So, you have decided to embark on the entrepreneurial journey. Congratulations! To attract co-founders, resources, and initial investment, you need to build a proof of concept. To explain your idea to the world, you will need a killer pitch deck.
What is a pitch deck?
A pitch deck is a presentation used by entrepreneurs to share their business idea and their details with various potential stakeholders. They are going to play an essential role in bringing that concept into reality. A pitch deck is presented to investors for seeking an initial round of funding for the business and potential co-founders who can relate with the idea and are ready to be a part of the journey. A regular pitch deck usually has 19 slides or less.
Entrepreneurs need two sets of pitch decks. The first of these pitch decks is shared with investors and other people via email and contains more information and text and fewer graphics and images. The other pitch deck is what you carry to a meeting or a presentation with investors. This pitch deck has all the information with a lot more visuals to grab the attention of people listening to your presentation. A pitch deck’s objective is to make your business idea credible and practical enough for people to rally behind it. There are three critical elements to every sturdy pitch deck:
- Compelling
- Simple and clear
- Convincing enough to act on
Key components of a pitch deck
Here we are listing down some key components that your pitch deck needs to have:
What problem are you solving?
The slide mentioning the problem should focus on a gap that your idea is going to fill. Make sure that you don’t talk about two or three issues. You need to present yourself as someone who is relentlessly pushing hard to resolve a common problem. Just focus on one painful problem that everyone can relate to and wouldn’t have any issues in understanding and even backing.
Where do you see this problem?
This slide will talk about your business’s potential market. Now before you prepare this slide, make sure that you research thoroughly. Investors usually don’t support business ideas whose market doesn’t have the potential to pay expected returns over time. Show the investors the potential of your market by plotting a graph that outlines your past and potential future growth.
Who is the target audience?
So, you have decided to embark on the entrepreneurial journey. Congratulations! To attract co-founders, resources, and initial investment, you need to build a proof of concept. To explain your idea to the world, you will need a killer pitch deck.
This slide on your pitch deck will discuss the class of people that your product intends to target. You need to make sure that you convince your investors that your target audience is facing this problem and that your product has the power to make a difference. Your pitch deck should also clearly mention that your target audience is financially capable of spending the amount of money that your product is priced at.
Why should they use this product or service?
Your pitch deck and presentation skills should convince the investors that your product is the best in its category, both in terms of quality and price. Your pitch deck should clearly state that your target audience will most certainly give your product a chance because there is no competition or, if there is, it isn’t strong enough.
How you plan to build and scale this into a profitable business?
This slide of the pitch deck will feature your startup journey. It would help if you told your investors how you intend to use the funds and how much time it would take your business to break even and start giving returns. Your investors need to get the bit between their teeth to ride along. It is your opportunity to bring the investors on your side.
If you are looking for inspiration to create a pitch deck for your startup, there is nothing wrong with reviewing pitch decks of successful startups in the past. You should take a look at Airbnb pitch deck, LinkedIn pitch deck, Facebook pitch deck, and Uber pitch deck to draw inspiration.
