Do you have a superb idea of payment software that can revolutionize the financial industry? That’s great! However, merely having a disruptive idea is not enough in this competitive era. Showcasing and selling your idea to potential partners, investors, and stakeholders is indispensable to bring it to life and ensure its success. Here, a power-packed pitch deck can be a game-changer!
A well-prepared pitch deck is the linchpin of startup owners and entrepreneurs and significantly impacts their trajectory. However, you must remember one thing- the purpose of the pitch deck is not to close the deal but to make customers, investors, and partners believe in your idea and open the way for further conversation.
Want to learn more about pitch decks? Read on! This article covers detailed information about the types, dos and don’ts, preparation guidelines, and examples of pitch decks.
What is a Pitch Deck?
Most presenters assume that the pitch deck is a collection of random slides. If you are one of them, you are committing a mistake!
A pitch deck is a thoughtful collection of slides; each slide serves as a stepping stone to enhance the credibility of your idea, building trust among the intended audience. This deck presents your idea in the best light possible and the most convincing manner, resonating with the intellect and emotions of the audience. It shows information about your business/product/service, including the market size, customer segments, pain points it aims to solve, etc., in a concise yet impactful manner.
Types of Pitches Decks
Depending on the audience and goal, pitch decks are of different types.
1. Marketing Pitch
This pitch aims to create awareness about your product and promote it by focusing on its features and benefits. It incorporates the problem, market size, competitive landscape, social proof (media coverage, endorsements, certifications, testimonials, etc.), buyer persona, the traction, marketing strategy, etc. A well-designed deck speaks directly to the expectations, aspirations, and needs of the customers.
2. Investor Pitch
An investor pitch showcases the financial aspects of your business, such as the financial breakdown, value proposition, revenue plan, market analysis, financial projections and forecasts, etc. This pitch helps startups convince potential venture capitalists, angel investors, and financial institutions in the initial stages of fundraising and compel them to think about investing in your idea.
3. Sales Pitch
This pitch is created with an aim to generate potential customers’ interest in your product and indulge them in a two-way communication. It highlights the product overview, features, USP, competitive advantage, value proposition, key benefits, testimonials, etc., to aid customers in making informed buying decisions. The pitch also sheds light on the customers’ challenges or problems that the product solves.
An effective sales pitch does not focus on closing a deal; instead, it is customer-oriented and focuses on creating an emotional connection with them and fostering a long-term relationship.
4. Partner Pitch
This pitch is created to persuade or influence prospective partners to enter into a strategic alliance or partnership with your brand or business. It demonstrates the needs of the partners and showcases your business as the perfect fit to meet those needs. It also highlights the mutual benefits of the partnership.
5. Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is a 30 to 60 seconds speech delivered to pique the interest of investors and persuade them to indulge in further conversation, schedule a follow-up meeting, or take other relevant action. Generally used by salespeople and project managers, this pitch focuses on cost savings, benefits, and features to make investors believe that your idea, product, or project is worth investing in.
6. Twit Pitch
The Twit pitch is a condensed version of the elevator pitch. It helps startup owners pitch their ideas to multiple parties in just 280 characters on the X (formerly Twitter), a social networking website. Creating this pitch is challenging as you have to describe your business or product in a few characters.
Instead of reading lengthy proposals, investors evaluate twit pitches to decide if the proposal is worthy to read further. So, keep your pitch specific, short, and precise.
Pitch Deck Preparation: A Guideline
Every entrepreneur, at some point, has to make a pitch irrespective of the size and domain of the business. However, the pitch type depends on many factors, such as the purpose, goal, audience, and delivery method.
The entire process of pitch deck preparation can be divided into the following phases:
a). Preparation
- Know Your Audience
Before starting to prepare the deck, understand the needs, behavior, preferences, and pain points of the audience to whom you want to pitch. Know what exactly they are looking for and how your pitch will meet their expectations.
For example, if you want to pitch a product to a specific customer segment, first know their challenges, what they care about, and how your product improves their life.
If you want to pitch potential investors, research about what they prefer to invest in. Also, consider points that portray your investment as a good deal for them.
- Know Your Purpose
What do you want to achieve through your pitch deck? Do you want the intended audience to purchase your product, invest in your idea, or partner with your venture?
