My pitch decks have raised over £20,000,000. Here's how to create the perfect pitch deck.
The vast majority of pitch decks I read get so caught up on the why, they fail to attack the how. I would say 99% of the rejections we see from investors are due to the go-to-market (GTM) strategy. This is the how. How do you actually acquire users?
Why versus how
Same question, but swap one word. Which is more compelling for raising investment?
- "Why does your business address climate change?"
- "How does your business address climate change?"
One is theoretical, the other is practical.
When you read so many decks, you become conditioned in how you process the information. You largely skip past the hyperbole and the soppy stuff, and look for £ signs and other KPIs.
The four things I look for in a pitch deck
- Brand identity. How do you define your brand? This is very important. If you have strong brand colours, are they reflected in your document? Does your logo imprint? Do you have product images, or are you using stock images? I will form a flash opinion of your brand before I even read a word, and sometimes that's impossible to change.
- Key narrative. I call them "hooks". I use them to hang the opportunity on and give it some flavour. Instead of attacking why you hate fast fashion, let's talk about how we tackle the humanitarian problems attached to the industry. In my opinion, saying "we do this because X" without any proof of how you do it is a turn-off. 99% of the documents we see make strong claims, so in the end you become conditioned to ignore them.
- Opportunity. What are you actually trying to do? How does my money help you? How do I win? How do you win in your space? The opportunity is the investment proposal, and unfortunately this isn't about you. We are providing a finance instrument to create a return for our investor, so let's be mindful of this.
- Validation. How are you actually looking after my investment? How are you controlling your spend? How are you going to exit? How are you going to hire the best talent? How did you build your advisory board? How did you acquire your first customers?
A good deck answers questions
As you can see, the purpose of a good deck is to answer questions, not create them. Be concise. If you can do a deck in three pages, then do it. If you need 30 pages, it's probably a sign you are not clear enough on your own understanding.