STARTUP SUPPORT

Opening the Door to Investors
with an Effective Pitch

When creating your pitch deck for potential investors, it is difficult to know where to begin and what should be included.  You can start with a messy approach where you fill in the slides with all of the information that you feel is important to potential investors.  Your slides will include an outline of your business concept (the problem and your solution) along with a competitive overview, investment details and a financial update.  This is just an information dump so that you can then review your slides and become more strategic in your approach (and extra slides will become part of your appendix list for reference when needed).

Remember, investors are not customers of your product – they are customers of your business.

Here are a few thoughts as you create a more concise deck of 10 – 15 slides.  (Most investor pitches allow for only an 8-10 minute presentation so clarity and impact become your key drivers.)

15-Slide Investor Pitch Deck Guide

  1. Draw in your audience with your first slide – who you are and why you are passionate about your product/service. Highlight your personal story and make it relatable to investors. Keep it short.
  2. What problem are you solving? Make it urgent. What is broken? Why does it matter today (trends, technology)? Who is affected by the problem (target customer)? Why does this opportunity exist right now?

    (Optional – 1-2 stats or quick customer quotes.)

  3. The Impact – current cost of the problem – time, money, risk? Show urgency.
  4. The Solution – clear and direct solution to the problem. What we built – how it helps – core capability. Keep language easy to understand. May include a product image.
  5. Why We Win = Differentiation. What is unique about your product or service? Why you and not others (defensibility)? Explain your moat = your sustainable competitive advantage.
  6. Market Opportunity – Present the market size. Demonstrate a large and reachable market.
    • TAM (Total Addressable Market)
    • SAM (Serviceable Available Market)
    • SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market)

    Consider your growth drivers – trends, reasons why your market is expanding.

  7. Product demo – visual presentation of your product or service in action.
  8. Business Model – Explain how you make money. Subscriptions, usage-based, services, etc. Do you have pricing tiers? Describe your typical customer – size, industry? What are your acquisition channels?
  9. Traction – show evidence of momentum (consider revenue growth, customers, user growth, partnerships, retention). Any test market data or pilots? Current investor interest? You may include logos of customers or strategic partners.
  10. Competitive Landscape – Clearly position your edge. Consider a chart format that presents your product/service in comparison to your primary competitors, using the following matrix suggestions;
    • Price
    • Time to implement
    • Accuracy/performance
    • Integration
  11. Technology & Intellectual Property – consider proprietary technology, AI models, patents, data advantages, security and scalability.
  12. Financials & Milestones – current revenue, expenses, gross margin along with 12 month target and 3-5 year projections. What is your current runway (months)? Key milestones planned?
  13. Your Team – “We have the right team to grow the business”. Include photos and titles. Highlight founder expertise, industry experience, previous exits and technical leadership. Also provide reference to the members of your advisory team (a list of names and their company).
  14. The Ask (funding and use of funds) – state exactly what you are raising. For example; “Seeking $4M Seed Round”. Do you have a lead investor? Also include valuation, and outline use of funds (% product development, % sales and GTM, % new hires, % operations and legal…). Tie spending directly to growth and key milestones. Do you have an exit strategy?
  15. Closing/Vision – End with a memorable message. Example; “Our vision is to become…” “Join us as we transform….”
    Also include contact information, QR code to your website, along with a big Thank you.

Appendix Slides

More detailed slides with technical, market or financial details would be part of your appendix slides that you can pull from when responding to Q&A.

Design Tips

  • Use a clean, modern theme with consistent fonts and colours.
  • Limit text to 3-5 bullet points per slide. Too much text makes it difficult to see and read. Expand any acronyms when used (don’t assume that they are understood).
  • Incorporate charts, icons and screenshots instead of dense paragraphs.
  • Highlight key metrics with large, bold numbers.

General Considerations

  • Think about your audience. Is the investor group more general in experience (business owners, corporate executives) or are they specialists in specific fields such as medical professionals, financial experts or software/computer specialists?

    You can adjust the language and content in your presentation to match the technical understanding of your audience.
  • Resist the urge to talk too much, or too fast. You can add explanations during the Q&A session that will follow your pitch presentation.

Questions Angel Investors Might Ask After Your Pitch Presentation

  • What makes your team uniquely qualified to execute your business plan?
  • How did you calculate your valuation?
  • Can you provide more details on your market analysis and competitive landscape?
  • What is your customer acquisition strategy and the associated costs?
  • What are the main risks for your business, and how do you plan to mitigate them?
  • How do you see the company scaling in the next few years?
  • Can you provide a few details around your exit strategy?
  • What milestones will this investment help you achieve?

Your appendix slides can be used to help support your answers for many of these questions.

Good Luck!