Getting the structure of a pitch deck right is crucial to successfully pitching your startup idea to investors.
While it may be tempting to get creative with the structure, it's generally not advisable as investors go through a large number of pitch decks and have a checklist to help them quickly weed out unsuitable projects.
On average, investors only spend 3 minutes and 44 seconds on a pitch deck. Therefore, it's important to cover all the topics that investors expect to see. A non-standard structure could mean that investors won't consider your project more closely, and it increases the chance that some of your audience will be confused.
The keys to a successful pitch deck are:
- Presenting your idea clearly and concisely.
- Differentiating your idea from those of other startups.
- Convincing your audience of the high potential and likelihood of success of your idea.
Each slide should be created with these three principles in mind. Generally, a startup pitch deck should cover 10 main topics, though more than one slide can be used to cover a topic.
If you're doing a two-minute presentation, you may have to skip a few topics. In this case, make sure to preserve the topics that contain the most convincing arguments for your business.
For instance, it's fine to skip talking about competition, but skipping validation or traction (if you have them) is a big mistake.
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