaaS (software as a service) for example, it’s expected that the founders build a prototype and sell it to a few customers before considering outside capital. 

On a Social Media platform, fast user growth is expected before raising significant capital. Look at the Facebook story- assuming that you saw the movie: Thiel only invested in ‘The Facebook’ AFTER it was a hit in Harvard. 

Other industries like Healthtech and Hardware do require capital earlier on, because they are very capital intensive just to get started. 

For the most part, these companies will operate at a loss for years, because everyone is betting on the large play. Think Amazon, who didn’t turn a profit for decades, but today, it completely dominates the e-commerce industry. And AWS. And streaming. 

Parts of a Pitch Deck

The three-act structure.

Rules are made to be broken, but I believe this structure is truly the ideal one. For this outline we combined our own experience, our analysis of hundreds of decks, from successful companies like Airbnb and Uber and finally, storytelling. 

And let me start with that one, because as irrelevant, and unrelated as it may seem- storytelling makes or breaks a deck. 

Who doesn’t love a good story- a story of how this team used their wits to overcome difficulties. Or a story on how everything stacked against them, and they won by the skin of their teeth. 

I learned this stuff in film school, and it ruined movies a little bit for me, but most stories, films included, follow a 3-Act structure that looks like this. 

During Act I, the SETUP, we have an introduction to the characters and to the status quo. We are presented with a universe that we can believe in, that we can invest in, as long as it’s realistic, and consistent with our own experience. 

Then comes Plot Point 1, around a third of the movie in. This is a point in the movie where the story takes an unexpected turn, and the plot gets its direction changed. 

In The Social Network, it’s when this coding, viral platform genius that we’ve been introduced to, gets presented with the Havard Connect idea by the Winkelvosses, and decides to steal it. 

The first plot point also opens a range of possibilities of where the story could go. As viewers, we are at the mercy of the script and often have no idea where the conflict will go. 

As the Plot changes direction, stakes start getting higher. We care about these characters and build excitement. This all builds up to the climax of the story, which comes right after the second plot point. 

In the Social Network, the Second Plot point is Eduardo freezing the Facebook account: it’s another unexpected turn in the story. Instead of opening possibilities of where the story could go, it narrows them down. This is followed by the climax of the story, the confrontation between Mark and Eduardo in the Facebook office. 

Try placing your pitch deck story in this arc. 

We start with an introduction , the status quo. What’s going on, how does the world operate today? What are the flaws? 

Your Solution slide is the first Plot point . You are pivoting the direction of the story, of the current status quo and possibilities are endless. 

Now you start narrowing down. The product takes shape. Stakes get higher. We understand the hero of the story, the product. 

The second plot point and climax could vary depending on your business. Maybe it’s in your traction slides, because you tapped into an incredible distribution channel. 

Maybe the plot twist revolves around the competitors, and how they foolishly overlooked something your team knows. Maybe it’s about your team, your background, and experience which is unmatchable.

It’s at that climax when the viewer is most vulnerable. It’s after that climax, that you get to ask for money. 

Very broadly speaking, the key elements that fit this structure are listed below. This doesn't mean the deck should have no more than 13 slides. Depending on your particular case, many of these sections should be expanded into more than 1 slide.

• Market Overview
• Product/Features
• Revenue Model
• Go-To-Market
• Market Size
• Competition
• Fundraising/Use of Funds‍

These core sections of a pitch deck are intentionally designed to flow from broad to detailed, starting with the business opportunity and gradually zooming in on why this particular company is poised to fill a gap in the target market.

If you're on the hunt for some pitch deck inspiration, check our gallery of successful pitch deck templates right here I want to take a moment to re-emphasize that this structure is, by no means, a rule of thumb. Every company has its own story, and whoever is creating the pitch deck will adapt these slides into the order that produces the best possible story, given their strengths. Early-stage startups, who usually don't have relevant traction, lean heavily on the problem-solution fit, the market potential, and being first to market. More mature companies, in contrast, tend to emphasize their traction, KPIs, unit economics, and how additional funding can accelerate their growth.

Regardless of the size of the company or the milestones to date, the ultimate goal of a pitch presentation is to provide a broad overview of how the startup works, its strengths, and future growth opportunities.

Are there different types of pitch decks?

The term pitch deck is broad. I’ve seen it used to refer to a sales deck. You could even use it to refer to a movie pitch. 

As you’ve probably noticed, our expertise is on investor pitch decks. 

More than different decks per se, the main factor to consider is that there are different scenarios in which you'll use a deck, so we definitely need to adjust the narrative to fit these different time constraints and content requirements. While there's no one-size-fits-all guide to the types of pitch decks, here are some commonly encountered decks:

Elevator pitch deck:

This is a deck that should, as the name suggests, be able to deliver a pitch for 1-2 minutes during an elevator ride with a potential investor - figuratively speaking. Nonetheless, these sorts of decks are highly condensed versions of your pitch. Focus on the most essential information: problem, solution, traction, market, use of funds, and growth.

Demo day pitch deck:

Usually a bit more detailed than an elevator pitch but still on the shorter side. These pitch decks are common on demo days when many startups present sequentially, and the time limit is sacred. Here, founders usually have no more than five minutes to present. These pitches are often presented in large auditoriums, and the focus is yourself, so the deck itself should have little-to-no-text and be heavy on visuals to capture your audience's attention.

Full investor meeting deck:

This is what you normally find when Googling “What is a Pitch Deck” or “Pitch Deck Meaning”. An investor meeting deck is the archetypical pitch deck and also the most commonly used. Typically, it showcases your company for potential investors to review and assess if it is venture-backable or not. This is a more in-depth look at your startup's aspects, from business model and go-to-market strategy to financial projections and fundraising needs. These decks have between 15-24 slides and are also called “email decks,” meaning they are sent to help you land investor meetings. They can also be used to guide in-person meetings and help you highlight traction and data that would otherwise be trickier to explain verbally.

