15 Slides you NEED on your Pitch Deck - Startups 101

Summary

This video script provides a comprehensive guide to crafting a compelling pitch deck, emphasizing the importance of storytelling and answering key investor questions. It outlines the ideal structure, from the status quo and product sections to market growth and the team's qualifications, highlighting the need for clear, concise information that can be consumed within four minutes. The speaker shares insights from creating hundreds of pitch decks, resulting in over $300 million raised, and offers a downloadable template to assist founders in presenting their business effectively.

Takeaways

• 📈 The script emphasizes the importance of a structured pitch deck in fundraising, highlighting a successful approach that has contributed to over 300 million dollars raised.
• 📑 The pitch deck is likened to a story, detailing the company's achievements and aspirations, and is crucial for engaging investors amidst a sea of metrics and day-to-day operations.
• ❓ The deck should answer fundamental questions about the market opportunity, the solution offered, the target audience, growth trajectory, and the team's capability to effect change.
• 📧 Most pitch decks are initially consumed via email, thus needing to be concise and compelling enough to secure a meeting with an investor.
• 🕒 The pitch deck should be designed to be consumed within about four minutes to ensure it holds the investor's attention and effectively communicates the key points.
• 🔑 The script underlines the significance of each slide in the deck, with a focus on clarity, brevity, and relevance to the overarching narrative of the company's story.
• 🛠️ The product section should be flexible, yet concise, effectively showcasing what the company has built, how it works, and who it serves, without overwhelming the reader.
• 📈 The market section is pivotal, addressing growth and scalability, and should include a go-to-market strategy and an honest assessment of market size and potential.
• 💡 The 'Why Us' section is critical in differentiating the company from competitors, focusing on market understanding and unique insights that the team brings to the table.
• 💼 The team section should feature key individuals with the relevant expertise and experience necessary to achieve the next fundable milestone.
• 💰 The conclusion of the pitch deck should seamlessly transition into the financial ask, detailing the funding required, terms, and intended use of funds, reinforcing investor confidence.

Q & A

What is the purpose of a pitch deck according to the script?

A pitch deck is a story about what a company has achieved and wants to continue to achieve, designed to convince investors by answering key questions about the opportunity, product, growth, and the team's ability to change the status quo.

How much money was raised last year using the pitch deck approach mentioned in the script?

Over 300 million dollars was raised last year with decks that were written or designed using the approach described in the script.

What is the main goal when creating a pitch deck for an email?

The main goal is to create an 'email deck' that can answer the pitch deck's key questions within about four minutes, ensuring it is concise and easily digestible for investors who consume it on their own time.

What are the key questions a pitch deck needs to answer?

The key questions a pitch deck needs to answer are: What opportunity have you discovered in the market? What have you built to tackle it and how does it work? Who is it for? How much are you growing and will you continue to grow? And why are you and your team the ones to change the status quo?

Why is it important to keep the structure of the pitch deck in a certain order?

Maintaining a certain order in the pitch deck is important because it ensures the story is coherent and logical, making it easier for investors to follow and understand the company's value proposition without breaking the narrative flow.

What is the significance of the 'status quo' section in a pitch deck?

The 'status quo' section is significant as it sets the stage by explaining the current market situation and the problem that the company aims to solve, thus justifying the need for the product or service being pitched.

How should the product section of a pitch deck be structured?

The product section should focus on what has been built to address the market opportunity, how it works, and who it is for, often including screenshots, a step-by-step diagram of the product, and a clear explanation of its benefits and unique selling points.

What is the importance of the market section in a pitch deck?

The market section is crucial as it demonstrates the potential for growth and the company's understanding of the market dynamics, including the go-to-market strategy, market size, and how the business intends to capture its share.

Why is the 'Why Us' section important in a pitch deck?

The 'Why Us' section is important because it establishes why the team behind the company is uniquely positioned to succeed in the market, often by highlighting the competition's shortcomings and the team's industry expertise and unique advantages.

