What goes behind a perfect pitch deck?

Skin in the game — A female founder’s journey (Series)| #2: Pitching

Photo from pexel.com

As much as it’s fun to start your own company and build something of your own, it’s equally, if not more, scary to raise funds to build your venture.

Keeping the promise I made in my previous post, I’m sharing one of the most crucial parts and learnings from my startup journey — pitching to VCs. Just the mere thought of presenting your startup to someone who can potentially change its trajectory can be intimidating at the very least and can potentially shake your self-confidence.

Over the last 2 months or so, I’ve had the privilege of meeting some of the leading VCs in the SEA region and was fortunate enough to have four of them even mentor me. I thought it might be worthwhile for other founders to learn from my mistakes. So, in the section below, I’ve tried to put together some of these learnings that can help you make a ‘stronger’ pitch deck. And, if not receive funding, it’ll at least prepare you for all the right questions.

Starting from scratch

If you’re just starting to make your pitch deck, you’d definitely want to read ahead.

You should think of your pitch as a story, a story that should keep the ‘reader’ engaged from beginning to end with no dull moments. To create such a flow, include these 5 elements that every compelling story has:

1. Characters
2. Setting
3. Conflict
4. Resolution
5. Plot

Remember, first 2 minutes of any presentation is all you have to captivate your audience. I’ve tried to break down each of these here, and have taken the case of Uber to draw a parallel to make things crystal clear. So, let’s start!

The characters -> Team.

If your startup is at super early stage, the investors will not only be betting on the idea but also on the team. It’s really important that you paint your team right. Define the pillars of success and map them to the skills & experience of your team. This will answer why your team is the right team to crack it and how your team has an advantage over others to make this business a success. Top it up with a track record of over-achievement(s) of the team members in their previous roles.

The Setting -> The Industry you’re going after.

This is where you show the wonderland, the hidden Narnia that you’ve found. Start by showing the industry landscape and the mega-trends. Talk about the opportunity and the industry that you’re going after, and why it will reap millions of dollars in the future. Define why the mentioned industry is worth betting on, why you’re excited about the opportunity, and the scope of growth et al. This context setting is extremely critical and should be riveting. Kane and Abel wouldn’t exactly have been as interesting to read had Jeffrey Archer not set the background.

Let’s take a look at Uber- ‘the setting’ would be the trillion dollar transportation industry worldwide. It cuts through age barriers, geographies, and genders, and will always be ‘evergreen’.

The Conflict -> Problem.

This is the villain of the story. The problem that you’ve set out to fix — make it as clear as possible. Tell them precisely what you’re trying to fix.

To get their attention, construct your problem statement like a story because stories provoke shared emotion, which is the foundation of empathy. Your ‘problem story’ should be constructed around your ideal customer (target market) and the problem they are facing.

Show how you have validated the problem with potential customers using in-depth interviews, surveys, landing page sign-ups etc (a lot more on idea validation in my next blog). Based on these, define your problem in 1–2 sentences at max, yes that’s how crisp your problem statement should be.

In case of Uber, the problem was a supply-demand mismatch but Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp talked about their experience in Paris where they were stuck on a rainy weekend night and couldn’t hail a cab, and after walking a couple of blocks they saw a long queue of taxis waiting to get customers. This story (still) makes everyone go — dude, been there!

Story -> Emotion -> Empathy.

The Resolution -> Your Product.

Now comes the hero, the saviour, if you will. Time to present your idea. This is the grand entry and make sure you present it with all the fireworks, use the right words, make it crisp yet complete with all the relevant information. Talk about why the solutions that exist today don’t work, how your product solves the above-mentioned problem, how’s your solution scalable, and of course, how will it reap returns.

There’s no such thing as ‘being over prepared’ when it comes to your pitch. Your knowledge of your solution should not only be horizontal but equally vertical as well. Try to learn about every single granular detail of your product because when the day will come to present it, your confidence will be tapping the ceiling.

In case of Uber, it was the solution was connecting demand to supply –> rider to driver. Press a button, get a ride. The beauty of it was there was no need to own assets, it was a layer on top of an existing infrastructure, and its scalable across countries.

The Plot -> Business Model, GTM, Roadmap, & Competitive Moat.

