This morning, I opened a deck and said "Oh, no." They had done the unthinkable: written a 44 slide deck.
There are 5 pitch deck mistakes that cause the big vein in my forehead to bulge. I'll tell you what they are, so you can avoid them.
The Forbidden Five
1) Too long. A deck should be a short, punchy summary of your company.
Aim for 10-12 slides. You definitely don't want 44 — and believe it or not, I've seen even longer ones than that.
This morning, I looked at 22 decks in a row. Other investors are doing the same.
We need to find out the basics on your startup and move on to the next. Please, make it easy for us — keep it brief!
When your deck is too long, the odds go up that the investor says "Ahh!" and just closes it. You don't want that to happen.
2) Too much text. I'm squinting, I'm pulling my laptop closer to my face. And I still can't read it.
Decks do not lend themselves to large amounts of text. The slides become crowded and unreadable.
Leave the narrative in the deal memo. Keep the deck simple.
Each slide should be a single thought. Aim for a single sentence, phrase, or chart.
Your ideas get lost when the slides aren't legible.
3) Fantasyland TAM's. "Real estate is a $114 trillion industry!" Whenever I see something like that, I turn a sickly shade of green.
Giant, fantasyland numbers mean nothing. And when you throw them around, it's hard to take you seriously.
Here's how to do a proper TAM…
Let's say that the company in question is a prop tech SaaS startup. They sell a building management platform to property management companies.
Their software costs $10,000 a year and there are around 50,000 potential customers. So, the TAM is $500 million.
Keep your numbers rooted in reality. A smaller number with strong justification behind it is way more convincing than a huge figure plucked from nowhere.
4) Advisors. Ick.
Never include advisors in your slide deck. They will have little or no effect on your company. They're just not relevant.
When a startup puts advisors in the deck, it makes me think they don't have anything more substantive to show.
Keep the focus on the actual team, the product, and the customers.
5) Word salad. Do not use any of these words: democratize, streamline, poised, line of sight, dynamic, or stakeholders.
No jargon, ever! Instead, tell us in clear language what you do, why it matters, and how it's going.
Wrap-Up
Founders, I love ya. You're working hard and moving the world forward, bit by bit.
That's why I'm telling you this. I don't want investors to pass on your company just because your deck is a mess.
The good news is, these problems are easy to fix! Take a couple hours, sit down, and fix them!
I guarantee you it will be worth it.
What are your slide deck pet peeves?
More on tech:
Retool's YC Demo Day Pitch
Meet My Latest Investment: North
How to Ace a 3 Minute Pitch
Save Money on Stuff I Use:
Fundrise
This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I'm not too exposed to any one market. I've invested since 2018 with great returns.
More on Fundrise in this post.
If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!
Misfits Market
I've used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!
I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.
Use this link to sign up and you'll save $15 on your first order.
No comments:
Post a Comment