What should be the focus of the 'ask' section at the end of a pitch deck?

The 'ask' section should focus on the financial aspects of the pitch, including the amount of funding being sought, the terms of the investment, and how the funds will be used to achieve the company's next milestones.

What is the role of a tagline in a pitch deck?

A tagline in a pitch deck serves as a concise, five to seven-word description of what the company does, providing a clear and straightforward understanding of the business without using marketing jargon.

Why is it recommended to use screenshots over a demo video in a pitch deck?

Screenshots are recommended over demo videos because they are quicker to consume and ensure that the interface of the product can be clearly seen, whereas a video may not be watched in full, and it takes up more of the investor's limited time.

How should the team section of a pitch deck be approached?

The team section should highlight key individuals with the relevant skills and experience to bring the company to its next fundable milestone, focusing on industry expertise and related achievements rather than unrelated accolades.

What is the significance of the 'why now' slide in the 'Why Us' section of a pitch deck?

The 'why now' slide, while optional, can be useful to highlight time-sensitive opportunities or advantages that the company has over competitors, such as market timing or unique insights that provide a competitive edge.

Outlines

00:00

📈 The Art of Storytelling in Pitch Decks

This paragraph introduces a proven structure for creating pitch decks, which the speaker's company has successfully used to help raise over 300 million dollars. The focus is on storytelling, a method derived from analyzing successful pitch decks from top companies. The speaker offers guidance on how to create each slide effectively, emphasizing clarity and simplicity. A template is available for download, and the speaker discusses the importance of answering key questions about the opportunity, product, growth, and team within the constraints of a brief, consumable email pitch deck.

05:03

🛠 Building the Foundation: Status Quo and Product Sections

The second paragraph delves into the specifics of the 'status quo' and 'product' sections of a pitch deck. It discusses the importance of identifying market opportunities and presenting them alongside the proposed solution. The speaker uses Airbnb's and Uber's pitch decks as examples to illustrate the connection between problem statements and solutions. The product section should flexibly describe what has been built, its functionality, and the target audience, with an emphasis on clarity and avoiding information overload.

10:07

🎯 Targeting the Market and Validating the Product

This paragraph focuses on the market section of the pitch deck, which aims to demonstrate growth potential and strategies for continued expansion. The speaker advises on the importance of showing tangible traction, utilizing charts for clarity, and detailing a focused go-to-market strategy. The market size is to be presented in a straightforward manner, focusing on the company's specific potential rather than the overall industry size. The section also covers the importance of market validation and the inclusion of a business model slide.

15:10

💡 The 'Why Us' Factor: Team and Competitive Advantage

The final paragraph addresses the 'why us' section of the pitch deck, which is crucial for convincing investors of the team's unique qualifications and competitive edge. The speaker suggests various methods for discussing competitors, such as using comparison charts or listing their shortcomings. The team section should highlight key individuals with relevant expertise and a history of achieving related milestones. An optional 'why now' slide can emphasize time-sensitive opportunities or unique advantages that provide a barrier to entry for competitors.

Keywords

💡Pitch Deck

A pitch deck is a visual presentation used by entrepreneurs to communicate their business idea and pitch to potential investors or stakeholders. In the video, the speaker discusses the structure and content of an effective pitch deck, emphasizing its importance in storytelling and raising capital.

💡Storytelling

Storytelling in this context refers to the method of presenting a business idea in a narrative form that is engaging and memorable. The video highlights that every pitch deck should tell a story about the company's achievements and aspirations, which helps in capturing the audience's attention.

💡Metrics

Metrics are quantitative measures used to assess the performance of a business or product. The script mentions that while day-to-day operations often focus on various metrics, it's crucial to distill this information effectively in a pitch deck to convey the business's growth and potential.

💡Status Quo

The status quo represents the current state of affairs or the existing market situation. The video script uses this term to describe the starting point of the pitch, where the entrepreneur identifies the problem in the market and presents their solution.

