what are pitch presentation

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What Makes a Great Pitch

• Michael Quinn

It’s all about reading the room.

A good pitch is a balancing act that can be adjusted to the currents in the room. A recent survey of HBR readers found — at least in this community — how important it is to understand not just what you are pitching, but who you are pitching to. The reason? The more senior your audience, the less you should rely on your deck and the more you should expect your pitch to be a conversation, showing your team’s authentic passion for the challenge or problem and their resilience for solving it creatively, together.

Pitching for new business is a make-or-break moment for many teams. You want to win the pitch, and so you develop a detailed slide deck, tout your credentials, capabilities and successes (case studies), and select your strongest presenter – possibly the leader of your team or company — to do all the talking. Right? Wrong.

• MQ Michael Quinn is the founder of Minor Nobles, the NYC-based consultancy offering workshops, webinars, rehearsals and 1:1 training to help teams and leaders update their behavior to win more pitches for new business and investment. He is also a faculty instructor for the Association of National Advertisers and host of the podcast, “Own The Room,” where top executives discuss their own experiences pitching and what they wish people would do more often, or avoid altogether, in pitches to them.

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30+ Best Pitch Deck Examples, Tips & Templates

By Ryan McCready , Jul 04, 2023

A startup is, by definition, a fast-growing company. And to grow you need funding.

Enter the pitch deck.

Haven’t created a winning pitch deck before? No worries. You’ll find a ton of pre-made pitch deck templates and designs inspired by the examples throughout.

Then, use Venngage’s Presentation Maker to easily edit the templates — no technical expertise required.

A well-designed pitch deck is vital to convincing investors that your company has massive growth potential, so you can get the resources you need to scale.

In this post, we’ll look at the best startup pitch deck examples from heavy-hitters such as Guy Kawasaki, Airbnb, Uber and Facebook. We’ll also uncover the secrets of their successful startup pitch decks, and how you can leverage them to attract investor dollars, bring on new business partners and win new client contracts.

 Table of contents (click to jump ahead):

• What is a pitch deck?

What is the purpose of a pitch deck?

What makes a good pitch deck, best pitch deck examples & sample pitch deck templates, what is the difference between a pitch deck vs business plan, pitch deck faq, create a pitch deck in 4 easy steps, what is a pitch deck .

A pitch deck is a presentation created to raise venture capital for your business. In order to gain buy-in and drum up financial support from potential investors, these presentations outline everything from why your business exists, to your business model, progress or milestones , your team, and a call-to-action.

The best startup pitch decks can help you:

• Prove the value of your business
• Simplify complex ideas so your audience can understand them (and get on board)
• Differentiate your business from competitors
• Tell the story behind your company to your target audience (and make that story exciting)

What is a pitch deck presentation?

A pitch deck presentation is a slideshow that introduces a business idea, product, or service to investors. Typically consisting of 10–20 slides, a pitch deck is used to persuade potential investors to provide funding for a business. It serves as a comprehensive overview of your company, outlining your business model, the problem you solve, the market opportunity you address, your key team members, and your financial projections.

The purpose of a pitch deck presentation can be to generate interest, secure funding, form partnerships or gain clients. A well-crafted pitch deck can greatly support a pitch deck presentation by effectively conveying the key messages, engaging the audience , and enhancing the overall impact of the presentation.

Great. Now let’s take a look at the elements of a good pitch deck.

To summarize, some of my favorite pitch deck design tips include:

• Adding icon headers to your most important insights
• Use similar charts and graphs for easy comparisons across slides
• For longer pitch decks, switch up the slide layouts
• Pick a consistent theme for your presentation background images
• Don’t just list your ideal users, create visual personas
• Use a timeline to show how your company has grown
• Always do the math for your audience

Now let’s take a look at some of the best startup pitch deck examples out there. 

1.  Sequoia capital pitch deck

How much did they raise? Sequoia Capital is actually a Venture Capital firm. According to TechCrunch , they’ve raised almost $1B for later-stage U.S. investments.

Key takeaway : “If you can’t tell the story of the company in five minutes, then you’re either overthinking it or you haven’t simplified it down enough.” – Mike Vernal, Sequoia Capital

VC firm Sequoia Capital has its own  10-slide pitch deck format to rival Guy Kawasaki’s famous example that we’ll take a look at a little later on. Its highly-curated, clarified format shines a spotlight on innovative ideas.

As the video above suggests, effectively communicating your mission, not just listing features, is key. Below is our take on the Sequoia Capital pitch deck example; you’ll find it clean, clear and easy to create.

Design tip : Click the blue background and select a new color from our color wheel (or one of your own brand colors via My Brand Kit, available with Venngage for Business ) to create a pitch deck with your branding.

Related:  How to Make Successful Financial Pitch Decks For Startups

Blue and pink iconics pitch deck

Ready to try it for yourself? Add a pop of color to your version of the Sequoia pitch deck template with this pink and blue slide deck. The contrasting colors will make your information stand out.

2. Airbnb pitch deck

How much did they raise?  $20k at three months and $600k at eight months (seed), according to Vator .

Key takeaway: A large marketplace, impressive rate of traction and a market ready for a new competitor are the factors which made Airbnb stand out early on, says Fast Company. The organization’s slide deck clearly demonstrates these points.

Your pitch deck should explain the core information in your business plan in a simple and straightforward way. Few startups have done this as well as Airbnb.

We’ve re-designed Airbnb’s famous deck as two light and airy sample pitch deck templates. The focus here is on engaging visuals, with minimal text used.

Airbnb fundraising slide deck

This type of deck is also called a demo day presentation .  Since its going to be viewed from a distance by investors while you present, you don’t need lots of text to get your message across. The point is to complement your speech, not distract from it.

Another great thing about Airbnb’s fundraising slide deck format is that every slide has a maximum of three sections of information:

As one of the most popular presentation layouts , the rule of three design principle has been drilled into my head. And for good reason!

Here’s one of the slides that demonstrates why this pitch deck design tip works:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:  Learn how to customize this pitch deck template by watching this quick 8-minute video.

Minimalist Airbnb pitch deck template

This simple sample pitch deck template is clean and incredibly easy to customize, making it perfect for presentation newbies.

Don’t forget to insert your own tagline instead of the famous “Book rooms with locals, rather than hotels” slogan. Hint: your tagline should similarly convey what your business offers. Airbnb’s pitch deck offers up tantalizing benefits: cost savings, an insider’s perspective on a location and new possibilities.

Design tip : Click the text boxes in our online editor and add your own words to the pitch decks. Duplicate slides you like, or delete the ones you don’t.

Related:  How to Create an Effective Pitch Deck Design [+Examples]

3. Uber pitch deck

How much did they raise? $1.57M in seed funding in 2010, reports Business Insider .

Key takeaway : Successful pitch decks clearly highlight the key pain point (the inefficiency of cabs) and a tantalizing solution (fast, convenient 1-click ordering).

Uber co-founder Garrett Camp shared the company’s very first pitch deck from 2008 via a  Medium post .

While there’s a surprising amount of text, it still manages to hit on every major part of their business plan succinctly — including key differentiators, use cases and best/worst-case scenarios.

Want something similar? We’ve updated the classic Uber pitch deck template with a sharp layout:

Uber investor deck

Many of the best pitch deck presentations out there are rather brief, only covering a few main points across a handful of slides. But sometimes your deck needs to provide more information.

There’s nothing wrong with having a longer investor pitch deck, as long as you switch up the slide layouts throughout — no one wants to see basically the same slide (just with different metrics or points) 25 times over.

This sample pitch deck template we created based on the infamous Uber deck has 20 or more slides and a diversity of layout options:

Design tip : Replace the photos with your own or browse our in-editor library with thousands of free professional stock images. To do so, double click any image to open our “replace” feature. Then, search for photos by keyword.

Blue Uber slide deck

In this navy version of the Uber pitch deck template, we’ve added bright colors and creative layouts.

Again, it’s easy to swap out the icons in our online editor. Choose from thousands of free icons in our in-editor library to make it your own.

Related : 9 Tips for Improving Your Presentation Skills For Your Next Meeting

4. Guy Kawasaki pitch deck

How much did they raise?  Guy Kawasaki’s Garage Capital raised more than $315 million dollars for its clients, according to one estimate .

Key takeaway : Avoid in-depth technical discussions in your pitch deck. Focus on the pain point you’re solving, how you’ll solve it, how you’ll make money and how you’ll reach custvomers.

Guy Kawasaki’s 10 slide outline is famous for its laser focus. He’s renowned for coining the 10/20/30 rule : 10 slides, 20 minutes and no fonts smaller than 30 point.

While you may be tempted to include as much of your business plan as possible in your pitch deck, his outline forces you to tease out your most important content and engage investors or clients within a short time span.

We’re recreated his famous outline in two winning templates you can adapt and make your own:

Gradient Guy Kawasaki pitch deck

This clean pitch deck template has all the sections you need and nothing you don’t.

Kawasaki’s format steers you towards what venture capitalists really care about : problem/solution, technology, competition, marketing plan, your team, financial projections and timeline.

Read our blog post on persuasive presentations for more design and speaking tips.

Design tip : Quickly add in charts and graphs with our in-editor chart maker. You can even import data from Excel or Google sheets.

Blue Guy Kawasaki pitch deck

This more conservative pitch deck template design keeps all the focus on the core information.

Remember: opt for a 30-point font or larger. This will force you to stick to your key points and explain them clearly. Anything smaller, and you’ll risk losing your audience — especially if they’re busy reading while tuning out what you’re actually saying.

5. Buffer pitch deck

How much did they raise?  $500k, according to Buffer’s co-founder Leo Widrich .

Key takeaway : The traction slide was key for Buffer: it showed they had a great product/market fit. If you have great traction, it’s much easier to raise funding.

What’s interesting about Buffer’s pitching process was the issue of competition, as that’s where many talks stalled. Investors became confused, since the social media landscape looked crowded and no one was sure how Buffer differed.

Eventually, they created this slide to clear the air:

To be frank, I’m still confused by this addition to the Buffer pitch deck, but perhaps their presentation would have cleared things up.

In any case, we’ve recreated Buffer’s pitch deck with its own traction, timeline and competitor slides, plus a clean new layout and some easy-to-customize icons:

Design tip : don’t forget to add a contact slide at the end of your pitch deck, like in the business pitch example below.

Because sometimes you’re going to pitch to a small room of investors. Other times, it will be to an auditorium full of random people in your industry. And I can guarantee that not everyone is going to know your brand off the top of their head.

You should make it extremely easy for people to find out more info or contact your team with any questions. I would recommend adding this to the last slide, as shown below.

Alternatively, you could add it to the slide that will be seen the longest in your pitch deck, like the title slide. This will help anyone interested write down your information as event organizers get things ready.

Related:  Creating a Pitch Deck? 5 Ways to Design a Winner

6. Facebook pitch deck

How much did they raise? $500K in angel funding from venture capitalist Peter Thiel (first round).

Key takeaway : If you don’t have revenue traction yet, lean heavily on other metrics , like customer base, user engagement and growth.  Use a timeline to tell a story about your company.

The best pitch decks tell the real story about your company or brand. You should not only want to sell the audience on your product but also on the hard work you’ve done building it from the ground up.

Design tip: Try data visualizations to relay a company or product timeline . Since people are familiar with the format and know how to read them quickly, you can convey the information impactfully and save room while you’re at it.

Here, Facebook’s classic pitch deck shows the incredible schools that’ve already signed on and describe when future launches will happen.

The sample pitch deck template featured below shows another example of a company or product timeline . This would have been a great fit in the Facebook pitch deck, don’t you think?

Plus you can summarize a ton of information about your brand on a single slide. Check out how well the timeline fits into this pitch deck template below:

If the designer wouldn’t have used a timeline, the same information could have been spread over five or six extra slides! Luckily, Venngage’s timeline maker can help you visualize progress across a period of time without any design experience required.

7. TikTok Pitch Deck

How much did they raise? $150.4M in funding in 2014 (back when TikTok was called Musical.ly), says Crunchbase .

Key takeaway : Use icons as visual anchors for written information.

(The full slide deck is available to Digiday subscribers , though you can view some of the key slides in this Medium post . Keep in mind: this TikTok pitch deck was created for potential advertisers, not investors. No other TikTok pitch decks are publicly available.)

What TikTok does really well in the above example is use icons as visual anchors for their stats. (I could write a whole article about using icons in your presentations correctly. There are so many ways you can use them to upgrade your slides.)

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, just look at the slide deck template below.

Each of the main points has an icon that gives instant visual context about what the stat is about to the audience. These icons draw the eye immediately to these important facts and figures as well.

Design tip: Remember to use icons that have a similar style and color palette. Otherwise, you run the risk of them becoming a distraction.

8. Y Combinator pitch deck

How much did they raise? This startup accelerator has invested in over 3,500 startups to date, according to the company website . They state their combined valuation nears $1 trillion.

Key takeaway : Create clear, concise pitch deck slides that tell a story investors can understand in seconds.

The classic Y Combinator pitch deck is incredibly simple, and for good reason. Seed stage companies can’t provide much detail, so they should focus on telling a story about their company.

That means your slides should tell a story investors can immediately understand in a glance.

Note that one of Y Combinator’s key components is the problem (above) and solution (below) slides.

Explaining how your startup is going to solve a pain point is a vital part of any slide deck. According to Y Combinator , startups should use the problem slide to show the problem your business solves, and how this problem currently affects businesses and/or people. Additionally, if you’re starting a new startup, forming an LLC could be a great choice to launch your business in the right direction.

Without that information, investors are going to be left with more questions than answers.

The solution slide should show the real-world benefits of your product/service. I recommend using data visualization to show traction, like the chart above, with a couple of notes for context.

To ensure your problem and solutions slides are easily understood, use a similar layout for both, as shown below.

This will help the audience quickly recall the main problem you want to solve, and connect it to your solution (even if the slides are separated by a few other points or ideas).

9. Front pitch deck

How much did they raise ? $10M in Series A funding

Key takeaway : Use a simple flowchart to visualize a problem your product/service solves.

Not everyone is going to be able to explain their problem and solution as succinctly as the previous examples. Some will need to take a unique approach to get their point across.

That’s why I want to highlight how Front masterfully communicated the problem to be solved. They likely realized it would be a lot easier (and cleaner) to create a flow chart that visualizes the problem instead of text. (Did I mention you can make your own flowcharts with Venngage?)

Also, I really like how they distilled each down to a single phrase. That approach, combined with the visuals, will help it stick in investors’ minds as one of the best pitch decks.

Here’s another example pitch deck that uses a chart to convey their problem/solution:

It splits the competition slide right down the middle to illustrate the differences. It also shows exactly how the processes differ between the two entities using mini flowcharts.

Helping the audience make the right conclusions about your company should be an important part of your pitch deck strategy. Without saying a word, the visual choices you make can greatly impact your message.

10. Crema pitch deck

How much did they raise? $175K in seed funding .

Key takeaway : Choose background images carefully — making sure they have a similar color palette.

The best pitch decks keep things consistent, mainly because there are so many moving parts in any presentation. You want each of your slides to feel like they’re connected by a singular feeling or theme. An out-of-place presentation background image can throw that off.

Keeping things consistent when you use a solid background color or pattern isn’t hard. But things can get tricky if you want to use different photos for your backgrounds.

However, if you pick presentation background images that have a similar color palette, you’ll be fine. Check out the images Crema used in their startup pitch deck below:

If you’re struggling to find exactly the same colored photos, you can use a color filter to make things more uniform.

11. WeWork pitch deck

How much did they raise? $6.9M in seed funding in 2011, says Crunchbase .

Key takeaway : Put your metrics on display.

The behemoths at WeWork still have one of the best software pitch decks, despite recent troubles (layoffs, and a valuation that dropped from $47 billion to $2.9 billion).

In fact, this investor pitch deck actually helped them raise money at a $5 billion valuation.

My favorite thing from this is how their key metrics are on the second slide. They waste no time getting down to business!

A lot of the time brands hide these metrics at the end of their presentation, but WeWork made sure to put it front and center in their slide deck.

This approach puts the audience in a positive state of mind, helping them be more receptive to the pitch.

12. Crew (Dribble) pitch deck

How much did they raise? $2M in seed funding

Key takeaway : Start your presentation with a simple statement to set the tone.

Sometimes you have to set the mood of the room before you jump into your slide deck. A simple way to do this is by adding a powerful statement or famous quote at the beginning of your slides.

This may sound cliche, but the creatives over at Crew (now Dribbble ) used this approach well in their pitch presentation.

By claiming that every business is an online business, they instantly change the way that people think about the business sector.

Additionally, the designers used this straightforward statement to set up the rest of the presentation. In the next few slides, the potential market is explained. Without the statement, I don’t think these numbers would be as impactful.

