Pitch Deck Guide

Essential Slides

Problem: Clear pain point. Who has it. How severe. Investors must understand the problem before caring about your solution.

Solution: How you solve it. What makes you different. Demo or screenshots if applicable.

Market: TAM, SAM, SOM. VCs want $1B+ TAM. Show your path to capturing it.

Traction: Metrics that matter. Users, revenue, growth rate, engagement. Seed VCs accept less than Series A.

Team: Relevant experience. Why you'll win. Highlight strengths honestly.

Financials: Projections, unit economics, key assumptions. Realistic > optimistic.

Ask: Amount, use of funds, valuation. Clear and specific.

What Investors Actually Read

3-5 minutes: First pass is a skim. Headlines, key metrics, visual flow. Details come later.

Focus areas: Traction (proof), market (opportunity), team (execution ability). Everything else supports these.

Visual > text: Charts, graphs, screenshots communicate faster. Text-heavy slides get skimmed.

Design Principles

Simple: Complex designs distract. Clean layouts improve comprehension.

Consistent: Same fonts, colors, formatting throughout. Inconsistency signals unprofessionalism.

10-15 slides: More gets overwhelming. If you can't explain it in 15 slides, you don't understand it well enough.

By Investor Type

VCs: Large markets, scalable models, growth metrics. Technical depth expected for tech.

Angels: Market opportunity, team quality, personal connection. May accept earlier metrics.

PE: Revenue, profitability, operational improvements. Less about growth, more about efficiency.

Real estate: Property details, financial analysis, market research, exit strategy.

Common Mistakes

Too many slides: 20+ slides = not read. Cut ruthlessly.

Unrealistic projections: Hockey stick growth without justification. Investors see through it.

Missing traction: "Pre-revenue" with no validation metrics. Show something.

Unclear ask: "Looking for funding" vs "$2M to achieve X milestones."