💡Product Section

This refers to a part of the pitch deck that focuses on the business's product or service. The script explains that this section should answer questions about what the company has built, how it works, and who it's for, often including screenshots, diagrams, and feature lists.

💡Market Validation

Market validation is the process of confirming that there is a demand for a product or service in the market. In the script, the speaker discusses the importance of showing market validation, such as revenue examples or user growth, to prove that the product has traction.

💡Business Model

A business model describes the rationale of how a business creates, delivers, and captures value. The video script emphasizes the need to clearly articulate the business model in the pitch deck, explaining how the company intends to generate revenue.

💡Go-to-Market Strategy

A go-to-market strategy outlines how a company plans to reach and sell to its target customers. The script mentions that this strategy is a critical part of the pitch deck, detailing the tactics and channels that will be used to gain market share.

💡Traction

Traction refers to the progress and momentum a business has gained, often demonstrated through user growth, revenue, or other key performance indicators. The video stresses the importance of showing traction to convince investors of the business's potential.

💡Market Size

Market size is an estimate of the total revenue potential of a market. The script explains that when discussing market size in a pitch deck, it's not about the overall industry size but rather the specific revenue potential for the business being pitched.

💡Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis is an assessment of a company's competitors to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and market positioning. The video script discusses the importance of this analysis in the pitch deck, showing why the company being pitched has an advantage over competitors.

💡Team

In the context of a pitch deck, 'team' refers to the key individuals who are driving the business forward. The script explains that showcasing the right team members with relevant expertise is crucial to demonstrate credibility and the ability to execute the business plan.

💡Ask

The 'ask' in a pitch deck refers to the entrepreneur's request for funding, including the amount needed and the intended use of the funds. The video script concludes with the importance of clearly stating the financial ask, which is a critical component of the pitch.

Highlights

The perfect structure for a pitch deck is discussed, which has been used to raise over 300 million dollars.

Pitch decks should tell a story about a company's achievements and aspirations.

The importance of distilling complex ideas into a clear pitch is emphasized.

A template for pitch decks is available for download on the platform.

The pitch deck needs to answer key questions about the market opportunity, product, growth, and team.

Most pitch decks are consumed via email, aiming to secure meetings with investors.

The deck should be concise, taking no more than four minutes to read.

The status quo section should clearly define the market problem and solution.

Product screenshots and diagrams are more effective than videos for pitch decks.

The product section should explain what's built, its functionality, and target customers.

Market validation is crucial, showing real customer interest and revenue generation.

A clear business model is necessary, explaining how the company intends to make money.

The market section should demonstrate growth potential and a path to continued expansion.

The 'Why Us' section differentiates the team from competitors and showcases unique insights.

Team bios should highlight relevant experience and contributions to the next fundable milestone.

The 'Why Now' slide can leverage time-sensitive opportunities or unique advantages.

The financial section should detail the ask, including funding amount and use of funds.

A pitch deck builder and investor finder tools are available on the platform.

The deck's order should not disrupt the narrative flow, ensuring a coherent story.

Not every suggested slide is necessary; select those that best answer the pitch's questions.

The importance of industry expertise in crafting the status quo and problem-solution sections.

The audience slide should define a clear target persona for the product.

A case study or sample scenario can effectively demonstrate product adoption and impact.

The product roadmap slide should outline key milestones and future plans.

Transcripts

this is to me the perfect structure for a pitch  deck we've written hundreds of decks using this  

approach over 300 million dollars raised last  year with Decks that we wrote or designed and  

we know that it works and we didn't make this  up of course for years we've looked at pitch  

decks from the most successful companies and  every single one of them focused on telling a  

story this structure helps tell a story in the  end a pitch stick is a story about what your  

company has achieved and wants to continue to  achieve but when your day-to-day is metrics or  

marketing or sales or Building Products it's not  easy to zoom out and distill everything that you  

have in your head so in this video I'm going  to go one by one on those slides give you a  

few pointers on how to solve each one of them  that template is of course available on our  

platform to download because we don't make  a living from YouTube we're in the business  

