A step by step guide to build the perfect pitch deck ????

?? Hey everyone and welcome to Explore. I’m Hugo Rauch , the writer of this newsletter and my goal is to help founders accelerate their growth and successfully fundraise. This week, I’m publishing an article that I’ve written for the newsletter of my friend Rubén, but I thought my audience would also greatly benefit from it. Let’s get started!

What it a pitch deck?

A pitch-deck is a brief presentation that gives an overview of your business. Founders use it when they need financing as they must convey their ideas to investors in a way that gets them excited.

“Ideas that you can’t clearly communicate to others are useless.”

Why is it important?

There is less investors and capital available than there is startups in need for funding. The pitch deck is your pass to enter the world of venture capital investment.

Step by step guide

Crafting a deck is difficult, but here is a step by step guide that will help you.

As tempting as it is to open PowerPoint and start working on your deck, you should not.

A checklist to get started

First, let’s make sure that you are VC fundable:

• Are you a scalable business? ??
• Are you addressing a large market? ??
• Do you receive positive signals from customers? ??

Everything is checked??

We can move on to the next stages. Let’s get a bit more tactical:

• First, let’s pick the right slide editor (PowerPoint, Google Slides, Figma, Canva..). You’ll spend a lot of time on the tool, make sure you like it.
• Then, find 3 decks that you love (I’ve shared some examples at the end of this newsletter). Get inspired, and feel a creativity spark. ?
• Finally, take a pen and paper and draft a table with two columns:

Why are we doing this last step? Because pitching is all about story telling, and we need to write the story first before crafting the deck to support this story.

Let’s create your story

Now, we will fill in the piece of paper you have. And we will give a great structure to the deck.

Why?

Because investors spend on average 2 mins on your deck. Most of them have a checklist to evaluate your idea. Therefore it’s in your best interest to help them check the boxes.

Let’s go slide by slide.

As you read this, you should pause on each section and fill in the two columns on your piece of paper.

Slide 1: Introduction

??Goal: communicate clearly and concisely what your business is offering.

After seeing it, investors should understand what your business is about.

A good intro slide has a logo and a sentence of 6 to 8 words that explains the business. No lingo or complex vocabulary. Make it accessible and simple.

A good example is Airbnb. ??

Slide 2: Problem

??Goal: convince people you are solving for a real pain.

You need to show that people will be willing to pay for your solution. You need to make investors empathize with your target customer. They need to understand the rational, and emotional behavior that would lead to buying a product for this problem.

A good example is Revolut. Look at the slide, we can all relate. ??

Enjoying the read? Check the full article (for free) on my newsletter: How to build the perfect pitch deck: a step by step guide (substack.com)