Common Pitch Deck Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

It is relatively easy to pull a pitch deck apart, it is not as simple to create a coherent pitch deck from scratch and communicate a complex idea and business model plus go-to-market strategy, traction, team composition, competitive landscape etc. in 10 slides and get people so excited that they want to learn more and invest, partner or work with you.

It is an art and hardly anybody gets it right the first time.

And there is considerable bias how investors and pitch recipients review your deck based on your gender.

That's why we launched "Pitch Feedback Fridays" on the GUILD platform. It's a safe space for female entrepreneurs to get feedback on a 10 slide pitch deck they send in and their 3min verbally delivered pitch in the online meeting with reputable investors. We're focusing on pitches for investors and so does this article.

Here is a list of the biggest mistakes I see being made and the biggest learnings from the Pitch Feedback Friday Sessions in the GUILD and from years of reviewing pitches during my time in the Genentech innovation team, at angel investment group meetings, accelerators and in my role as the occasional pitch judge at Stanford, UC Davis or Singularity University:

Too much text. This is true for almost each pitch deck I see. People don't read!

“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

― Mark Twain

Don't make the same mistake! A great way to start your pitch deck is by writing one sentence on each slide that communicate the essence of that slide. Then add more information to support that one sentence.

Yes, there is a difference in the pitch deck you present in a pitch meeting and the one you send. We won't go into details here but know that investors take on average 5min to review your deck to determine if they are interested.

1) Your title slide is not a billboard on 101 (a prominent highway in San Francisco leading to Silicon Valley plastered with announcements of the latest and greatest products and usually Apple, Samsung and Google competing for the snarkiest ad). You want to tell your audience what your company is about and why they should care as INVESTORS, not as users of your product. You don't want to sell your product to them. You want them to understand that there are millions of people that want that product and therein lies an opportunity for them to get involved as investors.

Some people put their executive summary of their pitch on the first slide. This is a good insurance in case your pitch is cut short which happens often.

There are different schools of thought on the order of your slides. Some VCs will tell you in which order they want to see your slides. Others want you to lead with your strongest slide.

If you have massive traction, lead with that. You want to excite your audience from the beginning and give them a reason to listen

2) Problem: Give enough facts and sources when you describe the problem. The investor needs to understand that this is not just a problem that exists in your head. They might not experience the same problem, so you have to show them the massive impact this has on a lot of people. Look at it from a 10,000ft perspective.

Opportunity: Some businesses don't address a huge problem rather an opportunity. Be sure you know which is yours and portray it accordingly.

3) Solution: Describe your solution before you show an ambiguous demo. Count on tech not working (90% of all demos don't work the way you want them to and it leaves everybody in the room frustrated - you loose points by the second). So make your demo easy to understand and show screenshots of your product.

Don't show stock images here. Show the solution with real users.

Only add images that advance the story. This isn't a marketing deck or a branding contest.

If your solution is a technical product, refrain from adding technical drawings or infrastructure images or complex drug development processes that makes people want to go up to the screen in order to see the details. Explain your solution so that a 3-year old will understand. For instance if you put more than one database icon on a slide and more than two arrows, chances are you lost 90% of the room. Of course you want to adapt to who is in the room and know how technical they are. Save these slides for the backup.

4) Market: It's a 1 Trillion Dollar Market! - Really!? Says who?

You want people to walk away from your market slide with the confidence that you are the expert in this market and it is a big enough market. Some investors prefer bottom up others prefer top down calculations of your market share. The slide shows the investor if you are realistic, bullish, bearish and that you are an expert.

Make sure the market size and your opportunity isn't just your opinion but lay a defensible foundation with facts.

5) Business Model: Show how you are going to make money. Sometimes this slide is missing in early stage pitches. This happens when founders are so in love with their solution that they are convinced that the world is waiting for them. In their mind the business model isn't important. Because ... people will just throw money at them ... obviously.

Communicate the business model and why you chose it and what are signs that this is the right business model. Some businesses have two business models. Investors typically want to see one path to return, not 10 different business models.

6) Go To Market Strategies: Don't show a cluster of tactical campaigns scattered on a timeline plot too small to read. You want to communicate that you thoroughly thought about your customer and how you can reach that customer. Highlight that and early success if applicable in form of CAC and marketing campaign ROI. The investor wants to understand that you have the ability to communicate the value of your business and reach the target audience at non-prohibitive cost.

7) Competition: Investor don't want to read a white paper of the results of your competitive analysis. What they want to see is that you know of and understand your competitors and the two dimensions that make your solution unique and stand out in the market. You put your solution on the magic quadrant and show your solution in the upper right corner. Make sure that the dimensions you choose on the axis are meaningful.

Communicate your USP (Unique Selling Point) in one sentence.

8) Team: Make sure you identify key people on your team and fill gaps with advisors and highlight them as such. Add relevant experience for each team member (company logos usually do). Don't put people on your slide who haven't agreed to be on your slide - this is the easiest for investors to check - a quick LinkedIn search tells them if they are actually part of your company and in which role. Due diligence typically starts with the team. I've seen the reputation of a founder destroyed because they put another investor on the team slide who hadn't agreed to that role and ... investors talk to each other.

9) Financial Forecast: The more details you add, the more you open yourself up for attack. As cheesy as it may feel: Add a hockey stick growth graph. Show where you are today, where you will be in a year, two years, three years and add in parameters that illustrate that you understand which milestones you need to hit in order to achieve the growth you need for investors to want to place a big bet on you. You will have already explained in your Go-to-market strategy how you are going to tackle how you will get there.

10) Funding: Make your ask! Why put all this time and effort in creating a great story and then "fizzling" when it come to making an ask? I've been in pitch meetings where investors were excited and then the pitcher doesn't deliver an interesting opportunity to participate in. Know what you want and let your investors know what that money will get them. How far will your product and revenue advance with the funding they will give you. Will you reach the next funding round? How will they 10x their investment?

Explain how you expect to get to a certain # of users or revenue number and show that you are truly the captain of this spaceship: You know who you need and which resources are missing to get the spaceship startup to these milestones. Here is your chance of showing what kind of CEO you are and that you are in full control. It is a chance to ask for more than dollars. You can add opportunities for investors to fill strategic board positions and make important introductions for you (even if they don't invest).

Join us on a future Pitch Feedback Friday - every other Friday on the GUILD platform - and get your pitch reviewed by seasoned angel investors and VCs.

Sign Up: https://letsguild.mn.co/

Join us in changing the odds for female entrepreneurs.

If you are an angel investor or VC, get in touch with me and we schedule a pitch feedback Friday with you.