Let’s take a look at the graphs and charts the Dribble team used in their slide deck. In the below business pitch example, you can see that the line charts use the same color palette, size, and typography.

One of my favorite tips from my presentation ideas roundup article states you should never make the audience do the math.

You can also use this mantra when you’re adding data visualizations to your slides. Make each slide extra easy to consume, as well as, easy to compare to other visualizations.

Below the pie charts use the exact same color palette, size, and typography as well:

If the designers would have used a different example, the audience would be distracted trying to decipher the information.

But consistent design across multiple visualizations will ensure your audience can make comparisons that lead to the right conclusions.

Pro Tip: You can use a comparison infographic to summarize key points you’re comparing.

13. Aspire Food Group pitch deck

How much did they raise? $1M from the Hult Prize in 2013 to scale their project.

Key takeaway : Simple graphics clearly illustrate the problem (food security), the size of the market and Aspire’s unique farming project (spoiler alert: it’s insects).

Nonprofits pitching donors or social enterprises pitching for funding have a slightly different challenge than other organizations. They need to present a unique solution and  make an emotional connection to their audience.

Aspire’s simple pitch deck graphics allow investors to grasp their unique business idea at a glance. Plus, by introducing the audience to one of their customers and describing how insect farming has impacted her food budget, the concept is made relatable to many.

Another simple design hack is to choose a unique background for your nonprofit or social enterprise pick deck. Take this sample pitch deck template:

There are millions of stock photos out there for you to pick from, so finding one that will work shouldn’t be too hard.

However, when you’re picking your presentation background images , it’s important to make sure it matches your message or brand.

In the above example, the pitch deck’s slightly crumpled paper background fits an eco-friendly startup well.   Especially because eco-friendly living and minimalism share similar tenants.

Another great example is this sponsorship pitch deck above. It elevates the message by opting for a simplistic background choice.

With a beautiful yet minimalistic slide deck like this, who wouldn’t want to donate?

Most of the time your pitch deck background images are supposed to be used in a supporting role. However, you can also design your presentation around the background images to create some of the best pitch decks out there.

As you can see in this pitch deck template, we added written content to the white space in each of the stock photos:

Plus no one can really copy your pitch deck layout, so you will instantly stand out from other companies.

Be sure to pick photos that share the same color palette and theme. Otherwise, the benefits of using these presentation backgrounds will be lost.

14. Mattermark pitch deck

How much did they raise? A total of $17.2M so far, says Crunchbase .

Key takeaway : Use screenshots in your pitch deck to show the problem you’re solving.

Highlighting digital problems is tough when you have limited space and time…like when you’re pitching your new digital product to a room full of investors.

That’s why some of the best pitch decks include screenshots of the problem being solved.

As you can see above, the people from Mattermark used screenshots to show how unorganized SAAS reporting was. At that time it was spread over a ton of different sites, with different reporting standards and values.

It would be difficult to sell an investor on their product just by talking about the market. Mainly because not a lot of people have experience in that specific niche.

But with a handful of screenshots, they were able to highlight the product potential almost instantly.

In terms of design, the team at Mattermark stuck to the rule of three (see slide below). This rule will help you keep your team from overwhelming the audience with a flood of stats or figures.

They also decided to make these figures easier to consume by highlighting them in different colors

Compared to a boring list of figures, it’s a lot easier to remember three distinct colored numbers. Plus because the background colors darken as they go, it naturally guides the reader’s eyes down the slide.

15. Dwolla pitch deck

How much did they raise? $12M in funding as of 2018.

Key takeaway : Give the reason your company was founded in one quick sentence.

In many of our own presentations, we talk about how Venngage started from humble beginnings before undergoing tremendous growth in just a few years.

That’s because people love origin stories — they help your audience connect with your brand and appreciate all the work put into it.

Take a look at the pitch deck slide from Dwolla above. In a single sentence, they outline their reason for doing business, and what they hope to solve.

Just be sure to talk about your company founding in the first few slides of your pitch. Otherwise, it won’t have the same impact.

On another note, as a design company, we always love to see people create great visualizations in their pitch decks — particularly when these visuals communicate key information well….like when it comes to your ideal users!

I have seen a lot of brands just talk about their users, but I recommend creating visual user personas instead. Our persona guides can help you with this!

As you can see above, Dwolla visualized their user personas for each use case.

These visual user personas allow audiences to put a “real” face to your user base. And if you have many ideal users (like Dwolla), it helps keep each group organized.

16. Kickfolio (App.io) pitch deck 

How much did they raise? $1M in seed funding.

Key takeaway : Go for huge graphs! The bigger, the better.

Be proud of your brand’s growth and metrics in your slide deck.

You worked hard to grow a company from nothing, and that’s a big achievement! So why would you want to make that growth hard to see?

However, I’ve seen a lot of people inadvertently hide their key metrics by using small graphs or charts.

The only solution to this problem is…get bigger with your graphs! And I mean huge, like the ones App.io deployed in the pitch deck above. Their graph is so large and imposing, every audience member could see it clearly.

Venngage’s  graph maker can help you do this for your own pitch decks too.

17. Yalochat pitch deck

How much did they raise? $15M in Series B funding, says TechCrunch.

Key takeaway : Use icons as illustrations to add instant context.

Icons have been making a comeback in the design world over the past few years. According to recent reports on graphic design trends , they’ll continue to be popular.

This presentation from Yalochat is one of the best examples of how to use illustrated icons correctly.

Each icon perfectly illustrates the point being made on each slide, giving instant context. They will definitely catch the eyes of any audience member.

Just remember to follow their lead and  use consistently designed icons !

18. Brex pitch deck

How much did they raise? $1.5 billion to date.

Key takeaway : Include a single slide about your team and highlight what makes them truly exceptional.

Another important part of your story is the people who helped you build your company. These people are the lifeblood of your brand, and what helps it stand out from the competitors.

Corporate card startup Brex does this well by using team member photos, and including their titles and company affiliations to build credibility. You can download the Brex slides for free, thanks to Business Insider .

Let’s tale a look at a sample pitch deck that employs a similar philosophy.

I’m guessing you already planned on adding something similar to your pitch deck. Again, I would recommend using only a single team slide like they did.

You can use a team photo if you want to talk about the whole team, or add an organizational chart instead. Alternatively, like Brex, you can highlight the most important individuals, like this business pitch example:

Whatever you choose to do, don’t forget to talk about your team on a team slide, and highlight the people who make your company truly great.

Read More:  12+ Organizational Chart Examples and Templates

19. Purple Go pitch deck

How much did they raise? Undisclosed.

Key takeaway : Use a contrasting hue to draw your audience’s attention to key information.

Color isn’t just about making your designs look good — it can also draw your audience’s attention to important information.

For example, take a look at this simple pitch deck from Purple Go . They contrast deep purple with white to help certain sentences pop.

This is a simple way to make your slides have a lot of impact; pick colors that contrast boldly with each other.

20. Mint pitch deck

How much did they raise? $31M to date, according to Mint.

Key takeaway : Add visual cues, such as illustrations and icons, to help explain your brand to investors.

I’m guessing your pitch deck is already going to touch on how you stand out from the competition. But just listing a few things that set you apart may not be enough on your slide deck!

You may need to add some visual cues to help the audience out.

We decided to redesign Mint’s original deck for a contemporary take on this.

In this minimalist pitch deck template, our designers used visuals to make the main company stand out even more. And best of all, it doesn’t distract from the minimalist theme.

This simple addition to your slides will help your information jump off the page, providing a rewarding visual break from related companies.

21. Park Evergreen (Plot) pitch deck

How much did they raise? $400k in seed funding.

Key takeaway : Give each metric its own slide.

Generally, slide decks are full of important metrics that you’re supposed to remember. But not all of those numbers are presented in a way that would make them easy to.

Some are hidden in long paragraphs, while others are smashed together with less important findings.

That’s why I’m a huge fan of how Park Evergreen (now called Plot ) included important numbers in this slide deck. As you can see below, each metric is given its own slide:

With this approach, the audience members place their full attention on that number. And they’ll be able to recall the information a lot quicker.

It may look overly simple to some, but the best pitch decks use this tactic a lot.

22. Hampton Creek (Eat Just) pitch deck

How much did they raise? $1.5M in Series A.

Key takeaway : Create a minimalist title slide to build anticipation for your presentation.

You probably know that presentations don’t always run as smoothly as planned. With long breaks and technical problems, the time between presentations can end up running rather long.

Translation: you might spend more time looking at the title slide than the actual presentation itself.

So if you really want to build some anticipation for your pitch, create a minimalist (some might even say, mysterious) title slide. As you can see, the team at Eat Just (once known as Hampton Creek) did just that.

The lack of information makes spectators want to learn more about your brand, effortlessly engaging them.

The only negative is that no one is going to know the name of your company — yet.

23. Sickweather pitch deck

How much did they raise? $2.6M to date, according to Crunchbase.

Key takeaway : Pull out the main metrics from your graphs and charts to make your slide a snap to understand.

Remember when I said: “Don’t make your audience do the math”?

Yeah. That’s because people hate doing math — so you never want to make investors try to calculate your data themselves. Especially when dealing with millions of dollars, tiny percent changes or other complicated numbers.

Out of all the tips in this article, this one might be the most important. Mainly because forgetting this idea all but guarantees your failure.

That’s why I recommend you “do the math” on every slide where you include a graph or chart — like how Sickweather did above.

By pulling out the main growth metrics from the graph, they made this slide a lot more consumable, and showed the audience exactly what they should pay attention to.

24. Dutchie pitch deck

How much did they raise? $35M in 2020, according to TechCrunch .

Key takeaway : Set the tone by putting your most impressive stat(s) in the introduction.

Dutchie, an all-in-one technology platform for eCommerce, POS and payments, wastes no time coming out the gates with one impressive insight: “10% of all legal cannabis in the world” is purchased through their product.

Now I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty tantalizing.

So it makes perfect sense they would pull it out from their market share figures and feature it in their introduction. By doing so, investors get an idea how successful and established Dutchie is right off the bat.

25. Studysmarter pitch deck

How much did they raise?  $15M according to TechCrunch .

Key takeaway : Illustrate your vision over several slides.

Rather than dedicate one slide to their vision for the company, digital learning company Studysmarter continuously brings up how their product will be understood in the future — as “the world’s central hub” for “lifelong” learning, becoming the “largest learning platform in Europe” by 2021.

While this visionary sentiment is not new to the pitch deck industry, it makes sense Studysmarter would want to focus much of their presentation slide deck on this idea: the idea of an unlimited target market and use cases.

Design wise, their illustrations are consistent, using visuals to illustrate their message and various target demographics.

These graphics build off the sleek, modern interface Studysmarter’s brand image invokes. It also illustrates what they want investors to envision for the future of the brand.

26. Clearbanc (Clearco) Pitch Deck

How much did they raise? $70M in series A funding, according to TechCrunch.

Key takeaway : Use flow charts to communicate complicated processes.

As a company that offers startups “growth capital for the new economy” through non-dilutive revenue-share agreements, Clearco (previously known as Clearbanc) wins big by communicating how the process works in less than a slide’s time.

That’s right: the company uses a flowchart .

For complicated business processes that would normally take several slides of text to communicate, a flowchart is a smart way to visualize a process while saving space and keeping your audience engaged.

Particularly for a company like Clearco, this is key for getting investors up to speed. Then you can move on to the other facts and figures they’ll surely want to hear.

27. Foursquare Pitch Deck

Key takeaway : Show how the end-product looks in your presentation.

Okay look, I get it. This slide deck from 2009 is certainly behind on times when it comes to design tips in this current day and age…

BUT take it back to more than a decade ago, and you’ll see why Foursquare’s pitch deck won big with investors.

As one of the first businesses to employ gamification, the company lets this selling proposition shine by using an iPhone graphic to show how the app’s points and badges look to the end-user. These visuals communicate the appeal by showcasing exactly how consumers will interact with, and understand, the product.

In essence, it takes the guesswork out of their pitch.

So while the text-heavy aspect of this sample pitch deck isn’t exactly ideal, their use of visuals can teach us a lesson.

28. TalentBase pitch deck

How much did they raise?   $330K to date.

Key takeaway : Let the numbers do the talking.

Rather than take up a ton of slide space in this pitch deck example, TalentBase, an affordable payroll solution , focused their real estate on the real deal-closers: the numbers.

While this won’t work for every business, as you may need to add more slides to truly explain the environment your organization exists in and your processes, TalentBase uses their positioning to drive forward a captivating narrative.

And this narrative utilizes only numbers to connect the dots in the mind of potential investors about the value TalentBase offers, in terms of market capture.

29. Peloton pitch deck

Key takeaway : Discuss both the tangible and intangible benefits your product offers.

In 2018, back before the real pandemic hey-day of this tech unicorn, Peloton dazzled in a funding round and managed to capture in $550M funding.

Part of this can be attributed to Peloton’s emphasis on the benefits it brings customers.

Across multiple slides, the exercise equipment and media company highlights how customers’ lives are improved in various emotional and functional ways. Since this connection lays the groundwork for long-term B2C relationships, investors can immediately identify the value encompassed by this modern fitness tool.

Looking to try something similar? Check out the below Peloton sample pitch deck, reimagined by our Venngage design team.

EDIT THIS PITCH DECK

30. Ledgy pitch deck

How much did they raise? $ 10M in September 2021.

Key takeaway : Cut down on space with text and graphics that follow a clear logical narrative.

In just seven slides, the equity management and investor relations platform, Ledgy, was able to convince their audience that their product was worth investing in.

By putting their mission first, and following it up with engaging visuals, the company tells a story despite using minimal text.

Yoko Spirig, CEO and co-founder of Ledgy, echoed this sentiment in an interview : “Starting with the ‘why’ lets you build the business case for the product, and create a logical narrative that investors can follow.”

That’s why, design-wise, this is one of the cleanest pitch deck examples in the bunch. It’s one of the shortest too.

I also appreciate how their brand colors are used in conjunction with white to keep everything consistent (something that Venngage’s automated branding feature My Brand Kit can help you out with).

A pitch deck and a business plan serve different purposes in the world of entrepreneurship, each playing a crucial role in showcasing and strategizing a business venture. The main distinction lies in their format, level of detail and intended audience.

Pitch decks typically consists of a series of carefully crafted slides, highlighting key aspects of the business such as the value proposition, target market, revenue model, competitive advantage and team expertise.

The goal is to pique interest, generate excitement and secure further engagement or funding opportunities. A pitch deck emphasizes storytelling, persuasive visuals, and concise messaging to create an impactful impression.

On the other hand, a business plan is a comprehensive and detailed document that provides an in-depth roadmap for the entire business venture. It outlines the company’s mission, vision, goals, market analysis, marketing strategies, operational details, financial projections and risk assessment.

A business plan serves as a strategic blueprint, guiding the entrepreneur and internal stakeholders in executing the business idea effectively. It tends to be more exhaustive, often spanning several pages or even chapters, and is typically presented in a written format.

What should a pitch deck contain?

A well-crafted pitch deck should contain key information that effectively communicates your business concept, value proposition, and growth potential. While the specific content may vary depending on your industry and target audience, here are the essential elements that a pitch deck should typically include:

• Problem statement
• Market opportunity
• Business model
• Competitive analysis
• Marketing and sales strategy
• Team members
• Financial projections
• Milestones and timeline
• Investment opportunity

Not a graphic designer? No sweat — creating your own pitch deck is a breeze using Venngage’s Presentation Maker . (We’ll go over the basics here; for a more in-depth look, check out this article .)

Step 1: Sign up on Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account. If you already have an account, log in to access the platform.

Step 2: Browse through our selection of professionally designed pitch deck templates and select one that suits your needs and preferences.

Step 3: Once you’ve selected a template, start customizing it to match your branding and content. Venngage’s drag-and-drop editor allows you to easily modify every aspect of the template, including colors, fonts, images and layout. Replace the placeholder text with your own content, such as your company information, product or service details, market analysis and financial projections.

Note: there are hundreds of templates available that you can design and share for free. If you want to access certain designs, take advantage of in-editor features like My Brand Kit/Team collaboration .

Step 4: Once you’re satisfied with your design, you can download it in various formats such as PDF or PNG. Alternatively, you can use also Venngage’s sharing options to present your pitch deck directly from the platform or share it with others via a generated link.

To leave a lasting impression on your audience, consider transforming your slides into an interactive presentation. Here are 15  interactive presentation ideas  to enhance interactivity and engagement.

Now that you know how to create the best pitch decks to communicate your ideas, present your startup or raise venture capital, take action and start designing your own pitch deck today!

