Pitch Deck Guidance

& Template
Overview
• The purpose of this instructional is to help startups put together the most
suitable pitch deck for pitching at our events

• Make sure you are consistent throughout your deck, i.e. using the same colours,
using the same font etc.

• You will find the below ’tags’ on the slides to give you an indication which slides
to include when you are targeting Investment vs commercial contracts or both
Organisation
Funder
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Title slide
• Logo + tagline: Include a high quality version of your logo on this slide as well as a tagline or
short mission statement

• Presenter: This can be included if you are pitching live

• Background: The background could be a simple color or a faded picture in the background
with a motive suitable to your context

• Confidentiality: You could include a brief statement i.e. Private & Confidential, however
keep in mind that pitch decks could always be passed on so don’t include your secret sauce;
 Funder Organisation
The problem
• What problem are you solving? Start with a story
• Who has this problem?
• How big is it? – how much pain does it cause? Can you measure the size of the problem in £?

• Layout: Think about using icons to make it easier to follow and visually more appealing

• Content: Be clear whether businesses or individuals have the problem or both; if you have a
marketplace make sure to explain both sides of the problem – see example slides

• Numbers: See if you can include some numbers of how much more time/money/effort people
are spending on this solving this problem

• Sources: It would be good to include the sources of where these numbers come from i.e. EY IoT
report 2020
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The solution
• What is it?
• How does it alleviate the market pain?
• Why is this unique / valuable?
• Why is now the right time for your solution?

• Clearly outline the benefits

• You might want to avoid jargon – if used you need to explain

• Visuals: Include a screenshot so the audience has a better idea what it looks like and include
some of the benefits, if you don’t have a real product or a mockup yet you can include a graphic
or other visuals that help illustrate your solution
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Product
• How does it work?
• What are the steps for a user?
• This slide should explain your product in more detail with the help of screenshots
• Make sure to not put too many screenshots on this slide (1-3 for desktop and
max. 4 for mobile) - put minimal text to describe the steps
• The screenshots you do put on – make sure the writing is not too small and one
can actually read/see what you want to show – a screenshot with small
graphics/writing is not telling the viewer much
• Depending on how your solution slide looks like you can include benefits here
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Market size
• One approach of showing the market size is the TAM / SAM / SOM model – usually
displayed with circles (see example 2)
• Example 1 is listing relevant market data whereas Example 3 is honing in on their specific
market segment – take ideas from the 3 examples and use what is most relevant to your
market
• If possible include the year on year growth or CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of
that market – it shows the potential for the future
• Make sure that the market size and numbers you use are relevant to the market you are in
i.e. don’t put how many SMEs there are in the UK/worldwide just because you serve SMEs
– go into your vertical and find more accurate and relevant data
• Make sure to include the sources of your information/numbers
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Competition
• Construct a grid with relevant axis to describe how you set yourself apart from your competitors

• If you are in a new market or are combining different markets choose the strongest competitors
from the markets you are combining or the ones that are similar to yours - you never have no
competitors

• Display your key competitors and not all you can find so you keep the slide clear and avoid
overcrowding it

• Usually your solution would appear in the upper righthand quadrant – see examples

• In addition you can include a few bullet points how you set yourself apart from your main
competitors
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Traction
• How many free/paying customers do you have? Who are they?
• Do you have any paid/unpaid trials? With whom?
• What does your pipeline look like?
• Which partnerships have you built i.e. for marketing, distribution etc.?
• You can include a few key logos of customers / partners on the presentation but
don’t plaster the slide with them

• If you can‘t speak to the above questions, consider covering the below:
• Path to product
• Path to revenue
• Path to market
• Path to scale
• Path to next financing round
• Note: You don‘t have to cover all of the paths – select the most relevant ones
 Funder Organisation
Business Model
• How do you make money?
• What are your revenue streams? Main one / alternative one(s)?
• If applicable, what commission structures are in place?
• What is the price of the product(s)/service(s)?
• What is your CAC / LTV? Unit economics? Conversion rate?
• How is your funding going to push paying customers/users/subscriptions in the next months?
• Avoid vanity metrics like page views, unique visitors, social media likes, email subscribers, marketing
spend, number of downloads
• Make sure you adjust for local currency depending on where you are presenting
• Note: Don’t overcrowd the slide, put your strongest metrics and key numbers in there, remember this
presentation is to gain interest and start a conversation, you can go into depth in a follow up meeting. If
you are early stage and you don’t know your CAC/LTV etc. yet stick to the basics and talk about how you
make money and your expected revenue streams
 Funder Organisation
Team
• Include the core team on your slide (4-5 people) and your key 2-3 advisory board
members

• Include a picture of every member, their position and a short 1 line bio to avoid
overcrowding the slide

• In case you have a large team you can put a team picture on the slide and mention the
names of senior management with a 1 line bio

• Some start-ups also put the logos of companies they have worked at before to add
credibility

• Put the next priority hires on the Investment slide rather than on the team slide
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Investment
• How much money do you need?
• What are you going to use it for?
• What are you going to achieve with it?

• If you already have commitments for your current round mention it

• Use a pie chart to show what you will spend the money on
• Clearly state the amount you are raising / what is left to raise (could
be with a pie chart again)
• You can mention some of the investors that are on board already
• Is there still SEIS / EIS available?
 Organisation
Ask / Call to Action
• Include why you came here to present today i.e.
• Pilots
• Contracts
• Joint Ventures

• If you are looking for partnerships or collaborations mention what organisations / people /
institutions you are looking for and how they might benefit in return

• Here you can also mention any pilots/ contracts etc. you have already

• Explain briefly how any form of collaboration would work – think of it as a mini pitch that
the person listening could present to a contact of theirs – be concise and memorable
 Funder Organisation
Contact
• On the final slide we would recommend to add contact information
such as name, position, email address and possibly phone number

• The logo should be centred on the slide with your tagline / vision
underneath

• In addition you could add a picture of yourself to personalize it more

(this is mainly relevant if deck is sent to investors rather than
presenting) or a screenshot of your product as a reminder
General advice
• Keep the text on the slides to a MINIMUM
• Time yourself when you give the presentation and make sure you are
within the time limit
• Make sure the colours / font stay consistent in the deck
• We have deliberately not included a Financials & an Exit slide as this
should be a concise deck that triggers the interest and starts a
conversation – you can share more details in a longer deck or a
meeting with any interested party
General advice
• Don’t show off every last feature. It’s great that you A/B tested the words on that button that
increased feature engagement by 75%. It really is. But now is not the time to talk about it. If you’ve
covered the points above, you will have earned the audience’s trust that you know what you’re
doing.
• Don’t digress. The pitch is not your chance to talk about the long hours the team has put in, or to
brag about the many clever choices you made along the way. You’re telling a story: if a slide isn’t
about the story you’re telling, leave it out. The story is not your product. The story is not your
company. The story is not you. The story is how your customer’s world will be better when your
product has solved their problem.
• Don’t leave empty-handed. Go into the pitch with an idea of what you hope to accomplish.
Whether you’re looking for investment, a commercial arrangement, a partnership, or something
else: make sure to ask the audience for it before you leave, and identify who in the room you should
follow up with after the meeting.
 Pitch Deck Guidance

If you have any further questions not mentioned in this deck please contact: jemma@empact-ventures.com