How to create a Pitch Deck

General guide to creating your pitch deck

The Deck

There is a lot of confusion when trying to create a pitch deck for a Venture Capitalist/ Angel/ Incubator/ Accelerator.

What we have done is tapped a couple of industry leaders to try to provide the most standardized version so that you will be able to communicate effectively to whomever you’re pitching.

A couple of Best Practices to keep in mind:

1. You should never, ever, under any circumstance, read off of a deck that you are pitching.
2. No smaller than 20 font size
3. Use high contrast colors that allow background and type to be readable from a distance.
4. Use bullet points instead of sentences
5. Stick to the presentation time frame (if you don’t they will, respectfully, cut you off)
6. Be concise and to the point
7. Use easily understood plain English, not just jargon for industry insiders
8. Use this presentation time to ‘increase interest in the company,’ not to ‘explain everything.’
9. Prepare appendix slides (or FAQ) just in case they might be needed, detailed financials crucial to have on hand.
10. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. You do not want to memorize the deck, but at this point, you should have told the ventures story enough times that it flows easily and cleanly.
11. If your industry lacks excitement, feel free to add the traction slide right after the solution slide

Here is the actual flow of the deck:

Outline for Pitch Deck

Lucas is the founder of Spark xyz, platform management software for incubators, accelerators, Angel groups, and VC’s.