Pitch Decks - The Evolution - One size (version) does NOT fit all (audiences)

Now, we are going to turn our attention of the Avoiding Common Issues in Startups series to a crucial element of any startup - The #PitchDeck. Just as your business isn’t static, neither should the primary means of communicating about your business be static.

Not only will you have different Pitch Decks for different audiences, but each of those Pitch Decks will evolve as your business evolves.?

“Wait, what do you mean I am going to have different Pitch Decks? I thought I only had to do a Pitch Deck for the initial Pitch, then I could move on to real work.” When talking about the purposes for Pitch Decks, #Founders don’t always express that verbally, but we can often see it on their faces. Let’s explore why that is not true…

Audience(s) of Pitch Decks

Investors

Obviously, the Pitch Deck is most commonly used by #Founders to get funding, and the type of funding is going to dictate the details of the Pitch itself and the Pitch Deck (that is a bit too detailed for this article, but we may cover it at a later date, if there is interest in it). You took the time to tell the entire story of your business, including the problem you are solving, the solution, why you are passionate about it, market research, the roadmap, your traction, and business plan. So, why not use that to do other things like sell to potential customers, or attract employees or advisors? It is also a great starting point for marketing material.

Customers

A Pitch Deck for investors is easily adaptable to a slide deck for a sales presentation, especially when you are selling to a large corporation, and they need to understand the fundamentals of your business before signing a contract with you. Of course there are things that you need to share with investors that you won’t share with prospective clients, such as proprietary information or maybe even Intellectual Property (IP), but it is much easier to remove those slides or that information than it is to start over from scratch.?

Vendors & Partners

Similar to a Sales Deck for Customers, a Deck for Vendors or Partners can be used to tell your story and help convince potential vendors or partners that you are viable and are worth the perceived risk of doing business with a startup.?

Recruiting

Another common use of Pitch Decks is to attract top talent to your organization. Hopefully, one day, your business will graduate from Startup to Small Business and beyond. As this happens, you will need to grow the top of your staff with more strategic (and less tactical) people. You have a great story in your Pitch Deck, so use it to bring in the best talent possible to grow your business. Again, you may remove some slides or information from the Investor Pitch Deck, but that is easy.

Evolution of the Business (and Pitch Decks)

Just as your business changes, your Pitch Decks are updated to reflect those changes. If you make ONE kind of update to your Pitch Deck over time, show your progress and traction. Highlight your successes. We will get into this more in a later article, but one of the main purposes of an Investor Pitch Deck is to give the potential investor confidence that you are the right person to run the company. What better way to do that than to show off your accomplishments?

Conversely, one of the biggest mistakes that we see made with Pitch Decks is to not keep them updated. I have seen 8 year old industry data in a Pitch Deck at a Pitch Competition. Put yourself in the investor’s place. How would you have confidence in a business that is justifying itself with 8 year old data - think about it, that was 4 years before COVID! A LOT has changed since then! In the startup’s defense, that was the last time that the data was published in a format that suited them, but still, the data is 8 years old and diminished the value of the presentation and the perception of the company.

Take action right now. New Year's Day feels like it is 6+ months in the rearview mirror. We are well into 2024. If you haven’t already:

• Update your industry data to at least 2023
• Update your business Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (revenue, customer count, profitability, etc.) through EOY 2023
• Update your market data with 2023, where possible.?
• Take the opportunity to revalidate your TAM, SAM, and SOM. (We will talk more about these in a later article.)

Using outdated data undermines your authority in the eyes of potential investors, customers, and employees. Take the time to eliminate that possibility before it comes back to haunt you.?

As a side note, make sure your web site is updated as well. We see websites that are out of sync with the Pitch Deck on a very regular basis. Potential investors WILL review your website. If they find inconsistencies between your Pitch Deck and web site, it undermines their confidence in you.

Summary

Leverage your hard work on your Pitch Deck and use it as the basis for anytime you want to share the story of your business and impress outsiders. Realize that it is a living document and keep it updated and relevant. Doing this will serve you well.?

Follow me to see more of the series as it is published.?

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