How to Create the Perfect Pitch Deck
Crafting a compelling pitch deck is one of the best ways to explain your business opportunity to seed investors.
An amazing pitch deck won’t save you if your product or team are lacking. But the perfect pitch deck might get you that extra look or next meeting with a Partner. And it can help you stand out from the thousands of other pitch decks that VC funds receive each year.
New entrepreneurs often make two common mistakes when pitching at the seed stage
First, they focus on their product instead of their business. Investors invest in businesses. They want to understand the market, the competition, the customer acquisition strategy, and the business model that you’re building around your product.
It doesn’t matter how great your original product or idea is. If you can’t build a great company, then your product will not endure. -Brian Chesky, AirBnB
Second, they fail to clearly demonstrate tangible early traction. Demonstrating early traction will go a long way towards establishing credibility and de-risking for investors. Traction metrics focus on acquisition, engagement, retention and revenue (e.g. LTV, CAC, MRR, MAUs, and # of customers).
The 5 main qualities of an ‘exceptional startup’. 1. Traction — Naval, AngelList
Below, you’ll find three great resources to reference as you build out your own pitch deck:
- The Y Combinator seed deck template
- Y Combinator: How to design a better pitch deck
- The early-stage pitch decks of 13 tech unicorns (courtesy of CB Insights)
1. The Y Combinator Seed Deck Template
Aaron Harris, a Partner at Y Combinator, provides a downloadable template on Google Drive. Aaron emphasizes clarity and concision for founders who are creating a pitch deck aimed at seed round fundraising. The reality is, according to Aaron, that most seed stage companies don’t actually have much meaningful data to explore.
Instead, Aaron’s deck focuses on (in order) — The Problem, The Solution, Traction, Revenue, Business Model, Market & Growth, and The Team. Seven topics…clear and concise!
Click here for the full article by Aaron at Y Combinator.
2. Y Combinator: How to Design a Better Pitch Deck
Kevin Hale from Y Combinator created a presentation on pitch deck design that complements Aaron’s bare-bones pitch deck template well. Kevin encourages founders to focus on just 5–7 ideas that they want investors to remember. And above all, Kevin believes founders should make their pitch deck design simple, legible, and obvious.
Click here for the full article by Kevin at Y Combinator.
3. “The Early Pitch Decks Of 13 Startups Before They Became Billion-Dollar Companies” — CB Insights
CB Insights published a fantastic list of pitch decks created by tech unicorns…before they were unicorns. The pitch decks include Airbnb, Appnexus, Buzzfeed, Dropbox, Intercom, LinkedIn, Nutanix, WeWork, Yammer, YouTube, and more. I’ve included three particularly interesting decks below for convenience.
Click here for the full article by CB Insights.
Airbnb: $31 Billion valuation. Founded in 2008.
Click here for the SlideShare deck.
Dropbox: IPO at $9 Billion Valuation. Founded in 2007.
Click here for the SlideShare deck.
LinkedIn: Acquired by Microsoft at $26 Billion Valuation. Founded in 2003.
Click here for the SlideShare deck.
If you want to peruse even more startup fundraising decks, Piktochart published an article titled 30 Legendary Startup Pitch Decks And What You Can Learn From Them.
The Ultimate List of 750+ Seed Funds
When you’re ready with your completed pitch deck, you’ll need to find seed funds to pitch! Fortunately, we spent dozens of hours compiling the ultimate list of seed funds so that you can focus on growing your business instead.
Most start-up founders have heard of Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, and NEA. But there is a massive ecosystem of smaller seed funds that you have probably never even heard of.
Click here to read the article and access the downloadable spreadsheet of 750+ seed funds
About the author
Matt Estes is the Head of Originations at BlueVine, where his team helps 600+ new businesses find financing each month. Prior to BlueVine, Matt was an investor at TCV (a $12 billion tech growth equity firm) and an M&A professional at Electronic Arts.
Since 2013, Matt has provided more than $500 million in equity and debt financing to small businesses, the lower middle market, and technology start-ups.
BlueVine is a leading provider of working capital for small and medium-sized businesses. The Company has raised over $500 million in equity and debt funding and has funded over $1 billion to businesses nationwide.
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Disclosures
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Disclaimer
The information and insights in this blog post are provided for educational purposes only, and do not constitute financial advice from BlueVine. Please consult your financial advisor before making any business financing decision. For information about BlueVine products and services, please visit the BlueVine FAQ page.