Key components for a solid pitch deck

• Good Story Structure - Storytelling Arc: In pitch decks, the order in which you present your information is crucial almost as critical as the content itself. Your information should follow a logical order that paints an overall business picture and has a story arc that makes sense. Most storytelling techniques in public speaking also apply to narrating your business story.
• Easily Understandable: This point goes hand in hand with the structure and order of the deck and, honestly, is quite obvious. Readers need to understand your company and the deck, regardless of them being unfamiliar or unrelated to your industry. The typical trap in which many fall is getting too technical and using jargon that many of us simply - don't understand. Try to tell the story clearly, compellingly, and concisely so that anyone* can understand the deck and get excited about your company.
• Human-Centered & Relatable: It's tempting to focus too much on the solution you created and give lengthy explanations of your product's super cool features. The reality is that the best business idea is meaningless if it doesn't solve a genuine human problem. The deck needs to convey that there is a clear problem/solution fit. Make things relatable by providing proof of the user's pain points, quantify the problem, and mention how your solution improves their lives - and why your team is the only one that can do it. If your audience can't relate to the problem, convincing them of your solution will be hard.‍
• Compelling Visual Resources: While your presentation's content is vital, your slides' visual look is critical in engaging your audience. People get bored quickly, and a visually dynamic presentation can help you maintain their interest. We process images much more efficiently than text; use this to your advantage by crafting visually striking slides that enhance your message. And please, remember that this is not a business plan. You shouldn't have everything in your deck. This is a high-level document that has to paint a solid picture of your company. There will be a time and place to deep dive into different areas of the company; the slide deck is not the place.
• Traction-Oriented Slides: If you have the traction, brag about it. Results and actual data tend to be more relevant than anything else. They demonstrate you've found or started to find product/market fit, and that your addressable market has been identified and defined. Nothing gives you more credibility than actual, measurable success with paying customers. Bonus points: you must be prepared to discuss these metrics and unit economics once you present them, so make sure you know and understand them.
• A Healthy, Exponentially Growing Business: The simple (and hardest) truth of crafting a solid and compelling pitch deck is that it depends on your company's performance. Revenue-generating businesses, low-churning products, exponential and sustained growth, and consistent usage… these are the things that investors are looking for, and that will charm them. The reality behind the startup fundraising world is that investors want a 10x return for their investment. Despite the reputation of being risk-takers, they ultimately look for their investment to yield results.

A pitch presentation is valuable for founders and investors to assess collaboration opportunities. A solid deck can take you really far, and a deck full of red flags can deter you from even having the opportunity to pitch in person to potential investors. It is a good exercise because it forces you to do a conscious exercise to articulate your story in a compelling manner, as well as a format that is compatible with the majority of investors around the world. By no means is it an easy task, but the exercise of writing it will help you understand your company from an external perspective and force you to understand key aspects of the narrative you have: growth, metrics, solution, problem, etc.

I hope this article has clarified what a business deck is and the components of a 5-star deck.

For more insights, feel free to explore other articles on our blog about pitch deck basics.

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Home Blog Business How to Create a Winning Business Pitch

How to Create a Winning Business Pitch

Do you have a bright business idea that you want to get off your vision board? “Just do it” – a famous shoe company would advise. However, it doesn’t mean you should stubbornly take the plunge alone. To turn your visionary concept into a thriving business, you need more than an innovative idea and a passion for success. You need to gather a strong support system to back you up, which begins with a business pitch.

A business pitch can open many doors, whether you want to attract investors, secure partnerships, or gain customers. It’s your opportunity to communicate your vision, passion, and the potential of your idea.

If you are a budding entrepreneur, read on as we delve into the nitty-gritty of creating a winning business pitch.

Table of Contents

What Is a Business Pitch?

Investor pitch, sales pitch, internal pitch.

• Elevator Pitch
• 10/20/30 Presentation
• The Pecha Kucha Technique
• Product Demo
• Audio-Visual Pitch
• Customer Testimonial Pitch

How to Create and Present a Business Pitch

A business pitch is a persuasive presentation that outlines the critical elements of a business idea, product, or service to an audience. It is used in various contexts, including:

• Seeking funding from investors
• Attracting potential customers or clients
• Securing business partners or collaborators

That being said, a business pitch is not limited to startups. Established companies often use business pitches to present and gain buy-in for new projects, product ideas, or process improvements within their organizations since they acknowledge the difference between a business pitch and a presentation . A quote by Peter Coughter in “The Art of the Pitch: Persuasion and Presentation Skills that Win Business” summarizes the concept in very clear terms:

“The secret to selling great work is to sell the idea of the work before you sell the work.”

In other words, a business pitch is any effort to convince someone to support or back an idea about a business.

Components of a Business Pitch

The elements to include in pitching correlate to the type of business pitch you deliver.

Investors are typically interested in knowing how you would generate income for them, so your presentation should prove a return on investment (ROI) in pouring resources into your business proposition. Your pitch should encompass your business plan , providing salient insights into your:

• Market Opportunity
• Competitive landscape
• Business model
• Financial projections

Customers won’t care much about your plans for the next 5 years. What would they want from you is something that will fulfill the specific need or desire they have at the moment. A sales pitch will cover:

• Value proposition
• Competitive advantage
• Social proof
• Call to action

The purpose of an internal pitch is to suggest process improvements or propose new projects within an organization. This type of business pitch can lead to the development of innovative ideas, which is why some companies organize internal pitch events, allowing employees to share their ideas for ways to improve their organization. Internal pitches would typically answer the following questions:

• What is the problem or opportunity?
• What is the solution or idea?
• Why is it important?
• What are the resources needed?
• How will it be implemented? 

Types of Business Pitch Techniques

Not all your audience members might be able to sit in for a 30-minute-long pitch or attend in-person presentations, so you must tailor your pitches according to the scenario. Here are some business pitch techniques that you can use to convey your ideas effectively.

1. Elevator Pitch

Business pitches can happen anytime and anywhere – over coffee, in a subway, or even in a lift. This is the idea behind an elevator pitch , a very brief pitch (usually 30 seconds) that succinctly conveys the essence of your idea. It’s designed to grab attention quickly and provide a high-level overview of your proposition.

Of course, a few seconds to a minute might not be enough to gain buy-in, but it can be a starting point to get your prospects to want to know more and agree to a follow-up presentation.

2. 10/20/30 Presentation

We can think of the 10/20/30 presentation as the expanded version of the elevator pitch. This format extends the duration and depth of the pitch while maintaining a focus on brevity and clarity. The idea is to limit your presentation to 10 slides, a maximum of 20 minutes for delivery, and at least a 30-point font size in the pitch deck.

The 10/20/30 rule in delivering a business pitch emphasizes prioritizing the most critical content and avoiding overwhelming the audience with excessive details.