Time to get into the weeds! Talk about how your ‘hero’ will take down the villain. Here, you’ve got to break down each and every step. The more detailed you are, the better. Let there be no scope of ambiguity or subjective interpretation, that’s for your own good.

Demonstrate how you will solve the problem. Depending on your business idea, this would include a demo of your product / app / software. Make sure you focus on explaining ‘how it works’ in detail. Follow it up with these 4 parts

1. A promising business model– VCs know that most of those numbers are projections of an optimist founder. To ensure your business model does not look like numbers pulled out of your rear end, you need to show the quality and depth of thinking that went behind the assumptions used, especially CAC and LTV. Getting the unit economics right is essential to building a solid business model, so focus on these during your presentation. It is important to show how the engine works and why it can scale profitably. I cannot emphasise enough how critical this part of the deck is, after all, this part will show them what returns they can expect from their investment. You need to remember, it’s about money, it always is.
2. Go to Market Strategy– If you’re a techie or someone who doesn’t understand how to put this together, I’d strongly recommend finding a friend in your circle who works on GTM strategies for big companies. Take them out for coffee, get them on board temporarily to help make this part of the deck. You can have a revolutionary product but if you don’t know how to get it to its end customer it really won’t revolutionise anything. Invest in making a comprehensive GTM strategy touching upon all of the following:

What’s your target market?

Who’s your end customer?

What’s your value proposition?

What are the ‘Points of Parity’ and ‘Points of Differentiation’?

How will you sell?

How will you get your initial set of customers?

3. Roadmap to the Future– Show them you’re T-101 from the future and you know how to get there. Present a clear execution plan across all key areas of the business. It is important for VCs to see that the founders have a clear sense of direction and a well chalked out plan. You can set 6-monthly milestones for the next 18–24 months.

4. Competitive Moat — This is probably one of the most overlooked sections in pitch decks. Try to gather answers for the following questions:

What would be your competitive moat to sustain in the long-run?

How will you be able to defend your company in the future?

What’s going to stop another company to replicate your business?

What is it that’s not replicable?

Now, this could be anything — from your product’s algorithm to the operational efficiencies you’ve figured out that others will have a hard time to crack OR you’ve closed an exclusive partnership with a third party — could be anything but has to be something defendable in the future .

—

Once you’ve sailed through the tough waters (questions), you’ll reach the final destination of your pitch — the Funding slide. This is where you’ll put out what you’re asking for — The climax of your story. Try to highlight these 4 things:

Funding requirement

How will you spend the money?

The runway it will give you

What will you deliver (People often miss this one. Ask yourself, would you invest in someone who wouldn’t tell you what you’d get in return? Nope.)

There you go, that’s all you need to make a perfect pitch deck! When I created mine, which I thought was solid, I had covered about 80% of the elements above, but the 20% I missed were important and apparently, they are missed by most founders. After a couple of mentoring sessions, I knew what my deck was missing. I could easily spot the difference in reactions of investment committee members between the two decks. The complete version got me a green flag!

I hope you found this post useful. I’d love to know if you could think of any ‘missing elements’ in your pitch deck from the ones mentioned here. Shoot me a note: nk@getyours.co / @navneet_ka.

In my next post, I’ll talk more about idea validation and the importance of pre-launch users. Stay tuned for that.

Bonus

1. If applicable, add a slide on key business risks as well
2. Less is More, always.
3. Use pictures to tell your story
4. First 2 mins. of any presentation is all you have to capture your audience’s attention. From your dressing style, your body language to first few words out of your mouth, that’s all it takes to form the first opinion of you
5. Watch some videos of storytellers and you will see how they engage the audience with the choice of their words, expressions, questions, and hand gestures
6. Check out Uber’s first pitch deck shared by Garrett Camp
7. Assume these things about your audience:

• They are busy people with attention deficit and many distractions
• They don’t have any previous knowledge or context
• People have filters in their mind, based on their preconceived notions and beliefs

— —

Update: 10 months after, my startup secured a seed funding of $3.5M from Sequoia, Global Founders Capital, Kindred Ventures, and Jay-Z’s Arrive Ventures– you can read more about it here.