Worried About How you will Impress Investors with your Idea? Here's Some Help!

Like many startup founders, at least the ones that are in it for the long haul, I’ve been presenting and advising startups about pitch decks for a while. And, you learn very quickly that although you evolve as an entrepreneur over time, the pitching and story telling never stops.

So here’s what I’ve learnt about building the right pitch deck, after being declined more times that I can count, and occasionally winning those VCs over and getting funded.

Dave McClure’s How To Pitch a VC has the best description of what your pitch deck should contain and I’ve adopted it the most out of all frameworks I’ve read.

Your slides should be (in this order) -

1. Intro – Quick short liner of what you do (elevator pitch). Quick short liner of what you do (elevator pitch). It should be clear and concise. Something even a 5th grader could understand. Something like “we deliver healthy food fast!”

2. Problem you are trying to solve – how a problem exists, and how people find it painful. Best to use pictures and a story to show how a problem exists, and how people find it painful. The more visual pictures you have in your slides the better!

3. The solution with Demo - how cool your product/solution is! Now show how you solve the problem, and take the time to demo how cool your product/solution is!

4. Market size and value – the size of the market in users and in spending value. How big your market really is? And how much will your users spend on your solution, or are already spending on other potential/similar solutions?

5. Business/Revenue Model – how you will make money. You don’t have to have it right, but at least show that you have paths to make money. In fact, if you are already making money then highlight that aspect, and show the potential of making more. Otherwise just highlight the different ways you plan to generate revenue.

6. Marketing and Distribution plan – How will you grow your user base? How will you get word on your product out? Show some unique or thought out strategies that will get you out on the market and distributed amongst your potential users.

If you have a strategy that’s working, now is the time to show your traction in a way it can’t be ignored.

7. How are you special? – Technology or something else that makes you special. Do you have IP, a new technology or a unique process? Any special advantage you have over your competition helps, and now is the time to showcase it!

8. Competition – how you stack up against them. Best shown as a four quadrant Graph and where your competitors stack up in terms of attributes compared to you. The visual effect of the graph is very strong and the details you can pop in the Appendix.

9. Your Team – how awesome you all are. How awesome is your team? What kind of accomplishments, experience and specialties do you bring to the startup that makes you all a winning combo? If your idea and solution haven’t done the job yet, this slide is your last chance at impressing any investor on why to invest in you – cause you are the right guys to get the job done!

10. Funding status – how much money you need and how you will spend it. How much have you already raised and has anyone important funded you? Followed by, how much money do you need and how will you spend it? And finally, what kind of milestones will you achieve with the funding / what position will it put you in in the end?

11. Last Slide– leave them with something to remember you by positively.

DO NOT end with “Thank you for your time” and just your contact info on the last slide. After you finish your presentation and end up on the last slide, questions and answers begin and you don’t want valuable visual space and time taken up by a blank 3 word slide.

So your last slide should something memorable you want to leave the viewers with – like a screenshot of your demo, a revenue graph showing how much money you’ve made already … anything that packs a punch and shows your positive side.

12. Appendix – Have answers to any potential questions and more details here. Have answers to any potential questions and more details here – everything from screesnshots to scribbles. When an investor asks a question, there’s nothing better than bringing up a slide that visually answers it for them.

-  Rahul Bharadwaj

Rahul is the co founder and Product Mango at TwoMangoes.com, a rapidly growing global dating site for South Asians. He is also an investor and advisor to companies in the Social Web, Mobility and Gaming space. An entrepreneur and product engineer, Rahul has co-founded a number of startups including Vayyoo, a web to mobile solutions company he successfully exited in 2008, and TwitBiz, exited in 2010. His other achievements include - bringing Canada's first Microsoft Innovation Center to life, and winning multiple Microsoft Product awards. Rahul frequently guest lectures on Entrepreneurship, Product Development and UI/UX at Universities, blogs @ blog.meetgrape.com and acts @ http://bit.ly/twomangoes

Source: YourStory.in