3. The Pecha Kucha Technique

You will often encounter the Pecha Kucha technique in storytelling events, but you can also incorporate its elements in your pitches. In a traditional Pecha Kucha presentation, 20 slides are displayed for 20 seconds, resulting in a total presentation time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. This technique is most effective during pitch competitions, where you must present your business ideas within a fixed time limit.

4. Product Demo

Demonstrations, or demos, are particularly valuable when you have a tangible product, software application, or service to pitch to the public. For example, you will frequently see consumer electronic companies use demonstrations to introduce new products, like Apple introducing their iPhones at WWDC.

5. Audio-Visual Pitch

Ventures with video pitches can double their valuations. That’s the finding of a research by Elsevier . You will often see individual fundraisers on crowdfunding websites accompanied by a video pitch. This technique helps the audience put a face on the campaign and create a stronger connection between the fundraiser and the audience.

A video pitch can be as simple as you, the presenter, speaking to a webcam. You may also upload a minimum viable product (MVP) video to showcase its functionality and benefits to potential backers before production.

A textbook example of an audio-visual pitch is the explainer video of Dropbox , where its founder, Drew Houston, demonstrated the feature of the Dropbox prototype. This video helped the company gain attention and secure initial funding.

6. Customer Testimonial Pitch

The most convincing pitch comes from your most loyal customers. When people speak positively about your product or service, it carries significant weight with potential customers and investors. Testimonials from real customers provide social proof and serve as independent, third-party endorsements of your product or service, which can be more trusted than claims made by the business itself.

Customer testimonials come in different formats: video, online reviews, email, surveys, etc.

1. Know who you’re pitching to

This may seem an overworked phrase, but knowing who you are presenting to cannot be overstated, especially in an event as crucial as a business pitch. So, ask yourself during the planning stage: Am I pitching to potential investors, customers, partners, or internal stakeholders ?

When you are familiar with your audience, you can effectively tailor your pitch to their specific needs, choose the right approach, and, in effect, improve your chances of success. 

For example, a founder scheduled to pitch their health and fitness app to a group of angel investors should primarily discuss the business’s financial viability. On the other hand, they should focus on the app’s benefits if they have to pitch to the potential users.

2. Tie it with a story

While data, facts, and figures provide the foundation for your pitch, the emotional appeal often seals the deal. A study suggests that 90 percent of our decisions are guided by emotions, with logic used to justify those decisions. One way of tapping into your audience’s emotions is by telling a personal story.

A well-crafted narrative can leave a lasting impression on the audience. When you infuse your pitch with compelling stories, you add authenticity to your presentation and forge a connection with your listeners. That said, there is a right way to use personal stories. A very simple structure you can follow is:

Problem + Solution + Outcome

Here’s a hypothetical example of how storytelling can be used during a pitch:

Company Name: SwimAway

Company Description: SwimAway is an eco-friendly swimwear brand that creates stylish, sustainable swimwear made entirely from recycled plastics.

“I was in Phuket, Thailand, last July for a freediving session when our group encountered a heartbreaking scene. We faced a sea turtle struggling because of a plastic straw stuck in its nostril. Thankfully, we removed that plastic straw and set the turtle free.

But this encounter reminded me of the sad trend worldwide – plastic pollution killing marine life. I knew I could do something, so I founded my swimwear brand called SwimAway as a commitment to our oceans.

We craft our swimwear entirely from recycled ocean plastics. We partnered with organizations dedicated to cleaning our oceans, collecting plastic waste, and transforming it into high-quality fabric.

When you wear SwimAway, you’re not just wearing swimwear; you become part of a movement.”

3. Mention your Successes

If you are a fan of Shark Tank, a U.S. reality show where entrepreneurs present their business ideas, you’ll notice one question arises every time: how much sales were you able to make so far? That’s because showcasing your successes, not limited to your sales revenue, is critical to many business pitches. Your successes, or their lack, may help people decide whether to support you.

For example, in a sales pitch, dedicating a slide to highlight the awards and commendations your offerings have may reinforce the credibility of your brand. 

4. Prepare for the Difficult Questions

No matter how well you think you delivered a pitch, it’s likely that you will still end up facing tough questions. Investors or customers ask questions to test your credibility and understand your plans.

You may anticipate common questions like inquiries about competition, scalability, and revenue projections. However, the best way to prepare for the Q&A is to know the inside out of your business. When you know your pitch by heart, backing up your answers with data and analyses will be second nature.

5. Mix and Match Business Pitch Techniques

Mixing and matching different business pitch techniques can make your presentation more engaging and persuasive. By incorporating various approaches, you can cater to different aspects of your audience’s cognitive and emotional processes, ensuring that your message resonates effectively.

For example, combining a product demo with customer testimonials can create a dynamic and persuasive pitch that not only showcases the functionality of your offering but also validates its effectiveness through real customer experiences.

6. Prepare a Pitch Deck

Preparing a pitch deck is distinct from creating the pitch itself, although the two are closely related. A pitch deck involves structuring slides that cover key content and information you want to convey. This activity involves compiling your financial projections, market size, growth rates, and more using graphics and images with a consistent visual theme.

Depending on your budget, you may hire a pitch deck designer or download and use editable pitch deck templates online.

7. Practice, Practice, Practice

The best way to perfect your pitch delivery is to practice and practice again. The more you practice, the more comfortable and confident you’ll become with your presentation.

Record yourself delivering the pitch using video or do a mock delivery in front of a mirror. Keep your posture and timing in check. Practice seamlessly transitioning between your speech and visuals. And if possible, seek feedback from your peers or mentors.

We’ve explored the essential elements and strategies for creating a successful business pitch. Throughout this process, one golden rule is to tailor your business pitch to your audience. When you can select the right people to present your idea to and align your pitch to their needs, you are well on your way to transforming your vision into a reality!

1. Executive Pitch for Business PowerPoint Template

Get your hands on all the tools required for creating a business pitch! Just customize these slides to include your organization’s information, change the color scheme to match your branding, and you’re one step closer to success.

Use This Template

2. Company Pitch Presentation Template for PowerPoint

Sometimes you intend to deliver your business pitches in a couple of well-crafted slides. If that’s your aim, meet a slide deck that can captivate your audience while you focus on introducing key information in style.

