Last week, we were asked to review a pitch deck of thirty-one slides. The first six covered the founder, the next four the industry, and the product itself appeared only on slide eleven. A reviewer can work through such a deck; an investor or a bank loans officer typically will not.
We review many decks, in part because we teach a 12-week business launch program in which pitching is a component. Most share the same weakness: they are written by people who know their project so well that they forget the reader starts with no knowledge of it.
Some of the more recent decks have also clearly been drafted with ChatGPT. This is readily apparent: every slide sounds confident, yet none conveys substantive information.
What structure makes a pitch deck effective?
Ten to twelve slides, in the order a sceptical reader asks questions. There is no universal template, but effective decks follow approximately the same sequence:
- Title. Name, one line on what you do, contact information.
- Problem. Who has it and how it affects them today.
- Solution. What you have built or will build. An image helps.
- Customers. Who buys, specifically. "Everyone" is not a customer.
- Market. How many of those customers exist, and how that figure was obtained.
- Business model. How revenue comes in: price, margin, purchase frequency.
- Traction. What has already happened: sales, sign-ups, letters of intent, a waiting list.
- Competition. Who else offers this, and why a customer would choose you.
- Team. Why these people can succeed.
- Financials. A simple projection with visible assumptions.
- The ask. How much, for what purpose, and what milestone it enables.
This totals eleven slides. Add a go-to-market slide if this is the most challenging aspect of the business, and merge competition into the solution slide where appropriate. Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 rule remains relevant: ten slides, twenty minutes, and no font smaller than thirty points. We would adjust the first two figures before the third.
Y Combinator offers a useful article on how to build your seed round pitch deck. It is aimed at technology startups raising funds in Silicon Valley, which does not describe most businesses in our region, but the logic applies equally to a bakery or a landscaping company requesting a line of credit from a bank: clarity first, then evidence.
How much content should each slide contain?
One idea. If a slide requires two headlines, it should be two slides, or one of the ideas does not belong.
The test we apply is simple: cover the body of the slide and read only the title. Does the title convey information? "Market" does not. "About 4,000 cottage owners within an hour of us, and none of them have a local option" conveys a great deal. Readers skim decks, so the titles must deliver value on their own.
Content that usually needs to be removed:
- The founder's life story. One line on the team slide is sufficient, unless the story is the reason the business will succeed.
- Industry background the reader already knows. Readers are aware that the restaurant industry is challenging.
- Paragraphs. A deck is not a business plan; if paragraphs are needed, send the plan as well.
- Stock photos of handshakes and people pointing at laptops.
- Every feature. Select the two or three that matter most to the customer.
The deck sent by email differs from the one presented in person. The emailed version must stand on its own and can therefore include more text. The presented version should be nearly bare, since the presenter provides the explanation. Many people attempt to use a single deck for both purposes, and it serves neither well. We recommend preparing two versions, which requires about one additional hour of work.
What kind of evidence should a pitch deck present?
Evidence of what has already happened, rather than expectations. This is where most decks fall short.
"We expect strong demand": on what basis? "The market is huge": which portion can the business actually reach? A projection showing sales tripling every year without explanation is not a projection, but an aspiration presented as a chart.
Evidence does not need to be large-scale. For a small business, it may consist of twenty pre-orders, a signed letter from a restaurant committing to purchase produce, a survey of people who genuinely match the target customer rather than friends on Facebook, three months of sales from a market stall, or even photos of a waiting list on a clipboard.
Bankers and investors read decks differently, but both look for this evidence. A banker needs assurance that the loan will be repaid and therefore examines cash flow, the owner's equity in the project and the outcome if sales reach only half the forecast. An investor needs assurance that the business can grow and therefore focuses more on traction and the size of the opportunity. Both become cautious when figures are too round and too favourable.
Present your assumptions. If revenue is based on "200 customers at $45 a month," state this on the slide. Reviewers can then discuss the assumption rather than dismiss the entire projection, which leads to a more productive conversation.
If the financial component is the weakest area, we recommend developing it first in a complete business plan and bringing the summary into the deck. The deck serves as the trailer; the plan is the full film.
Why must the request be stated clearly?
Because a reviewer cannot approve a request that has not been made. A surprising number of decks end without a request, or with vague wording such as "seeking partners" or "open to investment."
Be specific: "We're asking for $60,000: $35,000 for equipment, $15,000 for the first six months of rent, $10,000 for inventory. That gets us to break-even by month fourteen." The person across the table then knows exactly what decision is required.
The request is not always financial. It may be a meeting with a specific contact, a pilot project with a client, a place in an incubator or a grant. Whatever the request, it must be named explicitly.
Link the request to milestones as well: what the funds will accomplish and what the business will look like afterward. Funders do not finance a shortfall; they finance a defined step forward.
What should be checked before sending a pitch deck?
Send a PDF rather than a PowerPoint file. Fonts may not display correctly, animations may behave unpredictably, and the figures should not be editable.
Number the pages. When a reviewer follows up, a reference to "slide 7" is far clearer than "the one with the blue chart."
Review the deck on a phone. Many people first open decks on their phone between meetings. If the slides are unreadable at that size, the text must be adjusted.
Ask someone unfamiliar with the project to review the deck in three minutes and describe what the business does. If they cannot, revise the deck starting from slide two.
When a funding program is involved, the deck is often only the first step, followed by application forms. Completing this documentation is a specialized skill in its own right, which is why we have published guidance on funding applications.
A deck does not secure funding on its own; its purpose is to secure the next meeting.