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30 Inspiring Examples of the Best Pitch Decks + Templates

Renderforest Staff

02 Sep 2023

13 min read  

2022 unfolded new rules for startups who chase raising investments.

Global stats showed us VC time spent reviewing pitch decks dropped by 24% compared to 2021 . Converted to minutes – investors are ready to spend less than 3 minutes ( 2:42, on average ) on your submitted pitch deck samples now.

We can almost hear the faint echo of Scooby-Doo’s “ Ruh Roh! ” from the startup scene.

But worry not. Renderforest knows the reliable formula for creating a winning pitch deck – even if you have only 2:42 minutes to present the whole thing.

In this thorough guide, we’ve collected everything you need to nail that pitch deck – from the ABCs to the actual examples of winning decks and templates .

We cover…

• the best pitch decks of all time and their recipe for success, 
• unbreakable rules for creating the best investor pitch decks,
• stellar pitch deck templates from Renderforest that make deck creation easy as pie. 

Keep scrolling down for more!

Anatomy of an Effective Pitch Deck for Startups

Investor and serial entrepreneur Alejandro Cremades claims around 10 slides are enough for a winning investor pitch deck . Among these, the three most crucial slides that investors usually pay attention to are Financials, Team, and Competition – the core aspects that help them understand your startup’s potential for success.

This can be considered the raw ingredients of a successful pitch deck. However, your recipe might have different proportions and additives depending on the round of financing you’re raising, the sector you’re pitching in, the size of your business, and the current market trends.

Here’s how you should approach the process to find out what to include in the deck to match your specific needs.

Understanding the Purpose

Switch off your marketing hat and put on the investor one. Ask yourself: “ What’s in it for them? “, “ Would I be impressed with this idea as an investor? “

If you feel your initial pitch deck structure can leave investors on the fence, and if the hook is not strong enough, it’s time to rework the structure and add more relevant details that will make them feel invested.

There’s a formula that works in 99.9% of cases. It’s called being concise, relevant, and clear .

You should cut to the chase and transfer the most important information with a few words.

• What’s the problem your startup is trying to solve? ( Think twice, triple, or more to be absolutely confident the problem touches a wider audience )
• How is your startup going to solve this problem? ( Ensure it’s not a “We think that’s going to work” type of solution but rather a “This is how we are going to do it” approach )
• Spice up your declarative statements with numbers . ( Nothing personal, but if numbers don’t back up your statements – your statements won’t back you up )

To recapitulate, find that hook, that point that will make investors believe in the potential of your startup and the necessity of your product. Then formulate it in the clearest way possible.

Here’s how AirBnB once did it .

Structuring Your Pitch Deck

As said before, the best pitch decks rotate around 10 slides. Usually, the must-haves include the following.

• Introduction
• Problem and solution (can be merged or separate)
• Numbers, Figures, Statistics
• Competitive Analysis
• Market Analysis
• Financial Projections
• Team Profile
• Conclusion/Thank You Page/Contact

Structure your pitch deck now

The business world considers these to be the key elements for a successful pitch deck, as by including them all, you cover the entire story of your startup. So, while you can modify your brand deck structure according to your needs, take advantage of everything crucial.

On top of that, feel free to restructure your order of slides if it helps you to make a better flow. 

For example, if you’re raising money for a product already on the market, it might be better to start with your product and team info instead of the problem. On the contrary, if you’re pre-launch, it is better to start with the problem and focus on your product afterward, as investors need to understand why your solution is necessary and how you will solve the problem before they even learn what the solution is.

Design Principles and Best Practices

Because human brains are wired to process visuals faster than text, visuals are considered to be 50 times more memorable than textual content . So, your key figures and core messaging should be presented as infographics, charts, diagrams, and illustrations to capture the necessary attention.

We won’t go into much detail about styling pitch deck visuals here, as you already have a huge library of pitch deck templates by Renderforest already designed according to the best practices of corporate design.

Instead, here are some tips on which colors and fonts work best based on the most effective pitch deck examples.

White, gray, and blue are considered to be one of the most suitable color palettes for corporate-style presentations . Best pitch decks use these colors as a background and accentuate the key points with bright or dark accents, as these neutral tones are associated in human brains with reliability, trust, intelligence, balance and other positive features.

Scientists have found the highest correlation between Times New Roman and Helvetica fonts and the formal, legible perception of the text . And the font psychology says Sans Serif fonts such as Square, Humanist, Grotesque, Geometric and similar are very suitable for modern devices . These fonts associate with clean-looking, clear, and efficient content. Meanwhile, San Serif fonts’ letters require less space and are better displayed on desktop and mobile screens.

These rules are not set in stone, but the best pitch decks follow them, so it’s recommended to keep them in mind.

Find Your Ready-to-Use Pitch Deck Template Below!

If you’re sitting in front of an empty slide trying to figure out how to structure your pitch deck, we suggest you close it and try a more efficient way.

Renderforest offers you a wide range of corporate-style pitch deck templates for any sector and purpose. If you can harness the power of pre-designed templates inspired by the best pitch decks, why not try?

Our introduction to the startup pitch deck article can help you to understand how Renderforest can assist you in creating a successful presentation tailored for a specific investor or accelerator.

You can also review other helpful resources like our Startup Pitch Deck Intro or another Pitch Deck Introduction .

Meanwhile, we share the ready-to-use templates below to create the best startup pitch decks with zero design or coding knowledge.

Just choose the template you like , customize it , and export it in one click from Renderfores t to use it for any purpose.

Best Startup Pitch Decks

Here’s a classic version of the startup pitch template with a minimalistic design with a white background and turquoise-green accent. This pitch deck pack features 24 scenes you can filter to collect the needed slides.

The font color is dark blue – the ideal color for presentation titles and subtitles, as it is associated with intelligence and trust. Scenes include minimum visuals, yet the arrangement of elements and the font choice is completely eye-catching, leaving you enough space to focus on the content.

There are all standard pages that the best agency pitch decks are expected to have – competitor analysis, team, user feedback, service popularity with numbers, etc. So, this could be a great choice if you need to create a comprehensive yet classic and minimalistic presentation. You will have no shortage of slides to present your entire story. Meanwhile, slides are not visually heavy, so you can be sure the audience won’t get overwhelmed with information.

A minimalistic cover with dark blue background features the project title and a short description. If your company is established and has already made some noise, you can add the company logo here. If you need to showcase anything more, you can upload it on the cover – the overall formal impression will remain intact.

Corporate Pitch Deck

If you need a more customizable pitch deck template that gives you more creative opportunities, this is your best choice. This pitch deck corporate presentation includes 235 scenes ( no typo, the number is real ) for companies with a lot to share or those needing a huge pool of design ideas to mix elements until they come up with the best look.

This pitch template is more dynamic in terms of colors – white background, green and purple accents – a combination that works perfectly for creative industries. This color blend catches the eye and adds some playfulness to the formal corporate look.

The pack includes different styles of pitch deck examples to choose from. There are text-heavy slides, image-heavy pages, and more balanced, minimalistic designs that leave space to relax the eyes of the viewers.

As the best pitch decks are about the right balance between text and visuals, you’ll have plenty of choices here to create the perfect look for your presentation.

The cover is very minimalistic – plain white background and the company title. This simplicity can make an even bigger statement about your startup.

Professional Pitch Deck

Need a more pastel-colored, creative investor pitch deck that features soft colors and is not afraid to have many team members’ photos? This professional pitch deck includes 120 scenes with a light pink and blue pastel color palette that works great for creative industries and startups.

Thanks to a milder design, this pitch deck template is attractive to the audience but still keeps the professionalism and trustworthiness of a corporate presentation. However, though the common rules of formal approach are kept, these brand decks will better suit companies in creative industries or services closer to consumer psychology.

Why? Because pink usually speaks about playfulness, nurturing, and romantic feelings, and these are hardly the feelings you want to evoke if your startup, let’s say, is in the AI industry. However, if you are in the fashion industry, for example, this pitch presentation will work perfectly!

120 scenes are more than enough to collect your desired pitch deck structure. And with the cover design options focusing on the startup’s team photos, you can emphasize the human side of the business and build trust among potential investors.

Business Plan Pitch Deck

Closing the list of the best investor pitch decks from Renderforest with a business plan with a deck pack that features a gradient purple and peach color palette that softens the visual impression. That’s a basic pitch template – consisting of only 17 scenes and containing only the very necessary slides, such as vision, mission, goals, business plan, and questions.

Who can this brand deck be most useful for? It’s a great choice for those who don’t have so much content to share yet need a full-fledged presentation. Short but informative, this business plan is best used for sharing an idea with potential investors at the early stages of the product.

A potential drawback is the lack of slides with rich figures and data, as other pitch deck samples of this list have. However, if you’re still in the early stages of your project and still need to get all the data to share, this template can be your best choice.

Get Inspired with Real-World Examples of The Best Pitch Decks

What about delving deeper into the world of the best pitch decks? 

We invite you to join us on the exhilarating journey of reviewing the most successful pitch decks! Our editorial team cherrypicked the most inspiring presentations of the worldly known companies ( once startups like yours that managed to make a real success story ) and learned how the best agency pitch decks are made.

Take this opportunity to observe, get inspired, and apply the knowledge to your business!

1. Facebook

Back in 2004, when Facebook was not what it is today, the company owners had a crystal-clear understanding of their potential customers. Who are they? What’s their purchase power, and which part of their budget is reserved for the service? All these questions were answered in their pitch deck in great detail, awakening trust in the company’s success.

Additionally, Facebook had a clear action plan of what they were going to do and how. That’s one of the best pitch decks for a reason – it ensures the investors that their money isn’t going to be lost on a project without an action plan.

• Even if and especially if your startup is bringing an innovative product, be confident in your statements and ensure you transfer your detailed plan of action to make that revolutionary idea well-accepted by the public .
• Have detailed and realistic calculations behind your statements. Let data speak for itself.

The first slide is a brilliant trigger for an investor pitch deck. Storage is a mess – at times, Dropbox was launching its solution, and this messy picture was relatable to almost everyone. The rest is even more convincing – as the company has a very detailed analysis of the current market situation – what consumers are looking for and what currently exists from the competitors’ side.

We especially loved how clearly Dropbox explains its features – no extra words to distract the attention, just a few points that make them stand out. That’s a great way to present your unique selling propositions and add more weight to the investors’ decision-making.

• Work well on your brand deck hook. Ensure your highlighted problem triggers people at once .
• Know your customers and competitors well. Be fully acquainted with every nuance of your niche to prove you can improve it.

Did we already say Airbnb has one of the best pitch decks of all time? We want to state that again!

Showing 560M serviceable available market out of 2 billion + available total market is an undeniable statement of how great a potential Airbnb has. It also has an impressive competitor analysis – a creatively pictured visual graph with few words which clearly highlight the gaps Airbnb is going to fill.

And we loved the closing. Here they have a clear dialogue – we need a precisely estimated amount of money for specifically planned results.

• Try to present your research results and findings in a format other than words – be creative and use original graphs, charts, or any other visual tools.
• Be absolutely precise about the capital you need and estimate which real results you can show investors with that money .

The famous taxi company did a good trick. It looked at the market gaps and inconveniences from two sides – from the perspective of clients and drivers. That’s one of the best pitch decks that justifies the urgent need for the product from both sides.

What’s unique among the best pitch decks presented in this list so far is that Uber presented potential outcomes of their business plan – best-case scenario, realistic scenario, and worst-case one. That’s an inspiring way to demonstrate how well the team thinks through their idea and is ready for any possible outcome.

• Try to have a comprehensive look at all the stakeholders that are going to be impacted by your product – clients, employees, affiliates and the public.
• Show your responsible approach by having your action plan’s possible outcomes well estimated . Be prepared to act in any situation.

One of the best SaaS pitch decks –  Buffer’s one is the closest to what we describe as a golden standard of modern-day presentations. It has 13 pages, is well structured, and contains only the key points needed to put the idea out there.

One of the best startup pitch decks – Buffer’s presentation- contains detailed milestones of what the company has achieved and intends to do next. This detailed timeline with dates and numbers helps to build trust in the team’s proficiency and the journey they have ahead.

• Try to accommodate all your important points in 10-15 pages at most. If you can say it in fewer words, do it . Short pitch deck examples are more inviting to read.
• Clearly document all your important achievements so you can further present a clear and detailed history of your progress. Record dates of important events and the results you achieved.

Tinder wasn’t always called Tinder. When it started as a Match Box, the company made one of the best startup pitch decks, which is out of the ordinary in its structure and flow.

Instead of the standard problem-solution scheme ( the effectiveness of which we do not underestimate ), the company starts its brand deck with the story of Matt – a guy that’s a prototypical representative of Tinder’s target audience. He wants to talk to a girl at the party, but he’s shy – all the traits that this niche audience can easily relate to.

• Don’t be afraid to go out of the box with your brand deck structure . If your creative juices are flowing and you can describe your suggested product and why it’s so necessary for a specific target audience group with an inventive approach, don’t limit yourself to standard slides.

Well, WeWork is considered one of the best pitch decks due to its robust analytical and research data. It’s very detailed in its explanation of how it is going to change the office rental industry as a whole and what kind of services it will provide.

WeWork has done an excellent job of outlining the global market for co-working spaces and how it is set to grow exponentially. Just looking at this investor pitch deck is enough to realize this company knows what it’s doing. It also shows a detailed plan with costings and the 5-year projection.

• That’s not a common rule for every company ( and actually, you need a company with a good history to do it ), but if you can thoroughly analyze all data pertaining to your business, do it . Not only will you impress investors, but the company will have a clear path for the next years with a good chance of success.

Recommended Reading

• 10 Business Presentation Examples | Say Goodbye to PowerPoint!
• Here’s Your Guide to Creating a Proposal Template Design in Seconds!
• The Power of Data: Annual Report Format Explained with Templates

The widely embraced social media phenomenon, TikTok, had its product developed in every detail when preparing this investor pitch deck. This allowed them to focus on the user experience and present a detailed explanation of how their product works and why it has the potential to become one of the most popular apps on the market.

Having screenshots of the final product with elaborate descriptions of the design and features is a winning play as it gives investors a taste of what the app offers and how it can be profitable.

• Again, this depends on which product development phase you apply for the investor’s pitch. If you have a finished product or can include at least a prototype for investors to see , that’s a great way to show the potential of your product.

9. BuzzFeed

The next on our list of the best pitch decks is BuzzFeed. What we loved about their investor pitch deck was the competitor analysis presented with the Venn diagram. This approach is a great way to compare the company’s product with similar products already on the market and show their intersecting points.

BuzzFeed also does a great job explaining its key differentiators and the development perspectives – where we are, where we are headed, and how big this can become. This cascading down from a big picture to the specifics is very helpful for investors to understand how this product can become profitable.

Lastly, they didn’t mention only founders or CEOs in the team slide as many others do. The list goes down to advisors, developers, designers, and editors, which, in our view, shows a more human-centered approach that is very inviting.

• Get creative with competitor analysis. Use diagrams and charts to cut through the noise and clearly present all positions.
• Go beyond the founders and CEOs of your startup when introducing the team .

We are in love with the initial statement on Moz’s pitch template’s cover. This brief sentence conveys a wealth of information about the company’s previous journey and where it’s heading now + it adds much confidence to the team and their project.

Further, they did a great mix of storytelling and a truly deep analysis of their industry, competitors, and the existing market. We especially liked the detailed breakdown of Moz’s target market and its distribution.

And the unique point – Moz presents potential acquisitions that could take place in the future as part of their roadmap.

• Work hard on how you first introduce your startup to investors . Start your brand deck with an impressive statement that succinctly introduces you and awakes interest.
• Some say storytelling is dead – but it’s only if there’s no data to back it up. Moz did a great analysis of all the aspects that investors must consider .

11. LinkedIn 

What a brilliant problem slide – LinkedIn lists three popular ways of professional people search at the moment and how they are inefficient. Further, they nailed it by presenting LinkedIn as a Professional People Search 2.0, comparing it to the successful companies of other fields that transformed how things worked before.

These parallels are drawn throughout the whole pitch deck that makes its main point clear: LinkedIn will be the next generation of professional people search focused on user-based networks, a model that is already proven to work in the examples of Google, eBay, and Paypal.

We also loved how detailed and structured LinkedIn presents its superiority over its competitors. No loud words – just realistic calculations and comparisons showing their leading position creates high barriers to entry for the competition.

Key Points 

• Proving your chosen model works as others do is a great way to convince investors . Of course, you must ensure this comparison is accurate and relevant to your product.
• Don’t get unnecessarily shy when it comes to bragging about your achievements. Highlight your competitive advantages and put them in the context of real numbers that investors can understand.

12. Coinbase

Here you can see one of the most concise pitch decks where the team is super laconic in presenting their project. The winning maneuver here is tying the first part of the brand deck to Bitcoin – a global currency, the popularity of which is growing exponentially.

Further, the company merges the Bitcoin potential and its product by presenting Coinbase as the easy-to-use Bitcoin wallet compared to all other complex solutions existing in the market.

And the cherry on top? It draws a parallel between the connection of Coinbase and Bitcoin and iTunes and MP3 to create associations of success and reliability.

• Less is more, and we can’t state that enough. Your presentation can become one of the best pitch decks, even if it’s very simple and succinct in its wording .

13. Foursquare

We give the awards for the “most detailed and clear explanation of the product” to Foursquare. This is one of the best startup pitch decks if your startup is at the beginning of its journey and has just released the product’s first version.

If you are at your starting point, this type of detailed brand deck can help you fully reveal the whole idea of the company. We recommend you take their writing style and the construction of the slides if there is a need to present your idea from scratch, and the lack of details can work against you.

• If your startup is a complete novice and needs to build its reputation from scratch, create a detailed deck that will fully explain your vision .

14. Snapchat

More a user-centered presentation of how the product can be used rather than a pitch deck for investors, Snapchat’s presentation anyways finds its place in our list of best pitch decks. Why? Because they are mastering the art of product demonstration – you feel like you are about to use the product already when you see their slides.

What’s the secret behind it? Very personal and honest style of sharing information + the team behind Snapchat developed a great philosophy before they launched the product – embracing the moment and unguarded conversations.

• Come up with a deep and well-thought-out idea that will support your product. It will create a strong foundation for your communication with potential users or investors.
• Tie your tone of voice to the philosophy of the product to create a comprehensive picture and make users feel like they are a part of the story.

15. YouTube 

Well, YouTube’s early-stage presentation is not as visually appealing and modern-looking as others in our best pitch decks list. But we want you to look at it from another perspective – how with just an idea and a few slides, the YouTube team managed to convey their vision of how the product will look at its full capacity. 

Here, the emphasis is mostly on the genius idea behind the startup – videos exist as isolated files, and something should be done with that. The team behind YouTube managed to find the right pain point that triggered many in the gradually growing digital era. And if your idea is worthy, it can win over investors even without an outstanding presentation. Just a clear presentation of a great idea.

• Without underestimating the importance of a good presentation, don’t forget that a worthy idea is what lies at the core of success . So be sure to think it through and come up with something unique that will spark interest.

16. Crunchbase

Well, here’s another great example of mixing creative and analytical approaches – the Crunchbase pitch deck. They perfectly promote their value as a private company prospecting space with a hook – the public company market is shrinking, while private companies are the way to go. Meanwhile, many professionals strive to get opportunities in the private market. Added the thoughtfully picked visuals of ice fissure – and the viewers fall into the feeling of the cold inaccessible world of private companies where they need help.

It’s also worth mentioning Crunchbase is the first in our list of best pitch decks of all time that presents a growth engine. It’s a great way to demonstrate the effectiveness of your project and show investors how it can reach its full potential.

• If your muse just woke up, complement your statements with visuals that strengthen the emotional impact of your project . Visuals are a universal language that can help you win the hearts of many.
• Design a growth engine that is achievable and based on real numbers and projections.

17. Peloton

Here’s something new we haven’t talked about before. Peloton has one of the best investor pitch decks due to the detailed brand wheel on which they built their whole presentation.

The brand wheel is a clear graph showing the core four aspects necessary for investors to understand the whole idea of the product and how it fits into the market. In more simple terms, the brand wheel shows the brand-customer relationship from many angles – from what the startup team tries to convey to how it’s perceived by their customers.

We liked the brand strategy Peloton has – they have very detailed demographics and psychographics of their target audience. Consequently, they know which messaging and visuals are the most suitable for their potential customers.

• Have a brand wheel to track the unnoticed areas of your consumers’ behavior . Knowing what your target audience wants and needs is the key to success in many marketing campaigns. And if you can prove to investors you have the key to your target audience’s hearts, the chances your startup will get investments are much higher.

18. Wayfair

The pitch deck of Wayfair awakes emotions of comfy home life, as the colors and visuals bring a feeling of warmth and coziness to the viewer. That’s this investor pitch deck’s first success as Wayfair transforms how people shop for home furnishings and decor. So, if their presentation design alone can set the right emotional background, their desired impression is half made.

What further caught our attention were the detailed financials. Reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow, and illustrative customer acquisition cost – all of these elements are a great way to demonstrate how the company is developing and growing in the language of numbers that investors understand the best.

• Leverage the power of financials to give the most real-life demonstration of the development and success of your company.
• Play with colors and design elements in the background to convey the desired impression of your project.

19. Walmart

Another one of the best startup pitch decks – Walmart shows the effectiveness of their investment in Flipkart Group. This eCommerce company can open new doors into an online market for Walmart.

This presentation demonstrates the effectiveness of the synergy between the two companies – Walmart brings its offline network and expertise. At the same time, Flipkart Group provides an online presence and knowledge of the market.

Slide 7 is a good way to present your startup’s growth opportunity in a specific market. You can see Walmart included all the key metrics that comprehensively overview current and future opportunities. It’s a good example of deep analytical data that shows the growth rate in the market, added detailed data about potential customers and their characteristics.

• If you aim to show the investment potential of your company or project, break down all the key metrics into small pieces and demonstrate them clearly. Your investor pitch deck should show what each cooperation party brings to the table .

Coming to Bliss, here’s one of the pitch decks with a great approach to justifying why they need the finance they need and why investors should pay attention now and not later.

Their financing slide is a good example of giving investors the WHY behind their investment. Here, Bliss provides precise data on when they can reach certain milestones and how their decisions will affect the company’s future. Isn’t it more impressive than just showing the number of cash they need?

We also love Bliss creating urgency by emphasizing engineering talent’s poor adaptability to the increasingly remote world. They provide investors with a clear understanding of how their investment can help them to bridge the gap between current and future states.

• Create a sense of urgency explaining why the specific project is the right one to invest in at this particular moment .
• Give the investors an understanding of what their investment can bring to the company and how it will lead to success. Show how your raised money will help you to reach the desired future state .

21. Launchrock

Best pitch decks can break the rules of standard structures, and Launchrock’s example is great proof of it.

There is no standard problem/solution slide that explains the pain point and how the product solves it. Instead, Launchrock used an unconventional approach – they just listed their key achievements so far (users, shares, etc.) and some examples of how customers use them.

Actually, it’s not about the standard structure that matters but the effectiveness of presenting your value and how it can be used. Launchrock was a successful example of this approach – they showed what they did and how it worked.

This investor pitch deck is wrapped up by a large team of investors and advisors – a great way to show the engagement of people who believe in your idea.

• Rethink the structure of your pitch deck – don’t limit yourself to the traditional structure . As long as your presentation effectively conveys your project’s value, it’s all good.
• If investors already believe in your project, include them in your brand deck to create a feeling of community .

22. Intercom

In contrast to the previous brand deck, Intercom’s presentation is a very standard one. That’s one of the best pitch decks that helped them raise funding for further development. Though you may find the content too plain and simple – that’s what made it effective.

The startup team tried to avoid overwhelming investors with complex information. You can see only the most critical information without further details or explanations.

What we loved a lot ( and that’s not the first time it proved effective ), they included very detailed expectations from investors in the presentation. There is a clear amount of money needed, a timeline, and even special conditions if the company can meet its own goals.

