Naomi Kokubo

Naomi Kokubo

by Naomi Kokubo, Editor of Founders Space

I’m always looking around for good sample pitch decks. Entrepreneurs keep asking me how to create the best pitches for VCs and angels.  Well, here’s a good one that I came across today:  View Pitch Deck.

High-level Suggestions from ReOverThinking:

  • Create your own deck: This is as true today as it was last year; create a deck that allows you to tell your story according to your style and your business; use your own look and feel; name the slides what you want; tell your story with text, pictures, spreadsheets, etc.
  • Don’t leave out any critical information: This outline is my list of what constitutes “critical information;”  no professional investor will fund your company without knowing the information suggested by this outline.  That said, force yourself to limit your core investor pitch slides to less than 12…put everything else you think you might want to talk about in a “back-up slides” section after the final, “Thank you,” slide.  In my experience, you will rarely get through a 20-slide investor pitch.
  • Proactively answer the big questions: If there are obvious, elephant-in-the-room sort of questions regarding your business: address them before they get asked.  This is always a better way to go.
  • Be passionate and informed: A core part of what investors look for and “invest in” is the team itself – show them your passion and be sure to know data from adjacent or competitive markets, companies, and models. Smart investors want to see a self-aware founding team that knows what they don’t know as well as understands their collective strengths and weaknesses. Investors want to see a team that is comfortable NOT knowing all the answers (this is the nature of being an entrepreneur)…as long as the team has the drive and determination to find and verify that answer.
  • Finally: At a tactical look-and-feel level, it’s important to have enough white space in your presentation format.  I like a white background because it prints and projects cleanly.  I like titles that are single-line and as few words as possible; less is more in a presentation because it allows for questions and conversation instead of simple presentation of the ideas.

View Sample Pitch Deck on ReOverThinking.com