of helping Founders scale I've done a bunch  of videos on Pitch decks for every year we  

learned something new and we need to update it  so this is everything we know about Pitch decks

foreign to each slide let's like I said zoom  out a bit these are the questions that the pitch  

deck needs to answer what opportunity have you  discovered in the market what have you built to  

tackle it and how does it work who is it for how  much are you growing and will you continue to grow  

and why are you and your team the team that can  change the status quo that's it as you're writing  

your deck make sure that you keep this cheat  sheet of questions as a reference and you want  

to test every single slide that you write against  the question that it's trying to answer now most  

decks are consumed over email decks for demo days  or for meetings with investors can be different  

because you'll be standing in front of the slots  you'll be providing additional context and detail  

and answering questions but those are the minority  to get a meeting with an investor most of them  

will ask you for a deck over email so that they  can consume on their own time before spending a  

half an hour with you I call that an email deck  and it needs to do the job of answering those four  

questions in about four minutes forget about the  number of slides that's pretty relevant it's not  

number of slides it's the time it takes to  consume the deck if your deck is too long or  

your slides are too crowded people will skim  through them instead of reading if your slide  

has three sentences then there's really no way  that you can skip through that you're going to  

read them regardless so now let's tie those  questions to slides or rather to sections of  

the deck the status quo covers what is happening  in the market and what you envision as a solution  

it answers that first question what opportunity  have you discovered in the market then the product  

section answers the question of what have you  built to tackle it how does it work and who is  

it for you can start to figure out that the  slides that would probably go in the section  

all relate to the product it's screenshots its  Target customers Milestones roadmap and business  

model for example next up is the market section  this is targeted at answering the question of  

how much are you growing and how much will the  company continue to grow remember most companies  

raise Capital when they have traction not before  the market section includes things such as the  

go to market strategy which is how you're going  to get customers and the market size which is  

simply how big does a business get finally we  have the Y Us section which covers what you and  

your team are the team to change that status quo  this section gets into the competition and why  

they suck as well as the team and there you go  we've now answered every single question that we  

set out to answer and we can wrap these slides  with an intro and an ask if you've done your  

convincing well you can now ask for funding  now a common question that we get is well can  

this order change I'm all for rules that were  made to be broken statements but if you change  

this order make sure that it doesn't break the  story for example if you sneak the team slide on  

the second slide you're essentially breaking the  answer to that last question in two parts which  

might be harder to get or if you first tell us  about the product without touching on the status  

quo then suddenly the product doesn't necessarily  feel Justified we don't know if there's a need  

in the market for it another important note  before we jump into each one of these slides  

is that you don't need every single one of them  if you add every slide in this guide I guarantee  

you're gonna have a deck that can't be consumed in  four minutes you have to pick the slides that do  

best job at answering your own questions the  questions that your business is answering but  

again you don't need them all and last note before  we get into slides remember that we do this for a  

living in two main ways our platform has a pitch  stick Builder where you can find templates and  

references from hundreds of decks it also has an  investor finder and a four hour course on what  

we're covering today and a bunch of other things  and then we also have an agency branch which is  

a team of analysts and designers that can help  you nail that deck from designing the slides you  

already wrote to writing them from scratch links  below as always including a copy of the template  

that I'm going to show you okay so let's go Slide  by Slide the intro usually means just the coverage  

there's not much to add here other than a tagline  which is this five to seven word description of  

what you do finding a tagline for your business is  not easy took us months to get to hours also the  

tagline is not necessarily your marketing slogan  it's just a good description of what you do in  

plain English without any marketing jargon now if  the company has relevant traction it's sometimes  

useful to brag about that early on to make it  kind of a hook for the rest the deck this must  

be really good traction exciting stuff think 20  monthly growth in revenue or in monthly active  

users not vanity metrics like downloads if you  don't have any of those just keep calm carry on  

get to the status quo remember that in the status  quo section we're answering what opportunity  

you've discovered in the market just keep that in  mind usually this is answered via a slight combo  