• Investors make decisions easier if they see a clear structure and expectations from the team. Plan how your expected sum will be used and how long it will take to show some results to investors . With that roadmap at hand, they are more likely to trust you.

23. Shopify

It seems it’s the first investor pitch deck that includes a success story of an existing client who already benefits from their product. DODOCASE’s use case illustration reveals Shopify’s value and effectiveness without any further explanations from the startup team. And what was a smart move, in our opinion, is that Shopify showed the gradual success of their client when they first Shopify’s standard version and then moved to Shopify Premium, boosting their results even further.

That’s a good trick to show well-structured subscription models and which benefits each user level gets.

What else? We also loved growth vectors, a specific way to demonstrate the key directions for the company’s development in terms of products and markets.

• Have success stories of clients? That would be your best proof that the product is working and delivering results . If your startup doesn’t have one yet, you can run a few pilot projects and tell the stories of these clients in your pitch deck.
• If your project is multidimensional and there are different stakeholders ( buyers, merchants, etc., like in the case of Shopify ), have clear growth vectors that show which areas you’re focusing on .

24. Mattermark

Oh, how much we love clearly formulated slogans. Mattermark presents itself like a Google for business people, and that first-slide-first-impression vibe is hard to forget. Further, they show how Google addresses business people’s needs regarding information about investments, partners, and competitors, emphasizing the gaps in the market. That’s a good way to present a problem your startup is trying to solve.

This brand deck contains robust graphs and charts – something that shows the deep financial expertise of the team. The company’s previous performance and future development plans are illustrated with the help of very informative visuals.

• Have advanced financial analytics to show a deep understanding of the market and your ability to forecast . Elaborate charts and graphs will leave no investor indifferent.

25. Biogrify

Another nonconformist pitch deck example – no financials to demonstrate the company’s performance, no case studies, and no detailed problem statements.

Instead, Biogrify made a nice presentation with real examples of how the product looks and works in different scenarios. You can get the first impression of the product and how it works without a single word – just an example of posts shared on their social network.

We liked the colors and the creative examples of the platform, which were picked carefully to show the universal nature of the product. Overall, a great way to hook investors in the first slides – even without many statements about the potential of your startup.

• We have talked about it before. Real examples of a product’s usage are better than any words as they provide real context and show how the product works without further explanation.

Did we say short and concise? Piccsy heard that. This investor presentation has only four slides with the most straightforward structure.

First, what’s the problem? The problem slide is very comprehensive. A detailed bubble chart shows all the possible directions where the Piccsy team can move, and the simple pictorial illustration of each direction makes understanding easy. This slide shows the team’s clear vision and understanding of the market they are entering.

What’s coming next? Solution! That’s not as robust as the problem slide, but quite impressive in its way. There is a straightforward intro of the main directions where this social network can help users stream their desired content.

The last slide is about the team behind Piccsy. Short. Quick. That’s all you need to know.

Well, it would be honest to say that presentations this short are not the best idea for early-stage startups. And don’t forget about the +- 10 pages standard that prevails among investor pitch decks.

Still, that’s one of the best pitch decks in history, thanks to its straightforward language and the ability to say more with less.

• We probably highlight here the problem’s slide structure which can be very useful for any startup . Show the market you’re entering and what possible directions your team can take in an advanced way.

27. Fyre Festival

Fyre comes with a big announcement. Their pitch deck promotes and announces the Fyre Festival along with product marketing, showcasing how deep the company’s roots are with music and influencers and the community-driven approach they had from the very beginning.

The style of the presentation deserves special attention. The slides are very minimalistic and with all the elements of high-class aesthetics. They perfectly translate the niche where Fyre positions itself – confident, stylish, and up-to-date.

And Fyre’s community of the most renowned artists of the time presented in the beginning. That’s a boom – speaking louder than any words.

• Choose font colors, tone of voice, and composition of each slide with extra care to position your brand correctly . The correctly chosen design and writing style can hypnotize your investors, making them instantly feel the vibe you want to create.

28. TouristEye

Hmm… Not sure if we recommend you opt for the aggressive competitor comparison TouristEye did in its first slides, but they could display what they do unique in the competitive market, which is one of the key tasks of a good pitch deck.

The app’s screenshots demonstrate its features and user-friendly design without benefits-driven language. This approach is proven to be effective, and that’s not the first time we see it in successful startup presentations.

There is no team slide here, and that can be the approach that drives investor attention more to the product than to the team behind it.

• Screenshots of the app in action are one of the most obvious and effective ways to demonstrate how your product works and what problems it solves . That kind of insight can instantly attract investors without explaining a lot.

29. Kickfolio

What about listing only the key things you want to share about your company without much detail? Kickfolio makes it, and that’s a good example to show how best pitch decks can also be concise.

It has a unique structure – very short in words and explanations; this investor pitch deck looks like an infographic with the key points about the company’s performance, team, and product features.

They start with the problem statement, continuing with the progress and reviews of users after Kickfolio’s launch and first success, and wrapping up with a laconic statement of how much money Kickfolio is looking to raise.

Though there are no case studies or detailed analytics, this pitch deck is still very powerful. It conveys the essence of Kickfolio and provides enough information for investors to get a general idea about the project.

And what we like about it the most – there are many user reviews about the product, which is not typical for a pitch deck – yet they speak louder than many case studies or graphs.

• Include customer reviews or peer testimonials if you have them . If your product already has positive feedback, it will make the perfect addition to any startup pitch deck.

30. Mixpanel

Two problem statements – one better than the other – catch the attention from the very first slide. Mixpanel pitch deck clearly explains its mission and its product’s place in the market by touching on the pain point we all can relate to this or that way – making business decisions underlooking the importance of data.

Mixpanel’s brand deck has one of the most detailed performance slides we have ever seen. They show their sales and marketing KPIs and have a great expansion plan showing their way to conquer the market.

Seeing forecasted metrics, a timeline of their product development, and the relevance of their product to the industry make this pitch deck worth every second.

• As much relevant data as possible – numbers, metrics, graphs – can help investors decide whether it’s worth investing . Show your product’s progress and forecasted performance through the years to impress investors.
• Have an achievable expansion plan to show that you can grow and develop your product in a way that will get you more investors and customers.

Key Takeaways

Well, let’s wrap up this journey through the best pitch decks.

• Though there are established standards that best pitch decks follow at some point, the most important standard for each investor pitch deck is to be comprehensive and convincing . Whatever creative approach you take, ensure your pitch deck leaves investors with an understanding of who you are and what you do. Make investors believe in your mission enough to make an investment decision.
• Spend most of your time on what you want to convey with your brand deck, and leave the rest to Renderforest. With the ready-to-use pitch deck templates and our intuitive editor, you can create a perfect investor pitch deck in no time.

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12 Startup Pitch Deck Examples [+ Template]

A great startup pitch deck is an integral part of launching a business. This deck is presented to prospective investors to convince them to invest and help you grow your startup . The trick to having the best pitch deck possible is to include enough information to explain your goals and methodology without losing your audience’s interest.

Pitch decks are usually in PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, or Google Slides to make them easier to present to potential investors. However, the deck can also have an alternative format like a Word document or even a video. For inspiration, let’s go through some successful startup pitch deck examples and discuss what they got right. 

Pitch Deck Basics

There are some overarching characteristics that make for a great pitch deck. While we’ll go through what a deck typically includes and some relevant business pitch examples, you can pick and choose certain elements as long as your startup pitch deck has the following basic qualities:

• Design-forward: Customers expect a better experience with your product and that’s achieved through better UX and graphic design. Show your team’s design chops with thoughtful deck design and mock-ups.
• Comprehensive: Be prepared to answer any questions from potential investors. Your slides should cover enough so if they check back for reminders after the presentation, they’ll find the most important information.
• Engaging: A startup pitch deck inevitably includes some boring elements. Your job is to keep it exciting and break up information-heavy slides with features like illustrations and block quotes.
• Straightforward: It’s easy to get caught up with sharing every detail, but it’s more important that your potential investors understand your pitch. For more complicated slides and ideas, pare down your pitch to make it easier to understand.

1. Problem Slide

Your pitch deck should open with a key problem — this is the whole justification for your business and why consumers will find it valuable. A common structure for this slide is to bullet pain points and create a story your potential investors can relate to.

The problem slide is the basis for your presentation. Creating a relatable story makes for an engaging presentation that’s easy to follow and understand.

Uber Example

Why it works : Although it’s not the most visually engaging, Uber’s business pitch example clearly explains how Uber solves key issues with traditional cabs. Uber’s deck is broken down into multiple slides to deliver all the necessary information without overwhelming the audience.

2. Solution slide

After presenting the problem, you should follow up directly with a solution. An effective solution slide structure covers current industry solutions and identifies the gaps your startup fills. This slide has a general overview of any proprietary technology, covers basic product features, and includes relevant interface mock-ups to show investors what your product will do for consumers.

Intercom Example

Why it works : Intercom’s solution slide is simple but effective. While some extra design could elevate this slide, the bullet points are easy to understand and effectively explain Intercom’s unique selling proposition (USP) in the SaaS market.

3. Market validation slide

Market validation is especially important to investors because it shows proof that there are people who will purchase your product. This slide should include any relevant statistics for current sales if your startup has launched or competitors’ sales if it hasn’t. Don’t forget to cover basic information about your target market, their purchasing power, and their habits in your industry. This slide is especially important if your prospective investors aren’t familiar with your product or industry.

LinkedIn Example

Why it work s: At 37 pages, LinkedIn’s pitch deck is longer than we’d recommend.  But what it lacks in brevity it makes up for with powerful market validation using clear data from top competitors. It also breaks down barriers to growth and revenue for these competitors and shows how LinkedIn would improve their models.

4. Market size slide

Market size goes hand in hand with market validation. Once you’ve confirmed your target market has enough purchasing power, you need to justify your product’s longevity.

Focus on continued sales. The two most common elements to ensure your startup brings in long-term revenue are:

• A very large market
• A business model built for continuous purchases (e.g., subscription models)

Facebook Example

Why it works: Facebook is the poster child for successful startups. Its market size slides effectively communicate how Facebook’s initial launches succeeded and justify further growth. The slides with market statistics about college students also explain clearly how Facebook will create revenue.

5. Product slide

The product slide is your chance to nail your pitch and sell your vision to investors. This slide should center your value proposition. A popular strategy for this section is to pose a few questions about your industry and show how your product is the answer. Take the time to craft this slide carefully, polishing it up from the copy to design details.

Dropbox Example

Why it works: Dropbox’s product slides are effective because they show how Dropbox truly innovates over other file sharing services. They justify why now is the time to launch and why consumers will choose Dropbox over competitors.

6. Business model slide

The business model slide covers how the startup will run and launch its product for sustainable growth. This section can compare your startup to other businesses or use internal data if the product has launched.

Moz Example

Why it works : While some of these slides can look busy, Moz’s business model was ahead of its time by calling out why organic marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) have untapped potential. This deck does a good job of explaining the business model to investors who might not be SEO savvy.

But wait...there's more!

7. market adoption slide.

It’s important to show some proof that your target market has interest in purchasing your product, especially if there are other competitors in the market. This is a lot easier if your product has already launched because you can include sales data. If your startup is pre-launch, showing potential market adoption can be tricky. In this case, you can use social proof from similar competitors. If you do this, it’s also important to note how your product differs from these competitors, especially if you can resolve a customer’s complaint. If possible, include case studies in the market adoption slide. These show proof that you can use investments to increase the reach of your startup.

Buffer Example

Why it works : Buffer’s market adoption slides show social proof through key statistics outlining Buffer’s success so far. With an extremely high profit margin and growth rate for their user base, Buffer shows off why their product will offer a larger ROI for potential investors.

8. Competition slide

Many investors look at your competition to help contextualize your startup. If an investor has little or no experience in your vertical, showing competitors they’re familiar with gives them real examples of success. This slide should cover the following topics related to your competition:

• Revenue data
• What competitors do well
• What competitors don’t do well
• How your startup bridges product gaps

Mint Example

Why it works : Mint’s competitor slides are effective because they show current competitors along with future projections for these competitors. This slide effectively shows how Mint creates more value for customers over time and uses competitors as inspiration in their defensive strategy.

9. Team slide

A team slide helps investors get to know the minds behind your startup. Include information about founders, leadership, and top existing investors to show why your team is qualified to launch this startup. Any evidence of past successes with your leadership, consultants, or investors is important to include, as it shows new investors that you have relevant experience to launch your startup. If there’s any relevant history about your startup, such as a higher ROI than expected for a former investor, be sure to include this in your pitch deck.

Contently Example

Why it works : While Contently’s team slide has a lot of information, it’s all relevant to potential investors. In addition to founders and investors, Contently includes top employees, proprietary technology, advisors, and the amount they’ve raised so far. This, along with their financial model slide, show potential investors that Contently will make good use of their investment and even make them some profit.

10. Press slide

The press section of your startup pitch deck is a great opportunity to show off any buzz and get your investors excited about your business. Focus on positive reviews or attention related to your product. Stay away from negative press unless you can show you’ve changed those negative opinions. Make sure to keep these slides focused and succinct. It’s easy to get caught up in showing off product buzz, but press slides should always demonstrate potential for a more widespread product adoption.

Snapchat example

Why it works : Snapchat was in a unique position at the time this deck was created, as its press slide has strong social proof. Snapchat calls out popular users, including press and media sources, that are already using the app. The wide variety of users, including household names like MTV, shows how Snapchat is a well-known social media platform.

11. Testimonial slide

Testimonials give investors insight into what existing customers really think about your product. Testimonials can also shed light on the public perception of your product, especially compared to competitors.

Seventy-two percent of consumers only take action after reading positive reviews. You can use this logic with your potential investors, too.

Positive testimonials show that your customers have brand loyalty and that users are satisfied with the product and customer service. This section of the startup pitch deck is only possible for startups that have launched their product.

AirBnB Example

Why it works : Not every pitch deck includes testimonials, especially if the startup hasn’t launched, but it makes sense to include feedback for Airbnb. Showcasing new users makes this slide simple yet effective. It could also benefit from including average Airbnb ratings for stronger evidence of positive reception.

12. Financial model slide

The financial model slide shows how your product creates revenue. For example, if your product is a subscription-based service, has premium features, or other horizontal integration, you’ll explain that model on these slides. Potential investors should walk away from your presentation knowing exactly how your startup creates revenue and understand any plans to ensure a steady stream of income.

Shopify Example

Why it works : Shopify offers a great pitch deck example of when breaking some pitch norms can work in your favor. Although it’s nearly 30 slides, the entire deck is informative and engaging. The financial model slides work well because they show how Shopify and its past investors turned a profit. Not only do they explain their current financial model, but Shopify also covers their plans for future growth to reassure investors they’ll make a profit, too.

What should you avoid putting in a startup pitch deck?

The best pitch deck is completely tailored to your startup. While there’s no hard-and-fast rule about what you shouldn’t include, make sure everything you’re presenting is relevant to potential investors. 

How do I present my startup pitch deck to investors?

It’s almost always better to present a pitch deck live to investors. Designate one member of your leadership team, ideally a founder, to present your deck to investors. 

Following a script can come across as disingenuous, but using notes is OK, so get lots of practice in before you present to investors.

What should a startup pitch deck include?

A typical startup pitch deck template includes the following slides:

• Market validation
• Market size
• Business model
• Market adoption
• Competition
• Testimonials
• Financial model

However, every pitch deck is different, so your final pitch might skip some of these topics or use multiple slides to expand on certain sections.

Built to scale with HubSpot for Startups

It takes some time to put together a startup pitch deck that works, but once you’ve nailed your presentation, you can reuse it for multiple pitches with just a few tweaks to update any data or statistics. HubSpot for Startups helps you track marketing and sales data to make this process easier. New investors can rest easy knowing you’ve got the support of HubSpot’s powerful CRM at your fingertips.

Get the pitch deck template

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33 Legendary Startup Pitch Decks and What You Can Learn From Them [+10 Free Templates]

A startup pitch deck is a brief presentation that provides investors with an overview of your new business and/or startup idea through presentation slides.

It usually focuses on showcasing your product, sharing your business model, giving a look into your monetization strategy, and introducing your team.

A startup pitch deck is an essential fundraising tool for successful startups, whether you’re looking to raise funding from $50,000, $500,000, or $50 million. However, an investor pitch deck is just one of the best pitch decks and examples we will share below.

Despite the brevity of the successful startup pitch decks, which usually run for 10 slides or less, creating a pitch deck that wins investment is not an easy task.

What Does a Successful Startup Pitch Deck Cover?

A great pitch deck covers key points through visuals and bullet points and usually has a competition slide, a problem slide, and a solution slide to explain your offering and the market.

Additionally, a business model slide and a team slide (if your business is developed enough to present these) can turn a good deck into a great startup pitch deck.

Don’t forget, a simple pitch deck is a good pitch deck—and you’re about to learn how to nail it.

In This Legendary Startup Pitch Deck Article You Will Find:

• Examples of 33 successful pitch decks
• Takeaways that you can apply when creating your own startup pitch deck
• Editable templates of 10 pitch decks that you can use for free

Looking for a winning pitch deck template ASAP to present in front of potential investors?   Try our free template created in collaboration with HighSpark – an agency that has helped more than 500 startups raise cumulatively over $80 million in funding. 

Here is the list of 33 of the best startup pitch deck examples that we will go through:

• ZenPayRoll (Now Gusto)
• Wealthsimple
• AppVirality
• Shape Integrated Software
• Ooomf (now Crew)
• Sequoia Capital

These startup pitch deck examples were created by top brands in tech. At the time, they were all small startups (seed stage companies) looking to raise money or venture capital through potential investors and grow their businesses. Sound familiar?!

We hope that their business idea and investor pitch decks will inspire you (and of course, potential investors).

If you are more of a visual learner than a reader type, you can watch a video summary of the first 10 startup pitch deck examples mentioned in this blog post:

Alternatively, if you’re ready to create your own pitch deck, we’ve added some startup pitch deck examples and pitch deck templates to the bottom of this article. You can go straight to them by clicking here . Or get access to Piktochart’s online design tool by signing up for a free account and choosing a presentation template to get started easily.

From behemoths like Facebook and YouTube to superstars like Buffer, together these startups have raised millions of dollars and are now worth billions!

It’s time to see how they did it.

33 Legendary Startup Pitch Deck Examples

1. facebook pitch deck.

Here’s a fun fact: Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist, and entrepreneur, was the first outside investor in Facebook back in 2004. That’s when Mark Zuckerberg first set out to turn his dorm room project into a lasting business. Zuckerberg received $500,000 from Peter Thiel.

Facebook’s pitch deck was more of a media kit  of sorts. It was containing the company’s value proposition, key metrics, and marketing services that were used to sell ads to potential clients.

Favorite takeaway : The focus of the startup pitch deck was based on solid numbers such as user engagement, traffic, and growth trajectory.

2. Airbnb pitch deck

Airbnb is a platform that allows people to list, find, and rent lodging.

This company is one of the greatest startup success stories of our time.

The now famous Airbnb pitch deck has become one of the best pitch decks for inspiring entrepreneurs around the world.

Favorite takeaway: The intro. It’s all about hooking your audience. You need to describe your business using as few words as possible. Imagine telling a 5-year-old what your business is about. If you can’t do that, it’s time to put some time into nailing it down.

3. Buffer pitch deck

Buffer is a social media scheduling platform that helps you schedule content for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

The almighty startup pitch deck that helped Buffer to raise half a million dollars gained popularity by becoming one of the first pitch decks openly shared online. The founder decided to put it up to help other startups to raise funds.

Favorite takeaway: Similar to Facebook, the deck was based on solid numbers from Buffer’s users (e.g., 800 users, $150,000 annual revenue run rate, etc.)

4. Square pitch deck

Square is a company that allows merchants to accept mobile credit card payments via a dongle.

Favorite takeaway : Social proof! It doesn’t hurt to promote the management team if they’ve been with Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, PayPal, and more. It shows that your management team’s experience is an armor to the company. This detailed startup pitch deck outlines Square’s business model and a simple financial model that portrays its annual revenue and five-year growth rate.

5. LinkedIn pitch deck

Founded in 2002, LinkedIn is the top business-oriented social networking platform.

The company’s pitch talks a great deal about company values, the power of networking, and how it’s different from other social networks out there.

Favorite takeaway : The deck also provides an extensive analogy to showcase to investors what LinkedIn is. For example, it talks about “Web 1.0” vs. “Web 2.0”: Alta Vista was “Search 1.0”, and Google was “Search 2.0”. The deck talks about how LinkedIn is “Networking for Businesses 2.0”.

6. Mint pitch deck

Mint is a personal financial services tool that helps people track their spending and find ways to save money.

This startup pitch deck example was used in a competition and was never used for raising money, but it’s still a powerful deck that startups can learn from.

Favorite takeaway : This simple deck provides a clear value proposition to customers and investors. The creators of this deck also understood that one of the key concerns of an investor is the exit mechanism of his or her investments. I love how the deck highlights a number of exit strategy options.

7. MapMe pitch deck

MapMe allows users to create universally accessible (i.e., on smartphones, tablets, and computers) maps of anywhere they want with no coding required.

This startup deck was used to raise $1 million in seed funding.

Social proof almost always works. The deck showed that the startup had over 20,000 unique visitors, 18,000 monthly alerts, and12 minutes average sessions on the site.

Favorite takeaway : The pitch deck has fewer than 13 slides but provides investors with knowledge of the traction the site got going viral on social media and its go-to-market strategy.

8. LaunchRock pitch deck

LaunchRock allows users to create landing pages and quickly get their startups known through social media, even before the launch of their full site.

Favorite takeaway : As a more creatively designed pitch deck example, this pitch deck had only 15 slides but showed how the product works and the different ways it can be used. They also utilize an analogy similar to what LinkedIn had in their decks.

9. Mixpanel pitch deck

Mixpanel is an advanced analytics platform for mobile and the web. They not only measure page views but also analyze the actions people take. This is the series-B startup pitch deck for Mixpanel that helped them raise over $65 million.

Favorite takeaway : This pitch deck example started off with a problem: people guessing their analytics. It followed up by providing its solution to that problem and, ultimately, its competitive advantage. One of the best pitch decks, this is a great example of showing the problem and solution.

10. Moz pitch deck

Moz started out as an SEO company but has pivoted to support marketers across all inbound marketing strategies.

This is the series-B startup pitch deck for Moz which they used to raise over $18 million. If you’re an established startup, this is a great example of an investor pitch deck, and you can follow this guide. The pitch deck is packed with information about the company since it was founded five years prior to this pitch.

Favorite takeaway : Because the company had already been in operation for five years, they were able to present an accurate estimated revenue, revenue run rate, average customer lifetime value, cost of paid acquisition, etc.

11. Buzzfeed pitch deck

We all have a love-and-hate relationship with Buzzfeed, don’t we? I’m sure you’ve stumbled on their pages or watched their videos before. As of today, BuzzFeed has managed to raise over $240 million in investor capital (another great example of an investor pitch deck).

Favorite takeaway : SOCIAL PROOF! It doesn’t hurt to start a pitch deck with big numbers the company has, like the millions of users visiting the website on a monthly basis and quotations from large organizations such as CNN.

12. YouTube pitch deck

YouTube was acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.6 billion. Like Facebook, this company doesn’t require any introduction. Unfortunately, this is not the original deck. This is YouTube’s pitch deck to Sequoia Capital (one of the most established VC investors who’s often regarded as one of the industry’s best), which was released through a legal proceeding.

Favorite takeaway : The company wanted to be the primary outlet for video content, and it succeeded in doing just that. It goes to show that if you know what your product can do, are able to show its potential, and build on the momentum gained through early investments to create that, then you can achieve its potential. If you’re aiming to build an investor pitch deck to land a VC like Sequoia Capital, this presentation slide deck is a great template for you!

13. Manpacks pitch deck

Manpacks is a platform that delivers men’s essentials such as underwear, razors, grooming, and other products.