3. Minimalistic Business Pitch Deck Template for PowerPoint

With clean graphics and the option to upload our tailored backgrounds, this set of 14 slides has every tool to answer the question of how to make a business pitch. Its aesthetic can captivate small startups looking for visual aids in their presentation but intending to get the audience’s interest through their talk rather than extremely catchy graphics. Take a look and craft your next business pitch presentation!

4. Company Growth Business Pitch Template

This presentation template is designed for entrepreneurs looking for funding to achieve the next stage in their venture. Present highly relevant information such as your Business Model Canvas, your target KPIs, Market Size, Competitor Analysis, and more in a selection of 13 slides intended to summarize complex information easily. Ideal to create printables out of your presentation.

5. Colorful Business Pitch Deck for PowerPoint

Owners of businesses in the creative industry can reflect on their style and speak about their achievements with this extremely visual pitch for business slide deck. This template contains 19 slides featuring most of the tools mentioned in this article, plus some extra added value that can speak of the professionalism of your business pitch. Incorporate your data and generate quality, editable graphics in just seconds.

6. Elevator Pitch PowerPoint Template

We’ve seen this template in the article, as it clearly possesses all the qualities required for a powerful elevator pitch. Gather your data and use this selection of 12 business pitch PPT to create memorable but concise presentations.

7. Creative Business Pitch PowerPoint Template

Finally, for those looking to create a different aesthetic in their presentations, this template is intended for those looking at how to write a business pitch for a restaurant business. Yet, still, it applies to many creative industries and services. Deliver a presentation that clearly reflects your style with the help of this business pitch presentation template.

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Pitch Presentation: How to Make the Case for Your Idea in Minutes!

You’ll probably have heard the word “pitch” in connection with PowerPoint and business ideas – but what exactly does it mean, and why is it so important in business?

This article will explain why pitch presentations are so vital , how to create a pitch presentation and what type of pitch might be suitable for your presentation goal.

So what does pitching, or a pitch, actually mean?

The basic meaning of pitching is throwing an idea at your audience, hoping to score a hit, as in baseball.  It can also be thought of in terms of music (like a pitch change), or electronics/science. In the context of PowerPoint presentations, a pitch is a special type of sales presentation. Read on!

What is a pitch presentation?

A pitch presentation is a short presentation in which you introduce your company, product or idea . You only have a few minutes to convince your audience and attract potential investors. So you need to plan what you want to say really carefully.

First impressions matter . While you’re preparing your pitch presentation, keep the time constraint firmly in mind. Pay special attention to getting your key messages across clearly and precisely, to achieve your goals.

Read more about this in our articles on Preparing a Presentation and Goal Setting . 

We at PresentationLoad have a range of professionally designed PowerPoint pitch presentation slides for you to use!

Your goal is to attract direct investment , or to be invited to further talks with investors.

Investors are looking for businesses that have growth potential. They want to see that your company is able to grow quickly, making profits. So when you prepare your pitch, you need to focus on your growth potential. Show investors why and how your company will grow quickly in the future, and why it is worth investing in.

To present your company vision and growth, we recommend slides from PresentationLoad !

How do I make a pitch presentation?

The most important thing is to keep your presentation simple . Investors don’t have time for complex presentations and explanations. They want facts, and to grasp what your company has to offer.

Keep your presentation as short and simple as possible and focus on the core elements that make up your company, market and product. The following structure is great for covering all the important information in your pitch presentation in the short time available:

Slide 1:  Title slide (Short, snappy dsecription of your business idea)

Slide 2:  The team (Who does what)

Slide 3:  Initial situation (What’s the problem?) Slide 4: Solution (What you are offering!)

Slide 5:  Your product / service (What exactly are you proposing?)

Slide 6:  The market (Is the market environment / target audience big enough?)

Slide 7: Added value / USP (Why is your solution better than others?)

Slide 8:  The competition (Who are the competitors? How do you differ from them?) 

Slide 9:  Your business model (What do the financials look like? How will sales be generated?) 

Slide 10:  Your business plan (How would the business model be implemented?)

Slide 11:  Funding requirements (How much money is needed, and for what?)

Slide 12:  Contact data  A good pitch presentation needs to be clear and concise, while getting the most important information over. Introduce your idea and the team briefly at the beginning. Follow this up with the most important facts and figures , as well as information on how you intend to implement your business plan.

BELIEVE in your business idea , and you’ll be effortlessly persuasive. If you believe in your company and its potential, so will your investors. Convince them that you are the next big thing, and that they should definitely invest in your company right now!

Types of pitch

• Elevator pitch

As the name suggests, this is one where you only have a very short time to get your ideas across . In an elevator ride, you only have a few minutes to talk to fellow passengers.

So an elevator pitch should be a meaningful, brief introduction to your idea. Be prepared for how little time you have! Introduce yourself, your company and your business idea. Your goal should be make a brilliant first impression in minutes.

Find more informations in our blog elevator pitch .

• Start-up pitch / business plan pitch

This sort of pitch presentation allows you to set out not only your business idea or product, but your business plan too. Good figures and future potential attract potential investors, particularly for start-ups. Make a convincing pitch, and you’re so much more likely to get the investment you need.

• Speed-pitching essions

Speed pitching is basically a fixed event where speakers have something like five minutes each to convince investors of their idea. You get the opportunity to present your idea to several potential investors. This concept is similar to speed dating.

• Sales pitch

As the name suggests, a sales pitch is about selling a product . Potential investors and customers need to be persuaded to buy. A good sales pitch is tailored to individual customers or small groups and should focus, for best effect, on what benefits your product will give them.

• Agency pitch

An agency pitch is a competition on a level playing field, putting marketing or new business ideas to a potential client . The goal of the pitch is for you to win the contract . This form of pitch is often seen in the architecture business.

A company will invite potential contractors to an agency pitch for a particular job, giving them a briefing. Proposals which appeal to the client are then developed into presentations.

The winner gets the job; everyone else goes away empty-handed. So if you’re participating in an agency pitch, keep in mind that you could also lose, using up time, money and resources. Tip: Weigh the pros and cons of the pitch, and read the briefing carefully.

• Job planning / production pitch

This sort of pitch is about smoothly linking phases of a job . In order to efficiently produce goods, without a hiatus, there need to be skilled workers, machines available, and sufficient raw material.

Timing everything appropriately can be highly complex, so your pitch needs to emphasize your company’s efficiency and experience.

Side note: Pitching like in Hollywood – The Pixar Pitch

Pixar is known worldwide for its mega successful movies. But how do they always stay at the top? It’s simple: they’ve found the perfect marketing formula. It’s not complicated, but punchy and unique – just like their movies.

