The ultimate pitch deck guide for startups

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In today’s email:

• The ultimate pitch deck guide for startups

  • Designing the perfect pitch deck

  • The essential slides for a winning pitch deck

  • Optional slides to enhance your pitch deck

• Tools to help you grow

The ultimate pitch deck guide for startups

Welcome to another issue of Build, Raise, Scale, where we dive into the world of startup fundraising and scaling your business. In today's newsletter, we're going to explore the crucial element of the fundraising process: the pitch deck. This powerful tool will help you capture investors' attention and secure funding for your business. In this expanded edition, we'll provide even more insights and details to help you craft the perfect pitch deck. Let's dive in!

Designing the perfect pitch deck

Your pitch deck should be a visually appealing and informative representation of your business, showcasing your ideas, structure, and metrics. Aim for 10-20 slides to give a comprehensive, yet concise, overview of your business. Pay attention to design, visuals, and consistency in fonts, colours, and themes.

When presenting facts and figures, ensure they come from credible sources, and don't forget to cite them. Use graphs, charts, and animations to make data more engaging and easy to understand.

The essential slides for a winning pitch deck

• Cover: Start strong with your company name, logo, a striking image, and a tagline (if you have one). This slide sets the tone for the rest of the presentation and should create an immediate impact.

• Problem: Describe the market gap you're filling and who is affected by it. Keep it brief and relatable. Use 1-4 bullet points to summarise the problem clearly. Mention current market issues and the people or groups potentially affected by the problem.

• Solution: Explain how your product/service solves the problem. Highlight three key benefits of your product/service and how it can help your customers. Discuss the functions and key features of your product/service. Provide a one-sentence overview of your business and the value you offer to your customers.

• Business Model: Outline how you'll acquire customers and generate revenue. It should show the viability of your product/service and how you’ll set out to achieve your goals. Include pricing strategy, distribution channels, and financial summaries. Keep it simple by describing 1-2 sources of revenue and the expected growth of those sources over time.

• Competition: Demonstrate your knowledge of competitors and how you stand out from the crowd. Describe how you fit into the competitive landscape and your key advantages over the competition. Highlight your unique selling proposition (USP).

• Team: Showcase your team members, their roles, and the expertise they bring to the business. Provide images of each member and highlight their experiences, successes at previous companies, and the value they add to the business. This slide is crucial, as investors want to know the people behind the company they're investing in.

• Target Audience & Opportunity: Elaborate on your ideal customer and the size of your target audience. Explain your market positioning and use data to support your claims.

• Marketing and Sales Strategy: Outline your plan to reach your target market and the sales channels you'll use. List the key tactics you'll employ and highlight any unique aspects of your marketing and sales process compared to competitors. Also, discuss your long-term customer acquisition strategies.

• End Slide: Wrap up your pitch deck with a thank you message and formal information about your company, such as the name, address, website, and social media information.

• Financials: Provide a detailed breakdown of your financials, including sales forecasts, profit and loss statements, cash flow forecasts, and balance sheets. Consider using graphs and charts to make this information more visually appealing and easier to digest. You may also include your break-even point and the number of users needed to make a profit.

• Investment/Use of Funds: Explain how you'll use the funds raised to achieve your business goals. Be transparent about your plans and show investors how their investment will contribute to the growth and success of your business.

• Traction/Validation: Show investors your working business model and any achievements, feedback, or growth you've experienced. Include sales or purchases made, testing results, user engagement feedback, growth trajectory, and major goals or milestones reached.

• Market Size and Growth Opportunity: Discuss the size of your target market, its growth, and the potential for your business within it. Provide market segmentation, size, growth, and dynamics. Indicate how many people or companies are in this market, the growth rate, and the driving segment.

Optional slides to enhance your pitch deck

1. Executive Summary: Provide a short overview of your business, summarising the key points of your pitch deck. This can include a few paragraphs, images, and information about your crowdfunding campaign or SEIS/EIS shares.

2. Demos/Prototype: If you have a prototype or screenshots of your online service, include a placeholder slide to demonstrate your product/service to potential investors. Treat this as a "show and tell" opportunity.

3. Partnerships: Highlight any critical strategic partnerships, such as intellectual property licensing or key distribution partners, that contribute to your success.

4. Market Research: Present any high-quality market research conducted within your target audience. Use graphs and charts to display this information effectively, either on a separate slide or integrated into relevant slides.

5. Media Coverage/Press Testimonials: If your business has been mentioned in news articles, social media, or by relevant influencers, include screenshots of these on a slide. This adds credibility to your business and shows investors that others are talking about your product/service.

6. Exit Strategy: Explain how you plan to provide returns to investors. Describe the path you're taking to create value in your company, potential acquirers, and whether you'd be interested in selling the business in the future.

A well-crafted pitch deck can make all the difference in securing funding for your startup. By following this guide and including the essential slides, you'll have a solid foundation to present your business to potential investors. Remember to keep the design visually appealing, be concise, and provide credible information to support your claims.

With these tips in mind, you'll be on your way to creating a pitch deck that captures the attention of investors and helps your startup secure the funding it needs to grow and succeed. Best of luck!

If you’d like to see if we can help you grow your business get in touch today.

Tools to help you grow

• Attract investors and secure funding

• Secure business loans

• Claim back up to 33% of your R&D costs

• Secure grant funding

• Control expenses with a business credit card

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