The company raised $500,000 with this pitch deck.

Favorite takeaway : This deck stands out! They clearly understand who they are, and they stayed that way throughout the entire presentation. The startup pitch deck is filled with a fun tone that helps explain the product well.

14. Foursquare pitch deck

Foursquare is a mobile platform that helps you find the best places to go in your area.

Favorite takeaway : This pitch deck does a great job using screenshots of social proof that the app already has from its users sharing tweets of them being the ‘mayor’ of a particular area.

15. Flowtab pitch deck

Flowtab was an app that allowed people to order drinks quickly at a crowded bar. Despite shutting down, the founders still made an effort to help other startups.

Favorite takeaway : Simplicity. This pitch deck example does well explaining critical information like the problem, the solution, their business model, and traction. You can’t really go wrong with this pitch deck.

16. Dwolla pitch deck

Dwolla is a payment solution that allows users to send, receive, and request funds from other users. This 18-slide startup pitch deck landed the company $16.5 million.

Favorite takeaway : Most startups are founded because of a problem they faced, but not many people tell their story well through their pitch decks. In their slide deck, Dwolla shared a great story of how the founder paid $50,000 a year in credit card fees and then created a solution for never doing it again.

17. ZenPayRoll  (Now Gusto) pitch deck

Gusto (previously ZenPayroll) is a cloud-based solution tool for small businesses to pay employees.

The company raised $6 million with this pitch deck.

Favorite takeaway : This isn’t just a startup pitch deck. It is a template that you can use and replicate easily by filling in the blanks.

18. Bliss pitch deck

Bliss provides metrics for coders and allows them to collaborate easily.

The company raised over $400,000 using Angel List.

Favorite takeaway : The pitch deck was well composed with a clear understanding of the product and the investors they were pitching to. This is one of the best pitch decks to use if you know your target market.

19. Adpushup pitch deck

Adpushup allows companies to maximize ad revenues through advanced A/B testing. They raised more than $632,000 in investments.

Favorite takeaway : This slide deck proves that going back to the basics works. This pitch deck has basic principles like a great introduction, an outline of problems, potential solutions, market opportunities, products, case studies, milestones, traction, and a future plan.

20. Wealthsimple pitch deck

Wealthsimple is Canada’s first online investment manager. They raised more than $2 million in seed funding with this slide deck.

Favorite takeaway : The startup pitch deck is sweet and short but effective. Our favorite part is the transformation of the industry, which is laid out in a table format.

21. AppVirality pitch deck

AppVirality allows app developers to grow their platforms using growth method techniques proven by other startups.

Favorite takeaway : Our favorite takeaway is how the flow of the pitch deck goes through the problem, the proven solution, and how it works within their app to their target market in multiple slides.

22. Shape Integrated Software pitch deck

Shape Integrated Software is budget management software that helps PPC analysts manage various budgets across different channels.

Favorite takeaway : When you have the traction to back your startup, use it. Shape clearly took advantage of it and presented it clearly in their pitch deck.

23. Podozi pitch deck

Podozi is an online e-commerce platform based in Nigeria.

Favorite takeaway : Most startup pitch decks work well when they’re short and sweet, in multiple slides, like Podozi’s. The best takeaway is the working partnership with large brands that this platform already has.

24. Fittr pitch deck

Fittr is a platform that designs custom workouts tailored to equipment, access, time management, and goals.

Favorite takeaway : As a user of this platform, we love the investment goals and the purpose of what the company is planning to use it for.

25. Swipes pitch deck

Swipes is a task manager app to help its users increase their productivity.

Favorite takeaway : One of their pages used social proof of quotations from The Next Web and Lifehacker. You can’t go wrong with that.

26. Canvas pitch deck

Canvas replaces paper-based processes with affordable and easy-to-use mobile apps and forms. They raised $9 million with these decks.

Favorite takeaway :  Instead of saying what they do, the second slide in their pitch deck shows how their startup helps businesses. No words are needed.

27. Ooomf  (now Crew) pitch deck

Crew (formerly Ooomf & then PickCrew) is a freelancer marketplace that connects mobile and web developers with projects or work. This deck was used to raise over $2 million dollars.

Favorite takeaway : Well-designed with an easy-to-understand flow.

28. Cubeit pitch deck

Cubeit is a mobile application that allows users to aggregate content from anywhere. Cubeit used this 13-slide deck to raise seed funding before they even had a finished product.

Favorite takeaway : A strong introduction will get investors to pay attention. Their deck starts out with a clear message, which was that “owning more devices doesn’t make your life easier”. I can’t help but pay attention to how this company will help.

29.  Castle pitch deck

Castle was a startup that let rental owners put their properties on autopilot. This was the deck Castle used to raise $270,000 for their startup.

Favorite takeaway : Great design and easy to digest.

30.  Sequoia Capital pitch deck

Sequoia Capital is one of the leading investment firms in Silicon Valley. This deck is a template they recommend following.

Favorite takeaway : It’s like having the keys to the kingdom. You don’t have to guess what this investment giant is looking for. They tell you straight away.

31. Uber pitch deck

When Uber hit the scene, they fundamentally reimagined urban transportation. Their pitch deck tells this audacious story perfectly. Simple yet impactful, it illustrates the problem of expensive taxis and car services, then introduces Uber as the affordable, tech-driven solution.

They use stark data points to highlight the financial opportunity, a vital touch for potential investors.

As you create your pitch, remember Uber’s two key strengths: painting a clear problem-solution scenario and using compelling data to underscore their market potential. This strategy not only shows understanding of their market but also communicates their transformative vision effectively.

Favorite takeaway : The deck is clean and minimalist. The flow is easy to follow, and you get a clear idea of what’s the problem they’re trying to solve, and how they solve it.

32. WeWork pitch deck

WeWork’s pitch deck beautifully encapsulates its community-driven approach to shared workspaces.

They use visually appealing slides that mirror their innovative, modern brand. Their pitch deck deftly articulates the benefits of shared workspaces in today’s economy, setting the stage for their unique value proposition.

Favorite takeaway : what we do, who we do it for, why we do it; the deck walks you through their company vision with smart visuals and copy. We loved how they generated urgency by highlighting how co-working spaces were a fast-growing trend and investors could miss out on a profitable investment if they didn’t act quickly.

33. MatterMark pitch deck

MatterMark’s pitch deck is a testament to the power of storytelling. utilizing clean visuals to aid comprehension and coupled with succinct copy to keep the narrative engaging. The 30-slide deck earned the platform $6.5 million in seed A funding.

Favorite takeaway : Strong visual storytelling through the use of charts and graphs. In just a few moments, you can see where the majority of their revenue comes from compared to their other revenue streams.

Summary of Pitch Deck Template Takeaways

To sum up, a strong startup pitch deck not only serves to reinforce your brand to the target audience or investors, but shows your business plan and unique offering through the slides presented; using a problem slide, a solution slide, and a traction slide including concise bullet points. 

The best startup pitch deck also shows off your company’s personality, through the inclusion of a team slide or similar in the next few slides, to be presented after your business plan is clearly outlined.

As your company grows, you’ll probably start thinking about the next stage of growth. You can use these successful pitch decks can as the foundation to make an investor deck for your next round of financing.

Look at the takeaways from these startup pitch decks as a guide to help you in your quest to raise funds and venture capital for your own startup for an investment round.

Here are some of the key takeaways from our pitch deck examples:

• Pitch decks don’t have to be formal or beautiful.
• A great pitch deck will provide an impactful intro or slogan.
• Keep your deck short (less than 20 pages).
• Use analogies to back up the points that you’re making.

After going through so many startup pitch deck examples, we recommend that to make your pitch presentation stand out you should:

• Start with a strong intro/vision.
• Show problems and offer solutions.
• Identify market opportunities.
• Showcase products/services clearly.
• Digest your business model
• Highlight financials
• Add social proof/case studies.
• Differentiate from competition.
• Show an experienced management team.

Designing a strong pitch deck could turn your business idea into a reality after convincing investors to provide support financial support to your project.

If you’re looking for additional information, DocSend shared lessons  they got learning from 200 startups who raised $360 million from their first pitch deck.

10 Pitch Deck Templates for You to Try

The following pitch decks are free templates available in Piktochart that you can use. This makes it easy to work on your slides without having to worry about design. We took care of that for you.

If you don’t have an account yet, just sign up for a free Piktochart account here and then click on one of the templates below.

To learn how the online pitch deck creator works, watch this on-demand demo .

1. Investment Pitch Deck Template With HighSpark

2. Finance Pitch Deck Template

3. Business Pitch Deck Template

4. Startup Pitch Deck Examples

5. Tech Pitch Deck Examples

6. Business Keynote Template 

7. Product Pitch Deck Template

8. Product Pitch Deck Template

9. App Product Presentation Template

10. Product Website Pitch Deck Template

Other Posts

How to Make a Presentation (Guide With Tips & Templates)

How to Create an Infographic Syllabus With Piktochart (Plus Templates)

5 Studies About Visual Information Processing

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How to pitch your startup, 1. introduction.

• 2. Elevator Pitch
• 3. 1-Minute Pitch
• 4. Pitching to Investors
• 5. Guidelines

6. Organization

• 7. Presentation Tips
• 8. Example Decks
• 9. Download Templates

tl;dr Pitch Deck Templates

• Elevator Pitch Template
• One-Minute Pitch Template
• Simple Pitch Deck Template   (To edit and use, click “File” and then “Make a Copy”)
• Long Template  
• Angel/VC Template  

If you’re like most founders, you probably think about your startup 24/7. You wake up in the morning brainstorming product features, and you fall asleep at night contemplating marketing campaigns. You can’t remember the last movie you saw at the theater; your idea of a fun, Saturday night is collaborating with developers overseas. And stalking VCs on LinkedIn has become a favorite past-time. Passion, hardwork and a healthy amount of obsession are essential ingredients to entrepreneurial success. However, it’s not uncommon for founders to become hyper-focused on initial ideas at the expense of an important fact:

A startup founder’s ultimate success is dependent on others buying into his or her vision.

Translation: Your progress is contingent upon your ability to pitch the value of who you are, what you’re doing and why it matters. Reaching important milestones like raising venture capital, sourcing top talent and acquiring new customers all require the same skill — telling a story that makes someone say, “Heck, yeah!” Sometimes you have 30 minutes to make that happen; other times you have 30 seconds. Regardless, your job is to clearly communicate why a given audience should care about your business.

If you are a startup looking to get to traction and funding, check out the Founder Institute pre-seed accelerator program .

One of your most powerful tools in achieving this objective is the pitch deck. Early-stage founders can use templates to create visual presentations that provide brief overviews of business value propositions, market opportunities and metrics. At the Founder Institute , we see dozens of decks every week. The majority of them are completely forgettable because someone overlooked a few essential ingredients to storytelling success.

The purpose of a presentation deck is to enable entrepreneurs to effectively tell the story of their business,” says Bill Gurley, general partner at Benchmark Capital . “In many ways it’s like a structured scientific proof. You want to walk the listener through an argument as to why this is going to be an amazing business.

The reality? Phenomenal pitches aren’t thrown together in a weekend — they are thoughtfully contemplated, tested and refined. In this guide, we’ll make a case for why founders should master both The Elevator Pitch and The 1-Minute Pitch before tackling decks. We’ll also provide guidelines for constructing narratives, customizing pitch deck templates and communicating with potential investors. These are many of the same techniques Founder Institute alumni have used to procure $1.75BN+ in funding. Finally, we’ll conclude with some examples of real decks utilized by globally recognized startups. After reading this guide, you will know exactly what it takes to create a compelling deck, give a memorable presentation and stand out from the crowd. Let’s get started... 

Three Types of Startup Pitches

Think back to elementary school: Did your foray into your first language begin with a 1,200-page copy of War and Peace ? No, you started by learning simple words. Similarly, you shouldn’t expect to construct “the perfect” pitch deck right away. Instead, begin by constructing the simplest description of your business possible: The Elevator Pitch.

2. The Elevator Pitch Template

As a startup founder, you will meet hundreds of people at various meetings, events and conferences. You will also, routinely, introduce yourself to complete strangers by email. In such situations, you have seconds to peak someone’s curiosity. And the best way to do that is a compelling Elevator Pitch.

This one-sentence statement explains what you do, who you serve and why it matters in simple language. As the name implies, the summary can quickly be recited to a stranger on an elevator ride.

Founder Institute CEO and Co-founder Adeo Ressi has developed an awesome Elevator Pitch template dubbed “ Startup Madlibs .”

• The  defined offering  must be short, simple and capable of being understood by everyone, like "a website", "a mobile application", "hardware" or "desktop software."
• The  defined audience  is the initial group of people that you will market your offering to. In the case of consumer applications, it is usually a demographic, such as "women age 25 to 35 years old." In the case of business applications, it is usually a job function at a type of corporation, such as "system administrators at medium sized technology businesses."
• Now that you have an offering helping an audience, you need to  solve a problem.  The problem needs to be something that everyone understands, such as "reduce the time collecting bill payments" or "engage in an immersive entertainment experience."
• The final component, the  secret sauce , adds your unique approach to solving the problem and demonstrates a mastery of the market. Some examples are "by sending automated email alerts based on analysis of highest response times" or "with virtual worlds constructed in reaction to the movements of the players."

OK, let’s look at a couple of examples…

Mediocre Elevator Pitch Example:

My company Socialista , Is developing a revolutionary, social utility To help female consumers Find deals online faster .

What’s wrong with this pitch?

• The offering is vague: A ‘social utility” could be a phone company. The pitch should read “ecommerce website.” 
• The adjectives are empty: This person may think their business is revolutionary, but it’s an over-inflated claim. Let the numbers speak for themselves! 
• The audience is vague: It could be more clearly defined (e.g. female consumers between the ages of 18 and 25).
• The problem isn’t obvious: Why can’t the target consumer use search engines to find deals online? Why is this platform better than her current options?

Including these details implies the person has done their homework, knows their stuff and has a viable business idea.

Improved Elevator Pitch Example:

My company Socialista , Is developing an ecommerce website To help female consumers between the ages of 18-25 Shop for hip, baby products at wholesale prices , With automated ordering of diapers and other staples . As you can see, the Elevator Pitch format is deceptively simple. The key to standing out is (a) being super specific, and (b) emphasizing your startup’s “secret sauce.” In this case, the founder’s unique differentiator is providing a fashionable solution at an unusually affordable price. Mastering this exercise is extremely helpful in refining Unique Value Propositions.

3. The One-Minute Pitch Template

Once you’ve articulated your Elevator Pitch, you are ready to move onto the One-Minute Pitch. Here you can add several key details to your Elevator Pitch, including:

• The value of the market your business is in.
• Your competition, and how you differentiate from them. 
• The current state of your business or product. 
• Your Ask (how the person/ people you are pitching can help you). 

Check out the easy-to-use "One Minute Pitch Template" from the Founder Institute below: 

4. Preparing to Pitch Investors

Before you begin creating your pitch deck, it’s important to consider the perspective of potential investors. Top VCs see and hear dozens of pitches per week, both in-person and via email. Luminary Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) hears from around 3,000 startups each year. How many of those company’s procure investments? Only 15 of them. The current VC landscape is showing bigger deals spread amongst fewer startups. Despite funding reaching its highest levels since 2000 , seed-stage investments consisted of only 25 percent of total deals made in 2018. Translation: The competition is tough.

Pre-requisites for Pitching to Investors

As Mike Suprovici (Founder Institute EIR) lays out in his  Startup Guide: How to Raise the First Round of Funding for Your Startup , before you even begin to approach investors, you need the following:

A strong startup idea that is vetted and backed by solid market research.  See this  startup idea guide  from the Founder Institute.

A prototype, a patent, or a proof of concept for the final idea.

A simple and scalable  startup financial model  that shows at least $10M in revenue after 3 years.  See this  revenue forecasting template  from Aaron Patzer, Founder of Mint.com and FI Mentor.

A strong 10 to 15 page presentation that meets investors' expectations. We will discuss this in the section below.

An incorporated entity with a smart capitalization table ("Cap table").  See this  simple cap table  from Venture Hacks.

The ability to quit your job and live for six months on savings while you conclude the financing and launch the business.

Another factor to consider is what kind of investor you are approaching. Consider the stage of your own company, before trying to pitch to certain investors. Do you meet their pre-requisites? If you are raising your first round of funding, then you are likely still at a pre-angel or angel investment stage. As a result, you should NOT try to pitch venture capitalists.

What Investors Want to See in a Pitch

If you are ready to pitch angels or venture capitalists, it's critical to understand what those investors are looking for. In order to stand out, your pitch must include both (a) the specific informational components investors are seeking, and (b) a memorable story that illustrates a compelling opportunity. As Jasmine Foroutan, CEO and Founder of Pitch Genius , says, investors want more than rote slideshows:

The biggest challenge of making a memorable deck is building a storyline that echoes outside of the pitch deck. This means, building a storyline that is not only easy for investors to remember, but also a storyline that’s easy for them to repeat and regurgitate to other potential investors.

Investors make decisions based on return and risk: How big of a return could they receive? And what might prevent them from receiving that return? Most VCs want a 10-20x return. 

As a founder, your job is to convince investors your startup offers the greatest potential return, with the least amount of risk — in comparison to the others on their list. Generally speaking, investors will evaluate risk in three main areas:

• Market Risk: Are you addressing a large, growing market?
• Product Risk: Do you have a sustainable competitive advantages?
• Execution Risk: Can your team “pull it off?” 

What Makes a Startup "Fundable"?

During one of Naval Ravikant's (Founder of AngelList) talks at the Founder Institute, he described  'The Anatomy of a Fundable Startup' , which you can watch below:

Similarly, when Aaron Patzer (Founder of Mint.com) described his  Pitching Secrets  to the Founder Institute, he outlined four main questions investors will ask themselves whever they evaluate a startup pitch:

• Does it solve a problem?
• Does it solve that problem in a big market?
• Is it something that has a competitive or sustainable advantage?
• Can you make money or make a profit?

Address those four questions, and you will have a much higher chance of attracting funding from professional investors.

5. Pitch Deck Guidelines

Think of your deck like a visual business plan. Your objective is to succinctly illustrate your marketplace knowledge, business model and qualifications for execution. A standard deck consists of 10 to 14 slides . The most common mistake made by newbie founders? Providing too much detail, too soon. Jenny Lefcourt, General Partner at Freestyle Capital, cautions early-stage founders against making this error :

What's really important is to not go into the weeds of all the details because what you’re trying to do is give them enough information that they want more information. Your goal at meeting No. 1 is to get people interested enough that they want meeting No. 2.

• Avoid excessive text. 
• Use large fonts that are easy to read. 
• Include colorful charts, statistics and graphics. 
• Label each slide (e.g. problem, solution, team). 

Don’t:

• Include unsubstantiated growth projections.
• Describe extraneous hiring details.
• Use tons of bullet points.
• Inflate your capabilities. 

Make Two Decks

Many founders are surprised to learn they need two decks: (1) a detailed version that can be shared with investors via email, and (2) a simplified version that can be elaborated upon in person. It’s not uncommon for investors to request to see a deck before agreeing to meet. For this reason, your “reading” version should include enough detail to stand alone. Conversely, a standard deck should be streamlined to ensure investors spend more time listening and less time reading. Most of the presentations available for online viewing showcase “listening” decks. We recommend beginning with the construction of the “reading” deck, which can then be edited for pitch presentations.

Is there a RIGHT way to organize a pitch deck? The answer is both yes and no. In terms of information provided, there are certain points you absolutely must cover. However, you have creative freedom when organizing and presenting your slides. Here are the four most common types of decks :

• The Problem-Solution Deck
• The Vision-Opportunity Deck
• The Team Deck
• The Traction Deck

The most commonly used pitch deck template is the Problem-Solution Deck, which is ideal for founders with especially unique solutions to widespread problems. 

All four frameworks contain the same informational points, organized in different ways. A variety of templates exist online and can be modified to meet your needs. However, don’t be afraid to venture outside of existing formats, so long as you're including necessary information.

The biggest misconception founders have about pitch decks is that there’s a simple formula for building a perfect pitch, and that’s by replicating other successful pitch decks,” says Foroutan. “Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. How will startups ever stand out to investors if everyone is using the same pitch to persuade them?

The most compelling elements of your business plan, your unique value proposition (UVP) and your intended audience should all inform how you structure your deck.

With that said, the Problem-Solution Pitch Deck Template is a great place to start. In this section, we’ll walk through all of the elements included in the standard deck: 

The Problem-Solution Deck Format:

Announce your big idea — the one thing you do better than anyone else. You have 10 seconds to engage your audience. Include:

• Name of Company
• CEO First & Last Name
• CEO Email (must be the CEO’s direct email address)
• CEO Phone number
• A simple image (reinforce the idea without distraction) 

2. Summary 

Summarize the highlights of your business opportunity, emphasizing minimization of market, product and execution risk. Include:

• Metrics that prove traction. 
• Special advantages your startup has. 
• Summary of investment size you are seeking.

Describe the problem you solve, who you solve it for and the reasons why your target customer are unsatisfied with current solutions. Include:

• Title: Problem
• One sentence description of the problem (10 words max).
• Sub-description of the problem (3 bullet points max).

4. Solution

Describe your solution and the major benefits it entails. Are current solutions slow, expensive or difficult to use? Are your solutions faster, cheaper and easier to use? Do customers care? Include:

• Title: Solution
• One sentence description of the solution (10 words max).
• Sub-description of the solution (3 bullet points max).

Make your product more tangible by illustrating how it works in three simple steps. Utilize screenshots, graphics and/or video. Skip the demo. Depending on your idea, this might be the ideal place to showcase the filing status of important patents. Include:

• Title: Product
• Product Screenshot
• Multiple Slides (if necessary)

NOTE : The order of slides 6, 7, 8, 9 can be rearranged to fit your particular narrative.

6. Business Model

Illustrate your primary revenue model. Generally, investors prefer active revenue streams to passive revenue streams. They also, particularly, like recurring revenue streams like monthly and annual subscriptions. Note: Companies that make money via advertising revenue are the exceptions – not the rule. Include:

• Title: Business Model
• Proof your market is willing and able to pay. 
• Use a quote if you haven’t launched yet.

7. Market Opportunity

Illustrate how much money you could, theoretically, make if you dominate your target market. Many investors like to see both a top-down and a bottom-up analysis. Although bottom-up is more difficult to calculate, including it will increase your credibility. Here’s an article on how to calculate it .  Include:

• Title: Market
• Total Addressable Market (TAM): All the people who could use your product or service. eg: All auto detail customers in the US.
• Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM): The subset of your TAM who are likely to use a product like your current product. eg: All mobile auto detail customers in the US.
• Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM): The subset of your SAM that you can reasonably obtain in the next 3-5 years. Aka your realistic market share. eg: 10-20% of all mobile auto detail customers in the US.

8. Competition

This might be the most important slide of the entire presentation. However, many founders struggle to clearly differentiate their products and services from the competition. Your offering must be SO compelling that users enthusiastically switch from existing solutions. In this slide, your objective is to provide 3-4 reasons why your solutions is superior to both direct and indirect competitors in the marketplace.

Warning : Don't make the mistake of saying you have no competitors. Investors will assume your idea isn’t worth pursuing.

Of course, if you’re pioneering a new technology, your competition will be its traditional counterpart. Nonetheless, your job is to clearly compare the differences between the status quo and your game-changing solution. 

You have two options regarding layout: The"Gartner Magic Quadrant" shown below or the “Competitive Grid” shown above.

Here your objective is to demonstrate your knowledge of customer acquisition, customer retention and product innovation. Investors expect you to know a few key metrics:

• Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC): What's your fully loaded cost of acquiring a paying customer? Ex. $100
• Lifetime Value of Customer (LTV): How much will someone pay your startup before they leave? Ex. $4,800
• Payback Period: How long does it take to cover acquisition costs? Ex: $100/$100/mo = 1 month. 
• Generating an LTV that is a strong multiple of CAC is a prerequisite for profitability. Of course, don’t forget to consider the cost of revenue[m] and other operating expenses, such as product development and customer service. 

