8 Startup Pitch Deck essentials

We’re excited to bring you the key information that every startup pitch deck must have! When you are raising capital, you must ultimately communicate well enough - and design a killer deck with the right structure might get investors to realize that your startup is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Here is a complete list of the 8 startups pitch deck must-haves tactics:

1. Use a One-Liner

Use this key tactic to keep investors focused and intrigued. While your competitors may be pitching every minor detail of their startup to investors, you can instead significantly demonstrate the value proposition of your startup with a great one-liner.

Loom, a startup which aims to reduce meeting time using pre-recorded video, has a great clever one-liner which shows that they mean business.

Here are what a few other top startups have as their one-liners.

Optimizely: Make every experience count.
Airbnb: Welcome home.
Tradesy: Tradesy turns your closet into cash.

2. Define the Problem, Propose a Solution

Describe the real pain points that you are solving with your solution, provide an idea of the key customer persona types that love your product and, if applicable, you can even describe the way that you’re making money today. Doing these things demonstrate real traction in the direction of your company.

Uber very clearly defines the problem in the transportation and mobility landscape of over a decade ago.

3. Provide Social Proof

Include the opinions of key players in your market and happy customers. Establish trust and value with these potential investors. Include any of the following in a slide:

• Bring in testimonials or reviews from your happiest customers. Every great startup has its true fans, and here is your opportunity to show that you do.
• Include a quote from a prominent mentor or friend to your startup (specially if he's well-known).
• If you’re a consumer facing business, include your e-mail subscriber count or even your total count of social shares from your blog.

Airbnb does an amazing job here, using another alternative for social proof. If you have snippets from positive press coverage, it's a great source of social proof for your pitch deck.

4. Work Your Product Demo Into the Presentation

The product demo is not simply splashy but is absolutely essential, given that many top tier venture capitalists have a deep understanding and passion for product. Here’s your opportunity to demonstrate your personal passion for your solution.

Here, our redesign of Slack's pitch deck seamlessly transitions within their presentation to a quick visual demo of their product demonstrating key benefits and features.

But: balance is important. We tend to talk too much about our products (yes, we love them!). Try to show all the passion in a concise way. Your traction and growth will always be the stars of your deck.

5. Show Your Key Milestones

Speaking of the stars... Social proof is important along with the revenue metrics. A good example is Mixpanel's deck. They hit key milestones to get real revenue and gain real traction showing an exponential increase in year-over-year growth. This slide also exemplifies that eye-catching slick design is essential to keeping investors engaged.

6. Explain Visually the Players In Your Space.

Your presentation can look this good. With one clearly beautiful slide, Alyce can riff with the social proof of top-performing similar companies and both claim to have a stronger value proposition than its competitors. Prepare for this portion of your presentation well in advance. You’ll want to be able to explain clearly how you're as hot as the companies that you'll be compared to.

7. The Team

Each and every team member is vital for the success of your startup. Investors will want to see how your talents as a founder and how you put together amazing people to deliver the mission of your startup. You and your team are the lifeblood of your business, so don’t be afraid to flaunt it with a beautifully designed slide.

It's necessary to show the work and life experiences of each person, specially if they worked for big companies before.

8. Save time

You don't want to invest too much time or over complicate your pitch deck - after all, you have a startup to run! A smart move here is to choose the right presentation tool That's why Slidebean came up with a great full investor pitch deck templates to help you create a killer pitch. Check out how other startups have relied on Slidebean to create sleek decks while saving time!

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