This document provides guidance on creating an effective investor pitch deck. It recommends focusing on clearly communicating a vision while remaining candid, showing growth opportunities and passion without overselling. The deck should include 10-15 concise slides that highlight key information like the problem, solution, market opportunity, team, financial ask, and summary. Specific slide content and formatting tips are provided to help craft a compelling yet conversational pitch that gets investors' attention and interest.
2. Get their Attention
Passionately & clearly communicate a vision
Don’t oversell - investors can easily see through crap
Focus on your strengths & remain candid
ShowGrowth, Opportunity &Passion,ButDon’tOversellIt
Send one or two high-level members of your team, not the whole
crew
Stay Intimate
An exceptional entrepreneur or team who has experience and
drive
Large enough and interesting enough market opportunities
A smart, differentiated, and defensible product/service that will
stand out initially in its market and be able to protect its margins
over time
6. • The Big Idea
• The Problem
• The Solution
• The Market
• Market Adoption
• Business Model
• Proprietary Technology
• Competition
• Competitive Advantages
• Traction/Validation
• Milestones
• Regulatory &
Reimbursement
Strategy
• Who We Are
• Press/Testimonials
• Financials
• The Ask
• Summary
10-15SlidesChoose
Wisely!
20. Your Product
• Show how your product works in 3 easy
steps
– Describe your product, including key differentiators
– Describe the non-confidentialmechanism of action
– Secret sauce or magic?
• Break to demo if its short and worth
emphasising one or two key insights or
features
– Tell a story – future client or an example of a
current client
31. Market
Top Down –USA only
$36
Billion
Total Skin Cancer
Diagnostic Market
Source: Some Reputable Source
$4
Billion
Telehealth Skin
Cancer Diagnostics
Source: Some Reputable Source
$50
Million
My Product
Opportunity
$10 per use
33. Market
Bottom Up – USA only
Number of at risk people Something big
% with smartphones Smaller
Price per report $10.00
_____________________________________________
Opportunity/Year at x% penetration Impressive $
69. Who We Are
• List pics + short bio on each
founder/senior team member
• Include info on board members &
advisors
– State verbally if Board is investing (big
points). If no, don’t bring it up, have a
reason for why not if asked.
• Include info on future hires
• Outline division of responsibilities
75. 4key questions
o How much are you raising now?
o How much have you raised previously?
o What will you use the money for?
o When and how do investors get a return on
their investment?
What Do You Need?
86. Executive Summary
What We Do:
• ExampleCo is a [zero-jargon description
of product] used by [broad but
addressable market] to [benefits].
• We are focused on the [$X billion target
niche] market.
Current Status:
We are [company stage, e.g. pre-revenue,
pre-launch, etc.].
Traction to date includes:
• (Month or Quarter 1): X key metric, Y key
metric
• (Month or Quarter 2): X key metric, Y key
metric
Currently Raising:
• [$X-Y million] seed round.
• Previously raised [$X million] from
[investors].
Team Experience
Pilot Customers/Partners
Logos of Past Companies
& Top Schools
Logos or Other Proof of
Early Traction
Borrowed from NextView Ventures
88. Detailed Financial Projections
($000)
Milestones Month Expenditures Customers Revenue
Prototype Jan 16 $150 0 $0
Clinical Trial Jun 16 $100 0 $0
Reg Approval Jan 17 $100 0 $0
Launch Jan 17 $100 10 $100
Feb 17 $100 100 $1,000
Breakeven Mar 17 …
2016 2017 2018
Unit Sales
Consumables
Revenue
Gross Profit
OPEX
• Sales & Marketing
• Customer Service
• Product Development
EBIT
89. Detailed Start-Up Capitalisation
Amount % of Total
Founder’s Investments
Angel Investors
VC
Bank Loans
Non-Dilutive
o Grants
_______________________________________
TOTAL CAPITALISATION
93. Startup
Buyer
acq. by
[$X]
VC
VC
Startup
Buyer
acq. by
[$X]
VC
VC
Startup
Buyer
acq. by
[$X]
VC
VC
Public Co
[market cap]
Public Co
[market cap]
Public Co
[market cap]
• Startups in the [industry niche] space are acquisition targets for companies
such as [Examples], at valuations around [N] times price/sale.
21
Exit Comparisons
Borrowed from NextView Ventures
103. • Remove redundancy
• Reduce phrases to words
• Omit gratuitous intensifiers and qualifiers
• Expunge expletives
• Negate nominalisations
• Delete superfluous phrases
• Avoid clichés
• Watch for words like
o That
o Absolutely
o Very
o Always/Never
Be Precise and Concise
104. • This estimate is conservative
• Won’t need funding after this round
• Device works, we’ve tested it in our
lab / in pigs / in China
• We’ll be on the market in X years
• We’ll get acquired before expensive
trials/commercial launch
• We’ll capture x% (e.g. <40%) of the
addressable market in <5 years
• The addressable market (or worse,
revenue) opportunity is $1B+
Don’t Lie