10. Traction

This is another important slide that showcases customers love your product and are happy to pay for it. The Traction Slide should seek to mitigate the three types of risk: Market risk, product risk and execution risk. It should suggest that your startup can replicate initial success at scale, decrease future acquisition costs and increase profitability.

Use key metrics[o] to illustrate traction, highlight trends and rates of change. An ideal scenario for investors, for example, might be customer and revenue doubling monthly coupled with declining customer acquisition costs. If you have yet to launch, use this slide to illustrate major milestones in product development, key hires and funding.

11. Financials

How much money do you expect to make within the next 3 to 5 years? Do your best to estimate projected revenue, costs and expenses based on hitting your funding goals. Include:

• Title: Financials. 
• EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Tax) 
• Percentages alongside numbers for gross margin etc. 

Your Team Slide should mitigate investor concerns about execution. VCs love to see team members who have previously worked with successful startups, similar technologies and in similar markets. Check off as many of those boxes as you can. Note that your Team slide should include every important member of your extended team. This should include founders, key employees, advisors and investors (if any).

Creating an advisory board is a very simple way to add industry expertise to your "team" and is something that I strongly recommend For example, being able to drop a line like "We have the CMO of the largest real estate brokerage in the world on our advisory board" really boosts your credibility if your are focusing on a real estate opportunity.

A second and equally important benefit of advisors is that they can quickly help you refine your business and product vision themselves and connect you to people they know who can do the same. You can also use advisors to add significant technology and startup experience and expertise to your team.

13. Funding

Finally, it’s time to ask for the money you need. Include:

• Title: Funding
• Amount you are raising
• Financial objectives (i.e. reach $2mm ARR in 12 months)

14. Summary

After your presentation finale, end on a copy of your Summary Slide in the background. At this time, you will be fielding remaining questions that have yet to be answered.

15. Appendix

Though not mandatory, some founders include an Appendix with supporting information positive PR, customer testimonials, technological details and/or in-depth financial information.

Remember: Creating a pitch deck isn’t a “one-time exercise.” Practice your pitch often in front of peers, advisors, and mentors. The clearer your messaging becomes, the faster you will close deals.

7. How to Ace Your Presentation

Here are some of  Ressi’s best pitch presentation tips:

• Keep it under 10 minutes: Be respectful of your audience’s time, and summarize your ideas into a brief presentation. 
• Tell a story: Don’t just talk numbers —  take your audience on a journey  of why this business matters.
• Have a clear UVP: Investors often hear dozens of presentations a week. Stand out with a real unique value proposition. 
• Show your passion: Don’t be afraid to let investors see your excitement over your idea.
• Anticipate questions: Though it may not seem like it, getting interrupted is a good thing; it shows your audience is listening and cares enough to voice their concerns. Think through answers to potential questions ahead of time. 

Investor Pet Peeves

Investors listen to a ton of pitches, so it is only natural for them to see (and be slightly irritated) by common mistakes.

One of the biggest pet peeves of Manu Kumar, of K9 Ventures , is when presenters say they will answer a question later: 

You have to follow the flow,’” says Kumar. “When somebody asks you a question, that’s the right time to address the question. Even if it means you have to jump ahead or jump back.

Over the years, we’ve spoken with several VCs who echo this sentiment — entrepreneurs must demonstrate flexibility, spontaneity and willingness to “jump off” script. You may be eager to talk about your team because it’s in the next slide. However, the investor sitting in front of you may care more about customer acquisition costs. Which is why practicing your pitch in low-stakes situations is SO important. The more familiar you become with addressing unexpected interruptions, the more confidently you will handle diversions in meetings that matters.

Adeo Ressi (CEO of the Founder Institute) has something that frustrates him even more: 

One of my biggest pet peeves is when founders pitch me a business, and they don’t clearly define who their customer is,” says Ressi. “If you don’t know The Who , it’s very hard for me to understand The What or The How .

See more investor pet peeves from funding experts Manu Kumar of  K9 Ventures , James Cham of  Bloomberg Beta , Adeo Ressi of the  Founder Institute , and Alex Gurevich of  Javelin Venture Partners  below. 

The bottom-line : Delivering “the perfect pitch” takes practice. It’s normal to feel nervous before speaking to a room full of strangers. However, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Founders who wanting to expedite progress should consider joining an intensive accelerator program.

8. Successful Pitch Examples

Below are some examples of decks and presentations — from both big and small names — that have resulted in funding. Notice the common elements we’ve discussed woven throughout the decks. And take note of any presentation strategies that might be advantageous to your startup:

Pitch Deck Examples:

Founder : Aaron Patzer Funding : $31.8M in 5 rounds, acquired by Intuit

Airbnb 

Founders : Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, Nathan Blecharczyk Funding : $4.4B in 13 rounds (as of March 2019)

Pitch Presentation Examples

Should you study the pitch presentations of legends like Steve Jobs, Marc Benioff and Elon Musk? Absolutely. However, it’s often helpful to watch entrepreneurs who are less removed from your current stage of business. Below are some pitch presentations from up-and-coming Founder Institute Alumni:

1. Pethub 

Pethub is an award-winning software company helping pet owners manage their pets’ lives online. PetHub ID tags are officially in-use by over 250 communities and 20 states in the U.S as their government or shelter issued ID tag, and 98% of PetHub recovered pets are reunited with family without ever entering a shelter. The company has raised several million dollars in funding and is on pace to track and protect over 1 million animals by 2021. Pethub is also a Seattle FI alum, founded by Tom Arnold .

2. Spaceishare

SpaceiShare , a Toronto FI company founded by Sarah Selhi , is a marketplace that allows people to offer their empty physical spaces as storage for people who need the room. They secured a sizable deal on on Dragon's Den, and have been featured across Canadian press.

And here is Sarah's presentation on Dragon's Den, where she delivers a modified pitch and fields a very different set of questions: 

Bridgr , a Montreal FI company founded by Amira Boutouchent , is an online platform that helps small and medium-sized manufacturing companies find and collaborate with validated and qualified independent experts to solve their operations issues, allowing them to grow quickly without the need for expensive and time-consuming consultancies.

Climber is a Lisbon FI company founded by Mário Mouraz . They build revenue management software that takes data from external sources, such as weather, air traffic, online shopping, and claims regarding a hotel’s reputation. They cross analyze all of that with information from the hotel user, in order to automatically calculate what to sell and how much to sell it for.

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Creating the perfect pitch deck and business plan: Examples and best practices [2022]

• January 7, 2022

I know you’ve probably been told that a good pitch deck and business plan are essential in the world of startups. It’s true — they are — but there is a LOT of conflicting advice out there on how to create them. (Hint: There isn’t just one right way.) I want to share some ideas based on solid research and real-world experience so you can create something that works for you.

What is a pitch deck?

What is its purpose, do you need a pitch deck and a business plan, who should create the pitch deck, how do you create a pitch deck, what is a financial model, what is a financial forecast, how accurate does a startup financial model need to be, what to include in an early-stage pitch deck, what should i avoid putting into my pitch deck, slide #0 – title, slide #1 – executive summary, slide #2 – trends, slide #3 – problem, slide #4 – solution, slide #5 – business model, slide #6 – market, slide #7 – competition, slide #8 – go to market, slide #9 – traction, slide #10 – team, slide #11 – investment proposal (the ask), keep it simple, stick to a consistent layout, make it easy to read, use a pitch deck template, beautiful.ai, key takeaways.

In this article, I’ll discuss what a pitch deck is, explain its purpose and its importance in the outreach process, give you tips and practices to create your perfect pitch deck, and what to include in it. We’ll also look at an example of a pitch deck template, using slides from startups that have raised hundreds of millions from VCs. We’ll also explore why you must build a financial model alongside your pitch deck.

Before we get started, remember that pitching on stage and building your pitch deck are two very different things. Pitching is a form of art. Anyone can present a business plan or startup idea to another person, but only a few pitches are memorable and truly capture the interest of investors.

Practice makes perfect, and the better you get at pitching, the more likely you are to succeed. So sign up to pitch competitions, put yourself out there, and get feedback. The more you pitch, the better you will become at it. It’s better to make mistakes when it doesn’t matter than pitch unprepared to critical investors and risk disaster.

Now let’s dive into what it takes to build a great pitch deck!

Pitch decks are an essential document for every founder to master, but there is a lot of conflicting information out there, and no one-size-fits-all template.

To help you get started, we’ve pulled together pitch deck examples and best practices for new founders and early-stage startups.

Using this information to guide you, you’ll be able to create a pitch that will wow investors and get you the funding that your business needs.

A pitch deck is a condensed business plan that communicates your business idea to investors or partners. It should be clear, concise, and well-organised so that it promotes a conversation, not just information that needs to be digested. The pitch deck is used as an elevator pitch during your outreach process and should highlight the key aspects of your startup in a way that gets investors excited about working with you.

The pitch deck itself isn’t going to fund or run your startup — it’s just one piece of the puzzle — but it’s an important one. As Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist at Canva, former Chief Evangelist at Apple, and author of The Art of the Start puts it .

The purpose of a pitch is to stimulate interest, not to close a deal.

While the pitch deck is an information-packed overview of your startup, it should be more than just numbers and figures. A winning pitch deck also captures the imagination by telling a story and getting the audience emotionally involved. People don’t buy products, they buy stories — pitch decks help people to see your startup as a compelling narrative instead of just an idea on paper.

A pitch deck helps you generate interest from investors so that they will fund or work with your company in some way. It is a way to quickly pitch your business idea and get feedback, without having to go through the entire business plan. The pitch deck should be used as a tool to start a conversation with potential investors so that you can get their feedback and determine if they are interested in what you’re doing.

For an early-stage startup, the pitch deck and financial model are the business plan. There are too many uncertainties to waste time writing a 100-page business plan. Founders should use tools like the Lean Canvas to help them think through the different aspects of their business, but a pitch deck and financial model are essential when trying to raise money and get investment.

The pitch deck should be created by the founder or co-founder of the company. They are the ones who know the most about their business and can best pitch it to investors. Remember, the pitch deck isn’t what wins you the investment, but it will start the conversation and get people interested in what you’re doing.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer for this question, as the pitch deck needs to be tailored to your specific startup and its investors. However, there are some best practices that you can use to make sure your pitch deck is as compelling as possible.

Financial Model

The pitch deck should always include a financial model, typically as a supporting document, that shows financial projections for the next three to five years. This will help investors understand how you will manage the financial risks associated with your startup.

A financial model is a document that shows how your business will make money and what kind of return investors can expect on their investment. It includes projected revenue, expenses, and profits over a specific period of time.

Investors will expect to see a three to five-year financial forecast, broken down by year and month.

The financial model should also include a section on the startup’s burn rate – how much money the company is spending each month and how long it can continue to do so before running out of funds.

A financial forecast is a projection of future income, expenses, and profits. It typically covers a period of three to five years and breaks down revenue, expenses, and net cash flow by month.

The financial model doesn’t need to be complex, but it should show a realistic understanding of the numbers behind your startup.

It is important to remember that venture capitalists and angel investors do not expect your financial forecasts to be 100% accurate – they simply want to see that you have put thought into your business, that your operational plans are accounted for, and that you understand the basics of financial forecasting.

Pitch Deck Structure

As a founder, you’ll quickly learn that you’ll need more than one pitch deck. Different pitch decks are used for different purposes, and you may end up using a pitch deck that is specific to your target investor, the stage of investment, or the format in which you’ll be pitching.

This means that there is no magic formula for your pitch deck structure. However, there are a few essential slides that should be in every business pitch deck.

• Title or cover slide
• Market size and opportunity

These slides will give the pitch deck a good structure and focus on the key elements that you want to talk about. There may be more slides depending on your company, but those are the main ones that should always appear somewhere in every pitch deck.

Early-stage startup pitch decks are used to spark interest in your idea and the founding team. Venture capital firms and angel investors will be comfortable with greater uncertainty and higher risk in this pitch deck, so there is more leeway to experiment with different ideas and concepts. This doesn’t mean that you should just throw in everything without a thought though!

At this early stage, there will be multiple unknowns that you are setting out to solve, including exactly how you’ll build your solution to the problem, how you’ll find your scaleable route to market, and maybe even how you’ll convert users to paying customers.

It’s normal to not have all the answers to these questions, and that’s OK! It doesn’t mean that you should pitch an idea if you don’t know how it will work yet. All of this is just a reality check for potential investors — they need to see that you have a realistic idea of what you need to do and a plan for how you might do it.

It’s a common mistake for first-time founders to try to put too much information into their pitch decks. This can include everything from detailed financial models to a full history of the company’s founding story. While it’s important to have all this information ready, it’s best to save it for when you’re actually speaking with investors.

Your pitch deck should be focused on your idea and the current state of your company. It should be set up in a way that clearly lays out who you are, what problem you’re solving, and how you plan to solve it. You want investors to see the actual value in investing in your startup so avoid including anything that’s not absolutely necessary for them to understand this concept.

– Do not include unnecessary information or graphics

– Keep your pitch deck to a maximum of 20 slides

– Stick to clear and concise language

– Make sure all the data is accurate and up to date

Be cautious about adding in anything that doesn’t support your pitch deck theme or the key points you want to make. If it isn’t relevant, remove it! You don’t have time for extra fluff when pitching investors; be direct and focus on what matters most.

Early-Stage Pitch Deck Example

The following pitch deck template is a good example of how you can tell a story that builds investor confidence in your startup idea. Using this format will set a great first impression and can help you with raising capital.

This is the most important slide in the whole deck, you need to grab the attention of the investor with a title slide that convinces them to keep reading. Your title slide must:

• Showcase your logo and brand name.
• In one phrase, state your value proposition.
• Engage the reader by promising them an interesting pitch.

It’s important to make your startup feel credible and trustworthy. Just as people will judge a book by the cover, investors will judge your pitch deck in less than five seconds, so make sure you have a strong first impression!

A common mistake that founders make with the title slide is not making the most of the opportunity. Taking inspiration from other industries, a prize-winning sticker on a book cover or a wine bottle has a tremendous impact on sales. What can you do to make your pitch deck stand out?

After catching your audience’s attention, you should include a company summary on slide one. Investors are unlikely to know anything about you or your company, so this is where you need to tell them what you do, where you’re going, and why they should care.

In just a few sentences, you should be able to concisely state the following:

• What your company does
• The stage you’re at
• The traction you’ve made so far
• Where you’re heading

If the title slide is about grabbing attention, the executive summary is about keeping it.

You need to get investors hooked and hungry for more information.

With the investor’s attention now captured, it’s time to give them some context. What industry are you in? What trends are happening in that industry?

Trends are the market conditions that you have zero influence over. But, by showing how you understand them and how they impact your startup, you can demonstrate that not only is your startup inevitable, but that the risk of failure is also reduced.

Your goal with the trends slide is to show that your startup idea isn’t some crazy gamble, it’s obvious and inevitable, and that the market is about to change in a big way.

In the context of startup ideas, the important things to consider about trends are whether they are weak or strong, societal and cultural, or technological.

Weak Trends: These are usually easy to spot and include things like the aging population, increasing internet penetration rates, or a growing demand for a new product or service.

Strong Trends: These are hard to argue against. They will be big and happening quickly. They could be something like the rise of mobile payments, a technology reaching critical mass, or a new way of thinking about an old problem.

Technological Trends: These trends focus on the development of new technologies. For instance, the rise of drones, Web3, and artificial intelligence technologies are all technological trends that would be relevant to an investor pitch deck when combined with a startup idea.

Societal and Cultural Trends: These trends are about the way people are living their lives, and integrating new technologies into them. A good example of this is the trend towards health and wellness. This could be anything from the increasing popularity of mindfulness to people taking more interest in their food.

It’s important to consider societal trends alongside advances in technology, just because a technology is possible, doesn’t mean that people will want to use it (remember Google Glass?).

Building into emerging trends can lead to you raising millions without even having a pitch deck , like Hopin, or still whilst the world is in lockdown and your app is still in beta – like Clubhouse.

Now that you’ve got the pitch deck rolling, it’s time to talk about your startup idea. What problem are you solving? What is happening right now? What are people not happy with?

When it comes to the problem slide, be specific. Don’t just say that there is a problem. Tell them what it is and make your audience feel the pain; they should be able to recall having had it themselves or easily empathise with those that do.

As a founder, you need to prove that you have a deep awareness and understanding of the problem you’re solving. You need to demonstrate that you can stand in the shoes of your customers and see the problem as they do.

Ideally, you should be able to summarise all of this into a problem statement. This is a simple one or two-sentence explanation that describes the problem, identifies the pain points, and explains why it needs solving.

Providing data to back up your problem statement is also important, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. You’re not trying to show the size of the market, just the severity of the problem.

Having built up an understanding of the problem, you now need to explain how you plan on solving it. What is your solution? How will your startup solve this problem? What makes your product or service different?

Your solution slide should be clear, concise, and easy to understand. You should have a brief paragraph explaining what your startup does, followed by supporting information in the form of screenshots, images, or diagrams.

Remember, during live pitching or conversations, you may be able to talk about your solution in more detail – maybe even showcase a live demo – but in your pitch deck, you need to keep it simple.

If you’re having trouble boiling down your complex solution then consider how you would sell it to a potential customer. If you can pitch it to them in a way that they understand and see the value, then your pitch deck will be able to do the same.

With the problem and solution explained, it’s time to move on to your business model. This is a critical slide for any pitch deck as it demonstrates how you plan to make money from your startup idea. It’s showing your investors that you understand the business side of things and that you have a plan for growth.

This slide can be a little tricky to get right, as you don’t want to overload your audience with too much information (especially at idea stage, when you don’t have a fully formed business model). However, you need to convey that the unit economics make sense and that there is a path to profitability.

There are lots of different ways to structure this slide, but the most common model breaks it down into a one-paragraph pitch of your business model, followed by one or two diagrams showing the relationships between your costs and revenue. By using simple visuals, you can convey complex ideas far more effectively than words alone.

Unfortunately, pitch decks don’t have the space to explore every aspect of your business model. It’s a good idea to create a separate document for this, which you can then share with interested investors or partners.

Now it’s time to move on to the all-important question of market size. Market sizing for early-stage startups can be a contentious issue.

Many entrepreneurs think that they need to show huge total addressable markets (TAM), and pitch themselves as the next billion-dollar startup. However, most sophisticated investors how that for most early-stage startups this is not appropriate.

Pitching a large TAM isn’t going to impress investors, they’ve seen it all before, but pitching yourself as the best company in your segment will demonstrate that you have a great understanding of your industry and the opportunity at hand.

It’s most important to be able to show that there is a market for your product or service, that it’s growing, and that there is room for you to compete. You don’t need to pitch yourself as a billion-dollar company, just pitch that you have a good understanding of the market segment, that people are spending money solving this type of problem, and that you’re going to be one of the best companies in your space.

For example, if your idea is to launch the next big analytics platform, don’t pitch a market size that includes every business in the world. Instead, focus on a specific industry or sector and show how behaviours in that industry are changing, paving the way for your product or service.

Again, you don’t need to go into too much detail in your pitch deck. A one-paragraph pitch of your market size is usually enough, followed by a simple diagram showing the trends that are opening up opportunities for your startup.

This is another key slide for any pitch deck, as it demonstrates that you have done your research and that you understand the competitive landscape.

Start by defining the market segment you are targeting, and then show the key points of differentiation when compared to your primary competitors.

Describe how they fit into the customer’s perspective of the market, show where their strengths and weaknesses lie, and how you plan to compete with them.

This isn’t the place for a full analysis of your competitors, but you should be able to pitch yourself as the best company in your space, with a clear understanding of how you’re going to win.

There are two common ways to visualise your competitor analysis, the magic quadrant (or 2×2 matrix) and a comparison table.

The magic quadrant is a way of plotting your competitors on two axes, based on two factors that you’ll pluck from thin air. These visualisations are rarely credible unless you have a lot of experience in the market you are analysing, or they’ve been produced by large consultancies like Deloitte or Gartner.

On the other hand, comparison tables can be very effective as they’re easy to digest, position you alongside recognisable brands, and allow you to highlight the key differences between your company and your competitors. By comparing factors that are demonstrably important to customers, you’ll come across as more credible and able to back up your pitch with cold, hard facts.

Now it’s time to talk about marketing and sales strategy, or how you’re going to get your product or service in front of customers. This is where you’ll pitch your go-to-market strategy. Your go-to-market slide should include the following elements:

• The channels you will use to reach your target audience
• The actions you will take to put your product in front of potential customers
• The milestones you will hit as you progress through your go-to-market plan
• The resources you will require to reach your target successfully

Start by describing your target market and how you plan to reach them. This might include explaining your distribution channels, sales strategy, or marketing approach. You can also use this slide to talk about any partnerships you have in place, or how you plan to leverage them.

Next, explain the actions you will take to reach your target audience, and how you plan to measure success. These actions should fit within each of the channels that you’ve already identified. For example, if you’re using digital marketing, your actions might be things like website development, SEO, or social media campaigns.

Lastly, list the key milestones you will hit as you progress through your go-to-market plan, and identify the resources you will require to achieve them. You can include your team, budget for marketing activities, or specific assets like signage.

As a startup, traction is key. Investors want to see that you’re making progress and that your product is resonating with customers. This slide is often one of the trickiest for startups at idea-stage, as it can be difficult to show commercial progress and it will be too early for product-market fit.

There are a few different ways to pitch traction, and you need to choose the one that works best with your company and the stage you’re at. Some options include user base, revenue growth, or market validation.

If you’re focusing on your user base, you’ll want to pitch a clear and compelling story about your customer base. If you have a small data set, it’s worth showcasing your first 100 customers as this makes the numbers seem more real.

If you have a large customer base, pitch your exponential growth in terms of percentage or absolute figures. For example, pitch how many customers you signed in the past quarter or year.

Revenue Growth

If you’re focusing on revenue growth, pitch your current (or projected) sales figures. You can also pitch the average ticket size or value of your deals. Alternatively, pitch your revenue growth (in terms of percentage or absolute figures) over the past year.

Market Validation

If your product is still at idea-stage and still has a long way to go before it’s ready for market, pitch your progress in terms of real-world validation. For example, pitch the number of people who have registered to use your product or service, or pitch the number of companies that have expressed interest during interviews.

Most importantly, be honest about your progress. If they are interested, investors will dig into your traction claims and you’ll need to back them up with data – if it turns out that you’ve lied or embellished the facts, you’ll not only lose trust and credibility, you’ll probably lose the investment too.

Having set the scene in which your startup operates, it’s time to introduce the management team behind your startup. Investors will be keen to learn about who is leading your company and how they will transform your idea into a profitable business.

The focus here must be you and your co-founders. People invest in people, so you’ll need to show how you have the vision, experience, and motivation required to deliver on your pitch.

Keep your team slide short and sweet. You’ll want to include the founding team, highlighting their relevant experience in the industry or field that you’re operating within.

Pictures help to make your presentation more personal, so make sure you have a good quality headshot of each team member, consistently formatted so that everyone appears the same size and in focus.

The team slide should only include the founding team, though it is acceptable to include key team members, as well as notable advisors or investors if beneficial. If you do this, ensure that there is a clear visual separation between the two groups.

This is the big one. The pitch deck wouldn’t be complete without a clear proposal of what you’re asking for from your investors. This slide should clearly state the amount of money you’re seeking, as well as what you plan to do with it.

It’s important to remember that investors are looking for a return on their investment (ROI), so your proposal must be realistic and demonstrate how you will use the funds raised to reach key growth milestones.

To convince investors, your “Ask slide” will need to answer these three questions:

• How much are you seeking to raise?
• What will you do with the money?
• What do you intend to accomplish with the funds?

Always remember to pitch the ask in terms of how it benefits the investor – not just you. For example, if you’re seeking a £100,000 investment, explain how that money will help you reach a specific milestone that will create value for your investors.

