The investor pitch deck...where to begin???

So you've got the business opportunity of a lifetime! You've done your research, discussed your business with friends, family, colleagues, & associates. Your numbers are sound, your market research bullet-proof, and you have a list a mile long of targeted leads to potential investors. You are now ready for the penultimate translation of your business to potential investors...the dreaded PITCH DECK. So you open up your laptop, fire-up PowerPoint or (more preferably) Keynote, then stare blankly at the white pages on your screen wondering, where the heck to do I begin?

If this sounds familiar to you, then you are not alone. Whether it's your first business startup, or you fifteenth, everyone gets a little intimidated at the start of building a pitch deck. It's only natural. You're excited, you know your business model is sound and investors will be lining up around the preverbal block to throw money at you like Scrooge McDuck swimming through his pool filled with shiny golden coins. But before we dive-in and jump straight to the end where a term sheet falls into your lap, we need to get this sticky pitch deck thing off to the right start.

By far the most effective way to start a pitch deck is actually not inside of PowerPoint or Keynote... but instead with a notebook and pencil/pen (or whiteboard). What your first goal should be is to create a completely rough "sketch" draft of how you want to organize your company story. But why physical writing and not a presentation software, or word processor? Because something magical does actually happen when we put pen to paper.

“Obviously you can change the page layout and switch fonts [in a computer], but you cannot invent a form not foreseen by the software. Paper allows much greater graphic freedom: you can write on either side, keep to set margins or not, superimpose lines or distort them. There is nothing to make you follow a set pattern. It has three dimensions too, so it can be folded, cut out, stapled or glued.” - Claire Bustarret, specialist on codex manuscripts at the Maurice Halbwachs research centre in Paris.

Your startup business doesn't follow formula. It's different and unique, so why begin the process of laying out your company story by typing it onto a screen? Writing allows you to think 'outside the box' both literally and figuratively. You tap into fine motor skills, and muscle memory that can trigger different responses in the brain. Also, if using a white-board you can have a more fluid exchange of ideas between you and your business partners in real time. Great ideas build on one another, so working in a room with your partners or trusted advisors, writing instead of typing, is really the best way to get your company story flushed out, before ever putting a single slide together.

Now that we have the medium out of the way, how should you begin drafting your investor pitch deck?

"Investors invest in stories, not businesses" -  Babak Nivi, Venture Hacks/AngelList

Brendan Baker, a startup advisor and accelerator consultant, wrote a great article on Quora about how to flush out your story. In his article he mentions 10 steps to follow that can really get you going in the right direction. So without doubling up on his great advice for how to draft your story, I'm going to skip ahead to the actual design and creation of your deck.

Designing a deck can be just as intimidating as crafting your story, especially if design is not your area of expertise. Design is a critical, yet often misunderstood and under-appreciated step in the investor pitch building process. It's the very first impression an investor is going to have of your company, before he/she even reads a single word you have to say. While a lot depends on the budget you have to work with, here's three potential starting points to get your deck into great looking shape, at any budget.

Download a Template - There are dozens of great sites where you can buy or find free investor pitch templates (my personal favorite is Envato Elements, for $30/month you can download as many as you like). This will require a little "elbow-grease" on your part to take on the role of designer and presentation strategist for your own deck but you'll keep the costs low. PROS: Cheap, gets you started with a look template so you don't have to start from scratch. CONS: Not customized to your brand, generic, still a lot of design and strategy principals needed to do it right, time-consuming.

Hire a Designer - Designers are great at helping to make your words look clean on the page, and are often the first person a startup seeks out. They can help create a look to match your company concept, and ensure your materials look custom and professional. However where a designer alone falls short is in helping you to create your early-stage branding (or expand on existing branding), plan your materials strategy, create product mockups, animations, video elements, or any other pitch aspect outside of simply designing your slides. PROS: Clean & professional looking materials, custom to your brand/business. CONS: Hard to find a designer you can trust (doing a quick search on LinkedIn yield's a mere 7.9m results) and who has experience creating pitch deck layouts specifically (most do not), you become the art director.

Hire a Branding Agency - Branding agencies are a great avenue to explore if you have a larger budget for your pitch. If you already have an agency retained for another business you own, or plan on working with a particular agency in the future when you launch your company (Logo & product design, SEO, e-commerce, etc..) then the full-suite of services a brand agency provides would certainly show investors you mean business. PROS: Get all your needs in one place, get top-notch sales materials, and future needs covered. CONS: VERY high price, paying for lots of services you may not need at this stage of your pitch, support limited due to your scale as a client in their firm.

Hire a Pitch Builder - Very few people are aware that there are options that exist between simply hiring a designer or retaining a full-blown branding agency. A "Pitch Builder" company specializes in B2B marketing, but with a key focus on working with clients to help master their presentation materials. The benefits are reflected both in price, and in service, since the focus of their experience is on creating pitch materials. While most designers need to divide their craftsmanship expertise across all types of design medium in order to sustain a living, and agencies need to find ways to cover their overhead support of services beyond the scope of your pitch materials needs, Pitch Builder's are experts in working with you to craft your pitch. They typically retain talent as freelancers, assigning the right designer to the right pitch (so no sifting through 7.9m designers looking for yours!) Their overhead is typically a lot lower too which means your budget is based on the work/service you're specifically asking for. PROS: Focused on your needs, experienced specialists in creating pitches, there to help expand your deck further as your pitch progresses through stages of conversations and investor questions (because we all know your first deck won't be your last before moving to a term sheet!). CONS: Mid-priced, may not be able to support a full B2C sales effort beyond your company launch since it's not their speciality.

So that's it, a few tips on how to get your investor pitch from inside your head, and onto the page. I hope this information was helpful to you, and thanks for reading!

DISCLAIMER: This article was written by the owner of Pitch Materials company, Falkor Digital. Greg Gerosky, founder and Chief Creative Officer, has 13+ years experience crafting pitches across multiple businesses such as CPG, cannabis brands, entertainment pitches, brand partnership/sponsorship sales and more. If you're interested in discussing a pitch project, please visit www.FalkorDigital.com