First impressions matter, and often your first one with a VC is your pitch deck. Most VCs request a pitch deck in advance of a meeting to screen decks for the right fit (is it the right stage? Geography? Impact?). This is designed to ensure no one’s time is wasted. You can read what Alberts screens for in our blog.
We know that behind every startup there is a bold vision, a hungry team, and countless hours of hard work – the tricky part is condensing that into just a handful of slides. To help demystify this process, we’re sharing a pitch deck guide, highlighting some must-haves, some things we like to see, and some common pitfalls to avoid.
Your final deck will probably be completely unique in its own way, but if you don’t know where to begin, you’re welcome to use ours as a starting point, you can also view a walkthrough by Lisa Fedorenko on Youtube.
1.Title Slide
Must have: Company name.
What we like to see:
- A clear company name and logo, it’s hard to go wrong on this one.
Common pitfalls:
- Visual crowding – too much information, overly dominant photos/graphics.
2. The Problem
Must have: The problem that your startup is solving.
What we like to see:
- A truly painful problem with a big enough market. Questions investors may be asking here include:
- Is this just a niche market?
- Is this a real pain point for a large population?
- Why should we care about solving this?
- How does this fit into our impact themes?
- At Alberts we have a strong impact focus – we want to see that your problem is closely aligned with at least one of our four impact areas: Environmental sustainability, mental health and wellbeing, vibrant culture and equality)
Common pitfalls:
- Trying to solve too many problems. Although there are a lot of problems in the world that need solving, good strategy is a focused strategy and knowing what not to do as much as knowing what to do.
- Solving a niche problem without a large enough market for venture-style returns. There’s nothing wrong with this – but you may need to seek non venture-style investors.
- Going after a huge market with lots of competition and no clear differentiation.
- Not doing your homework and working on a problem not aligned to the focus areas of the venture fund you’re applying to
3. The Solution
Must have: A solution that makes sense for solving the problem.
What we like to see:
- A clear and simple solution to the outlined problem. If there’s competition, we want to know how your solution is better than the competition and why it will win (is it cheaper? Better? Easier to use?).
- We want to see an understanding of the market you’re entering. If it’s a solution in a white space – how do you know people want a solution? Why are you the one to solve it? Why now?
Common pitfalls:
- A very complex solution – especially if it requires significant behavioural change, typically the simplest solution wins. We’ve shared some thoughts on simple design
- Naivety around competition – assuming you’ll be better without knowing how you’re different.
4. The Market
Must have: A clear market target, potentially ancillary markets.
What we like to see:
- A clear visualisation of your initial target market (SAM) and known expansionary markets leading to your full product TAM (often this is well depicted with concentric circles)
- Clear calculations on your SAM and TAM, ensure you reference where your assumptions are coming from e.g. ABS data, McKinsey report
- The trajectory of the industry you’re working in. Is there a rising tide in your segment? What’s the expected growth rate?
Common pitfalls:
- An untargeted market approach. A smaller directed SAM which is realistic with a known customer persona, is more convincing than an untargeted blue ocean TAM.
- Unrealistic numbers, reference where your assumptions come from
5. Traction
Must have: This slide depends a lot on your stage of business. For revenue-generating startups, you’ll need to show the monthly revenue numbers. Pre-launch, you should show proof-points, how do you know there’s value in this product eg. A waitlist. What investors are looking for here is early evidence of product market fit.
What we like to see:
- For revenue-generating businesses, clear growth in monthly revenues, ideally >10% m/m growth or more, however anywhere >5% is good. Note many businesses have seasonality, if that’s the case for your business make it clear so that funders know to look for the underlying growth trend rather than monthly volatility.
- For a pre-product company, clear proof points of demand and value in the product you’ve created/ are creating e.g. User engagement, waitlists, patents, partnerships.
Common pitfalls:
- Not being transparent about your traction – it’s normal to have volatility in your business, if you’ve had a down month, annotate the chart explaining why – what’s more important is your ability to pivot and grow from mistakes. If you’ve got cohort data, go into more detail – repeating customers and low churn are hallmarks of strong brands, use this opportunity to highlight whether customers are returning.
6. Go-to-market strategy
Must have: An actionable business plan to reach your target market
What we like to see:
- A Realistic go-to-market plan with clear customer segments
- A knowledge of unit economics and various marketing channels
- Explanation of why you’ve chosen your marketing approach (why D2C or B2B?)
Common pitfalls:
- Being overly specific on a niche market or overly generalist with your approach assuming your product is a one-size-fits-all design – you need to strike a balance that makes sense for your product and market.
- Little understanding of why customers choose your product.
- Poor unit economics
- Poor logic in choosing a go-to-market plan
7. Competition
Must have: A comparison of your product against other major competitors.
What we like to see:
- A clear visualisation of the competitive landscape. This is often presented as either a table or a market map.
- This is your opportunity to highlight your differentiation and the value your product creates.
Common pitfalls:
- Missing competitors from the analysis. If you’re operating in a crowded market, you may not include all the competitors, but you should certainly know more about your competitors than someone meeting your business for the first time. If there’s a commonly known competitor, ensure you include it and why your solution is different. It is better to address these questions directly.
- If you’re working in white space, sometimes direct competitors don’t exist. This isn’t a reason to not include a competitor slide, in this case you need to explain why there’s a white space, what substitutions people use and why now is the right time for filling the white space.
8. Team
Must have: Background information on the founders and management team.
What we like to see:
- Pioneering founders, see our Founder Checklist for what we look for from founders.
- Founder market fit, a clear explanation for why you’re the right team to solve this problem.
- Some of your team/ board/ advisors – show us the type of people you’re attracting to your venture.
Common pitfalls:
- Not including information on the wider team including advisors and senior employees.
- Not explaining “why you” for this problem
9. Financials
Must have: A 3+ year revenue, profit and expense projection and breakdown of unit economics. For more tips on what investors are looking for from your model, see our blog post.
What we like to see:
- A realistic picture of your current financial position and future growth. We want to understand how healthy your business is.
- Charts/graphs conveying this information in a digestible way.
- We want to understand your business’s per-user economics, such as your CAC/ LTV – or even CAC/ LTV per channel.
Common pitfalls:
- Ignoring the unit economics. Strong growth projections can’t hide poor unit economics. For every $x of money spent, we want to see >$x money earnt.
10. Valuation and funding
Must have: How much money you’re asking for and what it’s needed for.
What we like to see:
- A clear breakdown on what you’re spending the raise on
- Elements of running lean and a realistic raise for the stage of your business.
Common pitfalls:
- A large raise without a clear plan on how to spend the money
- Plans on using the raise to pay back debt rather than to fund growth
- Unrealistic valuation expectations
- Unrealistic understanding of costs required in the business
This guide is simply intended as a starting point and there is plenty of room for creativity – try and find unique ways to communicate your information (quotes, pictures, visuals etc) and feel free to include humour (a funny joke, story or image) as long as it is well-executed. Not every deck will be 10 slides, but aiming for 10-20 slides as your introductory deck is a common benchmark – you can always have a fuller deck for after your first meeting. There are endless possibilities so let your imagination run wild.
View a sample pitch deck.
