Phoebe’s pitch deck template
How to use this template
This document is meant as a template only to get you started on your pitch deck and the key information to include. You should not stick to it religiously and absolutely be tailoring it to suit your business. Each case is different.
Feel free to download, copy, and really use however makes sense for you.
Any burning questions then feel free to contact me
(Phoebe Scriven) at phoebe@vgcp.co.uk
Orange boxes: What the slide is about
Yellow boxes: Comments on things to consider when composing the slide
Comments on things to consider when composing the slide
What the slide is about
What the key take out for the slide should be. I personally like ‘headlining’ in this way but you don’t need to copy this if you are not a fan.
Examples of the kind of information and content that is useful for this slide.
Again this is a guide only so make sure it makes sense for you.
Here are some other resources to help you build your pitch deck
YCombinator seed pitch deck template and design comments.
Seedrs page on Pitch deck examples.
Failory’s examples of pre-seed pitch decks.
Good luck!
Company name
Company tag line
Your opening slide
Make this slide eye-catching not boring. Use a background graphic and tag line that starts to set scene for what your company is all about.
We have want to [change the world] by [doing X] or something similar
The vision
Investors are looking for companies with the scope and ambition to grow to unicorns. It’s a good to have a big vision - get investors excited about it.
X is a big problem for a lot of people
Who does this affect?
What are the consequences of this problem?
Example: Many talented, amateur gamers would like to level up to an esports / professional level. However, they lack affordable tools to help them improve (the only option is expensive coaching).
The problem
This slide is all about convincing me that there is a large problem that hasn’t yet been properly solved for a specific group of people.
Most investors won’t know in depth about an industry to use everyday language to explain it as clearly as possible.
They need to be able to understand it and believe that it is serious.
We have the perfect solution
What is the simplest way of describing what you do at a high level?
Example: We have developed an automated coaching system that turns amateur players into professionals. It provides tailored feedback and training but at an affordable price point.
The solution
Think of this slide as a bit of a call + response pairing with the problem statement before it.
It’s a high level explanation of how you are solving this problem for the intended audience. It should be impactful and clear how it fits into the problem statement from beforehand.
Our product is [appropriate adjectives here]
Things to consider including here:
The product / service
The most common feedback I give on pitch decks is that the product isn’t clearly explained.
Describe your product as if the reader were a customer, using plain language and avoiding jargon or acronyms. The more images you can use to bring it to life (screenshots, examples, mock-ups) the better.
There is a huge market opportunity
There are two ways to size a market:
Top down - this is generally done by using reports to estimate the total size of the market based on spend in that space currently.
Bottom up - this is typically done by estimating it yourself: for example there are X number of potential customers who spend $Y per year on products in this space already. Sometimes this is the only option if you are focusing on a very nascent or new market.
Either way, it’s important to ensure that you are being accurate in terms of what exactly constitutes your market. For example, the podcasting market is around $12 billion but podcasting advertising is worth ~$1 billion. They are very different markets.
The market size
If you hoping to raise from venture capital investors, then bear in mind that they are generally looking for potential unicorns. This means that markets are ideally very large, at least $10 billion and ideally are also growing. The bigger, the better.
(If you are raising from angel investors then they often don’t need such a large size of market but it certainly helps).
We are differentiated from the competition
The best type of differentiation is that in the eyes of the customer. The best slides I see of this are really good at explaining what the competition focuses on and how you are different in the eyes of the customer:
For example: Competitor A targets the premium end of the market. We have a similar product but target the massive underserved part of the market that cannot afford A’s pricing.
Other types of differentiation: product quality, what the product delivers, how the product or service is delivered, accessibility, and so on.
Competition / why you
A common thing to do here is to put together a matrix that highlights all of your features and shows how your competitors don’t have an ‘agile supply system’ or the like.
Beware of this: while it may be true, no customer will ever use that sort of language (or frankly will know this sort of thing) when they talk about your product. The question this should answer is: why does a customer pick your product over the competition?
This can make lots of money
Things to include:
Business model
Even if you are not monetising currently, you should have an idea of how your company will monetise and how you would approach pricing positioning (e.g. is it premium, low cost, in line with the market?).
Ultimately, investors are making a financial decision and so having confidence in the longer term business model is crucial.
We have grown quickly and are close to p/m fit
Demonstrating traction is typically done in two ways - user traction (MAUs, retention, other engagement metrics) and / or revenue/ sales growth (MRR, number of customers etc).
If you are not at this stage then consider other ways to demonstrate your growth e.g. betas, product launches, partnerships or even internal key milestones.
Progress / traction
One of the most important things to demonstrate on this slide is your momentum - be it external (customers / users) or internal (building).
Investors are looking for signals that your company is growing and will continue to grow in the future. Use this slide to show your momentum.
Q1 2021
Q2 2021
Q3 2021
Q4 2021
Company launched
Product testing
Public launch
X brand partnership
1k MAU
2k MAU
3k MAU
EXAMPLE
We have a smart plan to supercharge this growth
Detail to consider here:
Go to market
A lot of start-ups promise great growth but don’t lay out a clear plan as to how they will get from A (where they are now) to B (the future promise).
There are many different ways to grow. The very good Lenny’s Newsletter has examples for both B2B and B2C:
As a result, we will 10x in the next 12 months,
Include context to make this easy to understand e.g. what assumptions is this based on? Is this assuming the same level of growth as seen to date or an increase? Is some growth attributed to a new product launch perhaps?
This is all useful context to the story of how you will grow and anchors the information into a story that investors can understand.
The future
Investors want confidence that you are going to continue your growth trajectory.
Nov 21
Dec 21
Jan 22
Feb 22
Mar 22
Apr 22
May 22
Revenue (£)
We have the ideal team to tackle this problem
CEO + Co-founder
Relevant experience / companies worked at
CTO + Co-founder
Relevant experience / companies worked at
COO + Co-founder
Relevant experience / companies worked at
The team
This slide should tell investors why you are the right team for this problem / this company.
Highlight experience in your team - in particular if you have founded companies before, sold a company before, if you have worked in a high growth start up, or have specific industry experience.
Ideally your team will have all of these.
We are raising a £Xm seed round.
We will use the money for:
This raise will allow us to grow to [£4m ARR / 1 million users, whatever the relevant metric is] ahead of our [Series A / Seed, etc]
The raise
This slide should tell investors
A nice touch is to include logos of current investors to show who has already backed you (as appropriate).
It’s not necessary to include a valuation here, many decks don’t.