And if you want to learn more, there are a ton of other presentation design resources you can take a look at next:

• 20+ Business Pitch Deck Templates and Design Best Practices
• 120+ Best Presentation Ideas, Design Tips & Examples
• 15 Presentation Design Statistics to Know For 2019
• 7 Tips for Designing a Persuasive Presentation [Presentation Design Guide + Templates]
• 20+ Consulting Proposal Templates

What is a Pitch Deck Presentation? and how to create one

A beginner’s guide to the pitch deck meaning

This article will guide you through understanding what is a pitch deck presentation, and empower you to create a compelling one that aligns with your company goals.

What is pitch deck?

A pitch deck is a 10-20 slide business presentation designed to give a short summary of your company, your business model, your traction, and your startup vision. A pitch deck can be used for several purposes, from trying to get a meeting with an investor, to presenting in front of an audience during a demo day.

Different scenarios and time constraints allow adding more or less information, but the basic structure remains similar. The pitch deck definition can be summarized as the following: the story of a startup, its milestones, and its ability for exponential growth.

The story of a startup, its milestones, and its ability for exponential growth.

When do you need a pitch presentation?

A pitch deck is usually needed at several stages of a startup’s life. Most US accelerator programs will require you to submit a pitch deck of your company as part of the initial screening process. If you’re admitted to one of these programs, they will also have what is called “pitch practice” that basically consists of pitching sessions where the founders of each startup take turns and rehearse presenting their deck out loud. These sessions are meant to prepare founders for the accelerator demo day, where all companies from the batch present in front of an audience of stakeholders including investors and program managers.

The most common use of a presentation deck, however, is when companies decide to raise venture capital from investors. It has become an industry standard to use a pitch deck when having interactions with investors, whether as a send-out document that is shared prior to meeting in person or to go over your value proposition if you get an actual meeting with them. This deck presentation serves a dual purpose: it allows investors to quickly go over your business proposal in a way that’s easier for them to assess the investment opportunity, but it also forces you to think about the building blocks of your company and pen down key pieces of information about your startup.

What should be in a Pitch Deck Presentation?

A number of authors, venture capitalists, startup founders and evangelists have created different versions of what they consider required elements to successful pitching presentations. Most of them agree on the following:

Pitch Deck Structure:

• Product/Features
• Market Size
• Business Model
• Competition
• Go-To-Market
• Traction / Milestones
• Fundraising/Use of Funds‍

These core sections actually follow a deliberate structure that goes from general to specific, from providing the context for the business opportunity to explaining why this company can fill in a market gap.

If you’re looking for pitch deck examples you can check out our curated gallery of pitch deck templates here .

While this structure is pretty much a common denominator in the startup ecosystem, it is worth noting that companies at different stages will adapt their storytelling to better fit their strengths. Because they have little to no traction, early-stage startups usually rely more heavily on the problem-solution sections, the market opportunity, and being first-to-market. Later-stage companies on the other hand bet more aggressively on showcasing their revenue traction, their financials, and the ability to grow the business if more capital is injected into the business.

Regardless of the size of the company or the milestones to date, the ultimate goal of a pitch deck presentation is to provide a blueprint for how the startup works, its strengths, and future growth opportunities.

The ultimate goal of a pitch deck presentation is to provide a blueprint for how the startup works, its strengths, and future growth opportunities.

Are there different types of pitch decks?

More than different pitch decks per se, there are different types of pitching needs or scenarios, and so the basic narrative is adapted to fit different time constraints and content requirements. There’s no universal rulebook when it comes to pitch deck types, but here are some of the most common pitch deck types:

• Elevator pitch deck: a super summarized version of your pitch deck. As the name suggests, the idea is that this pitch should be delivered during an elevator ride with an investor. While this is obviously figuratively speaking, elevator pitches are usually covered in 2-3 minutes, they should leave out any granularity, and they should focus on the most essential pieces of information.
• Demo day pitch deck: typically a little longer than an elevator pitch, but similarly falling under the short-ish side of the spectrum. Demo days usually jam together entire batches of startups and thus constrain each founder to keep their presentation under 5 minutes or so. They are usually presented in large auditoriums so they should have as little text as possible and make things more visually appealing by means of photos/images.
• Full investor deck: This is what you would normally find when looking for whats a pitch deck. This is the archetypical pitch deck , and the most widely used. It is a full-length presentation that showcases your company for an investor to review and assess your fundability. This is a more in-depth look at all the aspects of your startup, from business model and go-to-market strategy to financial projections and fundraising needs. These decks usually range from 15-20 slides, and they provide a full picture of your business. These decks are sometimes shared so people can review them without a presenter, so they allow the addition of more information. They can also be used to guide an in-person meeting and help the founder highlight traction data that would otherwise be trickier to explain verbally. ‍
• Investor data room: An investor data room is a digital compilation of all the due diligence of a startup as the closing of an investment approaches It extends beyond the pitch deck and covers other important documents that validate your company’s credibility and support the information shared throughout the deck. When an enterprise wants to buy a company, this information helps investors ensure everything is in order. In the investor data room, investors check that everything you pitch is real: your legal structure, your contracts, stock vesting agreements, trademarks, and financial data. For more information on this topic, you can check this article .

What makes a good pitch deck?

A good pitch deck successfully combines these key ingredients:

• Good story structure - storytelling arch: When it comes to pitch decks, the order in which you present your information is almost as important as the actual information on the slides. The information should follow a sequence that makes sense to grasp the full scope of your business. Most, if not all of the storytelling best practices for public speaking apply to the context of telling business stories. ‍
• Easily understandable: Closely related to the previous point, the information on the slides should be easy to understand and follow. This means the information should be phrased in a way that even someone who’s not familiar with your industry can still understand the value proposition. A lot of tech companies fall into the trap of including technical jargon in order to sound more knowledgeable or gain credibility, but this usually backfires in making the information less accessible. Keep things simple and don’t overcomplicate your message. ‍
• Human-centered & relatable: It’s tempting to focus too much on the solution you created and give lengthy explanations of your product’s features and capabilities. The reality is that the best product is meaningless if it doesn’t solve a real human problem. Make things relatable by providing proof of the user pain points, and how your solution improves their lives. If your audience can’t relate to the problem, it’s going to be hard to convince them of your solution. ‍
• Compelling visual resources: While the content of the presentation is important, it is also critical to pair up this information with visually appealing imagery in order to make the slides more engaging. People get bored easily and a graphically rich presentation can help the viewers make a better connection with the information that is being delivered. We process images faster and easier than text, which is an abstract form of communication. Leverage this in your favor by making striking slides that elevate the content in them. ‍
• Traction-oriented slides: The best pitch decks bet on traction more heavily than any other content on the deck. This is because nothing provides more credibility to a business than showing the data of actual paying customers. ‍
• A healthy, exponentially growing business: The simplest (but hardest) truth about making a pitch deck is that the best ones usually depend on a company’s performance. A revenue-generating business, a low-churn product, a company with exponential growth and healthy engagement with its users… these are the things that spark investor interest. The hard truth about the startup world is that investors want to 10x their investment, and despite having a reputation for being risk-takers, their real expectation is to have returns on their investment.

A pitching presentation is a great tool for both founders and investors to evaluate business opportunities together. It forces you to tell the story of your company in a comprehensive way, and it allows potential investors to learn about your startup in a framework that they’re familiar with.

It lets you convey the market opportunities you’re business has found, and provides the medium to explain how your product and business model are the key to unlocking massive scale and ROI.

I hope this article has been able to answer what is a deck in business. Feel free to check out other articles in our blog that cover pitch deck basics.

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What is a Pitch Deck? Examples, Tips, and Templates

Businesses need adequate financing at every point in time for all their processes to run smoothly . However, most of the funding that a business needs to maximize its growth does not often come from business profits, personal coffers, or financial assistance from families and friends.

That is why you need to convey your ideas to potential sponsors. These sponsors or investors invest their money into your business with the expectation of a positive yield. The funding helps materialize whatever future business plans you have.

You will not get investors to put their money into your business if you do not have a solid business plan. Instead of just conveying your ideas in a drab manner; you have to convince financiers that your plans and projections are worth investing inside. Make them feel excited about the partnership.

There are several steps you need to take to get financiers to fund your business. All the steps and tips you need to know about creating a winning pitch deck will be discussed in this article. The pitch deck is the tool you use to capture the interest of potential investors.

In this article, you will learn everything about pitch deck from its definition to insightful pitch deck examples you can learn from. You will also learn about what is included in a pitch deck presentation, the do’s and don'ts of pitch decks, and how to create a pitch deck in three simple ways.

Let’s get started.

A pitch deck is a concise presentation (in the form of slides) that business owners create to boost the growth of their establishments. It refers to a collection of slides to express an overview of business plans . The display gives clients a wrap-up of business plans, products and services, and operations.

Pitch deck, also known as investor pitch deck , helps prospective sponsors to learn more about your business. The presentation in slides makes it more fun, and the clients won't go through the stress of reading generic texts.

Many business owners or sales executives make the mistake of thinking that the primary goal of the pitch deck is to acquire finance. The primary goal is not to acquire finance but to intrigue them and make them fix a time for an official partnership meeting. Acquiring finance is the end goal.

Getting financing is not a one-step procedure. It involves a series of steps in which the pitch deck presentation is the first. Of course, you have to give valid reasons why the investors should entrust their money to your business.

The pitch deck presentation is an effective business communication tool for meetings with potential clients, sponsors, and investors . This way, you can have an audio-visual appointment, resulting in a better understanding of the motive with fewer talks.

You can either host your pitch deck presentations in a physical or virtual space. If you choose the virtual space, there are tons of conference call services and web and video conferencing platforms you can choose from. They include RingCentral, Zoom, Zoho Meeting, ClickMeeting, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and other RingCentral alternatives .

Slides are what help you convey the compelling story of your business to your clients or investors . You need to use slides to help you achieve the desired results. Software packages like PowerPoint, Visme, Keynote, Prezi can help you craft a convincing presentation.

To gain the attention of your target audience, you can design two different pitch decks . The first will contain more text. The second will concentrate on visuals. People are always attracted to visual information; this will enable them to focus more on what you have to offer.

What’s Included in a Pitch Deck Presentation?

The pitch deck is a conversion tool to get your business funded. However, the sad reality is that some companies can create a pitch deck presentation and still not get sponsors. Why?

For your pitch deck to have a high conversion rate, it must have the following qualities.

• Easy to implement

A good pitch deck must not have more than 19 slides. Apart from being a general rule of thumb for pitch deck presentations, having more than 19 slides can make your presentation boring and uneasy for investors to follow through.

However, there are good pitch deck presentations that have more than 19 slides. Ideally, you should work towards finding that sweet point slide length where you have enough space to drive interest in your idea and do not bore your audience.

The information in every slide must be compelling and contain no fluffs and fillers . Ensure the information is easy to act on when studied.

There are so many opinions on the internet and in the business world about what the ideal pitch deck must contain. Simply from looking at examples of successful startup pitch decks, it is easy to see patterns on what a successful pitch deck must absolutely contain.

Here are the 10 compulsory key slides that every business and organization should have in their pitch deck presentation , irrespective of their industry, target audience , or offer.

Let’s take a look at these 10 key slides in detail.

Slide 1: Introduction

The first slide of your pitch deck is the most crucial of all your slides . For a presentation to have a high conversion rate, there must be a brief intro at the beginning to hint at what the whole thing centers on.

This slide is a crucial one; it is what determines the state of mind of the client. Are they getting excited? Are they already fed up? Do they want to know more?

The introduction is your chance to give a great first impression. If you fail to do it right here, you can lose the investor. Prioritize making the first slide as powerful as possible. Many investors or financiers are impatient and use the first few slides to judge your business.

Ensure you keep the first slide or introduction slide short and sweet. It is the slide where you can tell people about who you are and the reason why you are here.

You can also use the introduction slide to communicate the value proposition of your business. Ideally, your value proposition should be a single phrase or sentence long.

Examples of the perfect business value proposition include:

“We Make Happy Meals for Infants.”

“The Smartest Way to Get Around” – Uber

“The Experience IS the Product” – Apple iPhone

“Be More Productive at Work with Less Effort” – Slack

When you use a good value proposition, your audience will be eager to listen to the rest of your presentation.

How to Make Your Introduction Catchy

• Make Your Introduction Simple, Short, and Engaging: The introduction slide is where you introduce yourself, your business, and the reason why you are talking to the audience. Don't say unnecessary things here because you will probably bore the reader and set a bad template for the rest of the presentation. Make sure your expressions are as simple as possible and avoid complex grammar. Of course, you won't have them look up the dictionary every minute to get your point. Make your tone conversational too.
• Briefly Talk about Your Business: Communicate what your business is about in simple sentences. Business owners feel they get sponsors interested by saying more than they should. The truth is that, at this stage, they want to get a glimpse of what you do. For instance, if you cook meals and deliver to the aged people, you can tell them, ‘We make meals and deliver fast to the aged in their homes.’ With that simple sentence, you have communicated that you can deliver meals as fast as possible to the aged (the ones that can't cook themselves) in homes.
• Propose the Value of Your Business. You can present your business with a high value by making a valid comparison with a popular company. For example, if you sell email marketing services for small businesses , you can make comparisons with established email marketing software services such as HubSpot, MailChimp, GetResponse, Convertkit, AWeber, and MailChimp alternatives .
• Provide Ways the Investors Can Reach Out. This vital point shows that you are anticipating a positive response after they go through the slides. Update your contact information, like your phone number and your email , so that investors can reach out and fix a meeting. If possible, give your phone number to build strong personal relationships.

At the end of your introduction, the audience should know:

• You and Your Business
• Your Mission
• Ways to Reach Out to You

Everything about your intro should be top-notch and quality. The texts should be well organized and clear, avoiding the use of complex grammars. If you have to introduce visuals at any point, it should be a high-resolution image. The logo of the company must be legible and presentable too.

Slide 2: The Problem

The purpose of meeting with your investors is to solve a problem that finance can solve. Why must a pitch deck have a problem slide?

Investors fund businesses because they see a problem and feel they can find a solution to it. Entrepreneurship, at large, is all about solving problems. It would help if you had your laid-out plans on dealing with the problem, and that is what you will display in your slides when meeting the sponsors.

If your super business idea does not solve any actual problem, your pitch deck presentation is going to be a huge disaster.

In the problem slide, you highlight the market's problems and the relevance of your solution to their welfare. You should do your market research to find out this problem or gap that your target audience faces and the market is not addressing.

A good problem slide will reflect two or three problems your audience faces that your product or service solves. It does this without being long and boring.

If your business idea does not solve the problem, then you should not source for funds yet. Financing can only work out when acted on good and yieldable plans. You should find a problem affecting your target audience, draft a strategy that can solve the problem, and make plans known to the financier.

A good problem slide will highlight numerous problems that your product can solve. Avoid being too verbose while explaining your offer. Ensure you keep your texts centered on the issues affecting your target audience. This way, the clients don't get confused while trying to understand your point.

The problem slide is to explain what, why, and how you and your team will achieve the results. The problem must be a pressing need that the market currently lacks the solution to draw their attention or an improvement on the existing solution.

For example, some older people can't run around the busy cities to get food to eat. Some are too old to get into the kitchen and prepare something to eat; others are even bedridden without any human help. As a catering establishment, that is a problem that you can identify and bring up ideas to solve.

One thing you should be very careful about is the length of the texts on each slide. Learn to convey your ideas with fewer words.

While introducing the problem slide, it is advisable to make your audience emotionally attached to your story. That emotional connection increases the flow from you, the speaker, to the audience. It makes the rest of the presentation relatable.

Ensure you do not let out the solution to the problem entirely in this slide. I will discuss that in the next slide.

Slide 3: The Solution

After going through the problem slide, there must be an agreement between you and your audience that there is a problem to solve. This slide is where you make known your solutions to the problem. Providing immediate solutions to the issue shows how prepared you are for the presentation.

While stating the solutions, explain the strategies you and your team will utilize in making the plan work. Convince them that their contribution will hasten the whole process and generate desired results with little time.

Try as much as possible to make your solutions realistic and achievable. If your solution is a concrete product, introduce it during the presentation, let them hold and feel it. Nothing drives home your point than a visible test or trial.

Make your solution slide as brief and straightforward as possible. Long texts bore readers, especially the ones you are trying to convince into buying your idea.

For instance, a solution to the scenario I painted in the previous slide is something like this: You are to convince the investors that delivering the food to them at their doorstep is one of the best ways to help. Tell them how you plan to partner with Uber and other logistic companies to provide the food as fast as possible when they make orders. Tell them how this can encourage longevity (by reducing the stress of running around to get food).

In this case, you highlighted a problem and provided an immediate solution. You are also able to show the importance of your offer to the target audience.

You can summarize your intentions in a sentence boldly written and identifiable . Then, you can go on with a detailed explanation (brief one).

A good way of convincing your clients to buy your idea is to provide numerous solutions to the problems. Pick the best option and state why you chose that option. It shows the client that you have done thorough market research, and you have the best solution to that problem.

