Every business starts with an idea. Before any product is built or any service is rendered, they must first be born in the form of an idea. While developing an idea is generally the toughest part of the process, many ideas are born but never grow due to a lack of funding. This is where the concept of pitch decks comes into play. Most successful businesses use pitch decks in order to generate funding for their ventures, but what exactly does a pitch deck entail?
A pitch deck is the action of presenting your idea for a product, service, or company to an audience. For the most part, the audience will be made up of potential investors. Hand in hand with a solid pitch deck is an executive summary. An executive summary is a business plan that describes in detail the goals and plans of the business to potential investors in order to entice them to invest. Pitch decks are important because the backbone of any business is its cash flow. Cash flow is essentially all cash and cash equivalents entering and leaving the company.
The goal of a pitch deck is to convince prospective investors to inject the desired amount of cash into the product, service, or company. Investments are often made in exchange for partial ownership or profits, referred to as a “return on investment.” As the saying goes, “you’ve got to spend money to make money,” and when talking about starting a product, service, or company, investors offer a considerable amount of outside help. Using a pitch deck can help business owners to convince potential investors that the cash flow on said product, service, or company will benefit all involved.
There are many ways to create an effective pitch deck, but some have a tendency to work better than others. The best pitch decks include the following 12 components:
Those are the 12 basic components of a pitch deck, but you can also consider covering additional topics, including:
A good pitch deck is the one that successfully convinces an investor to invest or learn more about the product, service, or company. There really is no right or wrong way to create a pitch deck, but there are a few guidelines to follow that can help take the pitch deck presentation to a whole new level. Some examples would include researching your target audience and then adjusting the pitch deck if necessary to play to their interests. Every person is different, and therefore every pitch should be different, even if the product, service, or company stays the same. Any personal information known about a potential investor would absolutely be beneficial to any pitch deck.
Another key aspect is honesty. It’s important to highlight the potential rewards, but the more an investor learns about the behind-the-scenes minutiae and possible challenges, the more credible a pitch becomes. One of the best inclusions would be first-hand testimonials. Any person that has used the product, service, or company can be very valuable in helping convince an investor.
Sometimes with pitch decks, it’s not as much about selling the idea as it is about selling its creator. Pitch decks aren't going to be successful if the creator of the idea isn’t able to first sell themselves as an individual and potential business partner, no matter how good the idea.
While investors will often receive high numbers of meeting requests and pitch decks, most pitches don’t tend to last very long. On average, pitches only last around 3 minutes and 44 seconds. That can be a tremendously short amount of time when trying to cover all the steps and examples covered previously. This is why it’s so critical to have a well thought out and planned pitch deck ready to go in order to convey the appropriate information as efficiently as possible.
While pitch decks are still fairly common, an innovative way of providing the information found in them is with web designs. Consider using a firm that works with the creators of a product, service, or company to design their own version of a pitch deck online. Millions of business owners just like you, are creating new products, services, and companies every day, so set your idea apart by creating a professional pitch deck that immediately catches the investor’s eye.
Sources:
https://techcrunch.com/2015/06/08
https://articles.bplans.com/what-to-include-in-your-pitch-deck/
https://www.cooleygo.com/glossary/executive-summary/
https://www.cooleygo.com/glossary/pitch-deck/
https://www.investopedia.com/investing/what-is-a-cash-flow-statement/