Creating a well-structured pitch deck is a big step towards securing investment. A great pitch deck not only captures the attention of potential investors but also clearly communicates your startup’s vision, value proposition, and growth potential.
It’s your opportunity to make a strong first impression and convince investors that your business is worth their time and money – we’ll touch on how to make your financial slides pop in the eyes of investors.
Whilst it depends on your industry, your company, the receiving investor and just plain old personal preference, a comprehensive pitch deck should include some combination of the following slides – combining some where necessary to keep it concise.
Company name, logo, tagline, and presenter’s contact information.
Clearly define the problem your startup is solving in a simple to understand format.
Explain your product or service and how it addresses the problem.
Highlight the potential and size of your target market.
Provide an overview and key features of your product or service.
Explain how your startup makes, or plans to make, money.
Showcase key metrics and milestones achieved.
Outline your go-to-market strategy and customer acquisition plan.
Identify competitors and explain your competitive advantage.
Provide an overview and key features of your product or service.
State the amount of funding you are seeking and how it will be used.
Introduce the founders and emphasise why you're the team for this business.
Describe your short-term and long-term goals, and convey a story that will excite would be investors.
While each of these slides is important, we’re here to help with the financial slides, which are critical for convincing investors of your startup’s viability and growth potential and may get more scrutiny the further down the investment process you go.
Investors need to see that there is a significant and growing market for your product or service to get excited.
Many investors will want to see that your startup has the potential to bring profits in excess of their entire portfolio of investments and so presenting detailed market trends and growth potential using credible data sources is really important.
You can approach this in two ways:
Start with specific data points from your existing sales or user base, and extrapolate to estimate the broader market potential. This approach is typically seen as more grounded and realistic.
Start with a large market size and break it down into segments to estimate the portion your startup can capture. Ensure your projections are realistic and supported by reliable data and your team’s potential.
Including visual aids such as graphs, charts, and infographics can help make this data more digestible and compelling for busy investors spending less than 2 minutes per slide deck.
This slide should provide a clear picture of your business model, how you will generate income and your route to profitability. Detail your revenue streams, pricing strategy, and sales channels:
Identify all potential sources of income, such as product sales, subscription fees, licensing, or advertising revenue.
Explain how you price your product or service, whether it’s a subscription model, one-time fee, or freemium model.
Describe how you will reach your customers, whether through direct sales, online platforms, partnerships, or distributors.
This slide should make it clear to investors that your business model is sustainable, scalable and fits with their investment thesis. It should be supported by your financial forecast.
Traction is one of the most persuasive elements in a pitch deck. This slide should showcase key metrics and milestones achieved, demonstrating that your startup is gaining momentum. Including some financial information is crucial here to provide evidence of your growth and potential:
Show your revenue trends over time, highlighting any significant increases.
Provide data on how much it costs to acquire a new customer.
Demonstrate your ability to retain customers, which is crucial for long-term success.
Depending on your business, this might include user growth, engagement rates, or market penetration.
Visuals like graphs and charts can effectively illustrate these metrics and make them more impactful and more quickly interpreted.
Financial projections are critical for demonstrating the future potential of your startup. Craft realistic and credible financial forecasts, including the following elements:
Present your projected revenues, costs, and profits over the next 3-5 years- include revenue, COGS, gross margin, operating expenses, and net profit.
Show your expected cash inflows and outflows, highlighting how you will manage cash to maintain operations and support growth.
Provide a snapshot of your projected assets, liabilities, and equity over time, demonstrating the financial health and stability of your startup.
Explain the key financial metrics and assumptions behind your projections, such as market size, growth rate, pricing strategy, and customer acquisition costs. Ensure that your projections are based on sound reasoning and realistic expectations with sensitivity built in for when things (inevitably) don’t go exactly to plan.
The funding requirements slide should clearly state the amount of funding you are seeking. Break down the use of funds, explaining how the investment will help achieve milestones and drive growth:
Clearly state the total amount you are looking to raise and make it easy for investors to see if there are any tax benefits available, e.g., SEIS.
Provide a detailed breakdown of how the funds will be allocated, e.g., product development, marketing, operational expenses.
Explain the milestones you plan to achieve with the funding and how these will drive growth and create value for the company and investors.
Demonstrating how the investment will create value and contribute to the success of your startup is crucial for convincing investors to fund your venture and ensuring the financial slides all complement one another is important to build trust with investors.
In summary, a well-structured pitch deck is essential for capturing the interest of investors and securing funding. Focus on clearly communicating your market opportunity, business model, traction, financial projections, and funding requirements. Make sure your financial slides are detailed, realistic, and grounded in solid assumptions.
Drop us a message at Sytrus if you’d like some help with the financial sides to ensure your pitch deck stands up to scrutiny as you get further into funding discussions
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If your revenue is £500,000 per year or more, or you’re a Seed to Series B startup looking for financial clarity and an agile, proactive solution, contact us now.