The perfect pitchdeck according to Breega
When you’re looking to raise money from a VC, the pitch deck is your ultimate weapon, one that should interest, intrigue and ultimately convince potential VCs that your startup is worth looking into.
If you’re not new to the funding journey, you will have heard it before: VCs receive hundreds, even thousands of requests from founders and have limited time with which to check out all those cash-hungry startups. A lot of filtering is necessarily involved. Perfecting your pitch deck is one way to make sure you pass the first round of filtering.
But how do you cram months of hard work, prototypes, progress, blood, sweat and tears into one presentation? Check out our advice on how to put together the perfect pitch deck to hook, and hopefully reel in, your target VC.
Keep it Short and Sweet
Your deck should be no longer than 15-20 slides.
It’s a teaser – its role is to spark interest and make the VC want to find out more about your company, it does not have to answer every possible question about your business: VCs will always have questions to ask no matter how detailed your pitch deck is 🙂
Cover the key points with what we call the « MIT formula »
Market :
Potential market size is key for VCs, we want to know that your product has Big market potential. One way of looking at this is to ask yourself if the problem that your startup is solving is “painful” enough ? Your deck should show us that your solution is more than a “nice to have” and solves a real pain point for potential users.
Size : Tell us how many people will be impacted by your product or service now and in the future. We’re always impressed when a deck demonstrates how a 1% market share could potentially indeed mean €100 million in revenue.
Timing : Let us know Why now is the optimal time to launch. Your deck should show in depth knowledge of your market and why it is indeed ripe to receive your product or service.
Individuals:
Your deck should show us that your team has the necessary skill sets required to “crack” the problem. A successful business is its people, you may have the best idea ever but if your team hasn’t got what it takes, your startup won’t scale.
Intro us to your team, brief us quickly on their backgrounds and tell us what “unfair advantages” they have over competitors.
Your deck should also clearly portray founder/team motivation, letting us know how far you want to go, your drivers and your level of ambition. Hint: we need to know that you Really want to become the next unicorn.
Traction :
Your deck should clearly demonstrate user traction. Show us how much your product or service resonates with your potential users.
Are your existing users hooked? Your deck should tell us how sticky your solution or service is. We need to know that you have a chance at becoming the next category leader.
Tell us a great story
Everyone loves a great story, it sparks interest, sets you apart and makes your startup easier to remember: A great story often starts with your WHY, why you started this crazy founder journey.
Remember that VCs, like users, “don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it” so make sure to state your company’s purpose/mission loud and clear. And prioritise great stories over stats.
- Be detailed without giving everything away
- Be smart about the level of detail you want to share – think about intentionally excluding the finer details on topics you’re very strong on, therefore making sure you will get questions from VCs on this that you already have great answers for. 😉
- Make sure your deck is attractive to look at and easy-to-read
- In the case of the perfect pitch deck, less is definitely more, so stick to one great idea per slide and be sure to work on your “wow” effect.
- It may sound obvious but be sure to proofread- and ask others to proofread – your deck before sharing to make sure it doesn’t contain any spelling or grammar mistakes. Attention to detail is important.
- Keep your slide deck visual – attractive, clean & easy to take in, with consistent design elements.
We hope that you find these pointers useful. For further information on how to create the perfect pitch deck, check out these great articles:
Sequoia: https://www.alexanderjarvis.com/sequoia-capital-pitch-deck-template/
Pitch deck examples: https://www.cirrusinsight.com/blog/startup-pitch-decks