Pixar movies are just incredible, keeping us spellbound from start to finish . Who doesn’t remember Marlin’s desperate search for his son Nemo, or Buzz Lightyear’s famous line, “To infinity and beyond…”?

They all follow the same, time-tested formula – the secret of their success. Every screenplay, every movie, and every good investor pitch can be put together following simple but archetypal story structures.

How does the Pixar pitch work?

And why on earth are we talking about a success formula for animated films here? Because, as Daniel Pink explains in his book “To Sell is Human”, the Pixar success formula can be applied to your business as well . And we’ll tell you how to use this technique to improve your pitches. The Pixar pitch is strongly grounded in storytelling . Nowadays, all the best TED Talks, Apple keynote speeches, and successful pitches use the storytelling principle to get their ideas across effectively.

This is because stories matter . They’ve been used since time immemorial to pass on facts and knowledge, from generation to generation. Why are we so captivated by stories? Because they evoke emotions in us, inspiring people to action, conveying values, virtues, humanity and morals. So we can use storytelling to create emotions that inspire customers and win their trust.

The structure of the Pixar pitch

The Pixar pitch consists basically of six consecutive sentences:

1. “Once upon a time…” …lets you start with a general description of the situation.

2. “Every day… ” …presents what is happening on the ground, letting you show what the problem is.  This is where you can elaborate on the habits, expectations, and general way of doing things of the user or consumer, adding statistics or evidence for them as needed.

3. “One day…” …this is the climactic, decisive moment. This is the catalyst. This is the reason that change is needed (the reason for what you’re proposing).

4. “Because of this…” … What happened? What started to be done differently?

5. “That’s why…” …. What changed as a result of this? What has the change done for the user or consumer?

6. “Until at last…” …this rounds up and highlights the essence of your message. A successful solution!

The Pixar pitch, using “Finding Nemo” as an example

1. “ Once upon a time … there was a fish named Marlin, who loved and wanted to protect his only son, Nemo.”

2. “ Every day … Marlin warned Nemo about the dangers of the ocean, and begged him to stay close when swimming.”

3. “ One day … Nemo ignored his father’s warnings and swam out into the open water.”

4. “ Because of this …. he was captured by a diver, ending up in a Sydney dentist’s aquarium.”

5. “ That’s why … Marlin set in motion a plan to rescue Nemo, enlisting the help of other sea creatures.”

6 . “ Until at last … Marlin and Nemo found each other again, learning that love depends on trust.”

Why is the Pixar pitch so effective?

Telling a story like this really helps to focus on the key points of your topic, attracting your target audience’s interest by playing to their innate human reaction to storytelling.

The vivid images you can create with this method allow you to present your audience with a short, dynamic pitch that will leave them wanting more!

Perfection is achieved, not wehen there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. – Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

How will the Pixar pitch work for me?

The Pixar pitch is an effective way to s tructure short, relevant stories . Its framework makes it easy to set out ideas and develop them.

Presenting a pitch in this way is really effective because it works with the way our brain pays attention to and processes information.

Studies show that we can only remember a maximum of six items of information at a time – that’s why the Pixar pitch, with its six sentences, is so effective.

Conclusion: Pitch successfully to your audience

How about creating a Pixar pitch for your company, product, service or problem solving? It would be a great way to draw attention to your company and attract new customers! In just a few minutes, you can present the problem, introduce your solution and explain what makes it so special.

Before creating any pitch presentation, make sure you’re clear exactly what your goals are, and which type of presentation is needed.

Our tips for creating a great pitch presentation will ensure you’re well prepared and ready to face your audience with confidence.

Got more questions about pitch presentations or PowerPoint in general? Get in touch with us [email protected] and we’ll be more than happy to help!

You might also be interested in the following articles:

• Prepare PowerPoint Presentations: 11 Tips
• Define Your Presentation Goal
• Call-to-action for Your Presentations
• Storytelling in Presentations

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The Only 10 Slides You Need in Your Pitch

I am evangelizing the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a pitch should have ten slides , last no more than twenty minutes , and contain no font smaller than thirty points . This rule is applicable for any presentation to reach an agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.

• Ten slides. Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. (The only difference between you and venture capitalist is that he is getting paid to gamble with someone else’s money). If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business.
• Twenty minutes . You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if the setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.
• Thirty-point font . The majority of the presentations that I see have text in a ten-point font. As much text as possible is jammed into the slide, and then the presenter reads it. However, as soon as the audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead of you because it can read faster than you can speak. The result is that you and the audience are out of synch.

I hope this helps you create a winning pitch deck for your startup. If you’re interested in this template, you’re probably an entrepreneur. Please check out my podcast, Remarkable People , to learn from remarkable entrepreneurs such as Steve Wozniak (Apple), Melanie Perkins (Canva), Suzy Batiz (Poo Pourri), Steve Wolfram (Mathematica), and Melissa Bernstein (Melissa and Doug).

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46 Comments

Very good points. Sometimes less is more, especially when you are trying to get important points across and increase your credibility.

I fully subscribe to this logic…just find it interesting that were you to convert this excellent info-graphic to slides it would equal approximately 15 slides.

Your presentation is meant to support the message you’re communicating, not obscure it. I can’t agree with the thought ” a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting “. Using more than ten slides to explain for my business may not break my standard level.thanks

Very good simple and pragmatic tool useful in various domains. I see many applications for NGOs either with policy makers or donors. We need more of those to help them integrate private sector good practices, and hence gain in professionalism, impact and coherence.

Why is this not the template used for Shark Tank?

HA! This is the exact same template used for Shark Tank, minus the deck / linear format. Otherwise, all these topics are the key focal points of their discussions.

Loved this article especially the part about “using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector” .. hehehe!

I love this article. However, this comment ( his comment ) is unnecessary and distracting – it could have been eliminated and the article would be even stronger. I’ve been burned enough times with projectors and Apple computers that I rigorously avoid them – a personal choice. Yet, I wouldn’t have injected my bias about Apple into this article if I was wrote it. In ‘ The Art of the Keynote Guy says ‘ Don’t denigrate the competition ‘ – good advice. Apparently Microsoft is the competition. He should follow his own counsel.

And the reality is it’s true you wouldn’t spend 40 minutes trying to get it to work with an apple. You’d realize immediately you don’t have the right adapter that’d be that.

