What is Pitchdeck?
An entrepreneur who wants to come up with a new company or idea will need financing to help flourish his startup idea. Most of the time the source of income is an external source which aren’t friendly with you and your idea. This means that entrepreneurs will need to communicate his or her ideas to potential financiers in a way that you are able to make them believe in your idea and can get them excited about investing in your business. A pitch deck is also known as a start-up or investor pitch deck which is a type of presentation that helps the company to make their potential investors familiar about their business. The main aim of the pitch deck is to make your investor interested in your idea and make it to the next meeting with your investor.
Fundraising is a multi-step process that will require a lot of effort. A good pitchdeck is the first basic step in this process. Entrepreneur tries to present their idea in a way that it could fascinate the investors and could persuade them to engage with you. A pitch deck presentation usually consists of several slides that help to present an enthralling story about your business. The presentation could be prepared with the help of software like PowerPoint, or use a modern tool like Visme. A pitch deck involves the objectives, estimates, vision, and mission of your business. Future prospects of a business idea are reflected by the pitchdeck in the form of forecasts made for sales and other targets.
Why pitchdeck is important for Startups?
Pitch deck put forward the first impression of your business idea. So, to get funded introducing your business is one of the most important steps. So, preparing an attractive pitch deck is the initial step to raise funds from investors for your business. The process of fundraising is difficult and time-consuming thus establishing value through a pitchdeck that represents a compelling and interesting story is crucial for startups. Pitchdeck involves a great design, pleasing slides, up to point and updated information, correct market estimations, and the overall market dynamics.
Components of Pitchdeck?
The important components of the pitchdeck are:
1. Problem:
This slide about the problem will explain which need to market your idea is fulfilling. This needs to be a very common problem which people face in their daily life and that investors would not have issues with understanding. You should not focus on solving multiple problems, your business should be able to resolve a known issue.
2. Solution:
The solution needs to be crisp and very clear. The solution you are presenting should be scalable. Scalable means that the business is capable of increasing its total output as the load on it increases when resources are added. You must also explain the timing of the solution as to why your idea is ideal for the present time. The main cause of failure for startups is too early or too late entry into the market.
3. Market:
The market is going to be another important factor which will affect the investor interest. The size of the market will affect the returns of the company. Any market which is under $1 Billion will not be of much attraction for the investor as the investors look for investment opportunities that may give them 10x return.
4. Product:
This slide should contain a glimpse of your product in action. To make your presentation more powerful you can add an attractive description of the product. It could contain quotes from some of your customers talking about how much they love your product.
5. Traction:
This slide will represent the growth of the business over the months which could include revenue, metrics, etc.
6. Team:
The slide containing information about the team is one of the most important slides in pitchdeck. The investor wants to know the quality of your workforce who are the driving force for any firm. The best and compact way to showcase the team slide is by just introducing the members of the leadership team and highlighting two or three achievements from every member.
7. Competition:
You can add a diagram to show the competitors that you have in your space. Try to compare yourself with your competitors to show where you could reach depending on your value proposition. Try to show your company unique in every way. To give the investor the glimpse of how much the market is paying to try to explain the capital each competitor has already raised in the past and at what valuation
8. Financials:
You can provide projections of at least 3 years. Through projections can never be accurate but they provide a good idea of where the business is heading and potential outcomes. You can keep your financials ready in Excel format as investors may want to have a look at it after reviewing the want to see that after reviewing your pitch deck.
9. Amount being raised:
On this slide do not put any specific amount that you are aiming at raising like $5 million, it's better to put a range like between $3 million and $5 million because it will include those firms also which have a mandate to not invest over $3 million. Thus, it will attract many targets as possible, so go with ranges instead of specific amounts. If you have large social media following you could include that also.
How to prepare a Pitchdeck which attracts the investor?
Keep your startup pitch simple:
The startup ecosystem in India is expanding and thus investors have their pick of opportunities in which to invest their capital. Thus, you need to clearly and quickly present your business idea and your plan Infront of investor. Try to start by giving a brief explanation of your business idea which correctly convey your vision and purpose.
Manage the timing of your startup pitch:
Managing the presentation time of your business idea is critical. Pitch that goes for too long may frustrate the investor also running short will only be a waste of your chance. waste the time you have by. Setting a time-frame and remaining within it is of utmost importance, so that in the end you don’t needs to rush to complete your presentation. Move at study pace and keep your audience engaged. Leave some time in the ends for questions.
Tell your startup story:
During your pitch information likes figures, and spreadsheets may not always catch the attention of the investor. Your business story will make your pitch much more memorable and engaging for your investors, as if any investor wants to know any fact, he could directly ask you. Try to be expressive and animated during your presentation.
Explain how your product is unique:
One key of your presentation should be to try to persuade the investor how your product or service is different from anything else available on the market. You need to demonstrate that your business can solve a specific problem in a way that is not possible for any other business.
Give investor first-hand experience of product:
Another effective way to impress investors at the first meeting is to let investors experience the distinctive features of your product. You could use pictures or screenshots of your product or let them handle your product or try out a live demo.