THE PERFECT PITCH DECK
Learn how to craft a pitch deck that will get your project funded
The perfect pitch deck doesn't exist.. or does it?
You only have one chance to make a first impression.
Your funding pitch deck is your first impression with potential investors. Craft it well, and you will position yourself and your project in a respectable place in your audience’s mind. Fail, and you will have a hard time convincing them to invest in your project.
Fortunately, building the perfect pitch deck is not rocket science. We’ve put this guide together to help you craft the perfect pitch deck.
We outline the basic project funding requirements, we explain the project finance process, we show you a spectrum of the different types of funding you could get (to align with your project objectives), and we show you what project risk factors you need to be aware of.
Pay attention to the information provided on this site, and you will be ready in no to time to pitch your project and get funded.
The Perfect Pitch Deck Format
We compiled the format below from our experience working with funds, as well as using industry best practice by companies such as Sequioa Capital, Y-Combinator and others.
A good pitch deck tells a story; a story that makes sense to anyone reading it. The most prominent questions that may arise during the reading of the story are addressed as well.
Perfect Pitch Deck Sections
When building your pitch deck, follow the order outlined below, adding in your project information as you go along.
Declare who you are, what you’re about, and what prospective investors need to believe about your story, if they are to invest in your project.
Spend the rest of the pitch backing the claims made on this slide, building investors’ confidence as you go along.
Investors may have questions or concerns about your project. Address these concerns proactively. This will build trust in your ability to execute.
Describe the pain of the customer (or their customer)
Describe the problem you are solving.
How are they solving the problem today?
Describe your solution. Show, don’t tell. Help them understand how your solution solves the problem better than anything else.
Why it’s better than what is currently available?
What is your competitive advantage?
What is the secret sauce you bring?
What is the product-market fit of your solution?
How is your business strategy different?
What is the growth strategy?
Sketch the historical evolution of the domain.
Explain recent trends that make your solution possible and desirable.
Describe your ideal customer and their jobs-to-be-done.
Calculate the Total Addressable Market (TAM)
Deduce Serviceable Available Market (SAM, the portion of the market that you can acquire).
For example, your product may only be available in one language, so your SAM would be the subset of the TAM that speaks the language that your product is developed for.
Calculate SOM – (Serviceable Obtainable Market or Share of Market). This is the portion of SAM that you can realistically capture.
List your competitors.
List your solution’s competitive advantages.
Explicitly identify the risks that could thwart your success and how you will mitigate them.
Product features, form factor, functionality.
Describe the intellectual property and patent landscape for your product.
If applicable, show the development roadmap for the product.
How will you make money with this project?
Show your revenue model and explain the product pricing.
What is the average customer account size and/or lifetime value?
What does your sales & distribution model look like?
Do you have a customer/pipeline list?
Do you have off-take agreements in place?
What do people say about your product or service? Do you have social proof of its desirability?
Who are the people that are going to make this project a reality? Show a short bio of the founders, team members, directors and advisors, as applicable.
Show a summary income statement, cash flow, balance sheet, capital expenditure table.
Make clear what you are asking for, what the funds will be used for and how you would like to structure the transaction.
Make sure that the assumptions that the model are built on, are crystal clear.
If all goes well, where will you (and the project) be in 5 years?
To help you get started with building your pitch deck, we have created a template for you in Google Slides. Click the button below to access the template, save a copy of it, and start building your pitch deck!
GET FUNDING READY
If you are not familiar with the process of raising capital, getting funded can be a long and painful process. Cut through the complexity and save yourself a lot of time and effort by using our services to get your project funding ready.
We can do all the heavy lifting for you and then introduce you to potential investors.
Use our expertise to achieve the following:
- Develop a value proposition and narrative that aligns with your personal and business objectives
- Build a financial model that resonates with the type of investor you are looking for
- Get introduced to potential investors
Having said this, our services are not for everyone. We only work with projects that we believe have a real chance of getting funded.
Someone’s desire to get funded is not the same thing as having a viable project.
In order to understand if there is potential for collaboration, we have a pre-qualification process, which starts with the form below.
When you click the button, you will be asked a number of questions related to your project. Upon submission of the form, we will revert to you within 48 hours to advise whether we believe that we could be of service in helping you to get funding ready.