Understanding the goal of your pitch deck will guide you in creating the right content and deciding the relevant call to action. For example, depending on the purpose, you could wrap up your presentation with any of the following CTAs-
- Sign up for the live demo
- Download the ebook
- Subscribe to the newsletter
- Sign up for updates
- Contact us for more queries
- Factor in Time to Work on Your Pitch
An effective pitch deck can’t be prepared in just 2-3 hours. According to statistics, 47% of presenters take over 8 hours to create a deck on their own.
This time duration may increase for startup owners who don’t have a knack for designing presentations. In this case, you can hire a professional designer to reduce your worries. However, your designer may require you to sit with him for 3-4 hours to design your deck according to your expectations.
Therefore, factor in ample time to design your pitch deck or work with a designer.
b). Content
- Gather Key Content
The content you display in your pitch deck helps investors and partners determine if your venture is worth investing in or partnering with. So, don’t lose the value of your brilliant idea by overloading the slides with too much irrelevant content.
Include the following information in your deck-
- An introduction or overview of your business/project/idea
- The pain points or challenges of the customers
- The solution to solve their problems
- The market size and competitive analysis
- The USP of your business or offering
- Information about your team (their experience and unique skills)
- Financial projection
- Your sales and marketing strategies
- Validation/momentum/traction
- Investments and how will you use the funds
- Back Your Content with Research and Statistics
According to a survey, 75% of people agreed that data-backed content is more reliable than content without data.
Support your arguments and points with realistic, recent, and relevant statistics or data, well-researched from a credible source. It makes your pitch compelling and authentic, instilling trust among the prospective investors/stakeholders.
Avoid including old data or information collected from distrusted or anonymous sources, as it will raise questions about your venture’s trustworthiness, and investors will reject your pitch deck uprightly.
- Pull Out a Storyline or a Gripping Message
After collecting the relevant content and data, weave them into an interesting narrative to highlight the effectiveness and potential of your solution and create an emotional bond with the audience. Your story must include excitement, action, failure, and success.
There are different ways to create a story; choose the one that best demonstrates your idea and competitive edge.
- Include Information About Financial Projections
Incorporate important financial information that matters most to investors, such as projections related to cash flow, expenses, and revenue. Also, include key metrics, such as break-even analysis, net income, and gross margin, to help investors evaluate the financial health of your business.
c). Creation & Design
- Boost Your Brand Identity and Recognition
Like your business card, brochure, and website, your pitch deck also reflects the personality and values of your brand/company. So, remember to include your brand’s logo, color theme, typography, and other design elements in your pitch deck slides to keep external messaging cohesive everywhere.
- Choose the Right Tool for Deck Creation
As said earlier, your pitch deck reflects who you are, what you do, and where you want to go. So, it should be created with attention to detail and using the right tool.
You can choose Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Apple Keynote for this purpose. However, you need basic design skills to work with these tools. To save your time and effort, you can opt for AI-powered presentation creation tools that complement your story with interactive elements to make them outstanding.
Before choosing the tool, answer the following questions-
- Are you preparing the pitch deck to present live or virtually?
- Is the presentation tool compatible with different devices, operating systems, or file formats?
- Does the tool feature an intuitive interface and easy customization options?
- Does the tool offer different animations, themes, and templates?
- Does the tool allow real-time collaboration to work with others on the deck?
- Pay Attention to Visual Design
An elegant visual design makes your pitch deck stellar and captivating. Follow these tips-
- The visuals must be high-definition.
- Replace big chunks of text with tables, graphs, icons, etc.
- Don’t use distracting transitions and animations.
- Use white spaces to add clarity to your slides.
- Include only relevant images that reinforce your message.
- Use colors and typography consistently to create a visual hierarchy.
d). Practice
- Update and Iterate
Customers’ expectations, industry trends, and the competitive landscape keep changing, as do your go-to-market strategy and projections.
Create different versions of your pitch deck for presenting live, remotely, and sending via email. Update all the versions as changes evolve.
For example, Uber redesigned its pitch deck to reflect its new services and growth.
- Gather Feedback and Implement Changes
Share the copy of your pitch deck with mentors and colleagues and ask them to review it and provide their insights. Gather their feedback and implement the relevant ones in your slides to make them look polished and perfect.