it's the problem and the solution and you should  always think of those slides as interconnected  

airbnb's deck from 2009 the one they used for  their y combinator demo day is I think perfect  

example see how their problem statements problems  get matched to a solution on the next slide these  

statements need to be clear objective or based on  real world data for example on Uber's deck we had  

two problem slides which is totally fair and all  of these statements are undebatable medallions  

are expensive hailing is efficient there is no  accountability these are all true statements  

they could have gone with something like the taxi  experience is terrible and I think for you people  

would argue with that but it's always better to  use facts rather than and you can almost connect  

each one of these statements to an Uber feature  so on the problem slide we're looking for short  

to the point statements and facts over opinions on  the solution slide we want to provide an answer to  

each one of those statements on the problem slide  now back to Airbnb notice how this answer doesn't  

come in the form of features we're not getting  into the product just yet the solution slide is  

more of a 30 000 foot view of what your product  what your company does now most companies start  

there the founders identify an efficient process  an underserved Market a missing opportunity in an  

industry and they build a solution around it now  there's an exception here because some startups  

just don't solve problems games for example are  not solving anything they're not solving a lack  

of games in a genre but they're rather tackling  a business opportunity I worked on this deck  

the other day for an EV charging station company  there are plenty of large companies who Supply EV  

Chargers but the industry is expected to grow 10x  over the next 7 years from 10 to 100 plus billion  

dollars there's an obvious business opportunity  here now remember this status quo section is key  

for the investor reading the deck doesn't buy into  this problem they might just stop looking at the  

deck right here this very much connects to doing  your research about that investor you want to be  

sending this to someone who has an interest in the  industry that you're playing in and lastly these  

three or four sentences are key to proving your  own industry expertise normally these problems  

aren't immediately obvious to people so by coming  up with solid questions about that status quo  

you're showing your own expertise in the market  that you intend to Target which you should  

absolutely have in the Consulting projects that we  take these are probably the slides that take the  

most amount of time so don't be afraid if you're  spending a few hours thinking of these problem  

solution combinations and if you're struggling  you know where to find us let's go to the product  

section this is the most flexible really remember  that we're answering what have we built to tackle  

the opportunity how does it work and who is it  for and it's usually easy for us Founders to  

talk about our own products so the challenge for  these slides is mostly about compressing the info  

to a reasonable amount of slides and remember  by amount of slides the concern is not the  

number of slides but the time that it'll take to  consume them a slide with a product screenshot  

and a small caption takes five seconds to consume  we'd rather see three slides like that than trying  

to compress everything in a single slide also you  don't get to see the interface if it's just tiny  

inside a phone now let me speak quickly about the  different slides that you can add to this section  

you can have a slide with some product screenshots  or a demo video not everybody wants to commit two  

or three minutes to watching a video remember  that their time allocation for consuming this  

deck is about four minutes so I always recommend  screenshots over video another way to approach  

this is with a step-by-step diagram showing this  simple map or story of how the platform Works  

Now features slide lets you list some of the core  benefits of the product I always recommend talking  

about the benefit to the user rather than the  feature itself for example for our pitch stick  

Builder we've always used edit your pitch deck  on the go on your phone rather than responsive  

editor also make sure that you show don't tell if  possible easy to use is very subjective while a  

screenshot of a clean interface actually proves  that you made that happen Same by the way for  

AI and ml stuff these have become buzzwords in  the past few years that people throw on quite  

mindlessly it's much better to show how efficient  your AI is at solving a task rather than just  

saying that there's AI or machine learning in your  platform now if your product has a unique piece of  

technology you can use a tech infrastructure slide  to show a diagram of the infrastructure it's not  

particularly common but very much applicable to  blockchain companies for example in which case  

you're essentially elaborating about the white  paper the market validation slide is important  

if your product has a premise that people can  easily get behind back to Airbnb for example  

this idea of people hosting strangers on their  homes wasn't obvious back in 2009 so they used  

