Once you and your board have made the decision to seek funding from VCs you will be tempted to start creating your pitch deck. Don’t. Instead keep PowerPoint, Google Slides and Keynote closed. The key to creating a successful pitch deck and securing funding is all in preparation.
So, before you get started do these 6 things first.
Strategy – Start by defining your fundraising strategy. How much money are you seeking, when do you need it and who are you going to seek the funding from. Also, be clear on the near-term metrics for your company that you will be pitching to VCs. Forecasted revenue, team size, and cash burn rates.
Substance – Collate together all the documented components of your business. Existing strategies, value propositions, customers, revenue, key resources, partners, and anything else which supports your business and can give your presentation weight.
StoryBoard – Create a draft storyboard for your pitch. Form your narrative and how you intend to communicate it. Step through the components of the pitch from start to finish.
Sketches – Sketch out the slides before you start creating them. All great designs come through a process of iteration. Jumping straight to a polished slide means you may miss potential design options that may have been better.
Style Guide – If you don’t have a brand style guide then you need one before you create your pitch deck. Your brand style guide should cover all the design elements of your brand to ensure consistency across all communications.
Sound-Bites – Every entrepreneur should have an elevator pitch, if you haven’t used it in a while, brush it off, update it, and keep it to hand.
Preparation is the first step to successfully forming the perfect pitch deck. Before you even start creating slides make sure you have these 6 components at hand and ready to go.