Pitches of Paradise Blog — Pitch deck ideas and presentation tips for startups
Discover how to build the best pitch deck for your startup. With visual slide design and a compelling story, you can ensure your pitch presentation stands out and makes an impact. Read on!
Simplicity: Highly visual, single-minded slides
You want to make the deck very visual and simple, with single-minded slides (one message per slide) and with a consistent storyline throughout the presentation, without deviations as they tend to confuse the audience.
Simplicity is not only about the number of slides you use (and to be honest, the number of total slides is a topic on its own, see more below) — it’s about having a visual story that is simple enough for your audience to understand and follow, and being concise and to the point in your verbal presentation.
Design: Slides with slick aspect ratio, supporting your verbal presentation
For a more sophisticated visual style, it’s advisable to use 16:9 aspect ratio for your slides. Use visuals (photos or illustrations) on every slide in a way that they support the story and your verbal presentation. Make sure your slide visuals don’t repeat what your verbal presentation says but complement it, unless you want to highlight something in particular.
Content: Active headlines relevant to slide content, supporting your verbal presentation
Use active headlines on your slides and ensure they sum up what the respective slides are about. Speak to your audience, not to yourself. Impeccable English is a must and make your mind up whether you want to use US English or UK English. Again, make sure your slide content doesn’t repeat what your verbal presentation says but complements it, unless you want to highlight something in particular.
Structure: Driven by the context and your audience
The structure of your pitch deck depends on what you want to say and to whom, meaning it’s primarily driven by the context (length, business objectives, location, setting, etc.) and your audience.
The good news is that there are certain general considerations for you to take into account when preparing your pitch deck. We have created the Pitches of Paradise Pitch Deck 101 Series with posts that dive deeper into this topic, so you could learn how to:
- Make the most of your introduction when starting the pitch to engage your audience and keep them engaged throughout. Click here to read more
- Create a good team page to build trust, and decide which team members are best to pitch on stage. Click here to read more
- Define the problem by featuring insights that are based on real-world needs and pain-points in the market. Click here to read more
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Investor pitch? Pitch competition or demo day? Networking event pitch? Sales pitch or company presentation?
At Pitches of Paradise, we offer a unique combination of strategy, storytelling, creative content and design to take your startup’s pitch deck to new levels. We tailor the structure and story of your pitch deck to your specific objectives and audience. With highly visual slides and compelling content, we ensure your pitch stands out and makes the desired impact.
You will be in good hands with our team: I’m Mate Kovacs, an experienced startup consultant and international mentor, supported by a global team of creative experts at Water Lily Pond, our 100% remote and distributed company that specialises in innovative and simply effective brand communications.
In the Pitches of Paradise Blog we share useful tips and tricks with startups that are in the process of developing their pitch decks.