Craigslist and Couchsurfing as references to prove  that thousands of people were in fact willing to  

post other people strong Market evaluation slides  use Revenue generating examples I see a lot of  

funders trying to mention that they've interviewed  20 people in the industry which is something you  

should have done anyway so I don't think it  necessarily deserves a slide now I do consider  

the audience slide a necessary one in this slide  you want to identify a Persona that buys your  

product having a well-defined Target user goes a  long way it shows that you know who the product  

is for it shows that you've researched them it  shows that you've narrowed down your focus which  

means that your features and your growth efforts  will have a target a thought out audience rather  

than spreading yourself too thin think of genres  age brackets location income brackets no startup  

can Target all audiences at the same time another  way to approach this Slide by the way especially  

useful for B2B companies is with a case study  ideally this should be an instance where your  

product was adopted by another company so you can  mention who used it how useful was it and how it  

affected their job this once again shows Focus  the business in the case study should reveal  

to the reader the industry and the size of the  company that you target it should also let them  

know who the key person in that company was the  key decision maker who will eventually become your  

buyer and who you're going to be targeting all the  time if you have a real case study absolutely go  

with that if not a sample scenario still works  the business model slide is also necessary I  

think we're going to need those details for  the market so size now this is a pretty easy  

slide that people like to over complicate all  we want to know here is how you make money is  

it a subscription is it a per use thing what's the  average deal size or if it's a Marketplace or any  

Commerce how do your margins look like don't spend  any time on this slide talking about projections  

just tell us how you charge customers and then to  wrap the product section you could add a roadmap  

slide that talks about key product Milestones as  well as future plans for the company remember we  

are talking about the product here it's not about  Revenue again not Revenue projections more about  

the product roadmap investors also don't care  too much about Milestones like incorporation  

or recruiting a team member it's more about the  product itself as for the future your focus should  

be especially on what's going to happen over the  next 12 months which is a time that likely this  

round of capital is going to be funding if you  have a long term or longer term product Vision  

you can even branch that out into a new slot  so that it doesn't feel like a distraction from  

the immediate future which again is where your  investors money is going to go okay so now moving  

into the market section remember what we're trying  to answer here is is how much are you growing and  

how will you continue to grow this all starts with  attraction slide of course if you have no traction  

you should first reconsider who you're pitching  with this deck companies in idea stage can raise  

money from friends and family so you might need  a deck for them but it's unlikely that you will  

raise money from strangers a good traction slide  should show growth on core kpis like revenue or  

monthly active users and avoid vanity metrics  like downloads or signups since they don't really  

represent true adoption of your product lastly  remember that single data points are just dots but  

you can turn that into a story by just turning  them into a chart with historicals making ten  

thousand dollars this month or last month is cool  but we want to know if that's growing or shrinking  

if it's a trend or an anomaly and the easiest and  quickest way to understand that is with a chart  

the go to market slot is another one where we see  a lot of Founders struggle most of the bad slides  

I see are just a list of 10 marketing channels  which shows that the team hasn't really thought  

out any of them through again shows a lack of  focus a great go to market right focuses on  

one maybe two strategies and Dives very deep  into them if these are strategies that you're  

already using you can even get into some of the  unique economics and the costs if they're new  

then you can just detail a plan a timeline budget  expectations ideally these should be campaigns or  

channels that you've previous experienced with  even if it's working within other companies and  

that you can attest to its Effectiveness it's not  just a random list of what you have in mind to do  

go to market is important not only because a good  portion of raised Capital usually gets invested  

in growth but because you need to prove that  you're reaching your next fundable milestone  

for software companies for example a pre-seat  round is usually a pre-product idea stage type  

of round but whatever you raise needs to be  enough to get to the next fundable Milestone  

which is seed funding is seed round again for  software companies is usually raised with a  

live product and with some solid month-over-month  Revenue growth maybe 20 or more once again your  

go to market needs to show that you can reach  the next Milestone which is series a for SAS  

companies specific play series a rounds happen at  around 1.5 to 2 million dollars of annual run rate  

at least Hardware companies blockchain companies  and biotech operate very differently around what  

these Milestones are but again you need to show  that you've budgeted what you need to reach that  

next Milestone the market slide is another slide  where Founders struggle a lot it should answer the  

simple question of how much revenue can your  business generate annually it's not the size  

of the industry it's not the size of the market  in general you don't need to break down the Tam  

