Start-ups looking for Venture Capital investors must be taken advantage of by their Business can convince. A well thought-out elevator pitch deck is a prerequisite for success. Learn all about the right structure of a pitch deck and the biggest mistakes you can make as a founder in creating it.
We also describe how to present your pitch deck in person to an investor.
Winning investors with the Pitch Deck as a start-up
It is not only start-ups who often face a challenge in answering the question about their own corporate financing – Business Angels or Venture capital companies as an investor, they are often spoilt for choice. After all, you have to answer the question of which of the many financing requests from start-ups are most promising and should be looked at in more detail.
Investors sometimes receive more than 100 requests per month, which in turn have to be checked with some care. Submissions in the form of a business plan are rarely helpful, as the time for full review is usually missing. This is why you need an elevator pitch deck.
In the US, this problem has often been solved by requiring start-ups to submit a business plan rather than a pitch deck. Compressed on a few presentation slides, the most important contents from the business plan are displayed in a pitch deck, so that a venture capitalist gets an overview of the business idea and the financing requirements in the shortest possible time. Also for a Elevator Pitch a convincing pitch deck is essential.
The elevator pitch deck is therefore aimed at start-ups looking for venture capital. The classic business plan, including a professional financial plan, is often only needed by investors in the second step. Founders and self-employed people looking for debt (such as a loan from the bank or a support loan) do not need a pitch deck. The elevator pitch deck should also be distinguished from the Business model, which also overlaps in parts with the pitch deck, but is more suitable for the basic analysis of a business model.
The structure of a pitch deck
The elevator pitch deck is usually sent digitally to an investor in the first step. The best way to create the presentation is to create Microsoft’s PowerPoint or Apple Keynote, but you should send the Pitch Deck as a PDF.
One of the most important rules for creating a presentation: The spice is in short ness. For example, an elevator pitch deck should have between ten and twelve pages and should not exceed 15 slides. The slides must not be too text-heavy, but graphics often appear more meaningful.
The optimal film structure for a pitch deck has now developed largely uniformly:
- Slide 1: Introduction
In the introduction of the Pitch Deck, one presents the start-up and the occasion of the presentation in a few words. - Slide 2: The team
This slide is one of the most important elements in the pitch deck and is often forgotten. It describes the most important team members, their experience and know-how as well as the role in the company. - Slide 3: The Problem
For every good idea, there is a problem to be solved. On this slide in the pitch deck, the problem can be described in a comprehensible way. It is necessary to check whether this is also a real problem, ideally in the context of a market analysis. - Slide 4: Solution
In the next step of the pitch deck, your own product should be presented as the optimal solution to the described problem. - Slide 5: Product
This slide provides more detailed details of the key functionality of the product. A prototype or demo in the form of an image, website or software can often be decisive for success. - Slide 6: Market
Who is the target group? How big is the market and is it already saturated? These questions should be answered credibly on this slide of the pitch deck – again, preferably with a serious market study or your own market research. - Slide 7: Unique selling point
Investors are reluctant to finance product ideas that already exist on the market in exactly the same form. Therefore, a clear unique selling point with the corresponding added value for the customer should be highlighted. - Slide 8: Competition
Which companies on the market solve the same problem as your start-up? A list of the main competitors and a description of the distinguishing features is necessary on this page of the pitch deck. By the way, the answer “We don’t have a competitor” is not accepted by any investor – so research is necessary here. - Slide 9: Proof of Concept
Venture capitalists are often very cautious. Proof of concept, i.e. proof of feasibility of the business model, is therefore often a prerequisite for a successful pitch. This proof can be provided, for example, by initial sales or the number of active users. - Slide 10: Business model
Ultimately, every start-up has to make its money. The business model is one of the most important films in the pitch deck. Therefore, it should be shown in a comprehensible way how and from when to generate sales. If you have several ideas for sources of income, you should focus on the main revenue streams. - Slide 11: Financing needs and use
The goal of the Pitch Deck is to convince the investor to provide money for your start-up. It is therefore also necessary to specify what financial resources are needed, what they are to be used for and what can be achieved with it.
These eleven essential films must not be missing in any pitch deck and should of course be supplemented by a cover page at the beginning and the contact details at the end. Some investors are also expecting information to marketing, the market entry strategy or the status quo, as well as the long-term vision of a start-up. Depending on its relevance, the pitch deck can be expanded with these slides or the most important information can be incorporated into the existing pages of the pitch deck.
The biggest mistakes in creating an elevator pitch deck
The right structure is the basis for success for your pitch deck. However, inexperienced founders can still make serious mistakes in the pitch deck that need to be avoided:
- Too many bullet points
The reader should be able to record the contents of a slide within a few seconds. This is not possible with too many explanations and enumerations and enumerations that are too long. - Poor design
The design of the Pitch Deck does not have to be a work of art, but the font size and color as well as the spacing to each other should be displayed uniformly. Despite all this, a presentation created individually by a professional is significantly more impressive than a standard design. - Spelling or grammar errors
If you are sloshing in such an important presentation, you may also do so in everyday business. At least one or the other investor will assume this with mistakes on a pitch deck. - Animations
Movement images in presentations were announced at the beginning of the millennium. Today, animations, even if only the animated display of the text, are just annoying and should not be used in any pitch deck for investors. - Too small font
The font size 28 looks large, but is recommended for text. This does not tempt you to put too much text on one slide.
Tip
The presentation of your pitch deck must fit 100% from the start, so you should prepare well. For the creation and preparation you can use the help of an experienced professional – the consulting service is usually promoted.
Presenting your elevator pitch deck in front of investors
Presenting your business concept to investors – be it in a one-on-one interview or an elevator pitch – the way in which the pitch deck is presented plays a decisive role, of course. These are the most important rules for personal presentation of a pitch deck to investors:
- Tell a story: Through Storytelling emotions can be aroused and investors can be positively influenced.
- The first impression counts: If you impress the first few seconds, you have a good chance of a positive overall impression of the investor.
- Preparation is important: Those who cannot explain the origin of the turnover figures in the pitch deck have lost.
- Present, don’t read aloud! If you want to start a multi-million company, then a presentation should not consist only of reading bullet points.
For more tips on how to prepare for the pitch in front of an investor, see our overview on the topic Elevator Pitch. There we also show several examples of successful pitches.
