Listed here are the 16 slides you want in your pitch deck
There’s been a definite development in pitch decks lately, and I ought to know as I overview tons of them for TechCrunch+. Pitch decks embody fewer slides with much less data, however getting throughout the proper message is the secret.
Studying between the traces of DocSend’s most up-to-date report about VC exercise in 2023, it turns into clear that attending to the purpose — and staying on message — is the best way to catch an investor’s consideration.
“Pre-seed founders have responded to the investor pullback by creating shorter decks. They’re rearranging the opening slides in methods I hadn’t seen earlier than,” Justin Izzo, analysis lead at DocSend, informed TechCrunch+.
Founders are ditching the narratives round goal, drawback and options. “As a substitute, they’re heading proper into the ‘why now,’ right here’s our product, and right here’s how we’re going to monetize that product. It makes for very abrupt studying — I’m used to slightly bit extra narrativization — however pre-seed founders nowadays know that traders aren’t spending a lot time on the decks.”
Founders are literally sending 16% extra decks than they did this time final yr, which implies VCs have so much to learn by way of. Buyers need to get the data they should make an early choice on whether or not to spend extra time with an organization.
From 2022 to 2023, VCs spent nearly 20% much less time (2 minutes 12 seconds now, in comparison with 2 minutes 42 seconds a yr in the past) reviewing pitch decks. If you happen to’ve received 2 minutes of their time, make it depend. How a lot does this matter? Knowledge from DocSend signifies that 40% of profitable pre-seed groups had shorter-than-average decks; 65% of unsuccessful groups had decks with extra slides than common.
Founders must be ruthless, each with the variety of slides in a deck and the variety of phrases on every slide. From 2022, the common slide deck took a nosedive from 19 slides to 16. Which means you must be very intentional about what to incorporate:
Introduction: Current your organization’s identify, emblem and a charming tagline or picture that provides an instantaneous sense of what your startup does. It additionally helps to trace on the measurement of the spherical you might be hoping to lift.
Mission: I like to begin pitches with a mission slide or a abstract slide that pulls individuals in. Good storytelling is layered: Give the 60,000-foot view first; then level your searchlight at totally different points of the enterprise that assist getting deeper understanding as you go alongside.