- Practice Often
Practice delivering your pitch in front of a mirror, friends, or family members. Ask them to pay attention to your body language, voice pitch and volume, and other aspects and provide their genuine feedback. You can also record your rehearsal to watch it later. Work on your weaknesses and rehearse until you perfect your delivery.
The Dos and Don’ts of Pitch Decks
Dos:
- Start your presentation with a strong opening and close with a relevant CTA.
- Keep your slides clean and simple.
- Highlight unique aspects of your offering and venture that differentiate them from competitors.
- When it comes to showcasing revenue predictions, be realistic.
- Use only high-definition visuals.
Don’ts:
- Don’t include more than 10-15 slides in your pitch deck.
- Don’t use complex terminologies or jargon.
- Don’t fill slides with too much visuals or textual information.
- Don’t include overly optimistic or promising numbers, as it may diminish your credibility.
Some Outstanding Pitch Deck Examples
Do you know that various billion-dollar unicorns and leading startups would not have reached the pinnacle of success without initial funding from investors? In their journey of securing millions of investments, the pitch decks played a vital role. Let’s take a look at some of the best examples.
1. Airbnb
Started in 2008, Airbnb is an online marketplace that allows people to find and rent lodging. In 2009, Airbnb created a pitch deck in an effort to raise funds. This deck landed them a whooping $600k in seed funding.
Exemplifying simplicity and elegant design, this deck is a perfect reference for entrepreneurs and startup owners worldwide to optimize their own deck and impress investors. The deck focuses on customers’ pain points, the solution company provides, their distinct market positioning, and competitive advantage.
2. Uber
A renowned ride-sharing company, Uber, was founded in 2009, and currently provides many other services: freight transportation, package delivery, food delivery, etc.
The company’s co-founders, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, raised $200K in the early stage of the funding round. All thanks to their well-created pitch deck, which made angel investors and venture capitalists believe in their idea.
Today, many startup owners and entrepreneurs use Uber’s pitch deck as a template for creating their own deck.
3. Facebook
With 2.9 billion active users (monthly), Facebook is a leading social media platform. But do you know how Mark Zuckerberg built this big and successful empire? Well, the 2004 pitch deck of Facebook helped it secure an investment of $500K in the initial round of venture capital funding.
The initial pitch deck covered a brief description of Facebook, user profile, product info, the expansion plan, potential audience, user base demographics, and statistics related to daily and monthly traffic. To validate the company’s growth potential and success, the deck included quotes from the media.
4. LinkedIn
Founded by Reid Hoffman in 2003, LinkedIn – a part of Microsoft, raised $10M in Series B funding from Greylock by pitching the investors through its thoughtfully created pitch deck.
LinkedIn’s pitch deck is one of the longest. It raised such a huge amount of money by focusing on the users’ problems, highlighting LinkedIn’s network-based “Web 2.0” growth model, and projecting how their actual growth at the time had upsurge the estimated growth.
5. BuzzFeed
A global digital media company, BuzzFeed is redefining digital journalism by providing brand-safe, quality, and trusted news and entertainment to worldwide audiences. Its YouTube channel has over 20 million subscribers.
In 2008, Jonah Peretti – the founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, put together a winning pitch deck highlighting competitive analysis, revenue model, various screenshots, the team, and the growth potential. This deck helped the company raise $3.5M in the Series A round.
Pre-Designed Pitch Deck Templates for Startups
Technology Startups
(i). Artificial Intelligence App Pitch Deck
This visually appealing deck helps you convince potential investors of your AI-based app. The dark turquoise palette gives the deck a futuristic vibe, and remarkable visuals simplify complex data visualization.
With this deck, you can showcase all the essential information required to raise the fund, such as the app’s overview, problem statement and solution, USP, market opportunity, technology & development stack, client testimonials, business model, competitive landscape, and more. The aesthetic design and use of icons, graphs, and charts reduce the cognitive load on the audience.
(ii). Tech Business Pitch Deck
This compelling pitch deck with a blue background in slides is the perfect bridge to connect you with potential investors and instill confidence in them to fund your startup. The high-definition visuals support your message and aid investors in making decisions in your favor.
This deck allows you to present key details of your tech business, including its SWOT analysis, vision, pricing plan, problem & solution, milestones, market size, competition, etc., with utmost professionalism and in the most intriguing manner.