Samsung it's about your specific business and how  big it gets the math is extremely simple and at  

the same time it's really hard to get right it's  just potential customers times annual revenue per  

customer that's it finding your annual revenue  per customer depends on the business model slide  

which we touched on already the hard part here  is confirming that your business model is indeed  

compatible with customers that your pricing your  plan will be accepted by the market finding the  

number of customers is the hard part because you  have to really narrow that down to the people  

or the companies that will buy AI from you Steve  harsh one of our investors made a fantastic video  

of good practices on Tam and I'm going to drop it  in the description below okay so now we're at the  

last bit of the deck the question to answer is  why you and your team are the team that changes  

the status quo you can talk about competitors  in a bunch of different ways but the end goal is  

always to show that you understand your market and  that your competitors don't that you have a better  

understanding it's less about comparing features  again it's about why you for example you can use  

the famous to access chart that Steve Jobs used as  long as you use it right those charts work as long  

as you have just two clear variables one for the  horizontal one for the vertical axis it also works  

as long as your product is a clear outlier if you  have other products on that top right section then  

it's not really the best of arguments another  approach is to just list features pricing and  

to compare them that works as long as it focuses  on Market understanding it's not just showing  

that you have more features or cheaper pricing but  confirming that your competitors can easily copy  

this or wouldn't want to the last approach I'll  mention is just list listing three companies and  

writing a few lines about each one of them you can  mention their size their location their funding  

as a reference and then simply State what they  don't know about the market that you do talking  

about how much they've raised also helps give  investors a perspective on how big the market  

can get or how big your company can get as for the  team what we want to see here is not Founders not  

advisors not the entire team but key people the  people on the slide should have the skills to  

bring the company to that next fundable Milestone  if you're building an app then the technical lead  

which is likely your CTO should be here if you're  aiming for 20 month of a month growth then you're  

ahead of marketing or your head of sales should  be here regardless of their founder status if you  

don't have that person on your team you probably  need them before you can actually close around  

recruiting for early stages really hard and money  is not the answer it's networking it's getting  

people to believe in this idea enough to take  a risk and work with you funding is not going  

to solve that we have a whole video on finding  co-founders which I'll also link down below now  

the bios for those people should also focus on  that industry expertise on what they're doing  

for them company what they've done before that's  related to this rather than unrelated achievements  

after looking at thousands of decks trust me Ivy  League schools stopped being surprising they're  

not irrelevant don't get me wrong but experience  is what really makes a team interesting now you  

can close the Ys section with a why now slide  which is optional but useful if there's some time  

constraint that you want to use to your advantage  to close the round if for example there are a few  

competitors at the moment either because people  haven't figured out this business opportunity or  

because there's some legal or logistic barrier for  others to enter the market and money can make you  

sort of win that race you can also frame this  slide as the secret sauce where you highlight  

some unique technology strong network connections  or a very unique understanding that nobody else  

has and that sort of protects you that builds a  mode against these competitors and that concludes  

the story side of the deck and if you did your job  well investors should be convinced by now the last  

couple slides which would represent the ask focus  on your financial estimations and on the amount of  

money that you're raising the terms and the use of  funds but it's not about the story of the company  

now by no means should you underestimate these  slides mind you we have plenty of videos covering  

how to solve your financial models including this  one from last week which covers Financial modeling  

from the abstract to the spreadsheet remember  that this template that I've been referring to  

is available for download and swiping with just  a click you can apply your branding and be on  

your way if you need our help to write or design  any of the slides on the deck you can chat with  

our sales team I've linked their calendars  Below Good Luck thanks a lot for watching