I didn’t get past the first line because the phrase is “in a pinch” not “pitch”.

Peggy is this a joke? The author is referring to a sales pitch. There’s no such thing as a “sales pinch.” He’s not referencing your phrase.

Only one slide is missing… Defensibility & IP. Every good pitch has some sort of moat. Trade secrets, patents, exclusivity agreements, etc. Investors want to have some sort of competitive advantage and protections.

Same goes for sales pitches.

Brian – wouldn’t that would be in the Underlying Magic?

Dave – Not really. The underlying magic is your “model”; what are you doing differently to address the need in the market?

As an investor, you want exclusivity in the market to that magical way of addressing the need. That means you have a legal way to defend the IP (e.g. patents, copyrights, etc.). With those elements your execution in fulfilling the need becomes less important, and thereby reduces investor risk, because in the end we can then license the IP to someone who can.

How would someone protect a big idea let’s say as example the idea of Facebook. A network idea. A big idea, but one that could be grabbed and replicated. How do you protect “the idea” even from those angel investors you are pitching to? Do you ask investors to sign anything before you pitch? I am stuck at this very fundamental starting point.

I agree. This is where I am stuck. My business model and idea are based around a network sales concept and exclusive market niche (a huge niche). How do I protect that? Do I need to protect this idea, even from presenting to investors? How do you protect a network concept, for instance how would you have protected the idea of Facebook going in to present the concept to investors? Is stealth, speed of execution, launch and quick scaling the only ways?

@Briand and Dave, What I recall from the book, Underlying Magic refers to differentiation; which can take the form of IP, unfair advantage or innovative resource/model.

Great Article. I completely agree with Guy, the attention span of most people is max 20 minutes after which the human mind has moved on. the slides may be more than 10 but really your message is only heard in the first 15 to 20 minutes. Lol so agree with the 40 minutes set up time :) that is something we see all the time..

Great article! nice to read. is there any example or presentation, if you have please share with us.

I would add use of pictures and graphs along with text in the presentation. Pictures catch great deal attention and they communicate well. I would also add presenter’s voice pitch and connecting with audience while presenting.

Guy’s 10 slides are clearly structured as a pitch presentation format for investors. Having now been on both sides of the table, I can confidently say they are an effective template / discipline for getting your story focused on the essential check list of questions that investors will have, for keeping their attention, and for whetting their appetites to want to learn more .. and potentially attracting a champion in the process. With a strong leader taking command of the presentation, these guidelines work well for improving your batting average attracting $. As Mark Twain said, “If I had more time I’d have made it shorter”. If that was ever more true, it’s with investors who are barraged daily with deals.

Love the 10/20/30 philosophy and am rewriting an article => video to follow. Some of the comments make me a bit concerned though.

some wat to relavent about internation affairs of nationality inthe antise social group….!!!!

What is your take on the PechaKucha format of 20 x 20 – 20 slides , 20 seconds each? In a world of decreasing attention spans do you think this format has the ability to add a bit more Zing and Energy to a presentation? Allows more time for Q & A then too.

This is very, very helpful to me in creating my pitch.

This is realy helpful I using the same in my studies here in Kenya

Thank you GK, I used it. I raised capital for my young company.

Very good simple and pragmatic tool useful in various domains. well elaborated design and understandable.

Funny thing is, I am using Canva for a project presentation in a Strategic Sales class and this was the first useful article I found to help me get a start on it.

I can agree with this as someone who make many pitch decks. I like the idea of 10, but it is not feasible as there is no consumer insight, media quotes, simple marketing plan, etc. Yes. there should be 10 topics, but that does not mean 10 slides as some topics do take multiple slides, even if just a media coverage quote on a slide to introduce a topic.

Guy Kawasaki pitch deck are very small but very helpful for startup, however have a look this one pitch deck, https://goo.gl/QaCrPT it have 450+ slides cover all the topics of every pitch. 6 categories template such as marketing, sales, investor, startup,

I think it’s interesting that “Exit Strategy” is a stupid question. Perhaps what Guy is saying is the “Underlying Magic” is the exit strategy?

I really like the book The art of start 2.0. He explains in simple words and its easy to understand. I recommend the book!

I agree with Guy’s thoughts. In addition: Make up a deck. Show it to a friend. Then 2 days later ask them what it said. Tweak the deck so that the viewer is left with 3 or 4 most important bullets. These should be very much akin to the notions in the Elevator Pitch.

Does anyone have any good examples of anyone using this format? It would be nice to see this applied.

People invest in people so my pitch decks, based on Guy’s approach, have the team slide in position #2. The 3-4 key individuals are listed as follows:

Joe Shmo Head of Engineering Cal Berkeley – MS Computer Science Previously VP Engineering @ Lightning Networks (acquired by Cisco) Driving product development

I don’t make a big deal about the CFO and never use “R&D” in the pitch. VC’s early on dictate who the CFO is, and one VC told me years ago that “research is done in universities, not with my money”

Limit of 10 slides enforces you to be concise, to see and display a core of the project. And it is critical to be understandable for audience. When you don’t spend additional time of investors, they see that you respect them. So they will respect you.

I’m looking for a pitch deck for a veterans non-profit.

Hello every body,

I’m a senior counselor for entrepreneurship and business in knowledge-based as well as normal habitant civil services. In my opinion, the very pre-condition for any good presentation is good idea with tested de-coupled sub-phases of the business. The investor and his/her venture capitalist is plausibly expert to capture the subject.

If you don’t have a great and sizable business idea don’t expect that you will win with any trick such 10/20/30. These rules are suitable for great-idea owners.

One of my ask for pitch deck. Your advise on pitch deck relief me from the pressure.But when i started to do the pitch deck , it takes 3 hours to complete and i made only 8 slide. I realized that i am weak at PowerPoint presentation. Can you release a course on power-point? Thank You

Valuable help for all our startups.

The article is very well written; short but useful. Thanks for sharing such a useful piece of content.

Guy, I love this format and I push it on all the entrepreneurs I coach. As I’m prepping to give a presentation and share it though, I see that the infographic form is actually impossible to present in PPT. Text is too small and formatting isn’t right. Seems like the infographic needs a little rework to be most useful!

Very well written article. Thanks for sharing such a useful piece of content.

Beautiful Article, Guy! Short and to the point and explained your points with proper justification. Rhyming concept 10/20/30 too.

