Business Plan

How to Raise Funds with the Right Pitch Deck for Investors?

As an entrepreneur, you may not have the requisite expertise and financing for a business idea or a company. You may require obtaining them from external sources such as investors, venture capitalists etc. To get such people on board and invest in your idea, you need to communicate your business plan, vision, products, services etc. The tool to aid such communication is called a pitch deck.

What is a pitch deck for investors?

A pitch deck for investors is a presentation by an entrepreneur highlighting the vision, business plan, products and services of his/her company. It is pitched to potential investors and clients to build their interest in the business and get them excited to invest in the entrepreneur’s business. In simple words, a pitch deck for investors is nothing but a presentation of a compelling story by an entrepreneur about his/her business to intrigue and engage the investors so that they ultimately invest in the business idea.   

Things to be covered in the pitch deck for investors

• Introduction about the company/ company overview

This slide should introduce your business. It should brief the investors about yourself and your business’s value proposition. Your company overview must be concise and crisp, telling the investors in one sentence what services your business offers or what products are available to the public. For example: “we design software for medical billing” or “we plan events for retired adults”.

• The problem you are solving

Make the investors aware of the problem your business is trying to solve or the void that is present in the market that your product is trying to fill, or the value creation that your services are offering to the market. You should mention about the solutions that will be offered by your product. The slide’s text should be directed towards the problem and subtly relate your idea and the target audience.

• Solution your product offers

This is the most important slide where you need to clearly and concisely explain the solution to the problem so that the investors can easily understand. Avoid extreme statements such as “only my business is solving this issue”. Instead, offer multiple solutions to solve the problem, talk about the solution you have chosen, and back it up with data, statistics and research. Your focus should be on presenting your research, commitment, drive and capacity, not your uniqueness. You must ensure that the solution is short and simple.

• Size of the market and opportunity

This slide will determine whether you will secure funding from investors or not. Investors are tempted to invest in a business where the market size is huge and avoid small markets that are either too risky or where the ROI is small. An ideal pitch deck for investors graphs out the past market growth and the future prospects of growth so that investors can understand the potential of your product. The opportunity should be presented in actual figures and not vague estimates.

• Product on offer

This slide should reflect the product or the service offered for the previously addressed problem. If it is a physical product, you can display an actual demo or take present professional photographs of the product from different angles. You can add screenshots of its most unique features if it is a service, such as an app or web solution. Alternatively, you can embed a demo video in your presentation.

• The traction gained so far

In this slide, the focus should be on the growth or the sales made so far. The focus should be on the major goals achieved so far by the business and the next steps in the pipeline. Generally, entrepreneurs^[1] present their pitch deck to investors at a time when the business has reached the stage of the J-curve in order to value their business at a higher valuation.

• The core team of your business

This slide should give a brief account of the core team members and their backgrounds. This slide is important because the investors want to know about the jockey and the horses he is putting his money on. The investor wants to know about the members’ drive and their uniqueness so that they can deliver on the tall claims made during the presentation. An ideal pitch deck for investors contains the picture of the core team members along with their names and their designation in the company. It is advised to limit the size of your core team members, and advisors should not be made part of the core team.

• Competition in the market

This slide should be used to show the prevailing competition in the market, your uniqueness and how you can surpass that competition. Show the investors how you are different from the competition and your potential strengths, which will help you beat your competitors. 

• Financials of the business

This is the section which serves as the litmus test for the investors. This slide should contain your business’s projected growth and the milestones your business seeks to achieve over the next three-five years, along with the details about your business model and finances. It must be noted that this information is not set in stone. No one can predict the future. All the investors look for whether you have a strong plan to reach your milestones. You can also demonstrate your economic plan, operating structure and distribution channels to makemoney.

• Investment sought and usage of funds

The last segment of the pitch deck for investors should contain the investment sought from the investors and the action plan to use such funds. Informing the investors where their money will be invested generates their confidence in your business. Further, it tempts them to invest as they believe they are making an informed decision. It should include a breakup of spending in different verticals of the business, such as procuring permissions, marketing spend, customer development, plans for the next round of funding etc.

Conclusion

From the above discourse, it can be concluded that the right pitch deck for investors is one that tells a story to the investors and does not focuses only on the statistics. It should reflect a bigger picture. It is further advised that while presenting your pitch deck, never read from the slides and keep your audience engaged at all times. You have the liberty to elaborate and minimise as you deem fit the above heads. There are no hard and fast rules for designing the right pitch deck for investors.

Read our Article: Why Investor Pitch Deck Is The Need of The Hour & How to Purpose of a Pitch Deck