Tamara- Tamara
Pitch deck & pitching: everything you need to know
"Don't judge a book by its cover" doesn't apply in the startup world. Investors look at hundreds, even thousands of pitch decks. Sometimes, it just takes 30 seconds to move on to the next one. For an investor to read on, you have to make sure your pitch is
Catchy from the first slide
Looks good and lean
Is structured and "to the point" (no bla bla)
In this section, we will look at
What a pitch deck is
Why it's important
What needs to be included in the pitch deck
How to make it stand out
Different types of pitches (elevator pitch, 3 min pitch, 10 min pitch)
Tips on how to pitch
What's a Pitch Deck?
A pitch deck is a presentation of 10-20 slides, designed to present a business idea and a business plan in a condensed way (no one makes traditional business 100 pages Word business plans anymore).
Why are Pitch Decks important?
A pitch's purpose is to get a meeting with the investor. And that's something many startups get wrong. They think a pitch deck is supposed to give all the details about a business, so that an investor can make a decision whether to invest. However, this is not the right approach. The pitch deck's goal, actually, is to make the investor interested and make him want to learn more about the business over a meeting. Thus, a pitch deck becomes not a full overview of a business and its business plan, but a means to get a meeting to explain the business further.
The same applies to applications to incubators, accelerators and startup competition. However, some of them might have different requirements you should check before applying.