How many pages should an investor pitch deck be?
Don't make the pitch deck more than 15-20 slides long (investors have limited attention spans). If you feel you need to add more information, include it as an appendix. Don't have too many wordy slides. Don't provide excessive financial details, as that can be provided in a follow-up.
However, the typical length of pitch decks that get the best response from investors is 12 slides or less. In fact, the famous venture capitalist and brand evangelist, Guy Kawasaki, has coined one of the best rules for deciding on the number of slides that go in your pitch deck. It's known as the 10/20/30 rule.
A startup pitch deck outline is the standard document used by startups to present their case to investors; it's a brief deck comprised of about 10 to 20 slides.
The best pitch decks waste little time in getting right to the heart of the problem, giving the audience a clear starting point and helping them relate to your target customer. Key to this is your problem statement – which outlines the issue your product or service aims to tackle.
Your pitch deck should include 10 elements: the problem, your solution, key product features, market fit, competitive landscape, revenue and operating models, your traction, your projections, your team, and your funding request.
Embrace the 10-20-30 rule for presentations, which recommends keeping them under 10 slides, delivering them within 20 minutes, and using a font size no smaller than 30 points. By applying this rule, you can make your presentations more direct, memorable, and compelling.
A pitch deck deals more in memorable sound bites, while an investor deck provides details that are key to decision-making. While both use captivating graphics and tasteful design, the pitch deck's visual style is more central to the pitch.
The best pitch decks tell the real story about your company or brand. You should not only want to sell the audience on your product but also on the hard work you've done building it from the ground up. Design tip: Try data visualizations to relay a company or product timeline.
Agencies can craft a pitch deck in 1-4 weeks, depending on project complexity and taking into consideration feedback loops. You can take this down from days to just 2-5 hours with interactive pitch deck templates.
On average, businesses spend between $2,000 – $4,000 for a starter investor pitch deck or sales presentation. Complex pitch decks with 50+ slides can be higher. Elements that impact the cost include: Strategy: Business planning, brand strategy, storyboards, legal, financial, and industry expertise.
What are the top 5 slides that are an absolute must in an investor deck?
- Slide 1: Make your statement of purpose. ...
- Slide 2: Introduce your team. ...
- Slide 3: Identify the problem. ...
- Slide 4: Present your solution. ...
- Slide 5: Answer 'Why now?' ...
- Slide 6: Explain how this will work. ...
- Slide 7: Your five-year plan. ...
- Slide: 8: Show a path to 10x.
The pitch deck is often what gets investors excited – it's their first understanding of the startup. Investors expect to see a pitch deck that tells them what they need to know, and quickly. In many cases, a strong deck is the difference between getting that all-important meeting – or not.
- Title slide. ...
- An summary that outlines the company's purpose. ...
- The problem your business solves. ...
- Compare the competition. ...
- Milestones and accomplishments. ...
- Sell your solution. ...
- Highlight the size of the market and explain the market opportunity. ...
- Outline your marketing strategy.
A simple structure for a pitch deck consists of 10 to 15 slides that cover the topics of the problem you're addressing, the solution you're providing, the potential market size and target customers, evidence of viability and scalability, your business model and key metrics, the competition you face and how you ...
Follow the 5/5/5 rule
To keep your audience from feeling overwhelmed, you should keep the text on each slide short and to the point. Some experts suggest using the 5/5/5 rule: no more than five words per line of text, five lines of text per slide, or five text-heavy slides in a row.
The 20 Minutes Rule
According to Kawasaki, you only have 20 minutes to present your 10 slides – the time needed before your audience's attention starts declining. He believes it is long enough to convey a meaningful message but short enough to maintain the audience's attention span.
The 10/20/30 rule of PowerPoint is a straightforward concept: no PowerPoint presentation should be more than ten slides, longer than 20 minutes, and use fonts smaller than 30 point size. Coined by Guy Kawasaki, the rule is a tool for marketers to create excellent PowerPoint presentations.
Sometimes called a startup deck or slide deck, a pitch deck is a presentation that founders use to showcase their startups to investors when looking to raise money.
Because the goals of a pitch deck and PPT are different, the design and layout of each should also be different. Pitch decks are typically more streamlined, with a focus on the most important information. They should be visually engaging and use images and graphics to help convey the key points.
While they review the deck, they make mental notes to validate whether they should spend more time on a particular investment opportunity. The typical information they look for includes: The vertical in which the startup is active. Where is the startup located, and what geographical markets it targets.
What is the best color scheme for a pitch deck?
Using too many warm colors like red, orange, and yellow in your slides can lead to aggressiveness and anger in the potential investor's behavior. Cool colors like blues, green and purple can lead to a much more calm and relaxed tone of your presentation.
- Tell a personable story about your startup.
- Only display one primary idea per slide.
- Use the same color, font, and size format across every slide.
- Keep bullet points to a minimum.
- Don't create too many slides.
- Use imagery regularly to keep content interesting and engaging.
Simply put, a competitive pitch deck should include 10 slides, be no more than 20 minutes long, and should only include up to 30 points.
Pitches are typically 1 to 1.5 pages long, with a typical structure as follows: i. A paragraph that hooks editor and shows you can hook reader, in the style of the journal.
The decision ultimately boils down to the specifics of your startup's traction & funding goals, but as a rule of thumb: a professional pitch deck should cost at the very least $65 per slide (aka. ~$1,000 for 15 slides), if you're working with the right people.