Instead of hammering on the uniqueness of your solutions, describe the proficiency of what you have and why you believe it is the best thing to do. The truth is that almost all possible solutions to the problem have been heard before. What makes the difference is how you implement yours.

Avoid monopolizing the solutions you have. In essence, avoid the phrase ‘we are the only ones capable of doing this.’ The investors you are talking to have probably related with countless businesses before yours, which also offered similar solutions to the common problem.

Your goal is to show the unique steps in providing your solution and why yours is beyond normalcy.

Slide 4: The Market Size and Opportunity

The slide that comes after the solution slide is the market size slide. The market size of your establishment determines if you win the heart of your financiers. If the size of your market is small and there are no huge opportunities there, you will struggle to attract quality investors.

Many investors don't want to partner with small-scale businesses because they feel that their gain would be small and the risk too high for such a small return. The primary aim of getting funding from investors is to use their money to earn more. These potential investors want a business that can multiply their contributions 10x within a space of 6-7 years.

If the market size of your business is highly appreciable, it would interest investors to fund you. Do your research on the potential of market growth in your field and back it up with correct numbers where necessary.

A good market size slide will map out the market growth of the business over the years of operation. You can also hint at your business plans for the future and how you intend to achieve them.

Make your potential sponsors see the proficiency of your product . Like every human, investors are moved when there are testimonies to back up their plans and proposals. Show them how you have been able to grow your project over the years and how it has affected your market's growth.

A good market size slide will tell the investors that you are the person for the job. With a productive market size slide, you will show investors opportunities associated with the plans, the options you have made use of, and the ones you are utilizing at the moment.

If your business is a new one and you barely have data to create a market slide, it might be challenging to produce a reasonable market size slide; but there is a solution.

What you need to do is to study other businesses in your niche . Create analogies from their market and introduce your ideas alongside them.

An excellent example of a company that used this strategy is Uber. While creating a pitch deck, they illustrated the market size of their competitor, the taxi market. However, they introduced the service they wanted to render to the masses, which is slightly different from the ones in existence.

The strategy worked and Uber got investors which helped it with funds it used to become a worldwide brand. Today, Uber is dominating every other private establishment in the transportation sector.

Slide 5: The Product or Service

The product or service slide is where you show off the product you sell or the service you offer. This slide is similar to the solution slide.

In this slide, you take the extra step of talking about what will provide the solution to the foreseen problem. Some pitch decks combine the two (the solution and the product or service slide) in one or even talk about one and leave out the other to avoid repetition.

If it is a physical product, include beautiful and high-resolution images of your product in the slide. If it is a multi-functional product, you can upload different angles of the photos of your product, showing the functions.

For complex products that you can fully explain their function in a 3D display, you can highlight a cutaway view and explain the essential parts. If your product is an application or an online website with tools, you can add screenshots of the app's usage or the website. The screenshots can highlight the unique and outstanding features of the app.

For example, if your product is a website builder for small businesses like Wix and Squarespace , you can take screenshots of how it builds high-quality business websites.

If it is a domain registrar such as Bluehost, GoDaddy, SiteGround, and other Bluehost alternatives , you can repeat the same process as above. Take screenshots of how it provides quality web hosting services for users and include them in the product or service slide. These are brilliant examples of you showing what you have to offer.

Your presentation in this slide should show that your product is competitive enough to challenge the big leagues of your market. In essence, your slide should tell how your product works, how it looks, and the satisfaction attached to its use.

If it's a physical product, you can bring it to the presentation for the audience to feel it. For businesses that offer services, you can upload photos of your workers while at work. For instance, if you head a logistics company, you can upload photos of your riders making deliveries to your client's homes.

As an add-on, you can do a video of the Display the video on your slide. Don't make long videos; a maximum of 60 seconds length is okay. Remember that you are still trying to convince them to fund your business model.

Slide 6: Traction

Everything that has to do with financial investments needs assurance. Investors want to relax their minds that they are not losing their money to some random Ponzi scheme. One of the slides that help reinforce their confidence in your business model is the traction slide.

The traction slide is where you show the investors everything about the growth of your business over the years. It is also where you show evidence that your business will be more successful.

You would be dealing primarily with numbers in the traction slide . Let them know the number of sales you have made and how massive your profits have been on an annual basis.

Tell them about the minor and major goals you have achieved and the ones you plan to accomplish in the coming years. This information will convince the investors that they are on the right track . It will also help them decide to release their funds to be a part of the bigger picture.

Most business owners represent their numerical values on a chart. The chart enables them to display a lot with a small space. What they could have created a long table of numerous rows and columns for, can be done easily with a simple bar chart or histogram chart.

Clients can get a quicker grasp of the business or startup’s current achievements with charts as opposed to tables. Show the essential figures when creating the slide.

The traction slide is an important one to include in your pitch deck presentation. To the financiers, it reduces the doubts they have about your business. They want to see proof that your business is worth investing in . They want to see evidence that your business model canvas is highly profitable.

Be mindful of the texts on this slide, the use of numbers can be a trap to stuff your slide. Conciseness is vital irrespective of whatever you are presenting.

Investors and financiers want to see the assurance that they are getting a high return on investment.

Slide 7: The Team

The team slide is to introduce your team to the investors. A famous saying goes, ‘show me your friend, and I will tell you who you are' .

These financiers want to see the people you are working with. They want to know the drive of these people, their commitment, passion, and why they are essential to your business. The team slide builds confidence in your team members.

This slide will be a bit comprehensive because you will have to introduce each key member according to their roles. Under each member's identity, state the member's achievements, educational background, the quota he/she has contributed, the work experience, and the titles.

You can also explain why they are vital to your mission and business plans. Also, talk about their virtues and the positive effect on your business is essential.

Ensure the information about your team members is in short sentences. Don't elaborate unnecessarily. You are to attract your audience's attention, not tell them the life stories of people.

Keep the display cohesive, list according to the rankings from top to bottom. It makes the slide easy to comprehend. Highlight the specific thing (maybe the title) about a member in a conspicuous color.

Photos will make your slide enjoyable. Add the pictures of your members along with their descriptions. You can also categorize the illustrations based on department. It narrows down the search for a member on the slide.

If a client has to refer back to a member's description, he/she can go straight to the section the member is in, if they have been appropriately categorized. It will be better than running your eyes around a large screen looking for a name.

The descriptions on the slide should be limited to the core members only. Externals and advisors should be left out. The team slide can introduce a few things about the founders of the business and the common goals they share. Some financiers care to know how the whole thing started.

Slide 8: Competition

There is hardly a business without competitors or rivals. Whatever idea you have to solve a problem, other people also have that same idea to solve that same problem. Competition occurs when both businesses try to convince the same target audience to buy into their concept.

The competition slide is to show the clients who your current rivals in the game are. List all your competitors for the audience to know you have done good research on your part. Describe how good they are and what they don't handle well.

Tell them how the competitors have been performing over the years and why you are different from them. Inform them about what made your business grow so big to compete with your top rivals.

From your speculations, tell them your position in the market among your competitors. It can wow the clients and increase their interest in your business model.

You can top up the information on the slide with the things you offer that your competitors don't. It gives you an edge on winning the heart of potential investors. Even the features you commonly offer with your rivals; show them how uniquely you do yours and how it has influenced your business growth.

Avoid painting your rivals badly in any way. Do not use the opportunity to tell lies about your competitors. If your investors find out you are telling lies in your presentation, you have ruined any chance of acquiring the needed financial support.

Bringing your competitors down doesn't take you up, instead, it shows you as too ambitious to possible investors. You have to watch the tone you use in this slide. Avoid sounding condescending; it is imperative.

You can introduce unique graphs to compare the products of you and your competitors in your presentation.

Slide 9: Financials

The financial slide is one of the few slides clients spend most of their time on. You have to make the most of it to give them another reason to fund your business plans. The financial slide will include your financial projections, cash flow statements, balance sheet and income statement , and other important information.

Just like the traction slide shows everything you have acquired over the years, this slide shows your business' future growth plan. Use this slide to show them what your company should achieve in the next three years (unless asked otherwise) using your business plans.

Tell them about your financial projections, business models, operations, and others in detail. The past achievements are proof that they can partner with you. Use it to prepare their minds on what they are to expect from your business in the future

You should also make use of bar and pie charts, histograms, etc. here. It makes your expressions compact and defined. Don't just create charts with plain-colored arcs and bars. Make the charts colorful, it gives more meaning and beauty to the slide.

Colors make charts and pictorial representations easily understandable and conspicuous. Colorful charts make your presentation attractive, unlike a long spreadsheet full of figures and numerical signs.

The information you provide in this slide is changeable as you move on. It is almost impossible to accurately determine where the business will be in the next five years. But financiers expect you to map out a business plan and have what it takes to achieve what you have outlined. That is what the idea of pitch deck presentation is all about.

You can also share your plans on how you want to channel the distribution of money provided and how you intend to reach your target income goals.

The financial slide can hint the investors on the strength of your company and how long your relevance in the market will be. If you just started your company, you can skip this slide and include just the traction slide.

Be realistic with your information, don't cook up unrealistic things to impress the audience. You might not be able to hit the point you want to during the given time if you do not manage your time well. Being realistic will make you not far away from what you envisioned.

Slide 10: Investment and Use of Funds

The previous slides have been about you introducing your business as an entrepreneur. This slide is where you tell the financiers what you need from them.

You must make sure this slide answers the questions:

• How much do you need?
• How do you want to use the funds?
• What do you want to achieve with the funds?.

There are a lot of ways to go about this, however, not all are effective. A lot of entrepreneurs get it wrong on this slide. Don't just ask for a certain amount of money, state what you want to use the money. Highlight your financial plan for them to know what their money is funding.

When you back up your requests with valid reasons, it builds their trust and confidence in you. Also, they would take your plans more seriously.

Ensure you are specific with your requests; let your clients know exactly what you want. Don't waste time by going through corners, be direct. It gives the investors an impression that you have done your calculations and analysis very well. Also, it tells them that you didn't just come to call any amount of money because you feel you have convinced them.

Make your requests real. Don't ruin all you have planned by aiming higher than you need. Remember, they have heard your plans and projections. They can tell if you are trying to be over-demanding.

Most entrepreneurs with successful pitch decks used a pie chart or bar chart to state the distribution of money. This way, investors have an insight into the execution of funds.

Let the investors know your expectations when you are funded. Tell them the heights you will reach. They have to see if they are capable of adding more money in the future.

These are the essential slides you need in your pitch deck presentation. Some specific businesses might require extra slides to introduce new things . Ensure there is cohesion among your slides, that is, one slide should lead to the next.

The next section will expose you to the things you should do and the ones you should avoid when creating your slides or presenting the contents on the pitch deck.

Do’s and Don’ts of Pitch Decks

While trying to create a perfect pitch deck presentation, there are some things you have to embrace and other things you have to avoid.

Do’s When Presenting

1. engage your audience.

While passing your information, engage your clients with narratives to express the problem, your solution to it, and how you want to go about it. Tell them how your plans will affect them.

Don't just read out everything like you are reading an English comprehension passage in front of a class. Ensure you carry the audience along as you explain the information on each slide.

Engaging the audience will get them to focus on you and follow the presentation from the start to the end. Also, engagement builds interests. They get more interested when they understand every bit of what you say.

Imagine you have to read this article without having examples to buttress my point? It can be daunting and tiresome. Tell short related stories in between your presentation to keep the conversation alive.

2. Strike a Balance Between Elaboration and Conciseness

As important as your content is, so is the way you present it to your audience. The style of presentation had made some entrepreneurs lose out on significant investments , even when they had the best plans and business models in possession.

How do your slides appear when creating your presentation? Do you over-deliver or under-deliver? Do you give out more or less than you should?

You need to strike a balance between saying too much and explaining yourself better. Don't cite instances unnecessarily.

If you have expressed yourself well on a slide, move on to the next slide without wasting much time. However, if you feel a narrative will do better in communicating your points, make it short, cohesive and relevant.

Don'ts When Presenting

1. don't base your presentation on pure statistics.

A presentation full of statistics will look like an account officer reading the company's financial report to the managing director. Can you imagine how boring that is? Yes, it is tiring.

Back up every stat you provide with a coherent narrative. Don't just focus on the statistics hoping that you are amusing the investors with 6-7 figures on the chart. Of course, you are, but narratives and life examples make it better.

Many people believe that you only need to engage your audience on slide one during the introduction. The truth is that you need to engage throughout the presentation, from the intro to the conclusion.

Statistics are vital but are not the only significant feature of a pitch deck presentation.

2. Don't Stare At the Slides While Presenting

Staring at the slides while presenting is a bad posture and shows a lack of confidence. Ensure your presentation is a conversational one , don't just stay glued to the slides while presenting. It is an inappropriate posture or body language for someone trying to win the heart of a group of people.

While presenting, move your eyes from the slides to the audience and vice versa at regular intervals . Doing this ensures that you engage them as your pitch deck presentation runs. Turning every minute to read from the slides can reduce the tempo and also bore the listeners.

When you address them without staring at the slides, it builds your confidence and reassures the audience that you know what you are saying . Also, it can clear doubts of improper preparation beforehand.

These financiers can also read what is on the slides. The essence of the presentation is for you to engage them.

Do’s When Designing Your Slides

1. reduce the texts on each slide.

When creating a pitch deck presentation, it is not advisable to choke your slides with texts . Make sure you can pass across the necessary information with little texts. Use lots of visuals like pictures, charts, screenshots, and short clips, to explain your plans in detail . Remember, long texts bore readers.

Likewise, while designing, strike a balance between elaboration and conciseness. It will help you a lot in engaging your audience throughout the presentation.

Also, use large font sizes and visible colors on the palette. It reduces the texts on each slide and makes your work legible.

2. Use Bullets to Introduce Critical Points

An excellent way to avoid stuffing your audience with texts is by bulletin. Use bullets on your slides, it organizes your work.

Don't just pack paragraphs together on the slides to present. In slides where you have to list things for your audience, don't separate them with commas. Instead, separate them with bullets to reduce the texts and give your workspace.

Stuffy slides are complex for the audience to comprehend. Your presentation has a short time frame, you wouldn't want to spend the whole time reading out long and boring paragraphs to the audience.

Cut them short with bullet points and make your presentation more enjoyable for you and your audience.

3. Add Your Contact Info

Imagine you meet a long-lost friend, exchange pleasantries, and fix a date to meet again, but you do not exchange contact details. There is a high possibility that you might not see each other for a long time and that the meeting will not hold. It is the same scenario when you don't include your contact details in your presentation.

Ensure you add your contact information at the end of the presentation slides so that your clients can always reach out after that meeting. Some clients probably have to bother with questions after the presentation; they need your contact info to reach out.

Furthermore, you can add a photo of yourself before the contact information. It gives your business a ‘face' that financiers can look up to when they need certain information.

One last thing, whatever contact details you use in your pitch deck presentation must be available all the time. Investors can quickly lose interest when they can not get a response on time, considering that you have competitors.

Don’ts When Designing Your Slides

1. avoid adding too many team associates.

In the team slide, where you have to introduce your team, introduce only the core members. Adding too many members can fill up the whole screen and leave the audience perplexed.

As you introduce your business plans and various backup data supporting your business idea, investors also want to know the main person captaining the ship.

Too many team members can make the mistake one for the other, especially when you have to add photos of each member alongside its description. For precision, the core members should not be more than seven. Anything above that is excessive.

How to Create a Pitch Deck in 3 Simple Steps

Knowing what a pitch deck presentation should entail is not enough, you need to know how to put them together.

Creating a pitch deck is easy if you have the necessary tools and templates. You can use free or paid pitch deck presentation templates to get one done quickly.

Some websites offer to create pitch decks for users such as Visme . Your pitch deck will be ready in a few minutes. Save yourself the stress of creating slides from scratch, you can pick from the templates available on the application. These templates are ready-made to suit different interests.

If you don't want to use a pitch deck website tool, you can create your slides from scratch. It can take your time, but you are sure to have what you want.

Another option is to hire the services of a freelance graphic designer in the event you do not have the graphic design skills needed to design killer pitch deck presentation slides. You can find these freelance graphic designers on freelance job websites such as Upwork, Fiverr, Guru, and Freelancer.

Here are the three steps you need to create the best pitch deck that appeals to investors and financiers.

Step 1: Choose a Pitch Deck Template

Templates are ready-made copies that you can use instead of creating from your pitch deck from scratch. There are lots of Pitch deck tools such as Google Slides, Visme, Canva, and Slidebean that help users create and design pitch decks. These tools provide tons of useful templates for users.

The first thing you need to do is to pick a template from the hundreds at your disposal. Avoid picking a template because you like it, you have to look for the one that suits your business model and contents. That is why there are different templates for different types of businesses.

In some cases, you might not find a perfect template for your business. The next best thing you can do is pick the closest you can get and modify it.