(iii). Bitcoin Company Pitch Deck
If you are looking to present the important details of your Bitcoin company to potential business partners or investors in an enticing manner, this turquoise-colored pitch deck is what you need. The touch of golden and beautiful typography gives a futuristic tone and makes your content pop.
With this deck, you can showcase your company’s overview, blockchain technology and technology, statistics related to marketing and user acquisition, risk and mitigation strategies, financial overview, and more.
(iv). Drone Company Pitch Deck
With a purple background, visuals of drones, and other elements such as donut charts, a roadmap diagram, and a bar graph in slides, you can visualize data related to your drone company in a creative yet professional manner. As the deck is 100% customizable, you can easily personalize it to showcase your business’s relevance in the digital realm and how it is poised to solve the pain points of the industry and the target customers.
This pre-designed pitch deck relieves you from the burden of creating each slide from scratch, giving you ample time to enhance your content quality.
(v). Blockchain Startup Pitch Deck
Put your blockchain company in the spotlight, making a powerful first impression in front of investors using this pitch deck. The comprehensive set of slides lets you present information about key milestones, skilled team members, competitive landscape, marketing strategies, and more in a persuasive manner.
The hues of gray and impeccable visuals make your presentation stunning and appealing to the audience. The superb animation effect further adds a layer of interactivity and dynamism to your content.
(vi). Hackathon Pitch Deck
With this beautiful pitch deck, you can effectively showcase the hackathon’s theme, objectives, and benefits to potential sponsors to secure the required resources and funding. The template featuring a gradient background with futuristic vibes provides an unforgettable visual experience to the audience.
The slides can be used to inform prospective participants about the value and opportunities they can gain from participating in the hackathon. You can also visualize information about judging criteria, the organizing team, prizes and recognition, etc.
Product, Sales, and Marketing Related Decks
(vii). Advertising Pitch Deck
Leverage this stellar pitch deck to present your advertising strategies, campaigns, and services, encapsulating the essence of your brand. The slides’ beautiful color scheme and self-explanatory icons will instantly capture the audience’s attention at first glance. The high-definition visuals of roadmaps, pie charts, and profile infographics do most of the heavy lifting for your content and make data visualization impressive.
(viii). Go-To-Market (GTM) Pitch Deck
Use this wonderful GTM pitch deck to drum up excitement and help your clients understand your strategy to roll out their offerings in the market. With this template featuring outstanding infographics, charts, graphs, and diagrams, you can craft and present an engaging visual story to mesmerize your audience. With a minimalist approach, this high-impact set of slides embraces simplicity and shows the essential information about your company, its services, distribution channels, etc., in the best possible way.
(ix). Product Pitch Deck
Download this pitch deck to demonstrate the benefits, USPs, and features of your product to the investors, distributors, customers, and other stakeholders in a way that they retain it for longer. The blue-purple color in the slides’ background and visuals will catch the eyes of the audience and keep them hooked until the end of the presentation.
With this set, you can add visual interest to textual information about the problem statement, target market, market traction, marketing strategy, and business model. The 100% editable feature makes this template user-friendly and multipurpose.
Food & Restaurant Startups
(x). Food Startup Pitch Deck
Present the unique flavor of your food startup and get the right message across in the most convincing manner using this pitch deck, which is all about simplicity, creativity, and professionalism. The well-organized layouts empower you to showcase your startup’s mission and vision, problem and solution, target audience, marketing and sales strategy, awards and certifications, financial projections, and more, with a unique visual elegance and allure. The high-definition visuals leave a lasting impression on the audience.
(xi). Organic Food Pitch Deck
Get this pitch deck to showcase the statistics related to organic food product demand around the globe and how your company is poised to leverage this growth opportunity. The slides are adorned with green, red, orange, blue, and purple color visuals that help you reflect your organization’s commitment to authentic taste, personal health, and environmental stewardship. In addition, you can visualize executive summary, offerings, digital marketing and social media strategy, market size, certifications, the team behind the success of your company, projected growth, customer testimonials, and more.
Decks to Pitch Investors
(xii). Business Pitch Deck
Use this thoughtful collection of slides to pitch your business to prospective partners, investors, decision-makers, and stakeholders in an impressive manner like never before. With a black background, yellow visuals, and white fonts in slides, this template will give your presentations a cohesive and creative look.
