To make a pitch deck, start by defining your core narrative, then create 10-15 slides that cover your problem, solution, market opportunity, business model, traction, team, and funding requirements using presentation software like PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides.
Define Your Story and Audience
Begin by crystallizing your startup's narrative into a compelling story that addresses a specific problem and your unique solution. Research your target investors to understand their portfolio focus, investment stage preferences, and sector expertise. This preparation shapes how you frame your opportunity and determines which metrics to emphasize.
Structure Your Deck with Essential Slides
Create slides in the following sequence:
- Cover slide with company name, tagline, and contact information
- Problem slide identifying the pain point you address
- Solution slide explaining your product or service
- Market opportunity slide showing total addressable market (TAM), serviceable addressable market (SAM), and serviceable obtainable market (SOM)
- Product slide demonstrating your offering through screenshots, demos, or diagrams.
- Traction slide presenting customer numbers, revenue, partnerships, or other proof points
- Business model slide detailing how you generate revenue
- Competition slide positioning your differentiation
- Team slide highlighting founder expertise and key hires
- Financial projections slide showing 3-5 year revenue forecasts
- Funding ask slide specifying the amount needed and the use of funds
Design for Clarity and Impact
Select a clean template with consistent fonts, colors, and spacing that reflects your brand identity. Limit each slide to one key message with minimal text (30-40 words maximum per slide). Use high-quality visuals, charts, and graphics to communicate data points rather than dense paragraphs. Ensure font sizes remain readable from a distance (minimum 24-point for body text, 36-point for headings).
Quantify Your Opportunity
Include specific data points that validate your market size and growth trajectory. Present customer acquisition costs (CAC), lifetime value (LTV), monthly recurring revenue (MRR), annual recurring revenue (ARR), burn rate, and runway, where applicable. Back market sizing with credible research from industry reports, government data, or recognized analyst firms.
Demonstrate Traction and Validation
Show concrete evidence of market validation through user growth rates, revenue milestones, customer testimonials, strategic partnerships, or pilot program results. Quantify metrics with percentages and absolute numbers (for example, "250% year-over-year revenue growth to $2.3M" rather than "strong revenue growth").
Present Your Competitive Advantage
Create a competitive matrix or positioning map that shows how you differ from alternatives. Identify your unique value proposition through technology advantages, proprietary data, network effects, regulatory moats, or exclusive partnerships. Avoid claiming there is no competition; instead, acknowledge the landscape and articulate your differentiation.
Build Credibility Through Your Team
Highlight the founders' backgrounds with specific achievements, domain expertise, successful exits, or relevant credentials. Include advisors and board members who add strategic value or industry connections. Demonstrate that your team possesses the skills necessary to execute your vision.
Detail Your Financial Model
Project revenue, expenses, and key unit economics for 3-5 years based on defensible assumptions. Show the path to profitability or the timeline for reaching significant scale. Break down your funding ask into specific allocation categories (product development, sales and marketing, hiring, operations) with corresponding percentages or dollar amounts.
Refine Through Iteration
Test your deck with mentors, advisors, or friendly investors to gather feedback on clarity, flow, and persuasiveness. Time your presentation so you can deliver the whole narrative in 15-20 minutes, leaving time for questions. Revise slides based on which questions arise repeatedly, preemptively addressing concerns in your core presentation.
Prepare Supporting Materials
Create a detailed appendix with additional slides covering technical architecture, detailed financial models, customer case studies, market research, or regulatory considerations. Develop a one-page executive summary that distills your opportunity into key bullet points. These materials support deeper due diligence discussions without cluttering your main presentation.
Optimize for Different Delivery Formats
Adapt your deck for three scenarios: in-person presentations with verbal narration, email sends that must be self-explanatory, and quick reviews where investors spend 3-4 minutes scanning. For email versions, add more explanatory text to the slides since you won't be providing live commentary. For rapid reviews, ensure your first three slides immediately communicate your value proposition.
Practice Your Delivery
Rehearse your pitch until you can present smoothly without reading slides verbatim. Prepare responses to common investor questions about market size assumptions, customer acquisition strategy, competitive threats, and capital efficiency. Develop concise answers that demonstrate deep thinking about your business while maintaining confidence in your approach.
Get Professional Pitch Deck Design Support
We offer custom pitch deck design services for early-stage founders, including writing, design, consultation, and review. Our design service transforms your existing content into visually impactful presentations, using strategic visuals to communicate your message effectively, since investors typically spend less than 4 minutes reviewing a deck.
Our process starts with a free consultation, followed by a fixed-price quote, content creation, and design with unlimited revisions within a 14-day delivery timeframe. You receive editable files in PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Canva formats for easy updates as your startup grows.