Back to Blog Home

What is a Pitch Deck: A Definitive Guide to Winning Presentations

1. Start with a Hooking Pitch Slide 2. Engaging Pitch Flow 3. Follow the 10/20/30 Rule 4. Company Vision and Overall Value Preposition 5. Customize Your Presentation for Your Audience 6.Avoid Overstating the Market Opportunity 6.Avoid Boring and Outdated Pitch Deck Design 7.Samples of Good Pitch Decks 8.Conclusion A pitch deck is a presentation that is specifically designed to give a short but elaborate summary of your company, business plan, and startup vision. Your presentation usually acts as a visual guide and reference to the key points and areas of your business that you want to make known to targeted potential investors. The best pitch decks get investors excited about your described idea and engages them in a constructive conversation about your business, potentially leading to an investment. Whether you’re raising funding for your startup business or presenting your business model to key stakeholders, you need a killer pitch deck to impress your audience and achieve your objectives. We’ve helped hundreds of startups create and design their pitch decks. And we want to help you also to get through this process successfully. Here is how to create a pitch deck that attracts investors to your business idea.1) Start with a Hook or Elevator PitchDon’t wait too long to get your main point across, rather, start with it. Appetizers are great – but everyone really wants to know what’s coming on the main dish! Investors have rather short attention spans, and they often gauge their opinion of a pitch deck or startup from the first slide.Your pitch deck should immediately communicate what you’re pitching, and why they should listen. Present your hook through the form of a question, a strong statement, or an elevator pitch.Castle’s pitch deck, for example, begins with a strong statement, “Rental property owners want to make money without the work of being a landlord.” Immediately, the audience knows who the customer is, what problem is going to be solved, and what the customer hopes to achieve. While your pitch deck doesn’t necessarily have to start with a problem statement, the first slide should be powerful enough to get the reader’s or viewer’s attention. Need Funding For Your App Idea? Download Our FREE eBook now! Learn the expert secrets behind building successful apps that attract invertors and get funded! DOWNLOAD MY FREE EBOOK 2) Create an Engaging FlowMake sure that your pitch deck is engaging across the entire presentation. A common problem for startups is hooking the audience in with the first slide, then losing their attention when they get to the meat of the presentation.Create a layout and a flow of information that ensures that the audience easily follows the idea from beginning to end. Every slide should connect with the slide before and after it, building up the audience’s anticipation while ensuring that they grasp every piece of information.For example, when presenting the Problem, keep it to only the most prevalent challenge customers face. Surround that slide with information that proves that a significant challenge exists for a…

What Is Seed Money and Is Your Startup Ready for It?

Definition Sources of Early Funding Is Your Startup Ready to be Funded? What is Bootstrapping? How Much Capital Can You Raise? Want to jump directly to our seed funding infographic? Click Here If you’re launching a new startup, one of the first stumbling blocks you need to overcome is how to fund the growth of your startup. Obtaining funds to start a business is extremely critical in the early phases. Even if they’ve answered the question, ‘what is seed money’, many new startups don’t know where to find it. Without it, your great idea threatens to stay stagnant or, worse, a competitor with better funding can swoop in and capitalize on the market. Around 30% of start-ups fail from a lack of capital to grow the business for marketing, personnel acquisition, design, and development of the technology and business direction. Successful startups, however, know the power of early capital, and how to tap into it. Need Funding For Your App Idea? Download Our FREE eBook now! Learn the expert secrets behind building successful apps that attract invertors and get funded! DOWNLOAD MY FREE EBOOK Definition Seed money can be defined in many ways. When we define seed money or seek to give a seed capital definition, it simply means this - seed money is the first round of capital for a new business. For many new enterprises, seed money provides the capital and funds needed to establish and grow the brand. Common uses of seed money include product development, market research, hiring personnel, securing facilities or equipment, and initial launch and production. For an app startup specifically, common uses of seed money usually include developing the minimum viable product and initiating an early marketing strategy. So how does it work? Seed capital is often given in exchange for equity ownership — that is exchanging capital in return for a stake in the company. Even when a new business presents a solid idea, unvalidated concepts are a substantial risk to investors. Equity stake, or part ownership in a company, lends incentive to investors to engage in risk and provides a method to earn a return on their investment. Effectively, in exchange for access to early funding, you are trading ownership of the company and a portion of your eventual returns. Likewise, if your business fails to produce a return, investors risk losing the capital that they invested in the business. Capital for startups is a huge business, however, the traditional sources for seed capital are extremely competitive. While there are many investors seeking new startups to invest in, there are even more new startups seeking an investment partner. Sources of Early Funding While there are many ways a startup can raise early financing, the most common sources of seed capital come from three primary groups: friends and family, venture capitalists and angel investors. There are distinct benefits and ramifications for partnering with each type of investor. Asking for Seed Money from Friends and Family Friends and family are a common source…

Need Funding For Your App Idea?

Learn the expert secrets behind building successful apps that attract invertors and get funded. Download Our FREE eBook now!