Be specific about how much you need to raise, and where you plan to deploy the money. This will show that you’ve done your homework and understand how you will grow your business.

A simple pie chart with the breakdown of how you plan to use funds can go a long way towards demonstrating to investors that you’re serious about using their money wisely. For example, if 25 percent goes towards marketing spend, 30 percent for technology development, and 45 percent for new hires, that’s a good indication you have your priorities straight.

It’s unlikely that you will be profitable before the next round of funding, but it is usually worth highlighting the key numbers from your financial projections to give investors an idea of the scale and trajectory of your business.

Perhaps the most important factor in your investment ask is demonstrating that you understand how much capital you require to hit key growth milestones without requiring further funding rounds for at least 12-18 months. This is something that almost every investor will expect you to have a solid plan for.

Pitch Deck Design

Whether you’re sharing your deck by email or presenting on stage, the design of your pitch deck matters. However, you can’t afford to hire a professional pitch deck designer to help. So, what do you do?

KEEP. IT. SIMPLE.

Your pitch deck is not the place to show off your design skills – or highlight any lack of expertise in this department! The only goal of your pitch deck is to communicate information clearly and concisely so that investors understand what you’re pitching and can get excited about it.

Keep your presentation simple, use bold typography, highlight key information, and stick to a maximum of two or three colors. Resist the urge to use lots of graphics and animations, as these can be distracting and take up valuable space on your slides.

How to design a better pitch deck

There are a lot of things to consider when designing your pitch deck presentation. Below are some tips on how to make your pitch more effective:

The average investor has a short attention span, so keep your deck concise and easy to follow. Use clear language, avoid complex graphs and charts, and stick to a maximum of 15 slides.

Use the same fonts, colors, and layouts throughout your pitch deck to create a cohesive look.

Slides that are crowded with text and images will be difficult for your audience to read and comprehend.

A pitch deck template is a great way to ensure that your pitch deck looks professional and follows the proper design guidelines.

Pitch deck design tools

Today, there is a huge selection of online design tools and no-code builders to help you build your perfect deck. Below are just a few of the design platforms that can help you craft your pitch.

An easy-to-use platform that allows startups to build a beautiful slide deck without any special design skills. Start from scratch or create your slides using predefined pitch deck templates.

https://slidebean.com/

Offers a wide range of design tools and templates for creating professional pitch decks. The free version includes limited features, while the paid plans start at $12/month.

This pitch deck design app is great for startups and entrepreneurs who need to create a pitch deck quickly. The basic plan starts at $12/month (billed annually) but there is a 14-day free trial.

https://www.beautiful.ai/

The tools provided by Pitch allow you to quickly produce a high-quality pitch. Even if you’re not a designer, you can create a strong pitch deck that looks great. The basic plan is free, but you’ll need to upgrade to the paid plans for more features.

https://pitch.com/

While these design tools can be extremely powerful, it still pays to follow the same basic guidelines to ensure that your pitch deck is easy for investors to understand; Keep it simple, avoid animation, stick to a consistent layout, and make sure your text and images are easy to read.

When you’re trying to capture investors’ attention and raise equity funding, you need to show them that you have a good plan. But startups aren’t traditional businesses and they don’t use traditional business plans.

like the Holy Grail, the business plan remains largely unattainable and mythological. Most experts wouldn’t agree, but a business plan is of limited usefulness for a startup because entrepreneurs base so much of their plans on assumptions, “visions,” and unknowns. Guy Kawasaki

This is why pitch decks are the perfect approach to sharing a startup business plan.

Fundamentally, your pitch deck is used to share your vision, attract investors, and start conversations. As a founder, you should be prepared for investors who may not “get” your pitch deck right away — this doesn’t mean that they aren’t interested in what you’re doing.

Be prepared to answer questions and have an engaging conversation about your startup. Investors want to see that you have a clear understanding of your business, the problem you’re solving, and how you plan on making money. They also want to know that you’re capable of executing your vision.

Remember, pitch decks are just one part of the overall investment process. If you’re able to create a pitch deck that effectively communicates your idea and leaves investors wanting more, then you’re on the right track!

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Blog Business 10 Business Pitch Examples for Your Next Client Meeting

10 Business Pitch Examples for Your Next Client Meeting

Written by: Letícia Fonseca Oct 30, 2023

We tell presenters that it’s okay to feel scared during your upcoming sales pitch because investors will always be a pressing and intimidating bunch.

Great elevator pitches are similar to memorable stories. They intertwine visuals and narrative to keep the audience engaged. And it needs to be completed in the duration of an elevator ride.

In this guide, we share 10 business pitch examples you’ll want to use in your next investor or client meeting.

You don’t need design experience to create a business or sales pitch. Create an engaging presentation in just minutes with Venngage’s professionally designed pitch deck templates !

What is a business pitch?

A business pitch is a concise and compelling presentation that is delivered to potential investors, clients or partners to communicate the value proposition of a business idea , product or service.

The main goal of a business pitch is to persuade the audience to take a particular action, such as investing in the business, partnering with the company or purchasing the product or service.

When creating a business pitch, always remember that a well-crafted business pitch should be clear, concise and tailored to the specific needs and interests of the target audience. It should effectively communicate the value proposition and potential of the business idea, leaving a lasting impression on the audience.

To help smoothen the process for you, I’ve curated 10 business pitch deck examples you can use for your next client meeting. Keep scrolling to find out!

10 business pitch examples you can use:

Choose a simple and short elevator pitch template, guy kawasaki elevator pitch examples for business, modern pitch deck example, effective startup elevator pitch examples.

• Business idea pitch deck

Dark marketing pitch deck

Classic airbnb pitch deck.

• Statement yellow elevator pitch example
• Short franchise elevator pitch example

Nonprofit pitch deck

Your elevator pitch needs to address the biggest business concern: the sales funnel .

This simple pitch deck example gets to the heart of the business problem within just 12 slides. It’s short, sharp and to the point, enough to keep prospective clients interested.

This is a great sales pitch deck template to accompany a brief presentation. You can easily share your business model with investors or clients.

Customize this template by adding your branding and business information. Include data about your target audience and team members. This is information that potential investors need to know.

With a Venngage business account, you can access the My Brand Kit feature, including the Autobrand tool.

Add your website when prompted and the editor will import your logos, fonts and brand colors . You’ll be able to add your branding to all your designs with a single click.

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

The Guy Kawasaki method for elevator pitch templates has been successful for numerous businesses. The minimal text keeps investors focused during the entire pitch.

Presenters can fully concentrate on sharing the key metrics and pain points of their target market. The pitch deck includes overviews that guide investors’ thoughts.

Venngage has two versions of the conventional Guy Kawasaki elevator pitch format. This gradient version is a bit more modern. It certainly draws the eye without overwhelming the design.

The template’s simple and minimalist-inspired design makes it easy to customize for any brand completely. You can swap out the gradient panels and add brand-relevant product images instead.

You can also use this non-gradient pitch deck template. This is an ideal way to highlight your brand colors.

Make the easily customizable pitch deck examples shared above your own by adding your text, data and graphs.

Creating a pitch deck  just got easier. Venngage’s real-time collaboration  allows multiple members to work on a design at once. Share instant feedback and design a winning sales pitch.

This unconventional pitch deck uses icons to tell a compelling narrative. Visuals can spice up presentation decks and give make them aesthetically pleasing.

This template works well for startups and small businesses demonstrating to investors their brand’s potential.

If the deck is too dark, you can switch out the panel colors and icons. Add your own research to make your sales pitch convincing.

Related:  Everything You Need to Know About Picking and Using Brand Colors

Elevator pitch decks focus on quick, one-minute proposals to convince potential investors that you have something valuable.

This investor pitch deck example is excellent for a startup elevator pitch. With just five slides, this deck makes it easy to breeze through your business model.

The added charts make the proposal and presentation much more convincing. You can share the necessary details that investors will want to know about.

Import your data from Google sheets into the Venngage editor and easily create charts for your presentation.

Related:  Everything You Need to Know About Pie Charts

Business idea pitch deck

How do you highlight your business model to a potential customer? You start with your value proposition.

The below pitch deck example opens with the business’ value proposition in the first slide. It also includes many elegant ways to showcase the brand. Plus, it provides essential business data to investors simultaneously.

You can use the business idea pitch deck template above as a guideline for a good sales pitch of your own or modify and adjust it to your branding needs.

The marketing pitch deck example below has a dark but unique personality. It works well in a product launch setting or as an elevator pitch deck for marketers.

The color combination is unusual but striking. Not to mention, on-trend. Bold colors are one of the resurgent graphic design trends  of the past few years.

You can use the above marketing pitch deck example as inspiration for numerous business presentations.

Art and multimedia businesses can also use it as a template for client presentations.

Related:  20+ Business Pitch Deck Templates to Win New Clients and Investors

We all know what Airbnb is and how much the business has grown over the past few years.

One of the best pitch deck examples you’ll see is Venngage’s version of the Airbnb pitch deck.

It uses sample data, addresses the core customer problem and outlines the business plan to capture the audience’s attention.

The pitch deck example above is one of the standard elevator pitch decks but manages to be sophisticated. There’s a finesse to this pitch deck design . That’s why it was so successful.

Statement yellow elevator pitch example

The yellow motif of this artistic pitch deck will immediately hold the audience’s attention.

The color is bright and bold but isn’t overpowering. Instead, only two slides use the background color across the whole slide.

The majority of the slides only include hints of yellow or use it as a highlight.

This template works for companies that use one prominent color across their branding. It’s also a professional pitch deck for small businesses, startups, or software companies.

Short franchise elevator pitch example

Pitch decks don’t depend on length to make a point. Instead, it uses fewer headers as overviews and depends on presenters to share pitch details with investors.

This is one of the best pitch deck examples for a short and classy presentation. It uses a small number of icons and bullet points to draw the eye and keep the presentation flowing.

As an elevator pitch, this is an effective method for maintaining the audience’s focus.

Related:  A Complete Guide to Line Charts

This elevator pitch example for nonprofits uses minimalism and icons to keep potential investors engaged throughout the presentation.

The subtle use of color and icons asserts the brand’s personality. This template can work for businesses in the graphic design sector.

Alternatively, the nonprofit pitch deck example above can also work for digital marketing agencies that want a cutting-edge appeal to make themselves attractive to clients.

Famous sales pitch decks to inspire your pitch

Minimalist airbnb pitch deck.

This minimalist design of the Airbnb elevator pitch example shared above is perfect for startups.

You can easily add product or location photos and adjust the colors to suit your branding, alongside your logo and fonts.

Buffer pitch deck

The real Buffer pitch deck was confusing for investors. You can read more about it in our round-up of the best pitch decks .

Venngage designed a cleaner version using icons and charts. This makes the information easier to understand. You aren’t bombarding your audience with too many details.

Facebook pitch deck

The winning Facebook pitch deck was text-heavy. But what made it stand out was how many popular schools had already signed up with it.

Plus, the deck was nothing short of ambitious, with a clear expansion plan. It is no surprise that Facebook is the behemoth it is today.

How to write a business pitch deck

Creating a compelling business pitch deck is essential for effectively conveying your business idea to potential investors or partners. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you write a business pitch deck:

• Cover slide: Include the name of your company and a visually appealing image that represents your business.
• Problem statement: Clearly define the problem your product or service solves. Use statistics or real-life examples to emphasize the significance of the problem.
• Solution: Describe your product or service and how it addresses the identified problem. Use visuals, such as product images or diagrams, to help illustrate your solution.
• Market opportunity: Present market research data to showcase the size, growth potential and trends of the target market. Use graphs, charts, or infographics to make the information more engaging.
• Business model: Explain how your business will generate revenue. Describe your pricing strategy, sales and distribution channels and any key partnerships or collaborations that will contribute to your business model’s success.
• Traction and milestones: Highlight any significant achievements, milestones, or partnerships that demonstrate the progress and potential of your business. This can include user metrics, revenue growth, or notable endorsements.
• Competitive analysis: Analyze your competitors and illustrate how your product or service stands out in the market. Highlight your unique selling points and any barriers to entry that provide your business with a competitive advantage.
• Go-to-market strategy : Outline your marketing and sales plan. Describe how you will reach and acquire customers, including your marketing channels, customer acquisition strategy and sales approach.
• Financial projections: Present your financial forecasts, including revenue projections, cost structures and expected profitability. Use charts or graphs to display key financial data and assumptions.
• Team: Introduce your team members and highlight their relevant expertise and experience. Emphasize how the team’s skills and strengths contribute to the success of the business.
• Use of funds: Explain how you plan to use the funds you are seeking. Provide a breakdown of how the investment will be allocated across different aspects of the business.
• Conclusion and call-to-action: Summarize the key points of your pitch and clearly state what action you want the investors to take. Encourage questions and provide your contact information for further discussions.

Remember to keep your pitch deck concise, visually appealing and easy to understand. Use high-quality visuals and compelling storytelling to make your business pitch deck engaging and memorable for your audience.

Four tips for creating a great elevator pitch

Here are four easy ways to recreate the pitch deck examples above or build your own pitch from a template.

Create a visual style for your sales pitches

A visual style or theme creates flow and sophistication in any presentation. These involve using recurring elements in a subtle and obvious manner.

For example, this Venngage template uses our color gradient along with elegant and bright icons.

Choose visual elements whose characteristics become the pitch deck’s focal point. Great pitch decks use the brand’s colors and visual motifs to keep the brand top of mind.

Give an overview of your business model

Pitch decks act as content anchors that guide your client toward your topic’s main points.

All the other information in your pitch deck or the explanations in your presentation will be aimed at supplementing that data.

Like this Uber elevator pitch template that emphasizes customer pain points and how the business will solve them.

Examples of added data include situational examples, charts and graphs and case studies .

Focus on your unique proposition

Your pitch deck has a central idea that is its unique selling proposition. Pitch deck creators build their pitch ideas around this aspect.

As a result, they’ll have a solid, communicative and persuading pitch deck that convinces investors.

Simplify hard concepts in your sales pitch

Scientific knowledge is enriching to those who understand its meaning.

Hard concepts, long-running and poorly constructed sentences and jargon make reading challenging for investors who have a very short time to spare.

This deck ensures that information isn’t overwhelming, either in the overview or the traction slide.

Make sure to simplify hard concepts and use simple words. That’s what the best pitch decks do.

Use templates to create successful pitch decks and win over investors

Delivering a good elevator pitch can be overwhelming. The pressure to get the tone right and impress investors is huge.

We’ve shared 10 elevator pitch examples that you can use as inspiration.

And with Venngage’s pitch deck templates, you get a competitive advantage. With no design experience, you can create elevator pitches that win over investors.

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How to Create a Pitch Deck for Investors [Templates + Design Tips]

Written by: Masooma Memon

A pitch deck is a presentation that entrepreneurs and startups founders use to highlight their business, intrigue investors and potentially raise funding to grow their company.

Because it plays a useful role in telling effective visual stories, you can’t undermine the role a solid pitch deck plays in convincing investors.

But the question is: how do you create a pitch deck that actually wins investors?

Let’s answer that for you in this piece. We’ll look at:

• What a pitch deck is and why you need one
• What slides to include in your pitch deck and what documents to bundle it with
• The secrets to creating a winning investor presentation including design tips to follow

Let’s jump in.

Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit investor pitch deck slides you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more below:

If you're ready to create your pitch deck, head over to our presentation software and put together a powerful investor deck in minutes. Use ready-to-go templates inspired from real-life startups, add your branding and more.

Table of Contents

What is a pitch deck, slides your pitch deck should include, important documents to include with your pitch, pitch deck best practices & design tips.

First, a quick recap: a pitch deck — aka an investor or startup pitch deck — is a presentation that you create to give investors a quick overview of your business and its growth potential.

Think of it as the vehicle that transports your business idea’s value proposition and potential from your mind to your audience’s minds.

The aim? To make it to the next meeting, secure funding, get someone to join your team or anything else depending on who you’re presenting to.

You can create a pitch deck using any presentation software. But if you want your pitch deck to stand out, you need to make sure it doesn't look like any other PowerPoint presentation.

When Do You Need a Pitch Deck?

You need a pitch deck whenever you need to pitch your business to anyone.

This could be anyone from a venture capitalist to someone you think will make a great co-founder. It could also be the astute-looking panel of judges in a startup pitching competition.

Whoever you’re presenting to, you need a pitch deck to succinctly and powerfully convey your ideas and request.

Sure, you can also explain your idea verbally. But that’s an ineffective way of presenting your business idea considering you could either underdeliver or overdeliver the needed information.

A pitch deck lets you use visuals like images, graphics, screenshots and videos that help convey your message better and leave a lasting impact in the minds of your audience.

For example, you can share your financial projections and showcase your mobile app more effectively with a pitch deck presentation than verbally or without visual aids.

With that, let's look at what to include in an effective pitch deck.

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The key to a successful pitch deck is to make sure you cover your basics and include all the slides your investors want to see.

Typically, good pitch decks include anywhere around 10 slides. This isn’t a set-in-stone rule though, and you can go above or below this number depending on the slides you need.

Or, you can experiment with an infographic-style pitch deck — similar to Piccsy’s infographic pitch deck .

But, a general rule of thumb is to keep your presentation deck short.

The reason? When you're fighting for your audience’s attention, a 30-slide long presentation never helps. In contrast, a short and powerful presentation is always a winner.

That said, here’s a brief pitch deck outline of the important slides you need.

The title is the first slide that shows in your pitch deck. So, you can call it your impression-building slide that sets the scene for your business ideas.

Pay attention to the visual elements (colors, fonts and any images) since they set the overall mood — more on this in a bit.

Also, it’s best to be minimal here. Meaning: your name and your business’s name are enough. You can also add a short and snappy tagline if you have one.

2. Introduction

The introduction slide is where you introduce yourself to build credibility. The shorter the intro, the better since you want to focus on the business idea, not yourself.

You can also use this slide to communicate your unique selling point (USP) or value proposition, like in the example above. Or, describe what your business is and what it does quickly.

Up till now, the title and intro slides were a mere formality. The problem slide, however, is where you start building your story.

Use whatever visual cues you need to showcase your problem in the best possible way. You can start with a story that puts your investors in your customers' shoes, like in the example below:

You’ll want to make sure you communicate your target buyer’s problem effectively. Fail here and it’s likely you won’t be able to convince your audience of your product’s need.

Also, you can always start your presentation with the problem and skip the introduction. There are no hard and fast rules — use whatever works to get investors’ attention and make your case.

4. Solution

Once you've presented the problem, it's time to follow up with a viable solution — your service or product.

You can introduce the solution in any number of ways — share your product MVP or a list of the features you offer; whatever makes a convincing case.

If it makes sense, throw in another slide here that shares product features.

But, in your presentation, focus more on the benefits each feature offers instead of the feature itself. Approach this slide in a way that it relates to the problem stated and shows how your business idea can solve it instead of just promoting your product.

That said, it’s best you don’t present a laundry list of features. Keep them to the top 3-4 features of your product or service.

The human brain can only hold seven — give or take two — things in their working memory at a time.

So focusing on a handful of features is your best bet to ensure your audience doesn’t forget your business idea.

Put simply, remember: less is more.

You can also combine your problem and solution slides and present all the information in one slide — this can help your audience connect the dots and see how your solution fits into context.

5. Market Size, Opportunity and Trends

Sure, there’s an itch that your product can scratch. But is it an itch worth scratching?

Put another way: is there a market for those interested in scratching the itch? Answer that in this slide.

You can show the market size with the help of numbers, or use data visualization like a pie chart or bar graph to make your point.

Another way to go about this slide is to focus on the market trends and why it's the right time for your business to come into the picture. You can show this with the help of a timeline that visualizes the evolution of consumer behavior, for example.

The point is, showcase the need for your product. But instead of plainly sharing your findings or numbers, use visual aids like graphs, bar charts, surveys and more to make your point.

Visuals present data in a visually appealing format, therefore, making it easy to understand and digest.

6. Product Comparison

If your product has competitors, you’ll want to pull up a product comparison slide to make a visually engaging case for how your product compares to others.

This way, you won’t lose your audience’s attention while effectively positioning your product as the hero the market needs.

SaaS businesses find product comparison slides especially useful for comparing features and pricing. But you can also use product comparisons for other businesses, such as real estate.

7. Testimonials

Adding customer testimonials brings social proof to the table — a great way to impress your audience, increase trust and further build on the need for your product or service.

Don’t have anyone saying nice words about your product (yet)? No problem.

You can still use this slide to feature complaining customer reviews on your competitors. Make sure the reviews you curate all point out to the same problem that your product will help solve.

If you already have more than one person involved in your company at this point, you’ll also need a slide that introduces your team.

Your team slide can also show potential investors, or folks you’re convincing to join you and the brilliant minds who are working with you on your idea as advisors.

9. Traction

In this slide, show investors what you have achieved till now. If you already have a growing user base, you can visually show it with the help of a line graph.

If you don't have any traction at this point, don't worry about this slide. Focus on highlighting your business idea and its potential as much as you can.

10. Financials

This slide features your business idea’s financial projections. You can present this in the form of a table, or use data visualization to make the information easier to digest.

In this slide, include data on how you’ll charge people, how you concluded that’d pay the amount and how the plan will help you hit your financial milestones.

11. Sales & Marketing Strategy

Interested investors will also want to know the plan you have to reach the goals and financial projections you’ve highlighted — this is where your sales and marketing strategy comes in.

To this end, use a flowchart, a graphic list of steps, timeline or any other visual to summarize your sales and marketing plan. You can also use bullets with icons to showcase key tactics.

12. Call-to-Action

Finally, you’ll need a slide that makes the ask.

You don’t need anything fancy here. If you’ve told a compelling story, your audience will be happy to get in touch, splash out money or take whatever step you want them to.

Don’t forget to add your contact details to this slide.

With what to add to your presentation deck out of the way, let’s look at the documents you need with it to make a strong and compelling case:

1. Cover Letter

Your cover letter shares a 1-2-page long persuasive story that sets the stage for your business idea.

Think of it as an icebreaker that convinces investors or anyone else who is your target audience to view your business idea.

Here's a cover letter template you can use for your own investor pitch:

If you're looking for cover letter designs, head over to our template library and check out our full collection of cover letter templates to find one you like.

2. Elevator Pitch Statement

All of us know the always-wanted-but-much-dreaded one-page pitch that summarizes a business idea.

Essentially, an elevator statement shouldn’t read longer than 20-30 seconds — the time it takes to ride an elevator.

And, to ensure you win your audience’s attention, be sure to make this pitch memorable, to the point and interesting.

3. Business Plan

A business plan includes the A to Z of how you plan to put your business on its feet.

Meaning: you need a detailed marketing plan, sales strategy, competitors analysis, financial plan, risk analysis — just about anything you’ll do when you win funds.

Here's a business plan template you can use to get a head start:

Looking for more templates and design options? Check out our complete collection of business plan templates — fully designed and ready-to-go.

4. Financial Report

If the finances blueprint in your business plan isn’t in-depth enough, you’ll need a separate model.

The plan? Thoroughly explain how you’ll use the investment. And, how you plan to generate profits while factoring in market trends, customer pocket and economic drivers among other things.

Here's a financial report template you can use:

If you’re in a later stage of your startup, provide an up-to-date look at your metrics including an outline of how you’ve used up finances so far.

Providing a data-driven model like this shows you’re well-positioned to responsibly use investors’ money and drive profits.

The slides above are a must-have for a successful pitch deck. But to take your presentation to the next level, there are some best practices and design tips you should keep in mind.

Let's get into the meat and potatoes of how to create a pitch deck so that you have a winner at your hands:

1. Leverage storytelling techniques

Good stories stick.

They’re persuasive.

And, they tug at your audience’s emotions to encourage them to decide in your favor — yes, we make decisions mostly based on emotions with some logic backing it.

Try any of these storytelling formulas for your presentation:

The before-after-bridge formula.