You can show your brilliant idea, business model, offerings, marketing strategy, proposed solution, and more in a compelling manner and leave a lasting impression on the audience.
(xiii). Seed Funding Pitch Deck
Entice the investors and move them down in the fundraising funnel by presenting your business plan, vision, revenue projection, marketing strategy, and more, with this winning pitch deck. The professionally designed visuals empower you to narrate an inspiring story that conveys your ambition and emotion.
The slides boast customizable graphs and charts that will aid you in showcasing your business or product-related statistics with a personalized touch.
Entertainment Startups
(xiv). Video Game Pitch Deck
Explain your video game concept in an engaging manner to investors or publishers using this pitch deck which complements insightful data with engaging visuals. The blue-purple background reflects the essence of your game and tells a convincing, authentic, and captivating story.
You can visualize the game overview, subscription model, story and characters, market opportunities, competitive analysis, financial metrics, gamers’ reviews, and more in a way that resonates with the intended audience.
(xv). TV Show Pitch Deck
Create a hook and grab the attention of producers, development executives, streamlining platforms, and decision-makers by presenting information about your TV show using this deck. The appealing visuals will set the stage and tone for the rest of your pitch and make the audience want to know more about your television show.
You can depict the show overview, episode summary, target audience, distribution plan, marketing strategy, character profiles, production team and credentials, revenue stream, budget breakdown and ask, etc.
Industry-Specific Pitch Decks
(xvi). Solar Power Project Proposal Presentation
This concise yet splendid deck will let you persuade investors and secure meetings with them. The outstanding visuals of solar panels, charts, and graphs in beautiful colors will spark interest in the audience, keep them hooked, and help them retain the presented information for longer.
With this set, you can present your solar power project’s technical details, timeline, environmental impact, and financial overview intriguingly.
(xvii). Insurance Company
This deck is a must-have if you want to depict an overview of your insurance company and its potential to disrupt the insurance industry. Use it to showcase your innovative insurance products, their value propositions, features, and how they meet customers’ needs and fill the gaps in the insurance sector complying with regulations. You can also impressively present the introduction of your competent insurance agents.
The high-resolution, custom graphics and the perfect color combination add a professional touch and attractiveness to the pitch deck, making it credible.
(xviii). Pharma Company Business Plan
With a harmonious color scheme, custom illustrations, and subtle animation, this template helps pharmaceutical company owners showcase information about the market size, competitive landscape, target demographics, growth trends, and how their pharmaceutical product will address customers’ pain points. You can also present your commitment to innovation, highlighting insights about USPs, regulatory approvals, clinical trials, distribution channels, etc.
Meticulous attention to detail in design elements, such as spacing, alignment, and typography, make your presentations look more professional and polished and establish trust among potential investors and partners.
(xix). Construction Company Business Plan Presentation
Builders and construction company owners must download this template to present their business plans to financial lenders or banks to acquire funds or bank loans for their new projects. This deck provides a perfect canvas for visualizing the overview of your business, including its vision, mission, value, etc. You can also show SWOT and competitors analysis, organizational structure, team introduction, financial metrics, and more to make the target audience believe in the viability and feasibility of your plan. The exquisite designs, layouts, and visuals will complement your content and make your pitch impactful.
(xx). Sports Company Pitch Deck
Download this inviting and attractive deck to pitch and communicate information about your sports venture, including the business model, products and services, sales and marketing strategy, supply chain and logistics, milestones and timelines, financial projections, etc.
The combination of data-driven insights, amazing visuals, and effective typography in slides encourage the audience to take action. The best part is that you can easily edit the content and design elements to convey your commitment to quality and value proposition.
(xxi). EdTech Company Pitch Deck
Engage and persuade potential clients to invest in your edtech product using this compelling template featuring slides with a captivating background, graphs and charts, and avatars of males and females. Edtech company owners can use this set to present information about their services or products, team members, value proposition, marketing strategy, the impact of their offerings on learning outcomes, financial projections, etc. The dynamic and animated designs will enhance the visual allure of your presentation, helping your audience quickly grab the key takeaways.