If you are not using a pitch deck tool, you can create your pitch deck presentation slides from scratch . You can use any graphic design software or the simple Microsoft PowerPoint to create your pitch deck from scratch.

Step 2: Customize your Pitch Deck Story

When you choose the template that fits into your business model, you can edit and customize it for better results. The template you pick is probably not the exact thing you want; that's why the edit option is available.

Most pitch deck software has editing tools to help you reshape your template to your actual desire. These tools are so diverse that you probably won't use them all before creating something attractive.

You can change anything you want to fit your style. Some apps even have the drag-and-drop function to ease your editing. With these tools, someone without foreknowledge of editing or presentation can even create something beautiful.

You can change font sizes and styles, texts and background colors, images and themes, and motion style of slides. You can add bitmap images from external sources to make the boring texts lively to read.

Furthermore, you can add animations, links, short video clips, and many more to beautify each slide. You can add, remove, replace, or rearrange slides the way you want.

This whole process won't take up a lot of your time if you use the right tools. It is immensely beneficial for you to do everything necessary to put out a perfect body of work. The pitch deck layout contributes to your chances of securing the funds.

Step 3: Download and Share with Investors

After customizing your pitch deck to a perfect taste, you can download it to your device. You can even share it online across different media using a link.

Pitch deck applications offer you a wealth of format options for download. You can download your pitch deck as an image to display the slides, side by side. Also, you can download it as a PDF format, or better still, as a PowerPoint file.

Another thing you can do with the finished pitch deck is that you can create a private link to share the pitch deck with specific people via mail.

There is the option of uploading it on the web to be available for people on search results on Google and other search engines. You can also put the presentation on the company's official website for the core members to access.

Insightful Pitch Deck Examples You Can Learn From

The process of creating a good pitch deck can be tiring. You need the inspiration to help you escape that dreadful fear stage and hit the right entrepreneurial mindset . Will my pitch deck presentation be a success or a failure?

There is no better way to escape the imposter syndrome that every entrepreneur faces than to get inspiration from companies who had successful pitch deck presentations. What is better than reverse-engineering the pitch deck presentation that successful companies like Facebook, CoinBase, Square, Uber, and Airbnb used to attract investors?

Here are some insightful pitch deck examples you can learn from.

Amount Raised: $500,000

Buffer is one of those awesome pitch decks that although does not hold much visual appeal but still won the hearts of investors. How did they achieve this? They had the captivating numbers to capture the mind of financiers.

Amount Raised: Seed – $3,000,000

Cubeit is an app that helps users to get unique content from anywhere . The company developed a simple, short, and compelling story for a pitch deck presentation. The presentation got them about $3 million from clients, and that was how they got to where they are today.

3. Contently

Amount Raised: $9,000,000 | 2014

Contently is an American technology company that is based in New York City. They create software that helps companies and brands connect to freelance writers, videographers, editors, graphic designers, social media marketers, etc.

This widely-known company created a pitch deck to show investors what plans they have for the future. They got an amount of $9 million from financiers.

4. Frontapp

Amount Raised: $10,000,000 | 2016

Frontapp is a company that handles the communication channels of its users. They manage their social media accounts, live chats, SMS, email address, etc. They created a pitch deck and focused on the critical numbers that are crucial to the business at that point. The pitch deck generated a sum of $10 million, and the rest is history.

Amount Raised: $600,000 | 2009

Airbnb is a digital marketplace for people to discover places for different purposes. They can book these places through their mobile phones, tablets, computers, etc. It could be a suite for relaxation, a penthouse for vacation, or a room to spend the night.

The platform connects people across over 180 countries. Airbnb, as we know it today, was once a group of people with ideas and no funds. They tried a pitch deck and made over $500,000 from investors.

Amount Raised: 14 rounds – $11.5 bill

Uber is a global transportation company that conveys users from their current location to their choice of destination with the help of online orders. It has its headquarters in California, United States of America.

The online cab company has undoubtedly made transportation easy over the years of operation. Not many people could jump into traffic all day. Uber saw this and decided to make things easy. They made a pitch deck from the start and raised close to $12 billion. Today, Uber operates in over 600 cities in the world.

7. Crew (fromely Ooomf)

Amount Raised: $10,000,000 | 2015

Crew is another technology company that connects individuals and agencies with freelance designers, content creators, media accounts managers , etc. Crew has worked with big companies like Eventbrite, Tinder, Dropbox, etc.

Crew's founder used a simple but powerful pitch deck to communicate his ideas to the public. He didn't have to say too much, went straight to the point, and raised $10 million.

Amount Raised: Series D – $335,000,000

WeWork is an American company that is headquartered in New York City. The company provides workspaces for freelancers, entrepreneurs, small and large-scale businesses, enterprises , etc. It was founded in the year 2010.

They have been able to develop lots of workspaces and still want to build more. During the start, they created a pitch deck, showing the right things investors needed to see. Today, they are dominating their market.

Amount Raised: $30,000,000

Dwolla is an American e-commerce company that provides a medium for online payments and mobile payments. It was founded in 2008. Dwolla helps users to send and receive funds from each other. It is located in Iowa.

Despite the massive and tight competition in the online payment system world, Dwolla still holds its stance. They are not the most successful, but they could attract financiers to the online payments industry with captivating ideas. They raised about $30 million from investors.

10. The Daily Hundred

Amount Raised: $1,000,000

The Daily Hundred is an app that gives businesses the chance to compensate customers by encouraging product endorsements and micro-level brand advertisements. It produced this alluring pitch deck that not many investors could ignore.

This pitch deck covered everything about the business, from the past operations to the plans. They made $1 million from the presentation that year.

11. Mixpanel

Amount Raised: $65,000,000 | 2014

Mixpanel is an advanced platform available on the web and mobiles. They help businesses and enterprises grow by making them understand their users. Also, the company uses its products to track people's behavior.

They created their pitch deck by focusing the contents on incredible numbers. Mixpanel also showed investors the reasons why they are different from their competitors in the game. Note, they didn't shame their rivals; they only highlighted some differences between them in their favor.

12. LinkedIn

Amount Raised: $10,000,000 | 2004

Virtually everyone operating a mobile must have heard of LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a networking app where people get business connections, seek jobs, recruit remote workers, and find clients .

This app also helps businesses to expand networks across countries. It was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in California. Over the years, users have been able to acquire knowledge and skills and even get business opportunities. LinkedIn was able to raise about $10 million from investors.

13. Foursquare

Amount Raised: $1,350,000 | 2009

Foursquare is a search-and-discover mobile app that satisfies user's quest to find visiting places . They provide personalized search results for users.

What the mobile application does is to recommend close places that you can see based on your current location. Also, they scan your browsing history data and orders to give you a clear choice. Interesting, isn't it? The operation is not an easy-to-explain one. For their pitch deck, they focused on explaining how the app renders its services.

14. Ad pushup

Amount Raised: Angel Round – $635,000

Ad pushup specializes in optimizing people's websites to increase the views rate and conversion rate of Ads. They also maximize the number of clicks without disturbing the visitors' user experience.

The company focused on the traction slide in their pitch deck presentation. This traction slide was peculiar to what they were introducing to their audience. They raised about $600k from financiers. You can impress your audience with great numbers.

15. WealthSimple

Amount Raised: Seed – $1,900,000

WealthSimple is a new kind of financial counselor that is brilliant, diplomatic, human, and affordable. They help users eliminate the guesswork from future investments. With this, users are on the right track financially.

The company also helps users achieve new financial goals. They are one of the premiers of digital financial advising . Also, WealthSimple has been able to explain the concept of the application to people (in a layman’s way) with the help of a pitch deck.

16. Manpacks

Manpacks is a digital service that delivers men's accessories, including grooming products, underwear , etc. These products are from popular brands like Gillette, PACT, Champion, Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, etc.

The company was able to get some traction over the years due to its friendly customer service experience. This method won the hearts of many investors, and they raised $500,000.

17. Snapchat

Amount Raised: Series C – $50,000,000

Snapchat is everywhere today. Almost everyone has the Snapchat app on their mobile. The app allows users to make videos and pictures with different filters and themes. It operates as a social media application.

When Snapchat came, despite the social media apps dominating the market like Facebook and Twitter, Snapchat could still create its space from that world with its unique features. Snapchat proved its ability to dominate a part of social life by understanding the market. They raised $50 million from a pitch deck presentation.

Amount Raised: $120,000

Podozi is a beauty tech that helps users find the right beauty products for people of different colors . It is an online e-commerce platform based in Nigeria. The platform helps customers discover authentic and reliable beauty brands from all over the world. Also, customers enjoy new shopping experiences all the time.

During the pitch deck presentation, they acquired many photos of their target audience (women of color) to show them. It made it easy for the audience to understand their intentions in no time, and they got funded from different sources.

Podozi showed their target audience the working partnership they already had with big brands in their pitch deck presentation. It helped them attract funds from investors.

Amount Raised: Venture – $79,000,000

Linio is like a business directory. It is an e-commerce company that offers various products online, ranging from gadgets and electronics to personal accessories .

The company was founded in 2012 in Mexico. Today, they work in Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, etc. Linio connects online retail services to the South-American markets.

20. Kompyte

Kompyte is an intelligence website tool designed to reply to strategies used by its users' rivals . The tool aims to study the techniques that competitors use and quickly respond to them.

Using high-resolution photos, Kompyte explained the concept of their services smoothly and shortly. In this case, visuals did the most work here.

21. Launchrock

Amount Raised: $800,000

Launchrock is a digital platform that allows users to create advertisement pages for their products and services with special tools . It helps its users compensate other people for advertising their products through different social media networks and email.

It was launched in 2011 in Philadelphia, United States of America. Launchrock used a short and straightforward pitch deck for its fundraising activities.

Amount Raised: Angel Round – $270,000

Castle helps landlords and landladies to manage their rental homes. It finds tenants, secures the rent dues, and oversees the affairs of the houses, helping reduce the burdens of property owners. The software was able to develop a solution that is quite different from what is dominating the market over the years. It enabled them to seize the attention of the audience right from the pitch deck presentation.

23. Intercom

Amount Raised: $600,000

Intercom is an American software company that provides a messaging channel for business. It is a platform that makes it easier for businesses to communicate with their new and existing customers personally.

You can use the platform to communicate through different social media accounts and email addresses. This famous company did not start big, the owners could craft a top-notch pitch deck that assisted the fundraising.

Amount Raised: $20,000,000

Pendo is a company that provides a digital platform for businesses and organizations to upgrade the product usage experience .

With this platform, companies can track customers' reviews and impressions, get feedback and provide solutions to their problems, all within one application.

Pendo created a pitch deck and raised $20 million! The pitch deck painted a future that is unavoidable for everyone and provided the necessary solution to the problems in the market.

Amount Raised: $4,230,000 till date – deck used to raise $200,000

Mandaê is a mobile app that helps Brazilians ship their goods. The company collaborates with postal services and other exclusive transporters that are not available for everybody (an add-on for Brazilians).

They created a powerful pitch deck that introduced the perfect solutions to inevitable problems, a strong team ready to solve the issues, and great numbers to back up their plans. They raised about $200,000 from prospective investors and materialized the beautiful plans they had.

26. Gaia Design

Amount Raised: $2,850,000

Gaia Design, a Mexican online store, sells beautiful furniture and home accessories at considerable prices . They make quality products that are available for every Mexican household.

The pitch deck might seem challenging to understand due to language barriers, but you can learn a lot from the pitch deck layout. Gaia Design was able to categorize the information into slides without stuffing each of them. Their target audience understood the messages, and they got funded with above $2.6 million.

Startup Pitch Decks FAQ

The length of your pitch deck presentation is one question that business owners regularly ask. There is no rule guiding the size. But with the wealth of past experiences available on the internet, it is advisable to make your pitch deck as short as possible.  The minimum number of slides you should have is 10, while the maximum number is 20. You can exceed the maximum of 20 but it has to be because it is worth it.  Depending on the type of business you operate, the number of slides you want to use for your pitch deck will vary from another. Business owners with the assistant of professionals determine what each slide contains. Ideally, the pitch deck should be as brief as possible to avoid unnecessary information. Although you want to maintain a few slides on your pitch deck, you must be very careful not to stuff each slide with contents. If 13 slides can explain everything about your business without stuffing the slides, go ahead to use 13. You don't need to shrink the number of slides at the expense of the overall organization. Also, irrespective of the number of slides you have, your presentation should not be more than 18-20 minutes. It would be best if you did everything needed within that time frame. If the audience wants you to stretch it, then it is okay.

What makes an effective pitch deck are a compelling story, conciseness, conversational tone, and engaging slides.  You must be brief with the contents of the slides and the presentation. Your aim for a pitch deck presentation is to introduce your business models and projections to financiers and get them interested in funding your ideas. Avoid boring them with information that is not needed at the moment. While presenting, you must be able to tell a convincing narrative. It is what determines if the audience will yield to your requests. Your ultimate goal is to convince your audience to fund your business . You do this by showing them all the benefits associated with it. It makes the difference between you and other entrepreneurs. Your tone while addressing the audience should be conversational. Don't read out the contents on the slide like someone reading out a novel. Remember, you are trying to convince people. You must carry them along while explaining what you have on the slides. Keep your slides engaging, one slide must link to the next. It makes your presentation organized and understandable.

The cost of buying a pitch deck depends on the professional approach. The prices of different pitch deck templates vary depending on the quality.  Hiring a designer to build a pitch deck for you will also cost you some money. The more experienced the designer, the more it will cost. You can opt to build a pitch deck yourself using free or paid pitch deck templates from websites such as Visme, it is fast and cheap that way. However, it might not be as perfect as what a professional graphic designer will create. Before buying a pitch deck, do your research first. Compare the range of prices from different individuals and agencies.  According to SlideGenuis , the cost of a pitch deck can be split into three categories: the low-end pitch deck, mid-range presentation design, and the upper-end presentation services. The low-end pitch deck costs between $1,000 to $3,000 and is suitable for those who want to revamp their existing pitch deck or create from scratch at a cheap price. At this price range, you can expect to get the bare quality.  The mid-range presentation design costs between $3,000 to $10,000 and the upper end presentation services cost $10,000 to $50,000. There is a huge difference between these two categories, the upper-end presentation services give you better appeal and a more refined corporate identity. Although you can hire freelancer designs from Upwork and Fiverr at a much lower price, you will hardly find pitch deck experts but just designers who can do a good job. Since your pitch deck is not just any design but one that has the potential to bring lots of capital for your business, investing in quality pitch deck services is worth it.

The financials in your pitch deck should include your present performances, plans, and projections. You can employ the use of bar and pie charts, histograms, tables, and other charts in a slide.  Your pitch deck should show the predictable monthly or annual gross and net profits. Show financials where the models you are proposing worked out as planned. Also, you can include your cash flow statement and financial projections.

Ready to Communicate Your Business Idea in Your Pitch Deck?

The pitch deck presentation is one of the best ways to introduce your business plans to potential investors. Over the years, many startups have used pitch decks to get funds from financiers for their businesses.

Many of these companies have grown to become giants in their fields. They are hardly recognizable from the companies that they were when they presented the pitch deck. Some good examples are Facebook, Square, Uber, WeWork, Airbnb, and Snapchat.

After reading this article, you are just about set to communicate your business idea into a pitch deck. The only factor delaying that is your action.

Perhaps you have tried communicating your business idea in your pitch deck with little success before. With the advantage of knowing the do’s, don’ts, and best practices of a pitch deck, what is included in the pitch deck, and insightful examples you can get inspiration from, you stand a better chance of securing the funding you need.

A pitch deck is a vital tool for getting funding from investors. How you create a pitch deck, the designs you use are just as important as the message you want to convey. Use high-quality and professional pitch deck designs even if it is going to cost you more.

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Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

Pitch Presentation: How to Make the Case for Your Idea in Minutes!

You’ll probably have heard the word “pitch” in connection with PowerPoint and business ideas – but what exactly does it mean, and why is it so important in business?

This article will explain why pitch presentations are so vital , how to create a pitch presentation and what type of pitch might be suitable for your presentation goal.

So what does pitching, or a pitch, actually mean?

The basic meaning of pitching is throwing an idea at your audience, hoping to score a hit, as in baseball.  It can also be thought of in terms of music (like a pitch change), or electronics/science. In the context of PowerPoint presentations, a pitch is a special type of sales presentation. Read on!

What is a pitch presentation?

A pitch presentation is a short presentation in which you introduce your company, product or idea . You only have a few minutes to convince your audience and attract potential investors. So you need to plan what you want to say really carefully.

First impressions matter . While you’re preparing your pitch presentation, keep the time constraint firmly in mind. Pay special attention to getting your key messages across clearly and precisely, to achieve your goals.

Read more about this in our articles on Preparing a Presentation and Goal Setting . 

We at PresentationLoad have a range of professionally designed PowerPoint pitch presentation slides for you to use!

