Filter pitch deck advice

Published: 31-Mar-2021

There is a lot of advice about investor pitch decks on the internet. But the problem, as with most things on the internet, which are the good ones? Few good rules to keep in mind while sorting through pitch deck advice…

Stay away from this kind of advice:

"Very simple, use this 10 slide template & your pitch is done"

A template doesn't capture your story. It's also very tempting since it allows you to skip the hard process of asking yourself hard questions while making the deck.

"Just outsource it to a content writer or designer"

At early stages like seed round, it is best if the founder themselves work on the pitch. They are the only ones with all the information and vision in their head (maybe not articulated yet but it's in there).

The good suggestion:

"Understand the investor mindset”

You need to figure out what an investor is looking for and develop a story according to that.

And story is not just about the flow of points but also positioning or framing. Like you have brand positioning, your deck needs to do investor positioning. Make the investors understand your company in a certain you want. I wrote more about it here.

Example:

In a seed deck, you primarily have to convince the investor of 3 things:

The depth & size of the problem & opportunity you are going after

The solution you have created to solve this problem is gaining some traction

The team you are putting together has the skills or personality to build/scale this solution

If you convince someone of the above three, your main job is more or less done. Above that, you can include

Plans you have for the future (it could be a new revenue line, new products or just scaling the current offering further)

The amount of money you need and why (basically to achieve what plans you have laid out for the future)

If you follow the above process, you will end up covering all the points mentioned in a template (problem, traction, team, etc) but they will be weaved into a compelling story.

TLDR

Look for suggestions around the ‘investor mindset’ theme. That will help you narrow down on quality advice.

PS: I haven't gotten into details of building a good story/deck. Aim was to give you a compass to identify good advice while looking through tons of pitch deck advice on the internet (it's a topic that unfortunately, like medicine, has a lot of incorrect advice on the web)