(xxii). FinTech Company Pitch Deck
This template has all the elements to present a gripping visual story of your Fintech company, capturing the attention of investors. You can show your company’s overview, including happy customers, employees worldwide, total revenue, and years of service. You can also visualize the problem statement and solutions, business model, competitive landscape, technology and innovation, marketing and sales approach, financial projections, funding needs, and more. The high-definition and aesthetically pleasing visuals will give a flair of creativity to your presentation, engaging your audience without distractions.
(xxiii). Legal Startup Pitch Deck
This stunning template empowers you to give an impressive visual presentation of your company to potential investors and partners. The visuals of scales of justice, gavels, handcuffs, etc., will increase the relevancy and meaning of your content. Legal startup owners can use it to depict their organization’s services, pricing, client testimonials, demographic and financial overview, etc. The consistent font style, color scheme, and formatting across all slides will simplify complex information, making it easier for the audience to grasp.
(xxiv). Fashion Brand Pitch Deck
This elegant and stylish pitch deck is an ideal visual resource to visualize your new product lines and expansion plans to strategic partners for seeking their support or investors for seeking funding. You can shed light on the range of products your fashion brand offers, such as shoes, perfumes, watches, sunglasses, etc. Market analysts can showcase the latest industry trends, target market, customer demographics, competitive advantage, and more. The soothing colors and high-quality visuals will let you present your fashion brand in the best light possible.
(xxv). Non-Profit Organization Pitch Deck
Whether you want to highlight your non-profit organization’s overview to enhance awareness about it among donors or showcase your new project idea to funding agencies, this template will be a valuable addition to your presentation. Using it, you can demonstrate your organization’s mission, vision, values, programs and initiatives, recognition and awards, team introduction, etc., in a visually appealing manner. You can also show information about awareness campaigns, volunteer and donor engagement, target beneficiaries, and more.
Corporate Pitch Decks
(xxvi). Dynamic Corporate Presentation
Featuring red and blue hues, this template is ideal for presenters from different domains to pitch their ideas, products, services, brands, etc. The animation effects and thoughtful use of white spaces give your presentations a simple, dynamic, and unique touch.
Use it to show your organization’s mission, vision, values, SWOT analysis, history, core services, team, pricing table, competitor analysis, future projects, and more.
(xxvii). Dark Corporate Presentation
This versatile template boasts a variety of charts, graphs, icons, and layouts with a dark backdrop. It is a perfect choice for pitching tech or luxury products in a visually impressive manner. All graphics are 100% customizable. Download it now to make your next presentations elegant and stylish!
(xxviii). Red Corporate Theme
Get this template to pitch your technology, automobile, or restaurant business idea. The red color in the slides, complemented with high-quality visuals, will instantly draw the audience’s attention. The easy editing options make this deck multipurpose and user-friendly.
(xxix). Blue Corporate Theme
This template with blue hues reflects professionalism in all your presentations, whether they’re investor pitches, sales pitches, or product pitches. Designed with attention to detail, this deck will accentuate your content and underscore your core message without overwhelming the audience.
(xxx). Dark Gradient Pitch Deck
This template makes it easy to present your project proposal, startup fundraising plan, or business idea convincingly to inventors and partners. The gradient background, high-definition visuals, and minimalist designs foster easy comprehension and long-term retention of the information presented.
Other Decks
(xxxi). Multipurpose Pitch Deck
This template has all the elements, a minimalist design, and an aesthetic vibe to add value to your pitches and make them more persuasive. Get it now and eliminate the burden of creating each slide from scratch; instead, invest time in improving your presentation delivery.
(xxxii). Creative Pitch Deck
Grab this deck and visualize your creative ideas and products with finesse to investors, clients, or partners. The aesthetic designs and innovative color patterns will enhance the visual allure of your presentations.
Conclusion
In the realm of cut-throat competition, a comprehensive, precise, and well-designed pitch deck can make your idea, product, or business stand out, quickly grabbing the attention of potential customers, clients, partners, investors, and other stakeholders. As investors focus on financial aspects, customers on benefits and features, partners on reassurances, and founders and co-founders on in-depth information about revenue streams, financial projections, and growth plans, you must structure your pitch deck differently for each audience.
Fortunately, various pre-designed pitch deck templates are available online that are saviors to those who don’t have design skills or time to create each slide from scratch. You just have to edit them according to your preferences, and you are all set to deliver a winning presentation.