Your goal is to attract direct investment , or to be invited to further talks with investors.

Investors are looking for businesses that have growth potential. They want to see that your company is able to grow quickly, making profits. So when you prepare your pitch, you need to focus on your growth potential. Show investors why and how your company will grow quickly in the future, and why it is worth investing in.

To present your company vision and growth, we recommend slides from PresentationLoad !

How do I make a pitch presentation?

The most important thing is to keep your presentation simple . Investors don’t have time for complex presentations and explanations. They want facts, and to grasp what your company has to offer.

Keep your presentation as short and simple as possible and focus on the core elements that make up your company, market and product. The following structure is great for covering all the important information in your pitch presentation in the short time available:

Slide 1:  Title slide (Short, snappy dsecription of your business idea)

Slide 2:  The team (Who does what)

Slide 3:  Initial situation (What’s the problem?) Slide 4: Solution (What you are offering!)

Slide 5:  Your product / service (What exactly are you proposing?)

Slide 6:  The market (Is the market environment / target audience big enough?)

Slide 7: Added value / USP (Why is your solution better than others?)

Slide 8:  The competition (Who are the competitors? How do you differ from them?) 

Slide 9:  Your business model (What do the financials look like? How will sales be generated?) 

Slide 10:  Your business plan (How would the business model be implemented?)

Slide 11:  Funding requirements (How much money is needed, and for what?)

Slide 12:  Contact data  A good pitch presentation needs to be clear and concise, while getting the most important information over. Introduce your idea and the team briefly at the beginning. Follow this up with the most important facts and figures , as well as information on how you intend to implement your business plan.

BELIEVE in your business idea , and you’ll be effortlessly persuasive. If you believe in your company and its potential, so will your investors. Convince them that you are the next big thing, and that they should definitely invest in your company right now!

Types of pitch

• Elevator pitch

As the name suggests, this is one where you only have a very short time to get your ideas across . In an elevator ride, you only have a few minutes to talk to fellow passengers.

So an elevator pitch should be a meaningful, brief introduction to your idea. Be prepared for how little time you have! Introduce yourself, your company and your business idea. Your goal should be make a brilliant first impression in minutes.

Find more informations in our blog elevator pitch .

• Start-up pitch / business plan pitch

This sort of pitch presentation allows you to set out not only your business idea or product, but your business plan too. Good figures and future potential attract potential investors, particularly for start-ups. Make a convincing pitch, and you’re so much more likely to get the investment you need.

• Speed-pitching essions

Speed pitching is basically a fixed event where speakers have something like five minutes each to convince investors of their idea. You get the opportunity to present your idea to several potential investors. This concept is similar to speed dating.

• Sales pitch

As the name suggests, a sales pitch is about selling a product . Potential investors and customers need to be persuaded to buy. A good sales pitch is tailored to individual customers or small groups and should focus, for best effect, on what benefits your product will give them.

• Agency pitch

An agency pitch is a competition on a level playing field, putting marketing or new business ideas to a potential client . The goal of the pitch is for you to win the contract . This form of pitch is often seen in the architecture business.

A company will invite potential contractors to an agency pitch for a particular job, giving them a briefing. Proposals which appeal to the client are then developed into presentations.

The winner gets the job; everyone else goes away empty-handed. So if you’re participating in an agency pitch, keep in mind that you could also lose, using up time, money and resources. Tip: Weigh the pros and cons of the pitch, and read the briefing carefully.

• Job planning / production pitch

This sort of pitch is about smoothly linking phases of a job . In order to efficiently produce goods, without a hiatus, there need to be skilled workers, machines available, and sufficient raw material.

Timing everything appropriately can be highly complex, so your pitch needs to emphasize your company’s efficiency and experience.

Side note: Pitching like in Hollywood – The Pixar Pitch

Pixar is known worldwide for its mega successful movies. But how do they always stay at the top? It’s simple: they’ve found the perfect marketing formula. It’s not complicated, but punchy and unique – just like their movies.

Pixar movies are just incredible, keeping us spellbound from start to finish . Who doesn’t remember Marlin’s desperate search for his son Nemo, or Buzz Lightyear’s famous line, “To infinity and beyond…”?

They all follow the same, time-tested formula – the secret of their success. Every screenplay, every movie, and every good investor pitch can be put together following simple but archetypal story structures.

How does the Pixar pitch work?

And why on earth are we talking about a success formula for animated films here? Because, as Daniel Pink explains in his book “To Sell is Human”, the Pixar success formula can be applied to your business as well . And we’ll tell you how to use this technique to improve your pitches. The Pixar pitch is strongly grounded in storytelling . Nowadays, all the best TED Talks, Apple keynote speeches, and successful pitches use the storytelling principle to get their ideas across effectively.

This is because stories matter . They’ve been used since time immemorial to pass on facts and knowledge, from generation to generation. Why are we so captivated by stories? Because they evoke emotions in us, inspiring people to action, conveying values, virtues, humanity and morals. So we can use storytelling to create emotions that inspire customers and win their trust.

The structure of the Pixar pitch

The Pixar pitch consists basically of six consecutive sentences:

1. “Once upon a time…” …lets you start with a general description of the situation.

2. “Every day… ” …presents what is happening on the ground, letting you show what the problem is.  This is where you can elaborate on the habits, expectations, and general way of doing things of the user or consumer, adding statistics or evidence for them as needed.

3. “One day…” …this is the climactic, decisive moment. This is the catalyst. This is the reason that change is needed (the reason for what you’re proposing).

4. “Because of this…” … What happened? What started to be done differently?

5. “That’s why…” …. What changed as a result of this? What has the change done for the user or consumer?

6. “Until at last…” …this rounds up and highlights the essence of your message. A successful solution!

The Pixar pitch, using “Finding Nemo” as an example

1. “ Once upon a time … there was a fish named Marlin, who loved and wanted to protect his only son, Nemo.”

2. “ Every day … Marlin warned Nemo about the dangers of the ocean, and begged him to stay close when swimming.”

3. “ One day … Nemo ignored his father’s warnings and swam out into the open water.”

4. “ Because of this …. he was captured by a diver, ending up in a Sydney dentist’s aquarium.”

5. “ That’s why … Marlin set in motion a plan to rescue Nemo, enlisting the help of other sea creatures.”

6 . “ Until at last … Marlin and Nemo found each other again, learning that love depends on trust.”

Why is the Pixar pitch so effective?

Telling a story like this really helps to focus on the key points of your topic, attracting your target audience’s interest by playing to their innate human reaction to storytelling.

The vivid images you can create with this method allow you to present your audience with a short, dynamic pitch that will leave them wanting more!

Perfection is achieved, not wehen there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. – Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

How will the Pixar pitch work for me?

The Pixar pitch is an effective way to s tructure short, relevant stories . Its framework makes it easy to set out ideas and develop them.

Presenting a pitch in this way is really effective because it works with the way our brain pays attention to and processes information.

Studies show that we can only remember a maximum of six items of information at a time – that’s why the Pixar pitch, with its six sentences, is so effective.

Conclusion: Pitch successfully to your audience

How about creating a Pixar pitch for your company, product, service or problem solving? It would be a great way to draw attention to your company and attract new customers! In just a few minutes, you can present the problem, introduce your solution and explain what makes it so special.

Before creating any pitch presentation, make sure you’re clear exactly what your goals are, and which type of presentation is needed.

Our tips for creating a great pitch presentation will ensure you’re well prepared and ready to face your audience with confidence.

Got more questions about pitch presentations or PowerPoint in general? Get in touch with us [email protected] and we’ll be more than happy to help!

You might also be interested in the following articles:

• Prepare PowerPoint Presentations: 11 Tips
• Define Your Presentation Goal
• Call-to-action for Your Presentations
• Storytelling in Presentations

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How to Make a Successful Business Pitch: 9 Tips From Experts

You’ve just had your lunch, and you’re about to get back to work. 

While making your post-lunch tea (or coffee), you can’t stop thinking about being your own boss. 

You wonder if it’s about time for you to turn your side hustle into a full-time business and become an entrepreneur. 

Or perhaps you want to propose the idea of a four-day workweek to your CEO. 

If you want to introduce investors and prospects to your business idea and convince them to take the plunge with you,  you need a strong and persuasive business pitch. 

How to create a persuasive business pitch according to experts 

The good news — it’s possible to craft a convincing and successful business pitch. 

Even better news: This Piktochart business pitch guide shows you how. 

Grab your drink of choice and take notes as we explore the different ways to pitch business ideas (from a sales-style elevator pitch to an innovative workplace pitch), as well as understand what makes a great business pitch. You’ll also get a glimpse into our business pitch templates, and learn expert advice from those who have pitched their way to success (and failure too). 

You can also watch the video below if you don’t have time to go over this guide. It’s also easier to follow along if you sign up for a free Piktochart account and edit the templates yourself (learning by doing).

What is a business pitch? 

A business pitch is a presentation of a business idea to a group of people who can help turn your idea into a reality.

You can pitch to: 

• Investors who can help fund your idea
• Potential customers who will pay for your product or service
• Advocates who will support your idea

In some cases, a business pitch doesn’t have to be all about presenting a new idea. You could be asking for more funding or continued support for an already established business venture. 

Whether through an investment, purchase, or advocacy, a business pitch becomes successful if you can convince people to believe in your idea or pique their interest and get them to learn more. 

Now that you understand what a business pitch is, let’s take a closer look at the different types of business pitches. 

Types of pitches in business

Your business pitch can be narrowed down to the following five types of presentations: 

1. Investor pitch

In this type of business pitch, you present a  persuasive presentation or pitch deck to a group of potential business partners and/or investors. 

Sign up for a free Piktochart account to get started on creating professional-looking pitch deck templates that you can edit in minutes.

An investor business pitch should typically last for 45 minutes . The best practice for this type of pitch is 20-30 minutes of presentation followed by discussion or a Q&A afterward.

Alternatively, business pitch competitions follow a different best practice. These presentations should last around five to 10 minutes and focus on pitching to investors.

Lastly, the most stringent type of business pitch is most commonly referred to as an ‘elevator pitch’, and should only last around 30-60 seconds.

Let’s dive in so you can learn how to make the perfect business pitch!

2. Sales pitch 

The goal of a sales pitch is to answer the question “What’s in it for me?” from the lens of the potential customer. 

The best and most effective salespeople can make a sales pitch in as short as one minute. Also known as the ‘ elevator pitch ‘, this type of business pitch should be able to be delivered in a single elevator ride (30-60 seconds on average). In this format, a short sales pitch should include four key components:

• Your unique product name and category
• The specific problem you are trying to solve
• The innovative solution you offer
• the unique selling point of benefit to your solution

3. Product pitch 

A product pitch is similar to a sales pitch, however, the spotlight should be on the product and/or solution itself. 

For example, a sales pitch for an email automation software will highlight one or two of its benefits. Meanwhile, a product pitch of the same automation software will focus more on its features, how it works, and how you can integrate the software into your existing setup. 

In a product pitch, you should aim to:

• Explain your product or offering clearly and concisely
• Identify and address the target audience and/or industry your product supports
• Specify the problem the aforementioned faces and how your solution can solve it
• Provide a realistic example of your solution in action
• Make sure to use accurate facts backed up by relevant and recent data

4. Job pitch 

If you’re applying for a job or internship and you’re wondering how you can stand out from the crowd (consisting of your peers and other qualified applicants), consider pitching yourself to a prospective employer. 

Applying the same logic used for a sales or product pitch deck; sell yourself!

A job pitch or personal summary pitch should be concise, personalized, and consistent. In a job pitch you should include:

• A brief introduction to you
• An explanation as to why you’re a great fit for the company and role
• Relevant experience and achievements
• Your goals and career aspirations

“It’s not about bragging or showing off — it’s about giving the other person evidence that you can actually do what you say you can do,” assures Starla Sampaco , TV news anchor at KCTS 9 and founder of Career Survival Guide .

5. Workplace pitching 

Do you have an idea or initiative that will help your colleagues and help boost the company’s profitability?  Pitch it internally within your workplace, to your team or boss! 

For example, you can pitch a  remote-first culture  or the four-day workweek to your HR, and/or the rest of the leadership team.

Another workplace pitch example? Maybe you might want to propose the creation of a new role in your team which can help advance your career and address a challenge in the organization at the same time. 

To do this, simply create a pitch deck including your main points, the benefits, and proposed next steps to turn your idea into a reality. Piktochart’s workplace pitch decks can help you get your point across through our workplace templates.

The structure of a successful business pitch 

If creating a business pitch sounds intimidating, the team at Piktochart has your back. 

You can address this worry by making sure that you have a business pitch structure that is sure to succeed, using our tips & templates. 

When you have a formulated pitch deck structure, template, and agenda, you’ll know exactly what you’re going to say next, taking the bulk of the stress out of presenting. Additionally, these best practice presentation structures make your business pitch more memorable to your audience and leave a lasting impression. Statistically, it turns out that people retain structured information up to  40 percent more accurately  than information presented in freeform. 

The WHAC Method

Whether you’re pitching to a group of potential investors or you’re selling real estate, use the WHAC method when structuring your perfect business pitch. 

The WHAC method is introduced in  The 3 Minute Rule   by Brandt Pividic, an award-winning film director and television producer. He wrote the book to detail his experience and tips as he made hundreds of pitches in Hollywood. 

This well-known WHAC method stands for: 

What is it and what do you offer? 

You start your business pitch by answering the questions: what is it, and what do you offer? 

At this point, you share your business plan and quickly outline the problem and solution you offer. For example, let’s say that you want to pitch the idea of having a UX researcher on your product team. 

You list down existing problems and challenges that your team and/or organization are currently experiencing without a dedicated UX researcher. Afterward, you propose your solution — hiring someone who can step in and do user research. 

How does it work? 

Next, explain your proposal. Provide a quick summary of the benefits of your solution. In our example, share how the UX researcher will help the product team accomplish its objectives.

It can be tricky explaining how your business idea works. Figuring out how to deliver this information in an entertaining and simple manner can turn potential investors into partners, as we’ve seen from some of the best startup pitch decks .

Since you don’t have much time and attention spans are short, the key is to boil down how your idea works into a few key points. Explain how it works from a high-level overview and weave this in as part of your compelling story.

Are you sure? 

Once you have provided the solution, the people listening to your elevator pitch are likely saying to themselves, “will it really work?”

This is the point where you have to provide solid proof in your pitch. You can use testimonials, a short case study, or statistics.

You should also mention financial projections in order to leave a positive impression. If your manager or potential investors will provide funding for your idea, they’ll want to know what the ROI is.

Can you do it? 

The final part of your pitch should answer this question.

Now that your audience has heard you talk about the problem, solution, and proof that it works, you need to show them how you’re going to implement the solution. Think of this point as the “actionable” part of your pitch. You can even provide steps to break down how this can be achieved in a certain timeframe.

“Show how you have thought about how to turn your idea into a commercial outcome or true partnership. This is really an opportunity to start or continue building trust and showing that you care about creating real value for the people in the room is the best way to put you on the right foot,” shares Michael Rosenbaum , CEO of Spacer ,  one of the biggest parking marketplaces in the U.S. 

Like any good sales pitch, you need to show how achievable the results are. At this particular stage, you need to tie in any additional information to show what resources or specific and unique skills are required to make it happen.

Being transparent about what’s required can build trust with potential investors.

How to persuade your audience with your business pitch 

Now that you know the best practice structure of a successful business pitch, take note of the following tips to help make your business pitch more interesting, relatable, and most of all, convince your audience to say “yes”. 

1. Understand what your audience wants from you 

It’s standard advice across all facets of industry to “know your audience”.  

However, if you’d like to become better at your business pitches, go the extra mile by understanding what your audience wants from you. 

There’s a  difference between understanding and knowing  your audience. Instead of just  knowing  where your client comes from, try to  understand  their pain points, goals, and motivation. 

How do you do this? 

Talk to them in advance, read about the things they publish online (tweets, blog posts), and understand what excites them. By doing so, you’ll be able to tailor your business pitch to their needs, wants, and preferences. 

For example, if you’re pitching to potential clients and investors who are eco-conscious at the same time, it makes sense to highlight how your idea can positively impact the environment. 

Stephen Keighery , CEO of Home Buyer Louisiana and Founder of Bald Eagle Investments USA, shares this tip when it comes to customizing your pitch to your audience: 

“Learn ahead and research about the company or the client you’ll be pitching to, just be sure that every information you obtain is for public knowledge. You can also observe their behavior and their words during the transaction; and perhaps while pitching, use the jargon they use to establish connection and a favorable impression to them.”

2. Have your elevator pitch ready 

Imagine this. You just bumped into Mark Cuban of Shark Tank at the airport lounge, and you can’t believe that you’re sitting next to him! He looks at you and asks you about yourself and what you do. 