Minimalism at its finest. 10 slides felt a bit less at first but the infographic made things very clear.

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8 Essentials for an Effective Startup Sales Pitch

Impress investors and win over clients with a strong startup sales pitch that incorporates these eight essentials.

written by: Paige Bennett managing editor: Ron Dawson

Table of Contents

Introduction.

• What is a sales pitch for startups
• Startup story
• Problem or need
• Market information
• Value Proposition
• Call to Action
• How many versions of your pitch is needed

Every startup needs a strong sales pitch. After all, once you’ve filed the paperwork for your business and drawn up the business plan, you’ll be doing a lot of pitching to start making money.

Startups have many different audiences they’ll need to pitch to, which is why it’s important to nail down exactly what to include in their sales pitches. How much time should you spend talking about the history of the startup? Do you need to talk about competitors?

As it turns out, what you include in a startup sales pitch can vary, especially when you factor in different audiences.

What is a sales pitch for startups?

For startups, a sales pitch doesn’t always refer to selling a product to customers, as it may for older businesses. Instead, a sales pitch could also refer to a startup marketing itself to investors for funding to take the company to the next level. 

Whether pitching to potential investors or an audience of buyers in your target market, startups should still focus on preparing a short-and-sweet sales pitch that is only about one to two minutes long. So, what should you include in this brief pitch, and what can you save for longer conversations? Here are some of the essential components of a sales pitch for startups.

8 startup sales pitch elements

You’ve got your first few investor meetings on the books and sales calls with potential clients penciled in the calendar. But before you can take these meetings, you need to prepare pitches to increase the chance of securing funding or closing sales. 

Even if you don’t have a single call scheduled yet, nailing a sales pitch as a startup is a top priority. You never know when you’ll need to start an elevator pitch to someone interested in what you do.

When you’re passionate about your startup, it can be hard to narrow down all the information about what you’re selling—and why you started the company—into a pitch.  But if you don’t build out at least a few enticing versions of a startup sales pitch, you risk boring potential investors and clients with excess details that don’t relate to your listeners.

That’s why knowing the essentials of what goes into a startup sales pitch can help you gain and hold the attention of your listeners and perhaps even convert them into funding your business or buying your products.

Here are eight elements to consider for a sales pitch:

As Entrepreneur reported , today's human attention span is only around 8 seconds, meaning you need to quickly and effectively grab your audience right from the start of your startup sales pitch.

There are several different ways to hook your listeners, but the tactic you choose will need to be tailored based on who you are pitching to. You may start with a powerful statistic about your business when pitching to investors. When speaking with potential clients, you may want to begin with an interesting question that speaks to the problem they have—a problem that your product will solve.

Keep this part particularly short, especially for an elevator pitch that you’re trying to keep within a one-minute timespan.

2. Startup story

According to Lyn Graft, founder of Storytelling for Entrepreneurs and author of "Start With Story," storytelling is a key element for pitching. Humans crave narrative, and sharing your startup’s story with the audience, whether investors or clients, can make listeners feel more emotion as they listen to the pitch.

As Forbes reported , storytelling can be as much as 22 times more memorable than facts. So, while it’s tempting to lead with business or product statistics to wow the crowd (and there may be a place for that information later in your pitch), the reality is that you can better captivate the audience with the story of why you started your company or what drove you to develop a specific product.

3. Problem or need

While a strong hook and a piece of company history will capture your audience’s attention, you also need to relate the pitch to the listener to keep them engaged. 

When pitching to potential clients, that means defining a problem or need that they have that existing products or companies aren’t properly fulfilling.

For investors, you still need to present the clients’ needs so you can explain how your company will solve this problem in a way that no other companies are doing. Showcasing the clients’ problems before explaining how your startup will solve them will help you stand out from competitors and highlight the value of your startup, encouraging investors to get involved.

4. Market and audience information

You won’t need to include market and audience information when making a sales pitch to potential clients, but this information will be crucial if you’re pitching to investors. Investors will want to know how your product will fit into your proposed market and why your specific audience needs what your startup is offering. 

Before you prepare a pitch to investors, make sure you nail product-market fit to prove that your solutions make sense for the target audience. Be sure to show examples of product-market fit in your pitch.

5. Solutions

Of course, there’s no sales pitch without identifying what you’re actually selling. But rather than just showing off a cool prototype, make sure you’re pitching your product or service in a way that explains how this specific offering will solve the problem outlined earlier in the pitch.

Avoid fluffy language or vague statements here. Instead, make it very clear as to how your product will fulfill the listener’s needs or solve their problems. Make use of facts and statistics, or pull in testimonials from any existing clients to help get the point across here.

6. Value proposition

No matter who you’re pitching to, they will want to know why they should stick with you over some other company offering similar products or services. That’s where a clear, strong value proposition comes into play. The value proposition explains how your company and its offerings differ from the competition. 

Investors will want to know why your startup will succeed in the market when compared to other similar companies, and they will want to know why it’s worth it to invest in your company over others.

For clients, they need reasons to buy your product versus another company. As a startup, you may not be able to offer the lowest prices on the market, so it will be crucial to show a high-quality product and exemplary customer service that will set you apart.

If you’re not sure exactly how to define your value proposition within the sales pitch, you can use handy value proposition templates for guidance. Remember, a sales pitch tends to be short, so using templates and guides to help you identify the most essential details about your business can be the ultimate trick in building a strong yet concise pitch as a startup.

If you’re making a pitch to investors, it’s important to express the goals you have for the business and how you’ll use investor funding to help reach those goals. Whether you’re hoping to expand your retail space or launch a new product, it’s important to outline the goals, why they’ll work for your audience, and how they’ll lead to a positive ROI for investors.

8. Call to action

Finally, give your listeners a cue to take action in order to help close the sale. Maybe you’re offering special introductory pricing for early customer signups or higher equity amounts for your first investors. No matter the deal, make sure you present it in a short, clear way using action verbs and urgent descriptions to encourage the listeners to take advantage of the offer or deal sooner rather than later. For example, try phrases like “Get started today” to make the offer seem more urgent and enticing.

Another tip is to make the call-to-action more personal, especially for one-on-one meetings and calls with potential investors or clients. According to a HubSpot survey , personalized CTAs perform 202% better than more generic CTAs, making it clear that a more personalized approach is worth the added time and effort when it comes to closing deals.

