Is your pitch deck stopping you from raising VC capital?

A pitch deck is a concise presentation designed to provide potential investors with an overview of a business plan, product, or service, used in meetings to generate interest and secure funding.

When you started your entrepreneurial journey you never thought the one thing standing between you and a unicorn startup would be a blank page in Microsoft PowerPoint and a request from a venture capital (”VC”) investor to send over a deck by tomorrow.

The harsh reality of startup life is that it is often funded by VC money and throughout the last few decades, all of VC has settled on founders pitching a deck as the first step in getting funding. Think of it as a job interview and the pitch deck is your CV. It would be strange to show up to a job interview without one, but also it would be detrimental to your chances if you CV looked like a poorly written high school report written the previous night.

A pitch deck is a set of slides that sits in the background of your Zoom call as you explain to VCs why you need their capital. Or if you’re lucky, you’re pitching the deck at a startup conference and projecting it on the wall behind you while a panel of VC judges feigns attention.

What you often don’t get is the pitch deck is as important as what you say in your pitch. If VCs see a professional deck behind you, and they can spot one in 15 seconds, they put their pens down and actually listen to what you have to say. If they think the deck is bad, or even worse if you pitch without one, VC face the choice of either taking a million notes while you talk, or pretend to listen while already deciding it’s a NO for them. The pitch, both your words and the deck, is the basis for their investment memo and if they can’t write a good one, you’re not getting funding. So, make sure all your content is there on the slides to get them to listen to your words. You can always send them the deck in an email afterward.

Also, to overemphasize this point, content matters much more than design. If you have quality content and wrote it in Notepad, you would get funding. If you have the best-designed deck and no content, you’re not going anywhere with investors. That is not an excuse to leave your deck looking like a high school project, once you’ve written all your content you need to get a designer or friend who works in consulting to make it look pretty.

You’ve realized that content is key and went overboard and now your deck has 56 slides. Well, that’s just not going to cut it! 15 slides are more than enough, no matter if you’re pre-seed, seed, Series A, or Series F.

The most common pitch type is the 7-minute pitch. You’ll see these in your pitch competitions, or when you’re applying for incubators or accelerators. It is the perfect time slot to pitch your startup, not too short, not too long, and if you can master it every VC will be impressed.

Because, VCs and for that matter all people can listen to you talk for only so long before they lose concentration or interest, and 7 minutes seems to be the sweet spot. If you’re doing a 7-minute pitch you’ll most likely have a slide deck open, either on a projector or in the background of a Zoom call, and since your deck is going to have 15 slides, that means each slide gets roughly 30 seconds.

Just to put this into context, when you manage to get a VC interested in having a first call they will usually send over a 30-minute calendar block. You will spend the first few minutes introducing yourself, a few minutes will be lost because the previous call went over, and then if you do anything longer than 7 minutes pitching, you are timing out.

The pitch deck is a supplement to a pitch, it rarely stands alone. The text is in bullet points, not in full sentences, and usually not more than 100 words per slide. It is a tool that you send over after the pitch to investors so they don’t have to take notes while you pitch. Imagine if you did a great job pitching and they did a great job writing down notes, the notes would be what is in your pitch deck.

The read deck on the other hand is much more comprehensive. It’s for those rare opportunities when you cannot pitch an investor at all, so you need to submit all the info on your startup in written form. 9 times out of 10 you will not be sending a read deck, and most founders never make one. Just imagine transcribing your whole pitch onto the slides of your pitch deck and you’ll get a read deck. Do NOT pitch a read deck, if investors get stuck in reading your slide instead of hearing your pitch you will lose them!

Another common issue with pitch decks is assuming your VC audience will respond the same as your customer audience. A pitch deck helps you convince a VC investor that their money will be well spent and that they will get a significant return on their investment. A marketing deck convinces your potential customer that their problems will be solved with your solution. The easiest way to show how these two don’t need to be aligned is if you offer your product for free. The customer is ecstatic, the investor is crying in the corner.

Do not make the assumption that you can just recycle your marketing materials and put them in front of a VC. You need to look at it from their point of view and tailor to their needs, their pains. Just treat them as a new customer class and the product you’re selling them is investment returns. Now make a pitch deck that supports that conclusion.

Finally, it’s called a pitch deck for a reason, because you pitch it. Never send your deck to a VC in advance of a call or meeting. Even if they ask nicely, or if they insist, you need to hold firm and say that you would be more comfortable pitching the deck in person and sharing the deck after the meet-up. Two people can read the same text and come to wildly different conclusions, so don’t just send the deck off in an email hoping the VC will be on the same page as you.

Insist on pitching your deck and being available to answer any questions or objections they might have. It’s better to have a good discussion with a VC than be ghosted by them because they misunderstood something in the deck.

In the high-stakes world of startups, your pitch deck is more than just a collection of slides; it’s a pivotal tool that can make or break your chances of securing VC funding. Remember, the deck is not just a formality but a strategic asset that showcases your vision, potential, and preparedness. A well-crafted pitch deck, brimming with insightful content and professional design, can capture the attention of even the most discerning investors, setting the stage for meaningful engagement and investment.

As you refine your pitch, keep your audience in mind, tailor your message to their interests, and always present your deck in person to navigate their queries and concerns effectively. With these strategies, you’ll be well on your way to turning that blank PowerPoint page into a gateway for your startup’s success.