Startups

How to make a pitch deck for a startup

Max Voronin
Max Voronin
7 minJuly 11, 2024
How to make a pitch deck for a startup
How to make a pitch deck for a startup

In a permanently saturated market, you should do your best to stand out from the crowd and get noticed by people. The ability to emphasize the benefits of your new business idea becomes a necessity if you plan consistent growth. Of course, it plays a pivotal role in launching a startup. By presenting its advantages and growth potential, you facilitate your brand awareness and get access to a range of business opportunities for your startup. To do it effectively, learn how to create a pitch deck for startups and avoid common mistakes along the process.

Here, we are considering the elements of a professional business pitch and what a successful pitch deck for a startup implies. Stay with us and know how to make a pitch deck that works!

Importance of a pitch deck for startups

What is the purpose of a pitch deck? Before we delve into the creation process, let’s figure out why a pitch deck plays a critical role in developing your startup. It’s well-known that people greatly and actively react to consistent visual materials and dynamic presentations. This is why visual-based social media like Instagram and TikTok are so popular, and this is the reason to have a vivid pitch deck for a startup. A well-crafted pitch deck can win over the hearts and minds of people and persuade them that your product or service is worth trying. It provides user acquisition and customer retention for your business.

Writing a pitch deck for startups is crucial to reaching more valuable opportunities for new companies and brands of various niches. By crafting consistent pitch deck slides that reflect a short summary of your business idea, you can attract more influential people ready to promote your startup, support its development, and even provide startup funding. The latter is a point of high importance for all aspiring businesses.

A smart investor presentation helps you create a great first impression, leading to intense interest from investors. Thus, if you make everything right and build a coherent pitch deck that breathes life into your idea, you can raise significant capital for your business and ensure startup growth in the defined period. Plus, it can also be an active part of solid branding for startups.

Additionally, it unlocks a range of beneficial collaboration opportunities. So, an investment pitch can encourage potential partners, such as suppliers and distributors, to work with your business on favorable terms. This way, you expand your networks and form partnerships that help you grow. However, ensure that these partnerships align with your capabilities and vision.

Preparing for your pitch deck for startups

A thorough preparation process is the golden ticket to a well-crafted and influential investor pitch deck. It allows you to define an approximate pitch deck structure and keep everything clear within your deck to create a persuasive presentation.

First, think of what makes your startup unique and attractive to potential stakeholders. Why should people be interested in your services or products? What is your unique value proposition? This is where your top characteristics, prospects, and startup viability come into play. You should differentiate from others and offer some genuine products or services that are relevant to a broad audience.

Nowadays, people are bored with similar offers on the market and seek something extraordinary in terms of concepts. Ponder your startup mission and the means you can use to implement it. This way, you will determine the focus you should take in your pitch deck development process.

Then, incorporate pitch storytelling and share your unique story that has led to launching a startup. We all like personal stories that can amuse, motivate, and inspire us to take action and change whatever we want. If you want to create a powerful pitch deck for your startup, take some time and think about a story you can communicate to your audience. Storytelling is a powerful tool in growing any business. So, prepare to tell people a breathtaking story behind your business idea and find techniques that will help you do it even more effectively.

Essential components of a pitch deck for startups

A winning pitch deck for startup growth should include several vital components that showcase a business's potential and align with its strategies. Some of them are listed below..

  • Solution you offer

One of the essential elements of a startup pitch deck is stating the problem and bringing a great solution to the table. Pick an issue your service or product quickly resolves and tell people about it. Highlight the importance and severity of the problem your audience struggles with. And then offer a working problem solution you can ensure if got sufficient funding.

  • Profound analysis

A meticulous analysis is key to launching a successful business. The same applies to a startup, too. You should conduct a deep market analysis to project the success you can expect after introducing a startup and its products. This includes your target market, traction metrics, and the estimation of your business plan. Competitive analysis provides you with an assessment of the competitive landscape in your niche and helps you understand the challenges you may face.

  • Profit forecast

This part is important to prove that your Revenue model is viable and sound. Here, you should persuade potential investors that your startup will achieve profitability and generate a consistent flow of revenue. This covers the cash flow forecast, sales predictions, funding needs, and most expenses.

  • Your team

Talk about the talented people who bring your vision and concept to reality. Team introduction is super important within your pitch as it enhances the resources and power behind your startup. Highlight their experience, skills, and unique knowledge they can apply to help your business reach a breakthrough.

Design and delivery tips

We know that holding people’s attention can seem daunting, but it’s possible. A dynamic and clear pitch deck design will do the job perfectly. You can craft it yourself using various tools and platforms like Canva, Figma, and PowerPoint. Pick a pitch deck template you like and get the process started. However, it will take a certain amount of time to learn the basics of design, color psychology, and technical parts of the programs chosen to produce a startup pitch deck design. If you value your time a lot and don’t want to be distracted from essential business tasks, then hire professionals who can boast vast expertise in delivering functional designs for startups.

Anyway, with the right approach and following our tips, you can get a winning pitch deck design. So, the first piece of advice we can give is to use images and photos to keep content engaging and your presentation flow interesting. Use high-quality images that enhance your message. When filling out a sample pitch deck for startup introduction, pick trendy images and photos relevant to your business.

Next, ensure the color consistency within your pitch deck. Check whether the chosen palettes correspond to your branding colors. Make every effort to make sure your color theme aligns with various icons and your logo.

Also, don’t forget about proper fonts. Choose fonts that will make your content more readable and concise.

Common mistakes to avoid

There is no perfect formula when it comes to pitch deck creation. However, there are some common mistakes you should avoid, and one of them is giving too much information. Don’t overwhelm people with all the info about your startup. Determine the essential facts about your business idea and structure them into a concise presentation.

One more mistake is not including your ask. Try to state clearly what you are pursuing and looking for. Yes, it can be awkward, but you need to outline your goal—raise money or secure partnerships. Tell people how much funds you require and what they can get in return.

Lastly, avoid using a poor design for your startup pitch deck, as it can ruin the first impression about your business idea. Try to select a clean and sleek pitch deck template or turn to a design agency to boost the process.

Examples of pitch decks for startups

If you need some motivation, look at the pitch decks of successful real-life startups that have reached their goals and raised significant capital for development.

For example, look through an Airbnb pitch deck, which allowed it to obtain over $3 billion from investors. Their pitch deck design is clear and functional. It helped them to present information about the business in a quickly digestible way. The pitch deck also contains charts and images illustrating their main points in an easily understandable manner.

One more example of a winning deck is the Uber pitch deck. They didn’t use long explanations and fancy charts. Instead, they added bullet points to communicate their vision, and their message was simple and concise.

To sum up

A smart pitch deck can be a key to your startup’s success. Conduct some research and get inspired by other influential pitch decks from your niche. Keep in mind our tips, and take some time to learn the basics of the programs you choose for your startup pitch deck creation process.

Also, remember that you always can turn to our professional designers, who have vast expertise in delivering powerful pitch deck designs. So, don’t hesitate to write us today and increase your odds of success!

Head of Lead Generation
Max Voronin
Head of Lead Generation
LinkedIn Icon

Max Voronin is the Head of Lead Generation at DreamX. He is dedicated to developing strategies that cultivate high-quality leads and forge strong partnerships, fueling the company's growth.

Don’t want to miss anything?

Get weekly updates on the newest design stories, case studies and tips right in your mailbox.

No junk or spam. Only useful information. We promise!

Rocket