SixArm® pitch deck template

A pitch deck is a business slideshow presentation:

• A pitch deck summarizes a project and purpose, such as summarizing a startup and product.

• A pitch deck is a fundraising fundamental, and is often requested by potential investors and advisors.

The pitch deck template below is a quick start:

• Timebox doing your first draft, then show it to people, gather feedback, and work to improve it.

• When you pitch a specific person or team, such as an investor or firm, customize your pitch deck to them.

Six slides to highlight your concept

Problem Slide

• What is the problem, such as the pain point or unfulfilled need?

• What is a relatable example, such as one person's typical story?

• Tip: Focus on the issue by using the person's perspective, not yours.

• Bonus: Show why the problem is especially relevant right now.

Market Slide

• How big is the problem, such as in terms of people, time, money, etc.?

• When someone has the problem, how do they know and what do they do?

• Tip: Focus on a small tight group of people that you can reach ASAP.

• Bonus: Show why your market will grow larger, and how you know it.

Solution Slide

• What is your solution to the problem? This is your offering.

• How does your relatable example change when a person uses your offering?

• Tip: Focus on the benefits by using the person's perspective, not yours.

• Bonus: Show social proof such as a real user photo and real testimonial.

Competition Slide

• How does your offering compare to other offerings and substitutes?

• How do you reach people and convince them your offering is better?

• Tip: What special advantages do you have now that competitors don’t?

• Bonus: How are you creating sustainable advantages versus competitors?

Validation Slide

• How are you proving your view of the problem, market, and solution?

• When you interact with potential users, what are they actually saying?

• Tip: Focus on measurements and quotations that lead to product-market fit.

• Bonus: How are you doing on the metrics that matter most for your market?

Roadmap Slide

• What is your current state and future state, such as milestones and plans?

• What do you need and when, such as people, processes, materials, money?

• Tip: Focus on near-term realistic steps, and how you are achieving them.

• Bonus: Work on these by using SBS, BMC, OKRs, KPIs, and SMARTs.

Six slides to highlight your business

Sales Slide

• Talk about how you sell.

• What do you charge?

• Who pays the bills?

• What is the purchasing process for your target customers?

• What are your sales channels and how do you use them?

• Describe the competitive landscape.

• How does your pricing fit into the larger market?

• Highlight any validations, comparisons, and upcoming experiments.

• Prepare to discuss direct sales and multiple kinds of indirect sales.

• Prepare for questions about sales funnels, scoring, and compensation.

Marketing Slide

• Talk about how you gain customers’ attention.

• Show a solid grasp of how to reach your target market.

• What are your marketing channels and how do you use them?

• Investors know finding and winning customers can be the biggest challenge for a startup.

• If your plan is different than your competitors, then highlight the differences.

• Highlight any validations, comparisons, and upcoming experiments.

• Prepare to discuss Total Addressable Market, Service Addressable Market, Service Obtainable Market.

• Prepare for questions about viral marketing, social media marketing, and guerrilla marketing.

Team Slide

• Talk about your team.

• Highlight key team members, key expertise, and relevant accomplishments.

• Why are these the right people to build this company?

• What experience do the teammates have that other people or groups don’t?

• Include key advisors, investors, and board members.

• Identify key positions you need to fill, and why they are critical to growth.

• Prepare to discuss team recruiting, team retention, and team metrics.

• Prepare for questions on roles, such as advisors, investors, and the board.

Partner Slide

• Talk about any strategic partnerships that are important to success.

• Do you have key partners for sales, marketing, distribution, or development?

• What are your partners' channels and how do they use them?

• Can your partners leverage your IP, such as branding, marks, data, APIs?

• How does your success rely on these partnerships?

• Prepare to discuss partner recruiting, retention, reliability, and ROI.

• Prepare for questions on coopetition, value-add streams, and joint ventures.

Financial Slide

• Talk about your financials.

• Show your realistic sales forecast, profit and loss forecast, and cash flow forecast for 3 years.

• Limit any charts to sales, total customers, total expenses, and profits.

• Omit in-depth spreadsheets because these are hard to read in a presentation.

• Try to explain your growth based on traction you already have.

• Highlight your key expense drivers.

• Prepare comparisons of similar companies in related industries.

• Prepare to discuss all the underlying assumptions that you’re making.

Investment Slide

• Ask for the money.

• Why do you need the amount of money you are requesting?

• What is your plan for using the money?

• Is there participation by others that you want to share?

• Prepare comparisons of similar companies in related industries.

• Prepare to discuss terms that you offering and/or requiring.

• Prepare to provide your capitalization table or similar equity statement.

Pitch Deck Appendix A - Team

Teammate 1

• Photo, name, role and/or title

• Contact email, phone, link, etc.

• Key expertise

• Key accomplishments

• Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) or equivalent for next period

Teammate 2

• Photo, name, role and/or title

• Contact email, phone, link, etc.

• Key expertise

• Key accomplishments

• Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) or equivalent for next period

Pitch Deck Appendix B - Lenses

Business Model Canvas

• Value propositions: what value do we deliver to the customer?

• Revenue streams: what are target customers truly willing to pay and how?

• Customer relationships: what do each of our customer segments expect?

• Distribution channels: what do each of our customer segments use and want?

• Cost structures: what are the most important costs for our business model?