This is when you need your elevator pitch handy! 

The Asana team recommends the following  elements of a good elevator pitch : 

• Introduction
• Value proposition
• CTA (call to action)

You don’t have to follow the exact formula. You can mix it up based on the situation, your personality, and the audience you’re pitching to. 

It’s also worth noting that you might not immediately notice the benefit of your elevator pitch.  Think of it as an opportunity for you to make a great first impression. 

3. Use visual aids

If you have the chance to present beyond the elevator pitch, you should never pitch with a presentation that’s filled with texts, numbers, or endless rows of data. 

As humans, our  brains are hardwired to love visuals   — from photographs to infographics to icons. 

When pitching an idea, product, or service, get your audience’s attention (and support!) by telling a story visually and adding a bit of creativity to your PowerPoint slides. 

Images trigger empathy  which in turn can make your audience understand your pitch better. 

The more they understand your idea, the greater the likelihood of angel investors, venture capitalists, and potential customers supporting or advocating for you. 

Another added benefit is that  visuals can elicit emotions  and emotions play an important role in decision-making. 

Watch these 10 legendary pitch decks for visual inspiration.

4. Explain your business model clearly

When pitching to investors, imagine them asking, “what’s in it for me?”. 

After learning about how your idea can help solve a problem, they’re interested in how you’re going to advertise to your target market and generate revenue consistently. 

Johannes Larsson , CEO of  Financer.com  explains that being able to articulate their business model was what made them successful in getting business partners on board. 

“We were relatively unknown in the industry, so it took us quite a few tries before we signed our first deal. After that, however, things became much easier — not just because we were building up a name for ourselves but also because we improved our approach. We learned that being able to clearly explain our business model was the key to earning potential partners’ trust. Once we mastered that, we focused on providing proof of fruitful partnerships. It was obvious that this information was what our affiliates cared about, so we made sure to gather evidence of our success and present it in every pitch.”

5. Weave your passion or story with your pitch

Your business pitch doesn’t have to sound like you’re reading it straight from a script that someone else wrote for you. 

When appropriate, add a bit of your personal touch.  In short, humanize your pitch and slide deck. 

It will not only improve your relatability factor but also make you feel less nervous. After all, you’re talking about something that you’re passionate about. 

Take it from Debbie Chew, an SEO Specialist at  Dialpad .

“As part of my hiring process, I had to pitch a marketing campaign idea. I started brainstorming a list of potential ideas and their projected impact to decide which one to go with. While doing this, one idea kept coming back to me, and I realized I was most passionate about pitching a campaign related to video meetings. People now spend so much of their time in video meetings, but how much time? And how can we have better meetings? So I built my pitch around this concept and really enjoyed pitching my idea (which also helped me feel less nervous),” shares Chew.  If you can share a personal story or something you’re passionate about in your pitch — while also tying it back to your audience — they won’t forget it. And yes, I got the job!” 

6. Put the spotlight on benefits

Once you have your audience’s attention, circle back to how your product or service will address customer needs and benefit business partners. 

For  Carsten Schaefer  of  Trust.io , it boils down to being able to share the benefits of your product or service from the get-go. 

“When I first had to get funding for my product, I had to deliver a sales pitch in front of a board of investors. It didn’t succeed, and I learned a lot from it. “Investors want cold, hard facts and the benefits to the end-user. In the end, they want to see if it makes money for them or not. I’m glad I failed because I learned that for an effective sales pitch, you really need to put yourself in the shoes of someone thinking about profit and pure common sense from a business perspective.

Create a successful business pitch

Select a template that sparks your imagination. Clone, add or delete blocks. Visualize concepts, processes, lists, timelines and data. Use charts and graphs. Sync them with spreadsheets. Export the visual in PDF or PNG format. Start for free.

7. Highlight why you’re different from the competition

Your business pitch is also an opportunity for you to explain what sets you apart from other businesses or organizations, and essentially explain your unique selling point. What makes your idea different? Why is your business model unique? 

It also helps to address relevant competition head-on in your pitch. For  Brogan Renshaw  of Firewire Digital, this tactic shows clients and investors that you’re an expert on what you are talking about, giving them confidence in your offering.

“I notice that this is a part of my business pitches that completely wins the client over because it answers their questions and concerns on the market position of competitors,” says Renshaw. 

8. Share the story behind your team

Investors and business partners are also curious about the people, employees, as well as the team behind your idea. When creating this presentation slide in your pitch deck, don’t forget to include information highlighting your team and each team member’s relevant skills. 

“Investors want to know whether the founders have worked together before, if your startup’s early hires have complementary skill sets, and whether you’ll be flexible, open-minded, and willing to embrace different perspectives, “  writes  Lauren Landry ,  associate director of marketing and communications for Harvard Business School Online.

9. Have an impressive one-pager

As its name implies, a one-pager is a one-page document outlining your business plan and mission. Think of it as a business brochure . With Piktochart’s online brochure maker , you can easily create one within minutes.

Imagine that an investor or client is too busy to listen to your pitch, you can simply email or hand out your one-pager; your entire business pitch in an easy-to-digest format.  

According to Greg Cullen , Sr. Account Executive at Dialpad, your one-pager should have these three components: 

• What is the business pain?
• How the solution you’re positioning can solve said business pain
• The value of the solution accompanied by the resulting positive impact by moving forward with the platform

“This one-pager condenses everything that is important succinctly into an easy-to-digest easy to digest format for everyone to read – and it ensures that all parties are on the same page. And most importantly, this can be used by the champion you’re working with to sell this internally, whether it’s to the CEO, procurement, etc. The better you make this one-pager, the better the result you’ll have,” recommends Cullen. 

Get funding, win clients, and gain support with Piktochart’s pitch deck creator 

While it may be nerve-wracking, particularly if it’s the first time that you’re creating a business pitch, use the expert tips above as your guideposts for a successful pitch. 

You’ll eventually find your very own unique style and approach to business pitching as you do it more frequently.

If you need help creating any type of business or personal pitch deck, create your pitch deck quickly with Piktochart’s pitch deck creator. The first step is to get your free Piktochart account .

Want additional insight on how to better prepare and deliver a business pitch that you’ll be presenting online? Go to our guide to stress-free, engaging Zoom presentations .

We’re rooting for you and your business!

Kyjean Tomboc is an experienced content marketer for healthcare, design, and SaaS brands. She also manages content (like a digital librarian of sorts). She lives for mountain trips, lap swimming, books, and cats.

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Home Blog Business Elevator Pitch Guide: The Essentials to Elevator Pitch Presentations

Elevator Pitch Guide: The Essentials to Elevator Pitch Presentations

In her book Resonate , communication and Persuasion Expert Nancy Duarte, a highly praised master of turning story patterns into effective business communications, recommends “Showing your humanness when you present” as a “great way to stand out.” Yet, how do we manage to do that over a conversation that can only last as long as an elevator ride, at best? We’re focusing on elevator pitches over this note, aiming at strengthening your skills in delivering a successful elevator pitch for business in a way that brings your company, efforts, and ideas the best success moving forward. 

Table of Content

What is an elevator pitch?

How long should an elevator pitch be, elevator pitch real-life applications, the basic structure for an elevator pitch, recommendations on delivering your elevator pitch.

• Four Effective Elevator Pitch Examples (with Real-Life Experiences)

According to elevator company Kencor, Inc. , vertical lifts “have variable ride times”. An elevator ride in a small town in Kentucky is certainly not the same as one in New York City. The reason “there may be considerable differences in terms of speed”, as CMA Lifts states , is “because one thing is having to serve maybe a four-story building and much more is having to do with a building that in turn goes to touch a dozen.” Times will vary depending on the type of elevator, too, amount of a building’s stories, and stops made on the way.

In Taipei 101, which CMA presents as “the third highest skyscraper in the world,” a lift can travel 60.6 km to reach the 89th floor “at an altitude of 382 meters, in a time frame of about 40 seconds.” Why does this matter? We can use these times as a starting reference. 

The concept of an “elevator pitch” is most clear when we think of the length of an elevator ride as that timeframe in which you can make a perfect introduction to a potential investor or stakeholder. 

The content of a perfect elevator pitch should be succinct, direct, and plentiful . It’s also certainly one you polish every time you deliver it.

A highly esteemed 30 seconds is the common industry rule for a winning first impression. A half-minute capsule is the average notion of an elevator pitch length. This is one common reference point for elevator pitches. 

The second common standard for elevator pitches is based on a higher ride average stemming from New York City. Harvard Business Review (HBR) actually goes for this higher elevator ride average of 118 seconds. Of course, the higher amount of skyscrapers in that multicultural place makes up for the considerable difference. 

Whether you’re settling for the standard 30 seconds or allowing yourself an extension of up to 118 seconds, the truth is that elevator pitch rides are quick, efficient, and to the point. The goal is to sell your idea or product as fast as the attention you’re likely to get during a single elevator ride.  

The above is very much tied to the standard sitcom, TV, and movie scene of someone selling an episode, a project, or any idea while catching up to the jam-packed, unattainable executive everyone wants a hold of as they walk into the office. 

If we stick to this produced idea of an elevator ride that we see on screen, the most common real-life application is a key potential investor or customer, a person we wish to attract to whom we, in our minds, say: “If only I could pitch my idea to this person for a single minute, I’d sell it!” 

A conference, a demo-day presentation, product launches , and many other networking events are the real-life equivalent of what we see on TV (as in a Shark Tank episode). 

In general, elevator pitches are used to pitch a startup, engage in sales, introduce oneself, present a new venture to a venture capitalist, and even seek a job, even. 

As we said when we presented our Creative Elevator Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template , “The Elevator Pitch for Interview enables users to demonstrate their career portfolio in an engaging manner.” Someone who walks into an office or casually discusses their career over a taxi ride in a way that succinctly showcases their expertise and abilities is much more likely to catch attention for an open position than someone without clarity or ability to express their thoughts, goals, and desires. 

A well-thought-out elevator pitch for a role or as a presentation to a startup, even as a project description in a nutshell, is similar to a very powerful wild card that you pull up your sleeve when that person you know meets you by chance as much as gives you a quick 15-minute introduction to prove your point. Whether an investor can call you back during a 10-minute break or you run into a key business partner in a hallway, on the way somewhere, or at a quick reception at any event, an elevator pitch is destined to convey your ideas across very succinctly so you can pick up longer conversations (or pitches) at a more convenient or later stage. 

As we also said in the article to the template above, “business owners and managers use elevator pitch PowerPoints to discuss ideas briefly.” Templates and business presentations in this category of elevator pitch decks serve the useful purpose of putting ideas up on screen in a nutshell for focused discussion. And that’s usually highly appreciated. 

Further below, we’ll get to a real-life example of a pitch that worked great for Carmine Gallo in working with an esteemed language interpretation company in Monterrey, California. 

For now, if you’re looking to know more about “interview presentations”, including an Elevator Pitch Example for Job Seekers, our article How to Give A Compelling Interview Presentation: Tips, Examples, and Topic Ideas is here to help. We’ll get to more elevator speech examples for entrepreneurs in the section below, as well. 

For now, how do we ideally present our elevator pitches? 

Create visually appealing presentations as much as possible. The goal is for your visuals to give power and create engagement that adds to your message or speech. This can be done either by carefully pairing your presentation templates so the aesthetic remains cohesive, or opt for a software solution like the SlideModel’s AI presentation maker to speed up slide design process. Then, also work very conscientiously on your messaging.

As Nancy Duarte says, “Truly great communicators make it look easy as they lure audiences to adopt their ideas and take action.” To learn how to deliver a presentation pitch, and if we can expand on what the author says, this “isn’t something that just happens automatically; it comes at the price of long and thoughtful hours spent constructing messages that resonate deeply and elicit empathy.” Make sure you put in your focused, attentive hours constructing that ideal message that will resonate with your audience to make them take action. Results will be noticeable if you do, and your confidence in delivering these speeches will naturally and greatly improve as you move forward. This long-term exercise is about being in control of what you’re gearing and how you’re doing so. 

As the already-referenced HBR article states, “The first 8 seconds are the ‘hook’—the time you have to get the ‘lean in’ factor, to snag your prospect, to catch their interest.” For them, “Those first 8 seconds are the key”, as HBR puts it. And that’s essentially so because this first span is where we most commonly capture an audience’s full attention before we naturally lose it.  

Thereafter, you’re looking to answer a few key questions for your audience. In Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs – How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience , for example, Carmine Gallo breaks down the ultimate elevator pitch by recommending a presenter: “Simply create a one-sentence answer for the following four questions: (1) What do you do?  (2) What problem do you solve?  (3) How are you different?  (4) Why should I care?”

As promised, here’s what a winning elevator pitch looked like for Gallo in working with an interpretation company (which we labeled here as XYZ) in Monterrey, California: 

XYZ company…

“is the world’s largest provider of phone interpretation services for companies who want to connect with their non-English-speaking customers [what it does] . 

Every twenty-three seconds, someone who doesn’t speak English enters this country [the problem] .

When he or she calls a hospital, a bank, an insurance company, or 911, it’s likely that an […] interpreter is on the other end [how it’s different] . 

We help you talk to your customers, patients, or sales prospects in 150 languages [why you should care] .”

Quite succinctly and like we also said in our Creative Elevator Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template , whenever you’re figuring out how to write an elevator pitch, think of ways “to deliver the concept to an audience in a short description that listeners can easily understand.” The pieces of advice we give above should all assist in knowing how to present an elevator pitch successfully. But we’ve for further recommendations to this end. 

The first of our recommendations has to do with pacing. Just because an elevator pitch is expected to be of short duration, that doesn’t mean you need to race through it. Keep it intelligible. Take your time to breathe. Go slowly at it so your ideas can come through to your audience. Don’t rush through an elevator speech just so you can make up for the short time allowed. Practice, instead. Make sure you choose the right words and learn them by heart. Then, move slowly through them. 

The above leads us to our second piece of advice. If you’re building a perfect elevator pitch, revise, edit, and check again! Go through each word many times until you find the right-suiting one for the precise idea or concept you wish to convey. Get them right! 

Also, if you’re looking for an elevator pitch presentation template specially designed for presenting to VCs, angel investors, or stakeholders, for example, seek out specialized material. Our Formal Elevator Pitch Template for PowerPoint might work better in that case. The material is a framework of various slides designed for users to customize and perfect their sales pitches. You’re starting off with a base. 

On the other hand, seek to put yourself out there to family and friends. Especially seek business partners, colleagues, and people in and out of your field who can tell you how you’re doing with your elevator pitch for business. Rather than fight, be offended, take observations or corrections personally, and let alone justify your pitch’s content as you present to people outside the industry, seek to truly listen to feedback, take note, and make sure you incorporate it later. 

The reason behind this observation is that a perfect business pitch contemplates the human aspect of everyone listening. As Duarte puts it in her book, “Even with mountains of facts, you can still fail to resonate. That’s because resonance doesn’t come from the information itself, but rather from the emotional impact of that information.” So, seek to connect emotionally. 

Acknowledging emotion is frequently left out of everything business-related; yet, note how specialist Duarte recommends presenters “Use plenty of facts, but accompany them with emotional appeal.” Listen to your audience and polish your content and delivery until you can sync both the importance of data with the emotional calling that gets audiences to forget what and how you said it, but they walk away changed, with a new vision, and, more importantly, ready to support you and your endeavors. 

Let’s check how people have achieved this before you. 

Four Effective Elevator Pitch Examples (with Real-Life Experiences )

Our first examples of elevator pitches come from a German impact food startup. Though a bit on the longer side with a final 3-minute length, the video introduces the problem and solution flowingly with a captivating start. It includes benefits, creates an overall experience in itself for viewers as it appeals to the senses, and also incorporates a concise call to action that describes exactly where their efforts will be focused. This is a good example to get started in perfecting your upcoming elevator pitch. 

From the college side, Utah State University’s Cooperative Extension Services has an elevator pitch winner who made a compelling business case in less than 2 minutes. This is a perfect example of a 118 elevator pitch that needs a bit of pacing down to be perfect. Instead of rushing, this coffee cup business idea can easily be conceived to go much further on a slower scale. The pitch merits it. Yet, the data and sentiment, the surprise, and all the background work are there, making this a great academic example that can easily guide any executive into winning business presentations.

On the last note, The National Science Foundation came up with a video series on elevator pitches titled “Real People. Real elevators.” Check out episode 2 here for tips with a real-life dramatization and setting if you’d like to picture the situation of a real-life example a bit further. 

Now that we’re moving to the more cinematic side, one of Vince Vaughn’s characters has also made a point on product elevator pitches that we can rescue in a light spirit. The reason is that Vince’s character’s pitch works thanks to how he conveys a clear business idea with a captivating (though risky!) introduction to selling a powerful concept to a group of executives. The scene appears fueled by a writing team that apparently knows the back works of pitching an idea fairly well. Here’s what’s been labeled as “The best elevator pitch of the world” in a YouTube clip of 2011’s movie Dilemma . 