Start with describing a world with a specific problem (before). Go on to share a world without the problem (after). Now, introduce your business idea (the bridge).

The PAS formula.

This stands for Problem, Agitate and Solution.

And it goes like this: describe a problem (read: your target buyer’s problem), develop the problem and offer a solution to it (your product or service).

TED talk presenter Nancy Duarte’s formula for great talks.

It involves zooming back and forth between what is (the status quo) and what could be (the future that could be). Then, pack in the climax with your business idea (the bliss).

Whichever storytelling framework you work with, make sure you structure your presentation well for a smooth flow.

Here's a video to help you learn more about presentation structures:

2. Focus on Benefits, Not Features

The more you emphasize the benefits of your business idea, the more effective your pitch will be.

Back in 2007, Dropbox succeeded at raising $1.7 billion in funding . It also got backing from investors like JP Morgan.

And how did they do it? By focusing on the benefits of their idea. To this end, they talked about revolutionizing how people store and share data.

So you know what to do, right? Delve into the benefits; how your product will make its customers’ life easy.

3. Show, Don’t Tell

Whenever possible, give people reasons to invest in your idea by showing how it works.

Take a look at Tinder's pitch deck example :

Tinder earned $50 million + in funding in just three rounds with this deck.

How? By showing what their business idea will do.

They start with a relatable story. Then they ‘show’ the solution by featuring their app in their presentation.

You can steal this idea too. Use wireframes, a minimum viable product, even mockup screenshots — anything that helps people visualize the solution you’re offering.

And in case you’re wondering why this works, know that by showing, you’re tapping into your audience’s imagination to get them to say yes. This is the same reason why storytelling is so effective in persuading people .

4. Make Your Pitch Deck Look Professional

Using a DIY design tool like Visme can help with this even if your designing chops aren't all that polished. It will make your pitch deck look different from other presentations that look more or less the same when designed in PowerPoint.

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Create your pitch deck View more templates

To top that, you can use presentation templates to save your time. Because, realistically speaking, you only need to customize the template to your needs. With our Dynamic Fields feature , you can automatically capture key information like personal and company information across your slides.

Even as you use an amazing tool to create your presentation, keep the following presentation design tips in mind:

Don’t clutter your slides.

We’ve already said this before: use as few slides as you can.

But while you’re at it, make sure each slide is minimally designed to leave a lasting impression.

Because, here’s the thing: clutter fails to grasp your audience’s attention. And, the last thing you want is an investor scratching their head, trying to breathe sense into the mess that your slides are.

To create breathable, clutter-free slides: use only visuals that you need — no unnecessary icons or graphics.

Make sure every design element earns its keep by serving a purpose.

Use legible fonts.

Steer clear of a font that demands your audience to squint to read your message.

Instead, work with easily readable presentation fonts like Verdana, Georgia, Montserrat and more.

Make sure the font size is no less than 24 points.

Lastly, stick with 2-3 fonts at most. More fonts will only create distractions and undermine your design’s cleanliness.

Work with good color contrasts.

It’s best to work on your business’s brand identity as early as you can.

The reason? It helps you leave a memorable impression on your audience.

If you’re in the very early stages of pitching your idea though, you might not be focused on it until you get investment rolling. In which case, we recommend you take the time to carefully choose colors for your presentation.

Essentially, colors leave a psychological impact on your viewers. For instance, red communicates passion. Blue inspires trust. Yellow stands for optimism and so on.

This means you can’t randomly play with any color for your presentation slides.

To increase your odds of leaving a lasting impression, study color psychology before finalizing your deck’s color scheme.

Also, make sure you work with a color contrast that’s legible. This ensures the deck is easy to understand.

5. Craft Compelling Pitch Deck Copy

With your design nailed, work on your copy.

The aim is simple: keep your copy simple, succinct and to the point.

A presentation deck is no place to be wordy. Instead, limit to 6-8 lines per slide — roughly 30 words per slide.

You can also try the 5 x 5 x 5 rule of writing presentation copy:

• 5 lines of text per slide with
• 5 words per line and placing only
• 5 lines of text-heavy slides in a row

Or, you can experiment with the 2/4/8 rule that says:

• Change to a new slide after every 2 minutes with
• 4 bullet points per slide and no more than
• 8 words per bullet point

No matter which method you choose to write your presentation copy, the core is the same: limit your text.

To do so, start with writing your copy without worrying about word count. Then go on to edit ruthlessly. Prune words that are too technical or contribute fluff.

Get rid of jargon too — use simple words instead so your audience doesn’t have to stress to keep up with your message.

Plus, avoid abbreviations and rewrite sentences to shorten them.

6. Practice Your Presentation Delivery

Lastly, it’s important you present with confidence. This is key to hitting your funding goals.

Make sure you practice everything — what you’ll say, how you’ll say it (your tone) and how you’ll time your speech and the slides.

You’ll also want to practice speaking at a steady pace. If you go too slow, you risk boring your audience.

On the flip side, going too fast, a common presentation mistake , often means you won’t be able to drive home your message.

And, as you practice: get rid of the ‘umms’ and ‘ahs.’ Keep your presentation delivery natural, even conversational. But never read off from your presentation — it’s a huge audience turn-off .

Not to mention, try to maintain eye contact (despite the fact that it can be overwhelming). Having a hard time doing that? Look at your crowd’s foreheads.

Create a Pitch Deck That Wins Over Investors

And that’s all folks. We’re hopeful you’re feeling confident about how to create a pitch deck.

Remember: it’s all about your target buyers and how your business can help them.

So, focus on the benefits and the problem your product will solve. Tell a relatable story around it. And finally, present it with confidence.

Don’t forget to create a visually convincing presentation deck. If you want a head start, sign up for Visme and start creating an attention-grabbing investor pitch deck now.

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About the Author

Masooma Memon is a pizza-loving freelance writer by day and a novel nerd by night. She crafts research-backed, actionable blog posts for SaaS and marketing brands who aim to employ quality content to educate and engage with their audience.

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Home / Blog / Pitch Deck vs. Business Plan: What is the Difference?

Pitch Deck vs. Business Plan: What is the Difference?

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Deciding between a pitch deck and a business plan for your next fundraiser? In reality, both documents play an important part in your fight for the next round. 

• Research shows that a clear, concise pitch deck can increase the chances of securing an initial meeting with investors by up to 72% .
• A business plan reduces internal confusion by 25% by clearly outlining the goals, strategies, and financial projections, leading to a 30% increase in team collaboration .

Both documents require heavy research and are designed to convince investors to back your venture. However, they accomplish it in different ways.

Having raised over $505M in 2023 for startups with our pitch decks and business plans , we’ll walk you through a detailed Pitch deck vs. Business plan comparison and their role in the fundraising game.

What is the pitch deck?

A pitch deck is a 10-20-slide presentation showcasing the potential of your business idea and startup to investors. Briefly and compellingly, it introduces your company, product, market, business model and overall strategy. 

An effective must showcase your market research, traction to date, and a roadmap to where you want to get. No one-sized pitch deck exists, so you can even pitch someone in the elevator .

Think of it as an introductory sales document designed to pique investor interest and encourage further dialogue.

Components of a pitch deck:

• Introduction: Brief overview of your company and its purpose.
• Problem Statement: Clearly define the problem your product or service solves.
• Solution: Describe your product or service and how it addresses the problem.
• Market Opportunity: Showcase the potential market size and target audience.
• Business Model: Explain how your company plans to generate revenue.
• Traction: Highlight any milestones, achievements, or user statistics.
• Market Strategies: Outline your marketing and sales approaches.
• Competitive Analysis: Identify and analyze your competitors.
• Team: Introduce key team members and their roles.
• Financial Projections: Present forecasts for revenue, expenses, and profitability.
• Ask/Investment: Clearly state what you’re seeking from potential investors.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a 30-100-page document showcasing an in-depth analysis of your business idea to potential investors to convince them to invest. It elaborates on things like:

• Your sales, marketing, and operational plans for growth
• Where your company will be in the next 1,3 or 5 years
• A step-by-step plan of how you’ll get there.

The business plan is the first part of the investor’s due diligence process before finalizing the deal. It lays out more detailed research on your industry and competitors, contains many charts, graphs, and pictures, and is very text-heavy. 

Think of it as a comprehensive blueprint of your venture designed to persuade interested investors to pull the trigger and invest.

Components of a business plan:

• Executive Summary: A brief business overview, goals, and plans.
• Company Description: Details about your business, mission, vision, and structure.
• Market Analysis: Research your industry, market, and competitors.
• Organization and Management: Information about your team, structure, and key personnel.
• Product or Service Line: Description of your offer and its benefits.
• Marketing and Sales: Your strategies for promoting and selling your product or service.
• Funding Request: If you seek funding, outline your financial needs.
• Financial Projections: Projected financial statements, like income statements and balance sheets.
• Appendix: Additional supporting documents, charts, graphs, etc.

What are the differences between a pitch deck and a business plan?

While the business plan and pitch deck give a view of your venture, they serve different goals, reach different audiences, and build the story differently. These distinctions manifest in the length, format, target audiences, and funding stages. 

Length and Format

• Pitch Deck:

Brief and eye-catching 10-20 slides with engaging visuals, like images, charts, and minimal text. Generally highlights critical points, like product or service, target market, business model, and future potential.

• Business Plan:  

Detailed 30-100 page text-heavy document armed with visuals like charts and graphs. It typically emphasizes projected revenue, expenses, and profitability through financial statements and forecasts. The document details strategies for sales, marketing, operations, and human resources, along with a description of team members’ expertise, experience, contributions to the company’s success, etc.

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Targeted Audience

• Pitch Deck: Investors (initial stages)
• Business Plan: Investors (due diligence), internal team

Stages and Objectives

• Pitch Deck: 1. Shines in early stages: Pre-seed, seed, Series A. 2. Captivates investors: Concisely delivers the problem, solution, market, and team.
• Business Plan: 1. Dominates later stages: Series B and beyond. 2. Secures substantial funding: Demonstrates viability and potential return on investment (ROI).

Frequency of use

• Pitch Deck: 1. High Frequency: Used frequently and repeatedly throughout the fundraising process. You might prepare several variations tailored to different investors or stages of funding. Examples: Initial investor meetings, pitch competitions, and conferences seeking investment opportunities.
• Business Plan: 1. Lower Frequency: Typically used once during the later fundraising stages, specifically during due diligence. 2. Focus: Providing detailed information for investors to thoroughly assess your business’s viability.

Pros and cons: Pitch Deck vs. Business Plan

Advantages:

• Comprehensive: This thoroughness is crucial for investors, lenders, and internal stakeholders.
• Strategically complete: Aids decision-making, resource allocation, and risk management.
• Supportive fundraising: Studies suggest that companies with a well-crafted business plan are 18% more likely to secure funding than those without one.

Disadvantages:

• Time-consuming: Requires potential expertise in areas like financial modelling and market research.
• Outdated quickly: Market dynamics and business strategies can evolve rapidly, necessitating regular updates to the plan to maintain its accuracy and relevance.
• It may not be read: Lack of time and poorly structured info can push away the potential investor.
• Concise and engaging: Studies reveal that audiences lose focus after 10-20 minutes of presentations. Pitch delivers a clear and quick message.
• Easy to adapt and share: Adapting the pitch deck for various audiences and situations is simpler due to its brevity.
• This can lead to meetings: Engaging presentations foster positive connections with potential partners and lay the groundwork for long-lasting collaborations.
• Sometimes limited information: By definition, it does not provide the in-depth financial analysis, operational details, and market research needed for comprehensive due diligence.
• Less suitable for later stages: As funding requirements and investor expectations increase, a pitch deck alone may not be sufficient for securing more significant investments.

Which is more important, the pitch deck or the business plan?

There is no one-size answer; in most cases, you need both. The importance of each depends on your industry and fundraising stage. The pitch deck is crucial early on , but investors scrutinise the business plan for details as you progress . 

The pitch deck is vital for visibility. Without it, you may miss opportunities with investors and hinder connections with mentors and partners essential for your startup’s success.

On the other hand, the business plan is crucial to validate everything you’ve outlined in your pitch deck. Investors can quickly spot unprepared founders or unrealistic propositions. While a compelling pitch may secure a meeting, a thorough plan will convince investors to back your venture.

Important: A well-crafted pitch deck often stems from a strong business plan.

When to use a business plan and not a pitch deck

• If you seek debt financing: Banks rely on business plans, emphasizing their importance for loan applications.
• If you fundraise above $500k: Careful planning is crucial for substantial fundraising. Investors will scrutinize your venture, so be thoroughly prepared.
• If you have cooperative ownership planning: A written plan is essential for co-owners to navigate challenges together, staying true to the initial vision while embracing necessary changes.

When to use a pitch deck and not a business plan

• When attracting equity investment: A concise pitch deck is essential to secure funds from venture capitalists, angel investors, or knowledgeable friends and family.
• When looking for networking with potential investors: Crafting a positive initial impression is paramount.
• For pitching opportunities for founders: Explore pitch competitions in the startup community, seizing opportunities for exposure and honing your pitching abilities with a solid pitch deck.
• When seeking co-founders: If you’re looking for cofounders, there is no better way to convey your concept and the value you can bring to the table than through a pitch deck.
• When applying to accelerator programs: A well-crafted pitch deck is typically required. It is a critical asset in the assessment process for entry into the accelerator’s next cohort.

You need both 

Need to grab attention and lock connections? Use a pitch deck. Need to showcase in-depth details and long-term potential? Use a business plan. Both tools are paramount in navigating your fundraising journey effectively.

Want to know how to craft pitch decks that secure investor interest? Check our pitch deck hub to learn all about it straight from the trenches.

CONTENT WRITER

Hey there! I'm Anastasiia, a Content Writer at Waveup. With my marketing expertise and storytelling magic, I turn complex data and industry insights into your startup playbook, making the business world a breeze for you! At Waveup, I work with brilliant folks who make insights a never-ending flow. So, join, read, and enjoy!

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7 Great Pitch Deck Examples From Real Businesses

11 min. read

Updated April 9, 2024

A solid pitch deck can mean the difference between landing funding and going home empty-handed.

Your deck has to convince investors that you and your business are a good bet. Otherwise, they’ll take their money elsewhere.

But what does a good pitch deck look like? Yes, there are specific slides that you should include , but including them won’t guarantee that you get funding. 

Luckily, there are hundreds of pitch decks from highly successful companies that you can look at for inspiration.

For this article, I grabbed a few favorite pitch decks and dug into why they’re so good.

• Why these pitch decks?

These pitch decks made the list because they come from highly successful startups that successfully landed one or multiple rounds of investor funding. 

They’re unique with specific strengths and formatting that go beyond your typical presentation templates. 

Some are more like a business plan presentation —incredibly long, use a lot of text, and focus more on data and financials. Others are short, highly visual, and meant to invoke specific emotions.

No matter your business stage or industry—these are all useful to explore and reference when crafting your pitch.

Get started with a free startup pitch deck template 

Don’t get held up creating your pitch deck presentation. 

Download a free investor pitch deck template with pre-built slides and instructions from experienced entrepreneurs. 

This template is yours to customize and adjust as you see fit. And remember, the 11 slides in the deck are just the standard to start with. 

1. Airbnb — Turning a pitch into a story

Airbnb’s pitch deck has become the go-to example for startups. Sure, the design is outdated, but the results speak for themselves. It is one of the most recognizable funding success stories of the 2000s, and many would say that’s because of their pitch deck. 

Company info

• Founded: 2008
• Industry: Travel and hospitality
• Business Model: Digital marketplace
• Funding: $600,000 seed funding round in 2009
• Source: Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator

What’s great about this pitch deck?

Airbnb’s deck is simple and punchy. It gets right to the point, doesn’t overload the slides with too much information, and serves as a useful backdrop to the founder’s elevator pitch .

The deck is also fairly brief. 

It doesn’t include every slide that we recommend. Instead, they prioritize crafting a story and leaning into their strengths. 

In just a few slides Airbnb:

• Demonstrates a real-world problem and viable solution.
• Breaks down a clear path to enter the market.
• Details how they will make money and even show initial traction.

Key Takeaway: Tell a story and play to your strengths. You don’t need to get into every detail about your business during the initial pitch. The goal is to spark interest and start a conversation. Just be ready to answer any lingering questions after the fact.

2. Copper Cow Coffee — Showcasing expertise 

Copper Cow Coffee, known for its Vietnamese coffee and portable pour-over technology, has been part of multiple funding rounds (including a stint on Shark Tank). Founder Debbie Wei’s pitch deck is less concerned about proving a business concept than showing the competitive advantages of her business. 

It is a well-designed pitch deck to review if you are looking to scale and bring in additional capital.

• Founded: 2016
• Industry: Food and beverage
• Business Model: D2C, Subscription, and Wholesale
• Funding: $2 million seed round
• Source(s): Techstars, CRCM Ventures, among others

This deck does a lot with visuals. It conveys the history, innovation, and premium nature of Vietnamese-sourced coffee with virtually no text. Rather than being a distraction that investors get hung up reading, the deck is far more additive and helps punctuate specific points during the pitch.

Since this is an established business, once the unique value proposition is set, the remainder of the deck is dedicated to operational efficiency, partnerships, and revenue—areas of the business that prove Copper Cow Coffee is sustainable, has a strong competitive advantage, and has opportunities to grow. 

Key Takeaway: There’s no need to dig deep into hypotheticals when your business has enough traction to prove you’re worth investing in. If you have enticing data points, use them to sell your value to investors.

3. LinkedIn — A pitch meant for knowledgeable investors

LinkedIn often gets lumped in with other social media platforms, but its purpose and user base are unique. 

From the beginning, it was pitched as a network for professionals—where you could easily find and contact the right people in your industry. 

So, the concept and unique value were easy to understand. But how that would work and generate consistent revenue were the bigger questions. 

• Founded: 2003
• Industry: Social Media and Professional Networking
• Business Model: Freemium model with revenue from advertising, premium subscriptions, and talent solutions.
• Funding: Approximately $103 million (before going public in 2011)
• Funding Source(s): Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, etc.

While I praised the Airbnb deck for being lean, I’m giving LinkedIn a thumbs up for the opposite. Their deck is incredibly thorough and heavy on information and data to establish the company’s position, monetization strategies, and growth details.

That doesn’t mean that they skip establishing a narrative. They just did it in only a few slides, choosing to focus on the traction and experience of their founding team. 

This makes sense when your audience of investors may actually be potential users as well. So, establishing credibility, digging into the details, and clearly defining a sustainable path for growth were necessary.  

Key Takeaway: Tailor your pitch and pitch deck to your audience. This may require you to add more details, prioritize different business areas, or pull back on specific information to let the story shine. 

4. Uber — Proving there’s a pain point

Uber is an interesting case of a business poking holes in a problem that most people just accepted. At the time, there were no real alternatives to paying for a taxi. And owners of these cab companies held a bit of a monopoly over the industry.

For Uber to succeed, it had to prove that innovation and harnessing new technologies were key. 

This makes this deck a must-review if your business has the hurdle of pushing an established industry system to evolve.

• Founded: 2009
• Industry: Transportation and Technology
• Funding: Approximately $24.5 billion (before going public in 2019)
• Funding Source(s): SoftBank, Benchmark, GV, etc.

Uber’s pitch deck painted a visceral picture of how the taxi industry was ripe for disruption in just two slides. For anyone who has had to hail a taxi, this immediately resonates.

The rest of the deck is dedicated to how they would do it. They needed to apply reality to this futuristic vision with facts, ambitious but believable financial projections, and evidence that they had traction.    

Key Takeaway: If your business is built around disruption and new technology, you must prove that people will care. Clearly and quickly outline an actual problem , present a bold vision for the future, and then back that up with tangible steps to get there. 

5. DoorDash — Proving there’s a better way 

Now synonymous with food delivery, DoorDash wasn’t actually the first to market with the mobile ordering concept. That honor goes to GrubHub. 

In this case, arriving later was a benefit. There were still obvious gaps in mobile ordering that made the technology less impactful for consumers. No dedicated delivery drivers, a lack of up-to-date restaurant information, and extensive wait times were just the minimum.

DoorDash didn’t reinvent the wheel but honed in on the new pain points that business owners and consumers complained about. And that is the crux of their pitch.

• Founded: 2013
• Industry: Food Delivery and Technology
• Business Model: Logistics platform connecting customers, restaurants, and delivery drivers, earning fees from each order.
• Funding: Approximately $2.5 billion (before going public in 2020)
• Funding Source(s): Y Combinator, Charles River Ventures, SoftBank, etc.

DoorDash’s pitch deck for Y Combinator’s demo day clearly defines a significant problem in the food delivery industry and presents its platform as a solution that benefits consumers, restaurants, and drivers alike. 

Combined with their elevator pitch, the deck effectively showcased DoorDash’s technological edge and operational efficiency. They demonstrated proven traction in an area that didn’t rely on a dense population center, further illustrating a clear vision to scale the business. 

Lastly, they left a clear opening to draw in interested investors . By proving they know the industry and have a foothold that will lead to sustained growth, they didn’t need to fully explain the opportunity. Instead, they used their demonstrated success to land direct conversations after the larger pitch.

Key Takeaway: Your deck can be a backdrop to your elevator pitch. It doesn’t have to do all the talking but should elevate your point through well-timed visuals.

6. Peloton — Connecting with customers

It’s interesting to compare Peloton’s original Kickstarter campaign to their future pitch deck. 

The consumer-facing Kickstarter spent little time establishing a narrative. Instead, it prioritized product features, visualized how it could fit in someone’s home, and showcased behind-the-scenes development. 

Their 2018 pitch deck emphasizes how Peloton makes people feel. It informs the emotional connection with a detailed audience breakdown, brand values, and multiple customer quotes. 

They wanted to prove that they had a deep understanding of their customers and had evolved as a brand. No longer just being seen as innovative exercise equipment but a recognizable brand movement.

Disclaimer: Peloton has struggled to maintain consistent growth after growing wildly successful amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Hardware recalls, issues with user retention, high-profile executive exits, and a struggle to adapt to changing demands are all contributing factors. 

However, Peloton’s deck still led to funding before their initial success and is still a strong example of how to showcase an in-depth understanding of your customers when pitching.

• Founded: 2012
• Industry: Fitness and Technology
• Business Model: D2C hardware and subscription services
• Funding: Approximately $994 million (before going public in 2019)
• Funding Source(s): Tiger Global Management, True Ventures, L Catterton, etc.

Peloton strays away from the typical business overview of most pitch decks. Investors knew the product already and needed to be sold moreso on the potential long-term retention of customers. 

Peloton expertly defines its customer base beyond typical demographic and psychographic information. They string the community narrative throughout the deck, reinforcing the customer identity with every visual. You not only walk away knowing their customer base but get a sense of how they view themselves.

Key Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to diverge from the standard pitch deck structure. If you have to prove a specific point or show off a deep understanding of 1-2 business areas, craft your pitch around that instead.

7. Facebook — Let data do the talking

Facebook’s deck represents a business very different from what it is today. While social platforms like MySpace and LinkedIn were around, the scale and connectivity proposed with the platform had never been seen before.

So, the majority of the deck is dedicated to demonstrating that there is customer interest and a viable path to scaling to new customers. The business model takes a bit of a backseat, likely with the intent to flaunt how many potential people companies could engage with. 

• Founded: 2004
• Industry: Social Media and Technology
• Business Model: Advertising, with ventures into hardware sales.
• Funding: Approximately $2.3 billion (before going public in 2012)
• Funding Source(s): Accel, Greylock, Peter Thiel, and others.

Facebook’s pitch deck is a masterclass in breaking down market opportunity. They demonstrate a clear product-market fit that feeds into an ambitious but achievable path to growth.

At any point, real data can be inserted, they do it. There are no questions about the business’s growth potential because it is laid out so well. 

Key Takeaway: Use in-depth data to make your point. Any time you can punctuate your narrative with research or your own internal metrics, you will be far more convincing to potential investors.

