We all know how important it is to be clear about who we are so that we can communicate it, clearly and succinctly to any interested stakeholder. What we say when interacting with others is always a pitch, even if we don’t always recognize it as such. While it is important to have and be able to deliver a social pitch, which can be used to introduce ourselves in any social interaction, here, I wish to concentrate on the pitch that will attract the right investors to your startup.
The basic purpose of a pitch deck is to present investors with a problem that exists, show how you can solve that problem, show why it’s worth solving (market size), and why you can solve it better than anyone else (product, team, biz model, competition).
This is how that narrative should translate to your deck structure:
- Company purpose
- Problem
- Solution
- Why Now
- Market Size
- Product
- Team
- Business Model
- Competition
- Financials
The average reader will only spend 3m 44 seconds looking at your deck, so keep it short and snappy. The two slides that receive the most attention are the financials (23 seconds) and the team (22 seconds).
| Categories | Average amount of time spent viewed |
| Financials | 23 seconds |
| Team | 22 seconds |
| Competition | 17 seconds |
| Why Now | 16 seconds |
| Company Purpose | 15 seconds |
| Business Model | 15 seconds |
| Product | 14 seconds |
| Market Size | 13 seconds |
| Problem | 11 seconds |
| Solution | 10 seconds |
Spend time with this structure, learn it, rehearse it many times, deliver it many times, make a note of recurring questions and be ready with the proper answers, take an pitching opportunity as a chance to learn and to showcase your project.
In business as in life, be careful what you pitch for, and you are always pitching!
If you had 3 minutes, would you be able to convince me to have a meeting and hear more about your idea?