Here, we provide a range of elevator pitch examples to cater to different scenarios:

Business Elevator Pitch Examples:

Imagine you are the founder of a sustainable fashion startup, and you’re pitching your idea to a potential investor:

“I’m the founder of GreenStyle Apparel. We’re disrupting the fashion industry by producing high-quality, eco-friendly clothing made from recycled materials. With a growing consumer demand for sustainable fashion and our innovative supply chain, we’re well-positioned to capture a significant market share. Our recent partnership with [Notable Retailer] has already proven the appeal of our products. I invite you to join us in creating a more sustainable future while enjoying impressive returns on your investment.”

Imagine you’re the founder of a health tech startup and you’re pitching to a potential investor:

“I’m the founder of HealthTech Innovations, a startup dedicated to transforming healthcare through innovative technology. Our flagship product, HealthLink, is a telemedicine platform that connects patients with healthcare providers in real time, improving access to care, and reducing healthcare costs. With the recent surge in telehealth demand, we’ve already secured partnerships with major hospital networks and insurance providers.

Elevator Pitch Examples for Students:

As a college student majoring in communications, you’re networking at a career fair:

“I’m currently pursuing a degree in communications with a focus on digital marketing. During my internship at [Prominent Agency], I had the opportunity to work on campaigns for major clients like [Well-known Brand]. I excel at creating engaging social media content and analyzing performance metrics to drive results. I’m eager to bring my creative skills and data-driven approach to a dynamic marketing team like yours.”

Imagine you’re a marketing major and you’re introducing yourself at a networking event:

“I’m a marketing enthusiast with a passion for creating meaningful brand experiences. Throughout my coursework, I’ve honed my skills in market research, digital marketing, and campaign management. During my internship at [Marketing Agency], I had the opportunity to work on a social media campaign that resulted in a 25% increase in brand engagement.

I’m particularly intrigued by the intersection of technology and marketing, and I’m excited to leverage emerging trends to drive brand success. As a student, I’ve been an active member of the American Marketing Association, where I’ve collaborated with peers on real-world marketing projects. I’m eager to connect with professionals in the field and explore opportunities to apply my knowledge and creativity to your marketing initiatives.”

Elevator Pitch for Interview Example:

You’re interviewing for a project management role at a tech company:

“I’m excited about the opportunity to join your organization as a project manager. With a solid background in project management and a PMP certification, I’ve successfully led cross-functional teams to deliver complex projects on time and within budget. In my previous role at [Former Company], I was recognized for improving project efficiency by 20% through streamlined processes. I’m confident that my skills and experience align with your company’s goals and can contribute to its continued success.”

Elevator Pitch Examples for Interview (Technical Role):

You’re interviewing for a software engineering position at a software startup:

“I’m a software engineer with a passion for creating innovative solutions. In my previous position with [Tech Company], I was the lead developer on a project that resulted in a 40% increase in app user engagement. I specialize in backend development and have experience with a wide range of programming languages, including Python, Java, and Ruby. I’m excited about the opportunity to bring my technical expertise to your team and help drive your mission of revolutionizing the industry.”

You’re interviewing for a data scientist position at a software startup:

“As a data scientist with a strong background in statistical analysis and machine learning, I’ve been at the forefront of turning data into actionable insights. During my tenure at [Analytics Firm], I developed a predictive model that reduced customer churn by 15% for a major telecommunications client. I have experience working with large datasets and utilizing tools such as Python, R, and TensorFlow. My passion for data-driven decision-making and my commitment to staying at the cutting edge of data science techniques make me the ideal candidate to contribute to your data-driven culture and help your organization make informed strategic decisions.”

These real-life elevator pitch examples demonstrate how individuals can effectively present their qualifications, accomplishments, and enthusiasm in various professional contexts, such as entrepreneurship, networking, and job interviews. The key is to tailor your pitch to the specific situation and audience to make a memorable and impactful impression.

A few key aspects of perfecting a product elevator speech (or an elevator pitch, for that matter) is to keep it short. Be brief. From 30 to 118, we’re speaking of a few seconds put together for you to be persuasive, share your goals, problem, solution, and skills, and make a difference in attracting your intended audience. 

Practice, practice, and then practice some more. Mastering a pitch of this kind truly takes a lot of practice to go over the right words at the right pace, and powerfully impact a person or group. 

Also, keep a business card handy. If your pitch works, a quick and efficient way of giving your contact details to your stakeholders will do wonders to move your business forward. 

What’s next? Our recommendations

Before you go, here are a few real-life examples of how to end a presentation , in case they help in general. And, if you’re looking to Create a Great Investor Pitch Deck and Close the Deal , this other article might be useful. We’re giving you The 11 Key Slides For Creating A Winning Investor Pitch Deck there, too. 

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From PowerPoint to Prezi: How Fernando Rych elevated his presentation pitch 

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Naba Ahmed April 04, 2024

There is always a risk of miscommunication when presenting or sharing information.

However, for a Prezi user, this is not a concern when making pitch presentations. This user is confident that the information has been presented clearly and only needs to concentrate on closing the deal.

Meet Fernando Rych . He’s the founder of an innovation agency where he pitches potential investors and executives. Recently, he met with Danone and Sodexo who wanted to do a huge transformation inside their businesses. They hired his agency as a result of his successful client pitches made in Prezi. 

Discovering Prezi and closing deals 

At the age of 20, Fernando Rych was offered the position of CTO for six companies. In this role, he was tasked with leading executive meetings and presenting at conferences for brands like Coke, Nike, Calvin Klein, etc. These companies were looking to expand their markets to Brazil where Fernando is based. To achieve this, he needed to pitch his presentation on the main stage. 

His goal was to find the best tool to help his audience absorb information. And that’s when he discovered Prezi . 

Once he learned that Prezi was 16.4% more engaging and 25.3% more effective than PowerPoint , he knew he made the right choice. 

“When you change from one slide to another in PowerPoint, you’re losing precious seconds of attention,” Fernando said. 

Improved learning experience 

When he first began teaching, he typically used PowerPoint and Google Slides but disliked how distracted his students were with reading all the text on the slides. With Prezi, he was able to highlight more visual elements, allowing his students to focus on him and not just on the presentation. 

“When you do that in Prezi, it’s a very smooth transition, and you don’t have a moment where you have to scan the entire screen to search for the information before understanding where you are,” Fernando said. 

A few seconds add up, especially as a professor. Fernando teaches MBA courses at the University of Sao Paolo, where he incorporates presentation tips into every lecture. For one of his business consulting courses, he explains how to build a strong presentation, a business speech, and an elevator pitch. 

When it comes to presenting, he says that in a traditional presentation format, it’s “like jumping or teleporting to another continent but with Prezi, it’s like walking your way to that place. You’re able to understand the whole journey and take your time experiencing it – that’s Prezi. ” 

Staying ahead of the latest technological trends 

As a LinkedIn Top Voice in information technology, Fernando is always looking to refresh his technological skills and stay up-to-date on the latest tools. That’s how he stumbled upon the Google Developer Communities . He loved the community format of knowledge sharing and wanted to give back as well. Fernando used Prezi to lecture to these communities, helping companies like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Paypal, Slack, and Twitter, on how to create and empower their communities. 

In total, Fernando has founded 24 communities, supported 950+ events, and put on 80+ hackathons. One of the hackathons he organized was for the United Nations, where he set the Latin America record for most people physically present at a hackathon and was awarded the distinction of Latin American Ambassador. 

When he’s not supporting communities, Fernando works as a Senior Global Innovation Consultant. There, one of his main responsibilities is to find impossible projects and make them possible. 

For all of these presentations, he uses Prezi to make sure they’re paying attention to him and the content, instead of the slides changing from one to the other. Fernando says he uses Prezi on a daily basis to achieve his target results. 

Making Prezi accessible to all 

Fernando loves the reactions and responses he receives when he uses Prezi. He wants to allow others to have that same feeling when they’re presenting. That’s why he only uses Prezi’s templates. 

After an event, people will frequently ask him how to create such fancy presentations. To which Fernando will respond “Yes, I’m using a template. You don’t have to start from scratch to get the same fancy style.” 

If you’re interested in making presentations just like Fernando, get started with a presentation from our library of templates . 

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How to wrap text in google slides.

Make an attention-worthy presentation by wrapping text in slides

You must strike the right balance between media files and text to create an engaging presentation. When you insert several photos in a slide, wrap the text around them to enhance its visual appeal. It also adds a professional touch and conveys the message better.

When you add text and images to a slide, you may need to change the text position so that it doesn't overlap with the inserted media. Whether you use Google Slides on a desktop or rely on the company's apps on your iPhone, budget Android phone , or tablet to make last-minute tweaks, check the tips below to wrap text around images in no time.

What is text wrap in Google Slides?

Text wrapping is a common feature in popular Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 apps, like Docs, Sheets, Word, Excel, and Google Slides. It wraps text around other slide content like photos and videos. You can resize text content and place it in a relevant position on a slide.

How to add transparency to an image in Google Slides

Wrap text in google slides on the web.

Since most Google Slides users prefer a web version, let's start with it. Follow the steps below to insert an image and add text around it.

• Launch Google Slides on the web and sign in with your account details.
• Create a new presentation or open an existing one.

Now, it's time to wrap the text around your image. Unlike Google Docs, there isn't a one-click solution to adjust your text automatically. You'll rely on a workaround.

• Move to a new slide when you are satisfied with the outcome.

Tweak wrap text effect in Google Slides

You can also play with text formatting options in Google Slides. This is a neat way to improve the text wrap effect.

• Open a slide in your presentation and select a text box.
• Click Format at the top and expand Align and indent .

The option produces a clean edge on the left and right. It takes care of uneven gaps and rivers in the text.

Wrap text in Google Slides apps

The ability to wrap text in Google Slides is available on mobile and tablet. We use Google Slides for iPad in the screenshots below.

• Launch Google Slides on your tablet and open a presentation.
• Use the blue border to place your text box anywhere on a slide.

How to add a timer to Google Slides

Benefits of wrapping text in google slides.

Unlike Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides isn't smart enough to show design ideas based on your added text, images, and other graphical elements. When you add images and text, you must manually adjust them for a cohesive look. Here are some of the advantages of wrapping text in Google Slides.

• Creates a solid presentation with lots of images and relevant text content.
• Conveys your pitch in a meaningful manner.
• Simplifies your busy slide.
• Cuts down the number of slides in a presentation.

Improvise your pitch

Your presentation may look busy, cluttered, and unprofessional without text wrapping. It only requires a few clicks and small adjustments to make your text look organized with other slide elements. You can also tweak text from the Google Slides mobile apps.

If you don't want to deal with text wrapping and other formatting options, start with a top Google Slides template and make the required changes quickly to complete a presentation.

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Presentation platform Pitch adds asynchronous video

Users of Pitch’s presentation software can now record and insert short videos directly into their presentations.

Presentation software maker Pitch has added a recordings feature so that users can now record and insert short videos directly into their presentations.

Users can record videos directly onto individual slides, with multiple collaborators all having the ability to add a recording into the same slide deck. The new feature has been built directly into the slide editing experience, with users simply needing to add a recording block, similar to the add text or image process, and then positioning it alongside the other content on the slide.

“We built recordings to transform presentations for the way work happens now,” Tomaž Štolfa, head of presentation experience at Pitch said. Štolfa believes that as collaboration is no longer confined to conference rooms or video calls, teams expect to be able to align asynchronously ahead of a big presentation, without being limited by schedules or physical locations.

Any member of a Pitch workspace can add recordings to slides, and anyone with access to a presentation can watch them. Users have the option to toggle recordings on and off and can also manage the playback speed of their videos. Comments and reactions allow teams to share updates and provide feedback inside the presentation environment.

Pitch has also integrated recordings into some of its most popular templates, and added two new templates, an async sales deck and async pitch deck.

Supporting asynchronous collaboration

As companies continue to embrace hybrid work models, asynchronous forms of communication have become increasingly popular, particularly among organizations that have teams working across multiple time zones.

Slack , Cisco , Dropbox , Asana and Trello all added video messaging features to their platforms in the latter half of 2021, while Loom, the which lets users create short videos that can be sent to colleagues and viewed whenever is convenient for them, has rapidly grown to a reported valuation above $1.5 billion.

Speaking to Computerworld in October 2021 , Angela Ashenden, principal analyst at CCS Insight said that many organizations “massively over-pivoted” towards real-time collaboration with video meetings and videoconferencing, which had adverse effects on lots of workers. “The growth of asynchronous is a realization that we need to manage our workloads better,” she said.

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Charlotte Trueman is a staff writer at Computerworld. She joined IDG in 2016 after graduating with a degree in English and American Literature from the University of Kent. Trueman covers collaboration, focusing on videoconferencing, productivity software, future of work and issues around diversity and inclusion in the tech sector.

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Minimalist Grayscale Pitch Deck PowerPoint and Google Slides Template

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Minimalist Grayscale Pitch Deck

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What is the 'God Bless the USA Bible'? The $60 Bible Trump and Lee Greenwood are selling

Donald Trump is now in the business of selling Bibles, according to an announcement made Tuesday.

Trump announced the partnership with country music singer Lee Greenwood, best known for his song "God Bless the USA". The pair is selling a custom version of the Bible for $59.99, called the " God Bless the USA Bible," which was previously announced in 2021 by Greenwood but then fell to the wayside after hitting snafus with publishing.

"All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It's my favorite book," Trump said in a video posted on social media "It's a lot of peoples' favorite book."

"We have to bring Christianity back into our lives and into what will be again a great nation," Trump said. "Our Founding Fathers did a tremendous thing when they built America on Judeo-Christian values. Now that foundation is under attack, perhaps as never before."

The announcement comes as Trump is embroiled in several legal battles, leaving him reportedly strapped for cash. He recently posted a $91 million bond as he appeals a jury award in a defamation case and, on Monday a New York state appeals court ruling imposed an additional $175 million bond while he appeals a civil fraud verdict against him. He will owe another $354 million plus interest if he loses the appeal.

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Trump has denied that he is facing financial issues and a disclaimer on the controversial Bible's website claims it "has nothing to do with any political campaign" and is "not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, CIC Ventures LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates."

What exactly is this self-proclaimed patriotic version of the Bible and what does it have to do with a country song from the 1980s? Here's what we know.

Trump bibles: Donald Trump is selling $60 Bibles as he seeks funds for for campaign, legal bills

What is the 'God Bless the USA Bible'?

The "God Bless the USA Bible" is a version of the Christian Bible "inspired by Lee Greenwood's patriotic anthem 'God Bless the USA,'" according to the official God Bless The USA Bible website.

Touting itself as the "only Bible endorsed by President Trump" and Greenwood himself, it incorporates copies of American political documents and Greenwood's song lyrics into the copy.

A "spotlight" section on the website shows other conservative personalities posing with a copy of the bible, including Tomi Lahren, Donal Trump Jr., Rita Cosby, Travis Tritt and Gov. Mike Huckabee.

According to the website, "high order volume" means customers will have to wait four to six weeks for delivery.

What is in the 'God Bless the USA Bible'?

The "God Bless the USA Bible" is the King James Version translation interspersed with copies of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and handwritten lyrics to the chorus of “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood.

According to the Bible's website, it comes in a large print, two-column format.

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Who is Lee Greenwood?

Melvin Lee Greenwood is an American  country music  singer-songwriter. He has released more than 20 major-label albums but is best known for his 1984 patriotic song "God Bless the USA."

Greenwood identifies as a conservative Republican and Christian and his song has often been used at Republican political rallies and conventions. It has been used in the campaigns of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and more recently, Donald Trump.

President Bush nominated Greenwood to serve on the National Council of Arts, which he did from 2008 to 2022. In 2018, Greenwood was awarded the MMP Music Award and was inducted into the MMP Hall of Fame by Commander Joseph W. Clark.

'God Bless the USA Bible' controversies, response

Constitutional and legal scholars, as well as people in the Christian church, have rebuffed the existence of a Bible that mixes religion and legal doctrine. When the concept was first announced, it received notable backlash.

In 2021, HarperCollins Christian Publishing  refused to manufacture the book after a preliminary agreement, leading Greenwood and Hugh Kirkpatrick, who led the company Elite Service Pro behind the custom Bible, to look elsewhere for publishing.

HarperCollins Christian Publishing, which includes Zondervan and Thomas Nelson publishing groups, is the North American licensor for the New International Version translation of the Bible, which ultimately was not used in the "God Bless the USA" version. Instead, it uses the King James Version translation.

It is now unclear who the publisher and licensor of the new version is. Greenwood's publicist previously told the Nashville Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY network, that Elite Source Pro is no longer a partner on the project. He was unable to name the new licensee who is manufacturing the Bible.