Ultimate Guide to Build a Pitch Deck to Get Funding — Pressfarm

When you start a business, it can be nerve-wracking and hard but when you present your pitch it needs to be eloquent, concise and have a great design. It is important to understand when the best time to launch your business is and how to explain what your company does.

Make sure that your pitch is perfect because investors are using it continuously to evaluate your company’s potential so it is important that you make a good impression. If you were to ask any successful entrepreneurs and investors, their advice would be to keep it simple but also include the information that is relevant to whoever it is you are pitching to.

In this article we will discuss:

1. What is a pitch deck?
2. How to write a pitch deck
3. The presentation

One of the ways to improve your pitch deck is to show proof of publicity. When you receive media coverage, it adds onto your credibility as a company. At Pressfarm we work with early stage startups, established startups and businesses to get them media coverage through our affordable PR agency services. Once they get press coverage, they are able to add that into the pitch deck as social proof of publicity and interest from the media. Talk to us for your needs today!

What is a pitch deck?

A pitch deck, also known as an investor pitch deck or startup pitch deck, is a marketing presentation that you use to pitch your startup to investors or potential investors.

And here we go!

How to write a pitch deck

1) Customize your pitch

While some may think that PR pitches are simple and they envision themselves being successful the first time around, most of the time that is not the case. It is more common and effective to form a relationship with investors before making your pitch. You need to ask the investor the key components that they want to see in your deck and what outcomes and numbers are important to them.

2) Prepare multiple documents that tell your company’s story

Pretty self-explanatory, but try and create different version of your deck depending on who you are presenting to. You should divide it up into a short intro deck, one for in-person meetings and another one for follow-up calls.

3) Verify investors before sending them confidential information

It is important to remember not to include any financial information before you have developed a relationship with any investors. As much as you might really need their help, you need to qualify them so that you don’t make a mistake with trusting the wrong people.

4) Make sure to visually represent your brand identity and keep it concise

Remember that first impression matters. Design your pitch to properly represent your business and create a presentation that catches the investor’s eyes. Ride the fine line between professional and having personality. You want investors to be able to see your vision just through a few slides. Try using KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) and use your presentation as an additional way to present your vision. Use mainly visuals rather than an explosion of words on the screen because you don’t want them spending so much time reading your proposal rather than listening to you.

The presentation

Keep your pitch deck concise and tell a story

However you decide to create your pitch deck, it should not be too long in both the visual and verbal presentation. In that short presentation, you need to outline the most important parts of your business. Do not go overboard with the information that you are presenting, you want to tell a story that the investors can understand and where you want and think your business is going.

You may want to include numbers and metrics. Additionally, while that may be beneficial, you need to know which ones matter most to each individual investor. So, present a good combination of both.

Represent your team

When a company is first starting out, investors are looking at the people behind the company, not the company itself. They have to know whether you can accomplish what you are saying you will. They want to get to know the person behind the curtain. So, it is important that they get to know the entire team and their backgrounds.

If it is relevant, include personal or professional backgrounds that are relevant to the company.

Don’t forget to say what your company is actually doing — elevator pitch

It is important to not lose sight of the message that your company is trying to put across. It is very easy to get caught up in presentations and investors that people sometimes forget the purpose of their company. You should have a pin-point elevator pitch that just explains it simply. They say, if your grandmother or grandfather can’t understand what your company does, then it is not a well refined elevator pitch.

Stay humble and don’t forget that you need the help of the investors. You need to portray that you want this company to work and believe in it.

Outline both your grand vision and your concrete execution

It is important to emphasize the vision you have for the company and where you can see it going because if there is already a clear picture presented, investors are more likely to be interested. Once you have presented your vision, you also need to show the exact way that you will go about executing your business because they will also need to see that you have a course of action.

Read: 13 Reasons Why Potential Investors are Turning Away Your Startup

Address the market landscape and competition

In your pitch you also need to be aware of the competition that you are up against and how you can stand out from them. Investors want to not only understand why it would be a good idea to invest, but they want to know what already exists in the market so that they can figure out where your company is headed and whether it is worth it to invest if there are already so many competitors in the same niche.

Explain why now is the best time to launch your business

Obviously you want to talk about your company and how you are going to go about it, but you also need to help them understand why it is important to launch it now. It can be helpful to show that you not only have a good idea but show them that it’s the right time to pursue it. The questions that need to be answered are whether you are ready and capable to execute it at that exact moment.

Specify how you’re going to spend the money you raise

Presenting your company may be all good and well but investors want to make sure that the money that they are going to invest in you is worth it. You need to be specific of all aspects of business and your company down to the office space, agreements with vendors, and big expenditures.

Highlight your plans for growth

Try and present a plan that will be beneficial for both you and them in the long run. Try and also tell them how long it will take for you to return their investment back. They want to know how long it will take for them to recover the cost of their investment.

The whole point of them giving your company money is because they know and believe that they will eventually make a profit off of it. Give them a timeline of when it is going to happen.

Tweak the deck based on the feedback you get from each investor

Finally, it is important that each pitch deck is tweaked for every individual investor because not all points will match each person. You may be asking different people for different things, so try to change it up a bit.

With these tips, pitch decks can be easy enough to create. It is important for both you and the investors to understand all aspects of your company and the vision that you are trying to present. You can use services like Pressfarm and others in order to do things on your own without having to break the bank trying to outsource your skills.

Sometimes it can be stressful to create a pitch deck, which is where we come in. We pride ourselves on providing the materials to create an effective PR campaign. Part of those materials are social proof in the form of media coverage. If you are interested in our services, check out our pricing and packages so that you can get a customized press kit, press release, media list, media outreach help among other things.

Originally published at https://press.farm on July 23, 2020.