Raising money for your startup? Having an impressive pitch would be a key element in your fundraising arsenal. A great pitch gets investors excited about your idea and involves them in a conversation about your business, hopefully resulting in investment. Did you know investors spend an average of only 3 mins and 45 seconds on any pitch? Thus, the goal of a pitch should be to spark interest in your company.
Though every business is different, we believe the following 7 pitch deck templates will work for most businesses.
- Problem Statement
- Value Proposition
- Business Model
- Competitor Analysis
- Core Team
- Investment Strategy
- Roadmap
Problem Statement: The most important objective of any pitch is to convey the problem you are trying to address effectively. Therefore, pay special attention to highlighting the problem statement. A few guidelines to build an impactful problem statement are:
- Clear, simple, straightforward, and easy to comprehend.
- Concisely summarize the problem you plan to solve.
- Back it up with statistics to show the magnitude of the problem.
- Shows financial implications.
Value Proposition:
A value proposition is a clear statement that explains how your product solves customers’ problems or increases their satisfaction. It will explain your product from the point of view of your customer. While pitching a value proposition, it is imperative to keep these three things in mind:
- What’s in it for the customer?
- Why do you think the customer would buy your product?
- Why should the customer choose you over a competitor?
Business Model: A business model describes how your startup will generate and deliver value. If you are already making sales where early adopters are using your product/service, you need to highlight that to the investor. Investors want to see you prove some aspect of your business model that reduces risk, offers value and is feasible. So any proof you have that substantiates your solution to your problem can be extremely effective.
Competitor Analysis: A competitor analysis explains your business’s competitive landscape and where you fit in that landscape. You can show your position with respect to competition in different parts of the business – marketing, product features, operations, sales. The key here is to shed light on what key advantages you have over the competition.
Core Team: The people who work to make the business successful also act as the driving force. With the backing of skilled, experienced, and sound teams, small businesses achieve immense success. If you don’t have a complete team yet, identify the key positions you need to fill and why those positions are crucial to its development.
Investment Strategy: The Investment strategy holds immense importance as investors spend the most time debating the same. An entrepreneur can generally control his/her costs but will have far less control over the implementation/usage of his/her product. Thus the revenue projections will be far more unpredictable and variable than cost projections. It is important to focus on what it will cost to find out if the business can sustain.
Explain the costs to start, operate the business, and achieve key milestones over a certain time. It will also prove to the investors that you understand your finances well and potentially make the right use of funds.
Roadmap: Investors would love to know where you see your business 5-10 years down the line. Although such projections may not always stand the test of time, it is essential to share your plans and ideas that will help the investor understand how passionate you are about your business. Share the major goals have you achieved so far and the major next steps you plan on taking. A product or company roadmap that outlines key milestones will be helpful to include.
SlideUpLift has a vast collection of Pitch Deck PowerPoint templates that will help you deliver impactful business pitches.