How many sales pitch versions does a startup need?

As a startup, there are going to be multiple stakeholders to pitch to, whether that’s a vendor you want to partner with, an investor you hope to gain funding from, or new clients to propel your business forward. 

Not everyone you pitch to needs to hear the exact same pitch. For instance, your potential clients don’t need to hear as much about your company’s future goals or the market information; they want to know how you’re going to alleviate their pain points for them. 

Ultimately, you should have at least two different versions of a startup sales pitch. One should be a brief elevator pitch, and the other should be a longer option, around 20 minutes or less, for more in-depth meetings. 

It’s also wise to have both short and long sales pitches for each audience, whether that’s an investor or potential customer. From there, you may also want to design different pitches for in-person presenting versus email presenting.

That may sound like a lot of research and planning to develop multiple pitches. However, it still wastes less time than giving unrefined pitches to broader audiences that may not feel inspired to close a sale or offer funding after listening. If you need help tailoring your pitches, you can check out examples of successful sales pitches and examples of strong elevator pitches for inspiration.

Close the deal with these sales pitch tips

Crafting a successful sales pitch is an art form. Not only do you need to incorporate narrative and statistics in a way that feels compelling and natural, but you also need to know how to evoke emotions from the crowd and edit your pitch to only the most robust details.

By knowing the most important elements to include in a sales pitch, you’ll have an easier time creating multiple pitch versions to meet the needs and interests of each person or crowd you’ll pitch to. With this personalization, you’re in a better position to start securing investor deals or selling your first products to clients, ultimately taking your startup to its next milestone and beyond.

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More From Forbes

The 5 differences between a pitch and a presentation.

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Persuade me. If you can.

“Tell me a little bit about yourself.”

“Pitch me your business idea.”

“Why should I do business with you?”

Where, exactly, does the story begin? In order to pitch your ideas - or your job skills - effectively, it’s important to understand the fundamental differences between a presentation and a pitch. Because a pitch is more than just an informational presentation. Beyond the constructs of the various TV shows, like Shark Tank , a pitch doesn’t necessarily inform. A good pitch compels . In other words, a pitch inspires action.

Persuasion Creates Opportunity, inside Your Pitch

That’s right, “inspires”. Because if all you want to do is instruct, like an informational presentation, that’s not a pitch. True, your audience might get smarter. But are you getting any richer? What does “good” look like, when it comes to your pitch? Maybe it looks like a new job . A new promotion. Or a new initiative that’s delivered (persuasively) by none other than you. Would you invest in that pitch?

Consider these five key differences between a presentation and a pitch:

• You Don’t Have to Go it Alone : it’s easy to fall into the trap that you’re alone on an island when it comes to your pitch - and that’s why you better talk fast, right? Wrong. A presentation is about information. A pitch is about connection . Slow down, and stop trying to lift the world by yourself. Instead, connect your message to the people you wish to influence most: your investors, your potential new employer, your boss. Stop focusing on yourself and consider the puts and takes for the person right in front of you. You may not be facing off with Mr. Wonderful, but if you can find a way to connect to your audience, you’re making wonderful progress. How does your pitch impact the person you’re trying to influence? Are you clear on their outcomes, not just your own?
• Outcomes, Not Obstacles : there are four words that need to be a part of any persuasive conversation or pitch. Here they are: “I’ve thought this through”. Thinking things through means looking beyond the details. Zoom out and see if you see the big picture - have you thought things through? After all, a pitch is persuasive. It’s not a how-to. You’re not there to instruct, you’re there to inspire. Thinking things through points towards outcomes . What is the outcome of your business idea? What’s the outcome of you being hired by this firm? Stop focusing on your past experience and knowledge (Your background and resumé won’t disappear, when you make this shift). Turn your experience into outcomes for your audience. That way, you create an experience for your investor (or potential employer). Sharing outcomes starts by answering this simple question: “What’s the biggest promise you can keep?”
• What’s Your Log Line? Brant Pinvidic has sold over 300 different vehicles to various studios in Hollywood, including reality TV shows like Pawn Stars and Bar Rescue . In his book, The 3-Minute Rule, he explains how it can be useful to have a “log line”. He defines a log line as “the single most valuable element of your offering...in a single sentence or phrase.” He explains how he sold the idea of The Biggest Loser, the most successful show his company has produced so far: “Overweight contestants compete to lose weight; the winner is the biggest loser.” Simplicity wins, when it comes to your pitch.
• Use Leadership Language - Not Just Description: If you want a pitch that’s a winner, consider the difference between language that describes and language that creates. The language of description is all around us - in news reports, white papers and web pages. The language of creation, however, focuses on what we might be able to make, build or do together. Leadership language emphasizes creation: creating partnerships, opportunities, options and outcomes. Which do you think is more important in a pitch, description or creation? If an investor can take a quiz on your business idea, describe it, and earn an “A”, you might just be the biggest loser. Because if your audience is smarter, but they’re not co-creating a new solution with you, what have you won? Do you want to get a grade, or to get paid?
• Close Like You Know: a compelling pitch is, at its core, is a series of “yeses”. A pitch always finds a way to “yes”. How do you know if your pitch is going well? When you hear these three words from your audience: tell me more . Can you share ideas that are inarguable? Ideas and concepts that inspire agreement instead of inviting argument? These paths lead to yes. And then, at the end of your pitch, offer the easiest thing in the world to say “yes” to. And what is the easiest thing in the world to say “yes” to? No, it’s not free beer. It’s an invitation . What is the invitation you can offer? An invitation that’s logical and actionable and measurable. An invitation to co-create the next step - the step that just might get you into the winner’s circle. Or that new job you’ve been hoping for.

You don’t have to watch Shark Tank in order to see the value in a persuasive conversation. That’s right: a pitch is simply a conversation, if it’s done right. A conversation that’s compelling, clear and guided, so that your audience sees your vision. A vision that’s presented in a way that makes people say “yes”. Using the language of creation, a pitch builds to a “tell me more”, based on a story that gets your audience involved and connected with your vision. So, if you’re looking for a new job, or a new way to get your ideas across, consider how you might be able to create the one thing that every pitch needs: a connection to your audience. Instead of focusing intently on your background, your struggle, or your hero’s journey, consider instead how you can make your audience the hero. That kind of language just might help you create what’s missing. So, you’re invited to change the conversation - and change your results - whenever you’re ready to win.

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