Additional pitch deck resources 

Hopefully, this curated guide of successful pitch decks will help you determine what to focus on in your deck. 

For more guidance, check out these resources:

• Y-Combinator Startup Directory : Explore a list of 5,000+ companies funded by Y-Combinator to learn what type of businesses get early seed funding.
• PitchDeckHunt : Check out this library of over 1,000 real-world pitch deck examples for more inspiration.
• Investor Pitch Deck Template : A great starting point to develop your deck and ensure you cover all necessary information. 
• Elevator Pitch Guide : A selection of resources that will help you refine your verbal pitch, impress investors, and know how to adapt it for different scenarios.
• Our Favorite Pitch Deck Tools : If you need more than a template to create your presentation, check out this round-up of pitch creation tools.

Kody Wirth is a content writer and SEO specialist for Palo Alto Software—the creator's of Bplans and LivePlan. He has 3+ years experience covering small business topics and runs a part-time content writing service in his spare time.

Table of Contents

• Free pitch deck template
• Copper Cow Coffee
• Additional resources

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How to Create a Pitch Deck (and the 10 Slides You Need)

Table of Contents

In the high-stakes world of startups, a pitch deck presentation is often the deciding factor for securing investment, whether in high-pressure situations like Shark Tank or pre-seed pitching rounds. With limited time to make a first impression, the quality of your pitch deck is crucial in leading to that all-important follow-up meeting with investors or VCs.

In this article, we’ll guide you through how to create a pitch deck and the ten essential slides you need. We’ll also explain what makes a good pitch deck (including examples), the 10/20/30 rule, and how to avoid common mistakes.

Success in entrepreneurship isn’t just about hard work, luck, and timing. It’s also about successfully convincing others to invest in your vision, whether you’re seeking funding, advice, mentorship, or partnerships. A great pitch deck will be your essential tool in persuading investors. Let’s get started!

What is a Pitch Deck?

A pitch deck is a slideshow presentation that succinctly conveys your business idea, market opportunity, and value proposition. Startup founders and entrepreneurs commonly use them to present their business ideas, products, or services, also known as a business or investor deck. It is necessary in securing funding, attracting partnerships, and closing deals.

With a concise format of 10 to 20 slides, this visual tool effectively conveys a business idea and its potential to help entrepreneurs connect with investors, clients, or partners. Suppose your pitch catches the interest of potential investors. In that case, there will likely be an in-depth next meeting (i.e., the start of the actual pitching process).

💡 The most common formats for pitch decks are PowerPoint slides, Google Slides, or Apple Keynote presentations.

Purpose of a Pitch Deck

The purpose of a pitch deck is to clearly and quickly communicate your business’s potential. Used in fundraising pitches, idea support, and forming strategic partnerships, it provides a visual snapshot of your business idea and its market viability.

Pitch decks are not only used by startups but also in a variety of other settings. The structure of your slides should enable potential investors to grasp your business idea’s potential quickly.

Types of Pitch Decks:

• Branding or marketing plan
• Fundraising
• Film & TV

The 10-20-30 Rule for Slideshows

The 10-20-30 rule, coined by venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, offers a structured approach to creating effective PowerPoint pitch decks. This rule is a favorite among startups but applies to all types of presentations. It includes:

• Keeping to just 10 slides.
• Limiting the presentation to 20 minutes.
• Ensuring a font size of at least 30 points.

However, sticking to 10 slides isn’t always the optimal approach for everyone. As David from NextView VC reminds us, it’s crucial to present in a manner that feels authentic to you. Treat pitch deck templates as flexible starting points, and tailor them to highlight the uniqueness of your startup.

What should be in a pitch deck

A pitch deck should concisely outline your business idea, market, strategy, finances, team, and funding needs in an engaging story. You should use between 10 and 20 slides depending on your needs and audience.

In the next section, we’ll guide you through creating each slide.

The 10 most important slides in an investor deck:

• Business overview: A brief introduction to the business, including the mission and vision.
• Problem statement: Identify the problem or need in the market the business intends to solve.
• Solution slide: The product or service offered by the business as a solution to the identified problem.
• Market size and analysis: Information about the target market and industry, including size, growth potential, and customer demographics.
• Product and business model: How the business plans to make money, including the product and pricing strategy.
• Go-to-market plan: The approach to promoting the product or service and acquiring customers.
• Competitors: A look at the competitive landscape and how the business differentiates itself from competitors.
• Financials: Financial projections and current financial status.
• Team: Information about the key team members, their roles, and their experience.
• Ask: The specific funding request and how it will be used to grow the business.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, we’ll move on to how to create a pitch deck.

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How to create a pitch deck

We’ll take a step-by-step approach to making the essential 10 slides in a pitch deck. It will cover the most critical aspects of your business idea and pitch presentation. You may add more slides as you go, but let’s start by looking at each of these 10 slides, their purpose, and what information should be included.

Slide 1: Business overview

The first slide of your pitch deck will set the tone for the rest of the presentation. The business overview (title slide) should briefly capture the core of your idea and stand out to investors.

• Include your logo.
• title slide
• Name of your idea, business, or startup.
• Summarize your concept into a catchy headline.

Slide 2: Problem

Use this slide to lay the groundwork of your pitch by focusing on the problems or pressing needs that your business addresses. Highlight the market gap and illustrate why it’s an important opportunity.

• Present the problem your business solves in the form of a problem statement.
• Emphasize its relevance to your audience.
• Back up your points with solid data like market statistics or instances of current inefficiencies.

Slide 3: Solution

The solution (or value proposition) slide should address each problem mentioned in the previous slide. There could be many ways to solve a problem, so clarify how your solution benefits your target segment.

• The value proposition of your product or service.
• What sets it apart from competitors.

Slide 4: Market size

This slide should provide a clear picture of the market analysis and landscape based on your research. Illustrate the scale of the market you’re targeting or part of, demonstrating growth prospects and business opportunities. Key points to include:

• Break down the market opportunity into TAM, SAM, and SOM.
• Note any important market trends.
• Use visual aids like charts or graphs to effectively depict market size and trends.

Slide 5: Product & business model

Summarize your product and business model in this slide to show how you will make money, scale, and be profitable.

• Highlight your product’s main features or services.
• Add visuals like screenshots or images for clarity.
• Detail your revenue streams, cost structure, and pricing strategy.

Be ready to explain any challenges within your business model and your solutions.

Slide 6: Go-to-market strategy

The go-to-market (GTM) slide outlines your strategy for entering the market and acquiring new customers. Explain how you will distribute your product or service and reach your target audience.

• Outline each phase of your GTM strategy.
• Define your ideal customer or buyer persona and how you provide value to them.
• Explain your sales and marketing approaches to reach customers.

Having a good idea or product isn’t enough to convince investors. They need to know if you have a viable, thought-out strategy to reach and serve the target market.

Slide 7: Competitive analysis

Demonstrate your understanding of the market and the competition in this slide by providing data and market research. Offer data-driven research to map out the competitive landscape, including:

• Identification of major competitors and alternatives.
• Specify your unique selling proposition (USP) and competitive advantage.
• Strategy and positioning against competitors.

Be straightforward in this slide and reassure investors that you are aware of your competition and have a plan to achieve and maintain a competitive edge. You could mention potential challenges, risks, or disruptors.

Slide 8: Team

Many investors often consider the team behind a startup as one of the most critical factors in their decision-making process. A study done on over 21,000 startup founders suggests that the founder’s personality – or the combined personalities of the founding team – is paramount to entrepreneurial success.

• Include all founders, management, and advisors.
• Roles and responsibilities.
• Highlight key skills and relevant experience.
• Mention any meaningful connections.

The team slide has to instill confidence in potential investors that this is the right team for the job, even if you are a solo founder.

Slide 9: Financials

This is a critical slide where investors may spend the most time reading to get a glimpse into the business idea’s financial feasibility and potential return. Describe how you plan to generate revenue and your pricing strategy. Each startup will show different financial figures based on their stage.

Basic financial data:

• Income statement
• Sales forecast
• Expenses and burn rate
• Profitability
• Market size (Total Addressable Market, Serviceable Available Market, Serviceable Obtainable Market)
• Projected revenue growth for at least three years.

Other KPIs you may include:

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• LTV/CAC ratio (indicates how sustainable the business model is)
• Customer growth

Coming up with these figures demonstrates your financial acumen and your understanding of the key metrics that drive business success.

Slide 10: Ask

The last slide should wrap up the pitch with a snapshot of your current standing, any accomplishments, a timeline, and the use of funds.

• The current state of affairs (growth, market share).
• State the amount of funding needed and how you plan to use it.

Investors want to know if your startup/idea is worth investing in, so show them evidence of progress, past successes, or the potential for future success.

What makes a good pitch deck?

A good pitch deck gets your point across to investors and captures their attention. Successful pitch decks are clear, focused, and persuasive. Many investor pitch decks follow a similar structure because they give investors a snapshot of a business’s investment potential.

These are traits of a good pitch deck:

✅ Concise and clear, without fluff or distracting details.

✅ Focused on telling the story of the startup/idea and its potential.

✅ Structured with a logical flow. Each slide supports the overall narrative.

✅ Persuasive , backed by data, research, and appropriate graphs and charts.

💡 Save time by using an AI pitch deck presentation maker like SlidesAI

Best pitch deck examples

Here are some of our favorite pitch deck presentations. The best pitch decks balance detailed information with simplicity. Take a look at these pitch deck examples across different stages of funding:

Airbnb pitch deck (Pre-seed)

LottieLab pitch deck (Seed)

Copy.AI pitch deck (Series A)

Wanderlist pitch deck (Series B)

Crunchbase pitch deck (Late stage)

💡 Check out more free pitch deck templates here .

Top 3 mistakes to avoid with your pitch deck

These common mistakes can diminish the impact of your presentation. Strive for a balance between thorough information and simplicity for maximum impact.

Mistake 1: Overemphasizing aesthetics

Overdesigning your slide deck can detract from your core message while pitching. In most cases, it is safe to leave out PowerPoint animations and excessive graphics. Use brand colors if possible; any image, graph, or chart you include should directly support your narrative.

💡 Pro tip: Maintain a consistent visual theme and leave out flashy design elements.

Mistake 2: Overloading information

It’s natural to want to share a lot of information on each slide, but doing so can make it harder for your audience to tell what’s important. VCs hear hundreds of pitches each year – you need more clarity in your pitch to catch their interest within your allocated time. Focus on the key information and overall structure of the pitch deck presentation.

💡 Pro tip: Prioritize clarity and conciseness to make a lasting impact.

Mistake 3: Lack of personalization

Pitch deck templates are a great starting point, but remember to tailor your pitch and content to your audience. Investors differ in their interests and priorities. Understanding what your audience value can significantly improve your pitch’s impact.

💡 Pro tip: Find out what resonates with your audience and include or address them in your deck.

• No design skills required
• 3 presentations/month free
• Don’t need to learn a new software

A thoughtfully prepared pitch deck is essential for securing investment. View your pitch deck as a brief yet compelling introduction to your startup’s potential, aiming to secure further discussions and, ultimately, funding. By adhering to the 10-slide structure recommended in this article, you can effectively convey your business vision, introduce your team, emphasize your market edge, and outline your financial forecasts.

Organize your slides to ensure your business concept is easily understood. Be succinct and clear, and align your content with what investors typically seek. Steer clear of common pitfalls like cramming slides with information or not customizing your deck to align with investor interests. Wishing you success!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a pitch deck the same as a business plan.

A pitch deck and a business plan are not the same. While a pitch deck visually presents key aspects of your business idea, a business plan is a comprehensive written document that outlines all aspects of your business. A pitch deck can summarize your business plan but cannot replace it.

What happens after a successful first pitch?

Pitch deck guides often focus on the initial meeting with venture capitalists, but that’s just the start. Investment decisions involve multiple meetings, due diligence, negotiations, and paperwork. As NextView VC’s David Beisel puts it, “The purpose of all venture capital meetings is to get another meeting.” Read more about what to expect after a successful first pitch .

What about other slides, like the traction slide?

Traction slides are to showcase proof of any progress, achievements, and market acceptance. For early-stage startups, including pre-seed, traction might not necessarily mean revenue. It can be any evidence that validates your business idea and market demand, such as user sign-ups.

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30 of the Best Pitch Decks That We’ve Ever Seen

Every founder hopes to launch the next unicorn startup . However, billion-dollar businesses usually require millions of dollars in funding to scale. Creating the best pitch deck possible could be the difference between fundraising success and failure.

A pitch deck is a critical tool in a startup’s fundraising journey. However, not every pitch deck is equally effective. The best pitch decks strike multi-million deals, while the worst fail to capture investors’ interest.

I’d bet that you’ve already searched on Google and realized that hundreds of presentation and pitch deck templates are available. However, when approaching investors, the goal is to stand out. Unfortunately, most pitch decks fail in the fundraising process. Instead of standing out, they blend into the crowd like a drop of water in the ocean.

By studying examples of successful startups that raised millions, you can learn what investors look for in the best pitch decks. In this article, we’ll introduce you to 30 of the best pitch decks we’ve seen over the last few years. Furthermore, we’ll explain why we believe they were successful and what you can learn from them.

Dropbox is a cloud storage service that lets you save files online and sync them to your devices. The platform makes it simple for users to share files and folders with others without attaching large attachments to an email.

The team introduced the product at Y Combinator’s Demo Day in 2007. Since then, Dropbox has acquired hundreds of millions of customers. The company has also become an example of how to build a startup from the ground up.

The Dropbox team utilized its pitch deck to showcase its innovative product, explain its traction, and validate its business model. Investors quickly displayed interest, and Dropbox struck its first investor deal shortly after its Demo Day appearance. 

The Pros of Dropbox’s Pitch Deck

Dropbox’s presentation may seem outdated compared to many modern pitch decks. It could use more graphic design, but the information is clear and presented in an easily digestible manner.

The use of the slide, “In a perfect world…” is unique and effective. With this slide, Dropbox connected readers to the problem and encouraged them to imagine life without struggling with digital storage issues. At the time, consumers weren’t aware that one could have “your files available wherever you are, on any device.” In 2023, this value proposition probably doesn’t seem so unique.

Still, in 2007, forgetting your USB dongle at home was a thing of nightmares. It was impossible to access your files without having your physical drive handy. Ultimately, Dropbox changed how the world stores and shares files, and its pitch deck validates this point.

The Drobox pitch deck encourages engagement from the viewer by presenting questions like “Why Now?” and “Why Better?” The team identified which questions the audience was likely to ask. Then, the founders used the deck to take the viewer on a journey by answering their questions at the ideal moment.

Some may find these slides outdated, but we love the no-fluff approach that Dropbox took with its deck. The text is large enough to read, and each slide gets straight to the point. Every word has a purpose, and every sentence is intentional.

Dropbox’s Lifetime Funding

The Dropbox team leveraged its pitch deck to raise a $1.2 million seed round in 2007. The company raised over $1.7 billion in funding over 11 rounds.

WeWork is an American commercial real estate company that provides flexible shared workspaces for technology startups and other businesses. The company designs and builds physical and virtual shared spaces and offices for companies of all sizes.

Over the years, WeWork has suffered from a damaged reputation due to bad leadership and overfunding. However, its failures don’t take away from its ability to rank in our best pitch decks list. The team produced several pitch decks since its earliest stages. However, its Series D presentation is a great example of showcasing traction and explaining future plans.

Why It’s On Our Best Pitch Decks List

Unlike DropBox, WeWork’s pitch deck is design-heavy with a modern aesthetic. The slides follow a predictable theme with a bold title, a short text blurb, and a simple but informative graphic. The color scheme (black and yellow) is consistent across every slide, which makes it visually appealing to the audience.

But when creating our best pitch decks list, graphic design is only one component. It takes skill to present this amount of information without overloading the slide. Yet, WeWork figured out the perfect balance to provide information while peaking the audience’s curiosity.

Instead of “warming up” the audience, the team immediately gets to the meat of the presentation – traction. The Company Overview slide showcases their stats upfront, with impressive metrics that investors would find difficult to ignore. Few investors can look away when a company presents statistics like 109% CAGR and revenues of $121.4 million.

While visual aesthetic is less important than content, WeWork’s design stands out. Every slide draws viewers in with complex information simplified through charts and familiar logos. The team slide is streamlined, showing authentic images of its founding members. If a picture speaks 1,000 words, it speaks a million in a pitch deck.

A Validated Hypothesis

The pitch deck tells the story of how work is rapidly shifting away from the office. Even before the pandemic, the founders realized that remote working was the future. Across multiple slides, WeWork showcases how millennials approach work differently, choosing freelance work and WFH options over the traditional office.

By the way, they were right – today, more people work from their homes and shared office spaces than ever before.

Although its technology is a massive part of WeWork’s offering, the founders only gave the technology a single slide. The bulk of the pitch deck showcases the problem and details WeWork’s plans for taking advantage of an emerging market opportunity.

WeWork’s Total Funding

The founders raised $335 million in investor funding with its Series D pitch deck. In total, the company raised $4.45 billion over 11 rounds from 14 investors.

3. Copper Cow Coffee

It can be challenging to make coffee sound exciting when competing for capital against innovative tech startups. Copper Cow Coffee’s pitch deck shows how it will innovate a market that has minimally advanced over the last several decades.

Copper Cow Coffee offers sustainably-sourced, all-natural coffee, sold in a kit that includes coffee and creamers. The company had humble beginnings but has expanded rapidly. CCC’s products are now on the shelves of major retail stores, including Whole Foods, Walmart, H-E-B, and Sprouts.

Despite the rapid success, Copper Cow Coffee’s journey began with a simple but impactful 11-slide pitch deck.

Why It’s An Awesome Pitch Deck

Entrepreneurs often overlook simplicity during investor pitches, but Copper Cow Coffee proved that less is more. For comparison’s sake, there are more words in this paragraph than in the company’s entire pitch deck. The team streamlined all the information into simple but powerful statements like “Craft coffee for anyone, anywhere.”

Unlike other decks on this list, the founders didn’t use complex graphs and charts to present information. Instead, they showcased the opportunity in a way that even a kindergarten student could understand. For example, the team used a few words to describe market size, not bar charts and line graphs. With the statement, “32 billion – American Coffee Industry,” anyone could quickly visualize how large the market is.

Some would debate that Copper Cow’s pitch deck is too minimal . However, when pitching an idea, you want the audience to pay attention to the presenter, not the slides. Copper Cow used a minimal approach so audiences could grasp the concept of each slide without needing long text explanations.

Did Copper Cow Raise Funding?

Copper Cow Coffee participated in 500 Startups and raised over $1 million in seed funding. In total, the company has generated $11.5 million in investor funding.

4. Purple Go

(Click the image to view Purple Go’s pitch deck)

Purple Go is an iPad-based platform that allows eyewear retailers to streamline online operations. The all-in-one platform automates tasks throughout the sales process, freeing up staff members and maximizing operations efficiency. Although Purple Go serves a niche and uber-targeted audience, startups can learn a few lessons from their pitch deck.

Pitch Deck Highlights

Purple Go utilized a sleek design and approach, telling its story with simple statements and highly-focused slides. While most startup pitch deck templates suggest a Problem Slide , Purple Go decided to forego this recommendation.

Instead, the deck tells a story of how Purple Go’s clients feared the impact of tech-enabled competitors. But, by adopting Purple Go’s mobile-connected stores, they multiplied their revenue by up to 10x.

The pitch deck includes several Solution slides, but they don’t display every feature. Each slide displays a short statement with a visual that explains how the product solves the customer’s problem. Phrases like “Cut Time to Sale in Half” explains the value proposition without using bullet points or paragraphs. The slides focus on the specific functions that heighten the value proposition without wasting space on less impactful features.

The team proves its Traction with a few hard-hitting statistics, such as “Pilot Store – $150k Annual Revenue.” Purple Go gives the audience the “what” of the solution but gives room so the presenter can fill in the blanks.

Did Purple Go Raise Funding?

With this pitch deck, The Purple Go team raised $150,000 in seed funding from 500 Startups .

5. Blue Wire

Blue Wire is an audio-centric media company that hosts more than 120 podcasts with athletes, influencers, and professional sports franchises. The founders recognized that millennials preferred digitized media (like podcasts) over traditional sports radio. With only nine slides the company proved a growing need for its solution in the market.

Why Do We Love This Investor Pitch Deck?

This pitch deck successfully displays how sports fans’ habits have shifted from one extreme to another. Specifically, Blue Wire explains how television loses 150,000 subscribers per month while podcasts have grown by more than 90 million listeners.

The team also proved its future potential by showing the combined follower numbers of its influencers. It also displayed logos from dozens of creators seeking to partner with the company. The deck validates a demand for the solution by showcasing notable statistics. For example, the brand received 2.5 million listens over 11 months and doubled its user base monthly.

The Company Raised HOW MUCH!?

Using this pitch deck, the company raised $150,000 in pre-seed funding. To date, Blue Wire has raised $9.9 million in funding from angel investors and venture capitalists.

6. SnapChat

It seems like Snapchat has been around forever, but it launched just over a decade ago. In 2010, it was just a new social media platform hoping to find its first capital partner. The company had a great concept, a cult-like following, and clear competitive advantages. The company had many positives, but the team still needed a stand-out pitch deck to capture investor attention.

About Snapchat’s Startup Pitch Deck

Pitch decks have many use cases outside of impressing investors. For instance, Snapchat created a sales deck to reach brands with its advertising and marketing services.

The Snapchat pitch deck sacrifices a title slide to get right to the value proposition. It opens with a bold and confident statement, “Snapchat is the best way to reach 13 to 34-year-olds.” This statement immediately draws advertisers’ attention – especially those targeting young millennials. The risk of grabbing viewers’ attention with this approach is that after making the statement, the next slides must prove it.

Snapchat validates its opening statement on the following slide. The team added a message that explains its penetration level for its targeted audience. The slide reads, “More than 60% of 13 to 34-year-old smartphone users are Snapchatters.” Then, it follows up with another intense metric – “2+ billion video views every day on Snapchat.”

There are several lessons you can take away from Snapchat’s pitch deck. First, eliminate the fluff and focus on meaningful statements. Fill your deck with strong statements that captivate your audience and back those statements with accurate data and actual metrics.

The Sales Deck Impact

The sales deck set the foundation for Snapchat’s advertising services. The company now earns more than $2.62 billion in advertising revenue each year.

Snapchat’s sales deck did not influence its fundraising activities. But in case you wondered, the company has raised more than $4.9 billion in investor capital since its inception.

The home fitness equipment industry continues to reinvent itself with new equipment and products. From ab stimulators to workout video series, there’s always some new brand claiming to help you achieve your dream body.

However, in 2012, Peloton launched as an innovator in the fitness hardware and technology spaces. The company combined traditional fitness equipment with modern tech solutions. Its solution includes internet-connected stationary bikes that enable subscribers to participate in at-home classes through streaming media.

How Peloton Made Our Best Pitch Decks List

The Peloton team knew that its product wasn’t for every person interested in fitness. With a high price tag, Peloton’s customers meet a specific demographic, lifestyle, and income bracket.

The Customer slide outlines Peloton’s ideal customer. These consumers are high net worth, married, and already spending more than $150 per month on fitness. Peloton customers earn a high income and are willing to use their disposable income to achieve their fitness goals.

Peloton’s investor deck shows that the team has deep knowledge of competitors. The team used several slides to explain its competitive advantages over other brands. Statements such as “We are not a gimmicky fitness brand” make a huge impact. The simple sentence puts distance between the brand and those with laughable fitness products (yes, I mean you, Shake Weight).

The pitch deck refutes viewers’ objections immediately and removes the “bad product” stigma often associated with fitness products.

The Venture Capital Raise

Peloton raised $400,000 from investors in the seed round. In a later round, they used their Series A pitch deck to raise $3.5 million. Throughout its lifetime, the company raised $1.9 billion, participated in six acquisitions, and went public (2019).

