Sales and Pitch Deck Infographic

How to Find the the best pitch deck template

Getting some inspiration from successful startups & VC firms is a great way to build your pitch deck! Even when each deck should be tailored to the company's strengths, the content guidelines and structure can be replicated for different industries and products.

We've created an easy-to-follow guide on how you can choose a startup template, based on your company's stage and use case. Pick the best set of slides and skyrocket your business!

Pitch decks are our area of expertise. We’ve accumulated much hard-earned knowledge on the matter over the years. From our founders’ startup experience to the thousands of companies for whom we’ve streamlined presentation needs, it’s only natural we want to share how to flatten a business learning curve on what we do best. Next, we’ll be covering pitch deck basics, from their constitution to how to find the best pitch deck template. We hope you profit from the valuable summary we’re about to give you. 

What’s a pitch deck?

A pitch deck is a term used to describe a a 10-20 slide business presentation more typically aimed at raising funds from investors for a particular startup or company and designed to give a short summary of your company, your business plan and your startup vision.
The name, as we describe in these 8 interesting facts about pitch decks, comes “from the union of two concepts: the acetate decks - those big old projectors used back in the day - plus the verb ‘to pitch’ which is used to describe delivering a business presentation.”

If you’re wondering what a startup pitch deck includes, check out our CEO’s video to create a pitch deck for investors or read up on what goes into a pitch deck outline.

Why do you need a pitch deck?

As we said, you’ll mostly require a pitch deck to get funding. That isn’t the only reason you’ll need one, exactly, but it’s most commonly the case, whether that be directly or indirectly. We’ll cover the differences in needs further down below. 

Whatever your requirements, pitching an idea without supporting material is furthermore counterproductive to your ultimate goal. To truly get an audience of whatever kind to invest in your business or product, you need back-up. Aside from statistical data, you need to have done a ton of research and all the compelling material you can gather to prove how well you know and handle your business. There’s moreover information that’s peculiar to a pitch deck that your target audience will need and want to see to consider your pitch an agreeable one. We’ll also get to that in a bit.  

For now, consider your pitch deck the best companion to a business pitch, whether for a 5-minute presentation or a full 30-45 minute one. 

How to build a pitch deck

There are diverse currents of thought and backgrounds that make some VC firms and investors vouch for a specific structure over another when it comes to pitch decks. 

The best advice we can give you to quickly and visually comprehend the different positions on what should go into a pitch deck is to check our pitch deck presentation guide with examples. Just take a look at our summary chart there, if you’d like. We promise you won’t regret it. 

On the other hand, the quickest and most secure way to create a pitch deck is to rely on a successful pitch deck template. And there are countless options in that respect, so let’s now walk through how to find the best pitch deck template for your precise business needs. 

Choosing the best pitch deck template

We’re looking here at a matter of filtering. There’s a difference between pitch decks to raise money and those that don’t look for any funding. Your goals and needs have to be clear from the get-go to choose the right template. 

If raising money is your case, the means through which you’ll do that will determine your best pitch deck selection. 

- Pitch decks to raise funds

Are you going for a VC firm as a means of funding? If that’s the case, the healthiest, most proper, and quickest way to structure your pitch deck is to get from the firm the kind of pitch deck they’d rather see. 

Also, figure out how much time you’ll have to pitch. Knowing that should tell you how many slides you’ll need to use and how to mold your presentation with tons of practice before the big day. NextView Ventures’ template is a perfect example if you have time for a thorough pitch. If you don’t, then Sequoia’s Capital or 500 Startups’ 10 slide deck might be better.

- Pitch decks for SaaS

If you’re in the software as a service industry and using a pitch to sell a product or service, there’s a different pitch for a free service than a monetizing one. Open platforms can go for our version of Facebook’s re-designed pitch deck as a great base. 

- SaaS with traction

Those that charge for access need to filter their choice of a template based on whether the company’s managed to get traction or not. Those with much-acclaimed traction can count on Slidebean’s version of a deck or Buffer’s. 

- SaaS without traction

If you don’t yet have traction, that’s okay. If you’re selling to end-users, you can check out Airbnb’s template. If you’re not selling to that kind of user, then Intercom’s pitch deck might be a much better idea. 

- Product or Process Sale Pitch Decks

Now, for those companies that are into product sales, we’ve also got you covered. Here’s WeWork’s pitch deck template. If leaning on a WeWork example now makes you uneasy, we’ve learned to make the best of their history through a CEO analysis, as well. 

If your company’s into leisure or recreation, however, we recommend you go for SnapChat’s pitch deck, instead. 

- Templates for other business needs

And there you have it! Of course, we know you might be more into market analysis templates or even need more marketing-related material. Together with a focus on sales and academia, we have hundreds of business presentation templates designed to help. It’s just a matter of learning how to find the best pitch deck template to suit your diverse needs. Make the best of them!

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