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Everything You Need to Know About Pitch Decks

This article was written by Edward Stevenson, Investment Manager at SFC Capital.

Ultimately, like most things in life, less is more. The perfect pitch deck should be anywhere between 5-10 slides and, critically, not cluttered. It is important to remember that a pitch deck should only include high-level information and, if pitching, this should not last any longer than 15 minutes. We humans have short attention spans, and investors can always ask additional questions if they require more information. Too much information included in each slide will only serve to distract those that are reading it. Furthermore, if you are using it to present in front of a room full of investors, too much writing on each individual slide will ensure that they are concentrating on the included information and not on what you are saying, which is far more important.  

More detailed information, including financial forecasts, can be included in an appendix at the bottom. It is quite common to have two formats: one shorter deck and one longer, with the latter including the appendix and used as a follow up after an investor has expressed initial interest. It is also recommended that in tandem you should always have a full set of uptodate management accounts on hand (profit and loss and balance sheet), as well as a detailed cashflow forecast. You would be surprised how many founders are not able to produce these on demand and being able to do so shows good financial skills – something investors place a large importance onwhich makes sense seeing as how they are entrusting you with not insignificant sums of their money!  

In terms of the individual sections that should be covered in any pitch deck, they should generally be as follows:  

Team:

If you have an all-star team (which a startup should)it is best to start by introducing yourself, your team, and their impressive backgrounds. This is your opportunity to highlight expertise and unique experiences that make you a winning team.  

Problem:

This is your chance to highlight the size of the market/problem and set up your connection to the problem. Investors want to hear your passion and know you will stop at nothing to solve this problem. 

Product:

The best way to do this is to jump into a demo of the product. For the slides, they should include pictures or screenshots that can be used as visual references. Reference to any competition (and hopefully their deficiencies) as well as your USP should also be highlighted  

Go-to-market/traction:

The Go-To-Market section should describe both your strategy around customer acquisition, as well as any traction that there has been to dateThis should include a focus on the overall commercial strategy, marketing and sales process.  

Terms of the round:

The final slide of your pitch presentation should always include a call to action, which should outline the target raise and equity percentage.  

Finally, in terms of the design, while in theory you can spend hours on this, sorry to say that this is not going to be what swings it for investors. Anyone can pay a designer hundreds of pounds to make their pitch look good, but it is the substances that really counts. That is not to say that it must be lacking in quality. There are plenty of easily accessible PowerPoint templates (or online) that will more than suffice. The most important thing to remember is to only include the most pertinent information and keep the slides simpleWith this behind you, the rest is on you to deliver a killer pitch expanding on the slides. Pull this off and you will have investors reaching into their pockets in no time. 

 

The closing date for The Beauty Accelerator™ 2021 has been extended to the 6th of October. Apply here for a chance to win £150,000 in equity investment from SFC Capital and a year-long collaborative partnership with The Red Tree. 

The Red Tree is the UK’s leading international beauty brand consultancy and a powerhouse of ideas, insight and inspiration. For an informal discussion on how we might help you, please contact us.

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