• Target segments: who are our most important prospects/customers and why?

• Key activities: e.g. for our propositions, segments, channels, and streams?

• Key activities: e.g. for our propositions, segments, channels, and streams?

• Partner collaborations: e.g. who are our key partners, for what, and why?

SWOT

• Strengths: how is the project at an advantage relative to others?

• Weaknesses: how is the project at a disadvantage relative to others?

• Opportunities: elements in the environment that could cause wins.

• Threats: elements in the environment that could cause losses.

Power + Effects

• Platform power + network effects: when more users join, it improves.

• Proficiency power + learning effects: when skill increases, it improves.

• Propeller power + flywheel effects: when revolutions speed up, lift increases.

• Production power + scale effects: when size increases, unit costs decrease.

• Promotion power + viral effects: how it spreads from one user to another.

• Protection power + moat effects: how it defends acquisition and retention.

Network effect value

• Broadcasting model: value ∝ n, for users who receive. Example: CNN.

• Peer-to-peer model: value ∝ n², for users who interact. Example: Facebook.

• Group-forming model: value ∝ 2ⁿ, for users in active groups. Example: Slack.

Pitch Deck Appendix C - Metrics

Business and Financial Metrics - as per A16Z

• Bookings vs. Revenue

• Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) vs. Total Revenue - distinct from GMV

• Total Contract Value (TCV) vs. Annual Contract Value (ACV)

• Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and LTV (Life-Time Value)

• Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) vs. Gross Profit vs. Revenue

• Unearned or Deferred Revenue … and billings

• CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) - blended vs. paid, organic vs. inorganic

• Total Addressable Market (TAM)

• Gross Margins - ideally get to 80%-90%

• Sell-Through Rate & Inventory Turns

Product and Engagement Metrics - as per A16Z

• Active Users - e.g. Weekly Active Users (WAU), or similar; define “active”.

• Active Engagement - e.g. number of photos viewed, or liked, or shared, etc.

• Cohort Analysis - especially metrics that show newer cohorts improving.

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) - e.g. by active users and/or by cohort.

• Month-on-month (MoM) growth - Compounded Monthly Growth Rate (CMGR)

• Churn - monthly unit churn, retention by cohort, etc.; show net & gross.

• Burn Rate - monthly cash burn, etc.; show net & gross.

• Sources of Traffic - direct traffic vs. organic traffic vs. direct social etc.

• Customer Concentration Risk: revenue of largest customers / total revenue.

Pirate Metrics

• Acquisition: How are people discovering our product or company?

• Activation: How are these people taking the actions we want them to?

• Retention: How well do users continue to engage with the product?

• Referral: How well do users like the product enough to tell others?

• Revenue: How exactly are our personas willing to pay for this product?

Valuation

• Discounted Cash Flow (DCF): based on expected future cash flows.

• Risk-adjusted Net Present Value (rNPV): based on probabilities and DCF.

• First Chicago Method: based on weighted averages of startup situations.

• Market & Transaction Comparables: based on deal comps or precedents.

• Asset-Based Valuation: based on book value, liquidation value, etc.

• Venture Capital Method: based on expected rates of return at exit.

• Decision Tree Analysis: based on probability forecasting of outcomes

• Berkus Method: based on progress toward commercialization activities.

• Scorecard Valuation Method: based on 7 regional/vertical characteristics.

• Risk Factor Summation Method: based on 12 seed/startup characteristics.

Questions: gather feeback from stakeholders

Questions for customers and prospects

• How are you solving the problem now?

• What is the process for you to buy now?

• Who do you know who needs this now?

• Can you introduce us to others now?

Questions for teammates and partners

• What is our elevator pitch in 20 seconds?

• How do you describe why now, why us, why this?

• What does the next year of success look like?

• What are the most critical next steps?

Questions for advisors and investors

• Who should we be talking to about this?

• What is the #1 way to improve the pitch?

• What should be be asking, yet aren’t?

• What can get you to yes, to help now?

How to improve your pitch

Better writing can improve your pitch

• Are you clear? Make your writing short and simple.

• Are you complete? Explain who, what, where, when, why, and how.

• Are you compelling? Tell real user stories with real emotion.

• Are you comparable? Provide context to help people understand.

• Are you realistic? Show your evidence, validations, and references.

Stronger focus can improve your pitch

• Can you focus more on customers and less on yourself?

• Can you focus more on benefits and less on features?

• Can you focus more on offers and less on one product?

• Can you focus more on channels and less on one market?

• Can you focus more on coopetition and less on competition?

• Can you focus more on growth areas and less on sunk areas?

Preparation improvements

• Strategic Balanced Scorecard (SBS)

• Business Model Canvas (BMC)

• Objectives and Key Results (OKR)

• Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

• SMART criteria for goals, objectives, plans, tasks

Conclusion

For pitch deck advice from many experts and companies, see Joel's pitch deck advice list.

Tracking

• Package: pitch-deck-template
• Version: 4.4.0
• Updated: 2022-07-12T18:56:19Z
• Tracker: 5a4d1698f3c1dde0a30743a306ca3267
• Notices: Copyright 2016-2022 by SixArm® (https://sixarm.com)
• License: GPL-2.0-or-later or GFDL-1.3-or-later or contact us
• Contact: Joel Parker Henderson (joel@sixarm.com)