6 steps to pitch perfect

How to build a pitch deck that wows investors and gets funding for your games startup

Ok, I have my team. Now I need a pitch deck and I need to pitch it to get investment. How do you pitch your company? How do you identify unique selling points? What does a good pitch deck look like? More importantly, what does a bad deck look like?

This is the second part of a series on how aspiring gaming entrepreneurs can become the next gaming unicorn. In the first post we dived deep into what a kick-ass founding team looks like. Over the next few articles, we will deconstruct funding and exiting. But before you can raise money, you have to ask for it in the right way. In this piece, you’ll learn how to build the pitch deck to woo investors and, hopefully, secure funding for your start-up.

The Fundamentals

Putting together a pitch deck is a common task that all start-up founders face, so thankfully there are plenty of resources out there to help you with the basics. We highly recommend these resources:

● 139 pitch decks from 139 venture-backed start-ups, for motivation and inspiration

● Venture Deals by Brad Feldman and Jason Mendelson, so you understand the ins-and-outs of venture deals and the essential concepts and terminology

● Sequoia Capital’s pitch deck template, which provides a great foundation to work off

Next, let’s dive into the specifics of how game makers should pitch investors.

Pitching for game makers

Most game makers have built some kind of pitch deck before — it might have been for a new feature suggestion or a new game concept within your studio. The investment pitch deck is different though, because of two reasons:

1. You’re not selling a product. You’re selling a company.
2. Your audience doesn’t know you

VCs and other potential investors want to hear about the company’s founding team, your history, and story. Yes, story. Keep in mind that while investors very much like to have the facts clearly presented, they do also rely on intuition in making investment decisions. Hence a good pitch is often also a good story. Below are some ‘chapters’ for your story:

Chapter 1: Who are you?

When you pitch to investors, it’s very likely that the people you’re pitching to don’t know you. Make sure to tell the investors about yourself. And not the regular work history, but what got you started in games, what your main revelations were, and why you have chosen to embark on this start-up journey. All investors are looking for talent and skills wrapped into passion.

Chapter 2: Why did you team up with your co-founders?

It’s unlikely that the whole founding team will be there pitching to investors. Hence, it’s the CEO’s job to introduce the founding team in the pitch deck.

Presumably your founding team looks the way it does because each of you brings great experience and unique skillsets to the table. That’s a good fact to present. As stated before, investors are also keen on teams that have worked together. So, make sure to talk about the history of your co-founding team: how you met, what your individual responsibilities were in previous companies, and what these responsibilities will be in the new company.

“We invest in the people as much as the product. In a pitch deck, we look at the individual stories of each founder as well as the strength of their interpersonal relationships.”

Harri Manninen, Play Ventures

Chapter 3: What is your company’s mission?

The slide on ‘Company Mission’ states what you aim to achieve with the company, what types of games you will build and ideally some kind of level of ambition.

“Good examples of missions are ‘To re-invent the Match-3 genre with multiplayer experiences’ or ‘To combine the best of Eastern and Western games and build games you play for years, not just months.’ No mission likely means no direction.”

Henric Suuronen, Play Ventures

With one sentence, your prospective investor will be clear about what your company is about, what you intend to do, and how you will differentiate yourself in the market. Knowing this, they can go on to assess if the mission is an exciting opportunity, and if your assembled founding team is the right team to achieve the mission.

The company mission is not just good for fundraising, but also for attracting top talent to your studio. With that one sentence, your prospective recruits will be able to understand what the company is about, and if the mission is something that gets them excited. So please, treat the company mission with respect.

Chapter 4: The roadmap

This is your opportunity to show that you’ve considered how you want to grow your company. A roadmap covering the go-to-market is always a good idea. Firstly, it allows your team to commit to a timeline. Secondly, you’re able to set up important milestones and thirdly, it is something you and your investors can track together. After all, you want everything to go according to a plan — and as an entrepreneur, you need to be the one making and communicating that plan.

The roadmap should have the following elements:

• Key product milestones — such as Proof of Concept where you create your first playable ad creative and test marketability. Or Vertical Slice and Soft Launch. Tie milestones with results you’re aiming to achieve.
• Staffing — where you plan for growth in headcount and specific roles. This is typically tied to the product milestones.
• Budget per milestone. This will come relatively easy after the other two elements are planned.
• Your next funding round. You’ll likely be asking for more than just the bare minimum. Make sure to explain what the extra will be used for. Best way is to tie it with acceleration of growth as you’ll be reaching your key milestones.

“When looking at the roadmap, I want to see an early soft launch date. That will be the first moment the team gets their first metrics and KPIs from the game. You can do playtests with the game, but you’ll have less accuracy when it’s not in the wild, exposed to natural player incentives.”

Joakim Achren, Elite Game Developers

Chapter 5: The product

The key here is to be succinct. Your product is not the focus of your pitch deck, but you should still cover it with a few slides.

The objective is to provide investors with an idea of what game your team is currently (or will be) working on, how it works, and why it is fun or likely to succeed. In other words, get them excited!

If you have a test build that you’d like to share, include a link to that too. And don’t be shy with art. A picture is worth a thousand words. So, save your words and use some pictures to support the early test build.

“When discussing the new games that are being developed, the founders should make sure that the investor gets excited. The new game should be something that shows the team’s creative capabilities, where they are innovating, and what kinds of proven mechanics they are adding.”

Joakim Achren, Elite Game Developers

Chapter 6: The investment opportunity

If you’ve followed the wisdom of Steve Jobs and informed, educated, and entertained your audience about the market opportunity and your games studio, then you’ve reached the last part of your pitch — the ask.

This is where you let your investor know how much you’re looking to raise and what you’ll be using the money for — the investment opportunity.

Even if you feel uncomfortable about the ‘ask’, don’t shy away from this — remember that you won’t get what you don’t ask for and that this is an important piece of information investors need to assess if the opportunity is right for them.

Make us feel like we want to be a part of your journey then be assertive and back yourself when asking for money. Not asking makes you seem unconfident. Asking for too little can make you seem unprepared, unrealistic and unserious, so don’t shy away from asking for more, if that’s what you need.

- Henric Suuronen, Play Ventures

Sell your company, not just your product

We see plenty of pitch decks that only cover the first product the studio plans to develop. That is a common mistake that most first-time gaming founders make. Keep in mind that investors are not looking to invest into just one game (partly because the success rate of your first game is slim); they’re investing in your company and your team. That is why the critical sections for a new games studio pitch deck are team, mission, product, roadmap and investment opportunity.

If you want even more practical tips and useful resources on pitching for the seed stage, check out our deck on ‘How to properly pitch your start-up’ . If you’re raising a Series A or B round, you will need to adjust your pitch deck and include other metrics to demonstrate traction.