8. Transferwise

Transferwise (now called Wise) launched in 2010 and emerged as a leader in global payments. Wise, a money transfer platform, allows individuals to send money overseas quickly. The founders realized that millions of people around the world faced high fees for remitting money. By solving this issue for millions of people worldwide, the company earned billions of dollars.

What Stands Out in Wise’s Pitch Deck?

We gave praise to some earlier examples for their minimal approach to text and design. However, we believe Wise has the perfect amount of text for each slide. The deck provides enough information to understand the concept without overloading each slide.

The How It Works slide clarifies how easily users can send money using the platform. In this slide, Wise simplified the remittance process into four steps.

Wise simplified its Competition slide by listing each competitor category and the companies within each group. This approach allows the founders to explain each competitor group during the pitch, instead of comparing each individual company.

How Much Did Wise Raise?

Wise has one of the best seed pitch decks among the unicorn startups of the last decade. With this deck, the company raised $1.3 million in seed funding from IA Ventures and Index Ventures. To date, the company has raised over $1.3 billion from investors.

9. Kickfolio

Kickfolio (now App.io) launched with an innovative marketing tool that allowed iOS applications to run in the browser using HTML5 technology. The technology helps brands promote their applications, find new users, and engage their audience with an interactive application demo.

What Can You Learn From This Pitch Deck?

This pitch deck is an excellent example of how a brand can use visuals to engage viewers with its story. Instead of explaining the solution with bullet points, the team uses product images to demonstrate its functionality. For instance, Kickfolio showcased its traction with a simple but large graph. The team strengthened the slide by explaining user engagement, with a statement that says, “2000+ signups in 6 weeks.”

The company also added real reviews to the pitch deck so investors could see its value proposition in action. By doing so, Kickfolio made it clear how the solution impacts the lives of actual users.

How Much Capital Did They Raise?

With a world-class pitch deck, the founders raised $1.2 million in seed funding from investor partners.

Alan is a unique and innovative digital health insurance platform. The company improves the health insurance process by focusing on the user experience and providing cost-affordable plans. The team successfully established the business as an insurance company by providing top-level customer service and a competitive product.

Here’s Why We Love This Deck

To be clear, Alan’s pitch deck is more than double the length we’d recommend to our clients. Despite the length, several qualities stand out.

First, the visual presentation is masterful. When it comes to presenting a heavily designed pitch deck, Alan is a great model to follow. Alan’s branding is strong and consistent throughout the deck. It utilizes the brand’s colors and maintains a theme that draws viewers into the presentation.

Alan’s deck begins with an elevator pitch, allowing the audience to understand its product offering immediately. The team also added a slide that explained their purpose for raising Series A funding. With the funding, they plan to expand in Europe and transition into a healthcare platform.

We’ve seen the minimal approach used in several other presentations. Alan definitely did not take this approach. The deck is longer than we recommend, but it gives enough information to stand alone without a presenter. Still, the length of the deck would bore the audience during a live investor pitch.

Alan’s Series A Round

The company raised €23 million during its Series A round. In total, Alan raised over $558.2 million from angel investors and venture capital firms.

Castle is an innovative and process-shifting real estate solution for rental property owners. Castle operates under a memorable slogan that reads, “Put Your Properties on Autopilot!”

Ultimately, Castle exists to help owners manage properties without the common landlord headaches. Since Castle serves a niche target market , likely, you’ve never heard of them. However, its pitch deck has several shining qualities that any founder can learn from.

What Can You Learn From Castle?

Castle’s presentation is a great example for founders wondering what a great pitch deck looks like .

The design is modern and exciting, utilizing a constant theme, graphics, product images, and icons. The icons highlight each point, bringing the viewers’ eyes directly to the most critical points of each slide.

Castle’s format is similar to most pitch deck templates. However, the pitch deck uses this familiar structure to its advantage. The startup immediately showcases the primary customer problem. They present a problem statement that reads, “Rental property owners want to make money without the work of being a landlord.”

Each subsequent slide enhances the overall story and gives the audience another layer of information. The flow leads to a concise elevator pitch – “Automate landlording through software and on-demand labor.”

What lessons can your startup take away from Castle’s pitch deck? The best pitch decks don’t just present data and statements. Instead, they present the right information at the right time to support the story and capture viewers’ attention.

Did Castle Raise Funding?

Since its inception, Castle has raised $3.3 million in seed funding from angel investors and venture capitalists.

Adpushup is a successful startup that streamlines the process of optimizing ad placements. The solution enables publishers to improve ad performance by testing different ad placements, sizes, and types. While the design of this sample pitch deck is minimal, the information the team presented was critical to its funding success.

What We Like About Adpushup’s Slide Deck

Many entrepreneurs believe revenue is the only attractive metric, but Adpushup proved that other metrics are equally important. For example, the Traction slide validates its rapid growth, using impressions as a metric. This metric enabled them to prove a high demand within the market, even though the business hadn’t earned any revenue.

In addition to describing prospective customers, the deck displays the solution’s impact through existing customer experiences. It includes a case study showing its product’s effectiveness in a real-world scenario. Social proof isn’t just gold for attracting potential customers; it also helps to sell your pitch to investors.

Did Adpushup Raise Seed Money?

Since its inception, Adpushup has raised approximately $632,000 from partnered investors.

13. LinkedIn

(Click the image to view LinkedIn’s pitch deck)

The LinkedIn Series B pitch deck is ancient compared to others on our list. Still, it’s excellent study material for startups looking to develop a compelling investor pitch.

LinkedIn launched during the social media craze, when many new social network platforms entered the market, and competition peaked. As a result, LinkedIn took a different approach and established a notable unique selling proposition by serving a professional audience.

LinkedIn’s deck uses too much text to compete with modern seed round pitch decks. However, it is a fantastic example of how a seed round pitch deck may differ from a later round deck.

The Takeaway for Social Media Startups

Seed-round startups should refrain from using as many slides as LinkedIn used in its pitch deck. For seed-round startups, brevity is critical to success. However, in later rounds, more robust decks are often necessary.

By its Series B round, LinkedIn had members, user engagement, referral metrics, case studies, and a revenue plan. The company had to translate all of these accomplishments into a digestible pitch deck.

Since LinkedIn already had investors’ attention, it didn’t face the same restraints as a new startup. New startups have to earn the audience’s attention. Investors won’t give them the same attention as a later-stage startup with a notable reputation.

In terms of content, LinkedIn’s pitch deck clearly defined its priority – establishing the network. Furthermore, it explained why this task is critical to achieving its growth objectives. Winning pitch decks identify how the team will utilize the investment to progress, scale, and expand the business and its success. The deck also showcased significant traction, showing how the company’s actual growth and user engagement far out-scaled projected metrics.

How Much Capital Did LinkedIn Raise?

LinkedIn raised $10 million from Greylock Partners during its Series B round. Over its lifetime, LinkedIn raised over $154.8 million in investor funding. The company grew its valuation to $352.8 million by the time it went public in 2011.

Canvas provides a business solution that allows corporations and organizations to digitize their paper assets. The solution aims to eliminate paperwork by transitioning business processes through mobile applications.

We selected Canvas as one of the best startup decks because of how it used imagery to draw the audience’s attention.

What Caught Our Eye About This Investor Deck?

Canvas starts its deck with simple visuals that explain how the world has moved from analog to digital. For instance, books changed to eBooks, and CDs transitioned to MP3s. Now, according to Canvas, document storage will shift because of its solution.

In the next slides, the company expresses the top five most significant issues faced by companies with paper-based processes. With this approach, Canvas shows the audience’s specific challenges. Furthermore, it proves that the time is right for a new solution to enter the market.

We also appreciate Canvas’s Competitive Landscape slide. Most startups use a table with checkmarks. In contrast, Canvas compares the approach of its solution against competitors. According to the deck, competitors focus on the what , while Canvas focuses on the why.

Canvas Raised How Much!?

Canvas’s pitch deck and investor pitch proved successful. As a result, the company raised $24.1 million in investor funding.

15. SickWeather

Sickweather is an app that analyzes data to predict and forecast population health. The app claims to accurately predict illness outbreaks 91% of the time and two weeks before the CDC on average. Sickweather’s sample pitch deck explains the importance of trust and credibility. These factors are especially critical when your clients are some of the most respected brands in the world.

Sidenote: Sickweather became even more relevant after the pandemic. In April 2020, the company launched a COVID-19 scoring feature, becoming a leading predictor of which cities would experience COVID outbreaks.

Sickweather’s Pitch Deck Takeaway

The first thing that caught our attention was the addition of a video on one of the slides. Shorter videos work well during a live pitch, while long videos can help enhance the deck during the introduction stage.

Early in the deck, Sickweather lists previous and existing clients. The mentioned brands are well-known and credible, immediately giving the startup a high level of authority. Furthermore, the team used visual graphs to showcase impressive monthly recurring revenue growth.

Lifetime Capital Raise

Sickweather has raised $2.6 million in investor funding since its inception.

16. Match Box (Tinder)

Match Box is the original name for Tinder, a dating app used by millions of people worldwide. Even with many competitors, Tinder overtook the market by implementing a gaming aspect to its platform. Instead of just adding friends, individuals could swipe left or right to express interest in another user. Match Box’s startup deck is an excellent example of balancing creativity and simplicity to generate investor interest.

What We Like About Match Box’s Pitch Deck

Match Box became Tinder, and Tinder went on to become the most successful dating app ever. However, success started with its pitch deck – and there are several reasons why the slides worked so well.

Match Box’s slides are rather minimal compared to most startup pitch decks. However, it introduces a real-world scenario to explain the problems daters face (fear of rejection). The pitch deck uses each slide to tell a story, and half of the deck simply includes screenshots of the application.

The deck heightens its effectiveness by introducing the customer, showcasing their problems, and proving that the solution can solve the problem.

Finally, the last slide shows a transparent revenue model. Many dating apps struggle to generate revenue. But in its deck, Match Box showed how it would leverage its customer base to create several income streams.

Match Box’s Lifetime Funding

In September 2016, Tinder received an investment of $1.4 million. Since then, the company has participated in three separate acquisitions.

If you’re an avid traveler, it is probable that you have heard of or used Airbnb. Founded in 2008, Airbnb is a web service that allows people visiting other cities to book rooms from locals.

Airbnb provides a classic marketplace platform that enables renters and travelers to transact. For travelers, it provides a streamlined process to book a room or a property, often offering more amenities than a hotel. Property owners act as hosts on the platform, using Airbnb to find renters and earn income from their vacant properties.

With a compelling pitch deck, Airbnb conveyed its advantages against the competition and expressed its unique market position.

The Upside of Airbnb’s Deck

First-time founders often focus all their attention on the presentation’s design and visuals. Unfortunately, while the slides look great, they often lack the essential qualities of a good pitch deck. Over-designing can cause distraction and pull your audiences’ focus to the wrong elements. As Steve Jobs once said, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Airbnb’s pitch deck is the perfect representation of effective simplicity. The deck successfully explains the customer problem (such as the price of hotels) and uses statistics to prove market potential. It defines the challenge entirely before beginning its introduction to the company’s product, service, and feature offering.

Airbnb relies on technology to perform its service, but the deck only vaguely mentions the platform itself. One slide explains the technology, but the rest of the deck focuses on the market and the go-to-market strategy.

The founders represented the solution with only seven words – “ Search By City. Review Listings. Book It!” Our team fell in love with this approach.

Commonly, entrepreneurs spend the entire pitch explaining the product itself. Yet, they don’t spend enough time on the things important to investors, such as the strategy and ROI potential.

Airbnb – A Fundraising Success Story

Before this pitch deck, founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia had no fundraising experience. However, even without expertise, they closed a $600,000 seed round led by Sequoia Capital. In total, Airbnb raised $4.4 billion over several financing rounds.

Need more information? Check out our full breakdown of Airbnb’s pitch deck .

Tea is one of the world’s most popular commodities. However, obstacles exist in the supply chain process, slowing down the transfer of goods from farms to individuals. Furthermore, the market relies on middlemen to distribute products, which drives up prices for the final consumer. As a result, tea farmers have to deal with low-profit margins, and consumers can’t access high-quality tea options.

TeaLet exists to streamline the supply chain. The company directly connects tea growers with wholesale buyers and retailers using blockchain technology and a web-based application. As a result, TeaLet has tripled the profits for tea farmers while reducing consumers’ prices for top-quality tea.

TeaLet’s pitch deck enabled the team to achieve its objective of attracting and striking a deal with its first investors.

About TeaLet’s Killer Deck

TeaLet’s pitch deck immediately presents the most important information. The presentation starts by displaying its most vital metric – We’ve sold 100,000 cups of tea in 20+ countries. By quickly showcasing traction, TeaLet’s pitch deck gives the team massive credibility. Furthermore, it grasps the audience’s attention early on in the pitch.

One of our favorite qualities of this pitch deck is the use of hard numbers. The slides use hard numbers to prove the market opportunity. By showcasing market activities (such as acquisitions by similar companies), TeaLet creates FOMO among potential investors.

While content is more important than design, TeaLet’s design theme stands out against many other startup pitch decks. It is rather design-heavy, but the visual adds drama to the message instead of distracting from it.

How Much Funding Did TeaLet Raise?

With a great product and a well-thought pitch deck, TeaLet secured a $240k seed round from angel investors.

19. Moz (SEOmoz)

Moz, formally known as SEOmoz, is a SaaS company that provides a suite of inbound marketing and SEO tools. Gillian Muessig and SEO influencer Rand Fishkin launched Moz in 2004 and transitioned into SEO SaaS software in 2008.

By the end of 2017, Moz served more than 36,000 businesses worldwide. During this period, users crawled more than 168 million URLs and researched over 4.3 million keywords.

Building a leading software solution like Moz is no easy feat. Nevertheless, Moz’s founders created an impactful pitch deck that impressed investors and provided the capital needed to thrive and scale.

Why is Moz On Our Best Pitch Decks List?

Rand Fishkin has become the Michael Jackson of SEO. He is well-known as a marketing legend now, but he had to build his legendary status over several years. Moz’s pitch deck explains where the business started and how Rand built the company from inception without outside funding.

Moz used its slides to explain how the founders leveraged free traffic through inbound marketing to build and expand the business. By showcasing its success with these methods, Moz validated its abilities since its software helps clients grow with the same techniques.

This pitch deck is longer than a standard startup pitch deck. However, when the team designed it, Moz had already completed an initial seed funding round and had significant traction. Therefore, in later series rounds, additional slides are often necessary to effectively showcase the growth of the business.

Did Moz Reach Its Funding Objectives?

A strong pitch deck and a validated product allowed Moz to raise $29.1 million over five funding rounds.

According to its founders, Front is the “first inbox meant for teams.” By using Front, organizations can organize emails, route them to team members, and maximize collaboration. The company launched in 2013 and quickly grew its dominance in the corporate email sector. Today, Front serves over 5,000 businesses and has more than 100 employees.

Explaining Front’s Pitch Deck

The overall aesthetic of startup pitch decks has evolved over the years. Front introduced several elements that you likely won’t find in older pitch deck examples (like Facebook or LinkedIn’s deck).

For example, Front uses a plot graph to showcase how each competitor fits into the landscape. This graphic element is easy on the eyes and makes a complex concept simple to understand. The use of graphics continues with well-placed charts and graphs throughout the deck. Front showcased its traction and growth clearly while maintaining a minimal and clean appearance.

Front’s Fundraising Outcome

Front’s pitch deck enabled the company to reach its funding goals. To date, Front has raised over $79 million in venture funding.

21. Mixpanel

Mixpanel is an analytics provider that tracks and monitors web and mobile apps. Leveraging its toolset, app owners can compare new campaigns with A/B tests, execute user surveys, and build funnels.

The Pros of Mixpanel’s Pitch Deck

This presentation made it on our best pitch decks list because of its simplicity. Compared to other pitch decks, it is relatively minimal and utilizes text more than visuals. However, in a time when most pitch decks are over-designed, Mixpanel’s lack of graphic design stands out.

The founders created a great storyline within the deck that keeps viewers engaged. It begins by clearly stating the market’s problems in a single sentence. Then, it explains the solution with minimal text.

With a dark non-distracting background and white font, the message is clear. Instead of cluttered slides with non-connected visuals and many ideas, Mixpanel’s slides contain singular, focused, and notable concepts.

Mixpanel’s Funding Rounds

The company achieved its financing goals and raised $77 million over five investment rounds.

22. Facebook

If you’re old enough to remember the launch of Facebook, you might recall that it first launched as “thefacebook.” Facebook is a social media platform that Mark Zuckerberg launched in 2004. Over the last 20 years, Facebook has grown to become one of the world’s top-earning companies. The platform has billions of users and an estimated $140 billion valuation.

Pitch Deck Lessons for Social Media Startups

Since Facebook launched in the early 2000s, its pitch deck is now ancient. The startup landscape has significantly changed since Facebook’s early days. Gone are the days when pitch deck slides included entire text paragraphs.

Still, Facebook’s pitch deck accomplished its objectives. It showcased the features, explained the launch strategy, and presented traction. In addition, Facebook added a media quote on several slides that further validated its impact and showcased its rapid traction.

Facebook’s Fundraising Success

Facebook raised over $1.3 billion before going public in 2012.

23. Buzzfeed

BuzzFeed is an industry-leading internet media, news, and entertainment company that has brought new trends to digital journalism. John Peretti founded the platform in New York in 2006, focusing on viral content like articles, lists, videos, and quizzes.

BuzzFeed exploded over its first few years and now hosts several brands, including Nifty, Goodful, As/Is, and Tasty. By 2018, BuzzFeed Video’s YouTube channel had generated more than 13.8 billion views and 17.2 million subscribers.

The Best Aspects of BuzzFeed’s Pitch Deck

BuzzFeed utilized screenshots of the platform throughout the deck, visually engaging viewers and investor audiences. The team used the designs to explain the solution and display important information, such as the revenue and business model.

In addition, the Competitive Analysis slide is exceptional. The slide shows how the company merges the benefits of the advertising and media sectors.

BuzzFeed’s Lifetime Capital Raise

The BuzzFeed company raised over $496 million and has participated in five acquisitions since its inception.

24. Ooomf (Crew)

Ooomf launched in 2012 as an app discovery platform. After raising $500,000 in a seed round, Ooomf pivoted as a marketplace for digital freelancers.

Ooomf rebranded as Crew, the first marketplace where handpicked creators can work on the projects they love. Some of the world’s largest companies like Apple, Google, Uber, and Dropbox have hired freelancers on Ooomf’s marketplace.

Learning From Ooomf’s Pitch Deck

Ooomf made our best pitch decks list because we appreciated its ability to tell a story with minimal text. Each slide is well-designed and suggests a single point of focus. The company used graphics to show the simplicity of creating a project on the platform. It also offers social proof by presenting direct quotes from the platform’s freelancers.

Ooomf’s Fundraising Activity

Ooomf (Crew) raised $9.9 million from 14 investors before participating in an acquisition by Dribbble.

25. Task.ly

Task.ly is a task management tool that helps professionals organize and manage their work lives. The app allows users to track project progress, collaborate with team members, and manage deadlines. The software aims to replace unorganized sticky notes, emails, and tracking docs with one simple-to-use platform.

Task.ly Pitch Deck Lessons

In our opinion, Task.ly’s pitch deck is too long and includes too many slides. With 28 slides, it is more than double the recommended length for startup pitch decks. Fortunately, the team used only a few words on each slide. Therefore, viewers can still flick through the entire deck quickly without spending an excessive amount of time.

Every slide contains a graphic, but the screenshots, images, and icons support the story and enhance the overall investor pitch. Furthermore, the designers condensed the text into short statements – most slides have less than six words. 

The company hasn’t released any funding information, so we are unsure whether it raised capital and how much it raised.

Pendo is a no-code platform that allows businesses to learn how customers behave while using a website or mobile application. By leveraging the solution, users can monitor page loads, clicks, focus points, and form submissions. Once the system collects enough data, it draws insights and makes suggestions to improve user engagement.

What Do We Love About Pendo’s Pitch Deck?

As we explained previously, Series B pitch decks are often significantly longer than early-stage ones. By this stage, the business has covered more ground and achieved more milestones. As a result, Series B businesses must represent more information on their slides.

Regarding design, Pendo’s presentation is one of the best pitch decks we’ve come across. Some of the most effective pitch decks lack visual appeal. Still, Pendo squeezed a tremendous amount of information into its slides without compromising the design. Furthermore, the company used visuals wisely by inserting graphs and charts to explain concepts quickly instead of relying on text.

Pendo’s Fundraising Success

The team created several decks to raise $108.3 million over seven funding rounds. Furthermore, the company participated in two acquisitions.

27. Coinbase

Coinbase is a secure platform that makes it easy to exchange digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. As the largest digital currency trading platform, the company earned over $1 billion in revenue in 2017. Since launching in 2012, it has scaled to offer digital asset transactions and storage in over 190 countries.

Lessons from Coinbase’s Pitch Deck

The founders faced a significant hurdle when creating a pitch deck. In 2012, most investors were clueless about Bitcoin and the challenges faced by the small community of crypto investors. Therefore, the pitch deck had to educate investors on digital currency and explain why the solution was necessary for the market.

Coinbase’s startup pitch deck explains why other solutions are ineffective and difficult to use. It follows that message with evidence to position the company as the ideal solution for the market’s challenges. Furthermore, the pitch deck validated the existence of demand by showcasing rapid growth in user registrations, user engagement, and annual revenue.

Coinbase’s Fundraising History

Coinbase raised $547.3 million over nine funding rounds and participated in 12 acquisitions.

28. Contently

The Contently solution strives to address the three critical elements of content marketing: strategy, platform, and storytellers. The platform makes content marketing manageable by combining an expert content strategy, a marketing services platform, and a global talent network.

The platform now serves over 200 enterprise clients, hosts over 140,000 creatives, and has paid over $40 million to its contractors.

Pros of Contently’s Pitch Deck

This Series B financing deck immediately presents impressive statistics explaining an existing market problem – brands fail to achieve their marketing objectives. The pitch deck uses platform screenshots to showcase its effectiveness and displays client logos to validate its recent traction.

Contently’s Fundraising Activities

With an excellent pitch deck, the founders raised $19.3 million in capital over seven funding rounds.

Yaydoo is a procurement automation platform that allows companies to streamline their purchasing processes. With Yaydoo, businesses can negotiate with several vendors simultaneously and with one click. Furthermore, the platform enables these companies to save on recurring purchases and reduce their team efforts.

Why Do We Love Yaydoo’s Pitch Deck?

Yaydoo effectively got its point across and validated the potential of its solution using only nine slides. The first slide is the most impressive, providing the fine details of the company’s sales over two years. It also displays logos of previous clients to give the brand more credibility. With significant social proof, it is easy to understand the company’s potential and ability to exceed customer expectations.

How Much Did Yaydoo Raise?

Yaydoo succeeded in raising seed funding. However, no public information is available expressing the amount of capital secured.

30. Backstartup

Backstartup is an all-in-one platform that allows startups and SMEs to manage their legal, accounting, and payroll processes easily. The founders launched Backstartup in Columbia in 2014, and the business now employs over 50 team members.

Lessons From Backstartup’s Pitch Deck

Backstartup’s investor pitch deck is another example of great design. The deck utilizes pops of color and well-designed visuals to engage the audience and pull them into the presentation. The deck begins by showcasing the projected market size. Then, it goes into the product and explains the company’s traction.

The Backstartup team only used 11 slides to impress potential investors. Yet, each slide captures the details of the business with a consistent and visually appealing design theme.

Backstartup’s Fundraising History

Backstartup held three funding rounds, raising a total of $905k throughout its lifetime.

Elements of a Fundable Pitch Deck

Combined with an impressive pitch, a startup pitch deck is essential for successful fundraising. Great ideas with sloppy presentations that leave key questions unanswered usually fail in the fundraising process. To impress investors, brands need a proven idea, a confident pitch, and a memorable startup pitch deck.

Thousands of startups send their pitch decks to investors every day. In other words, if you seek investor capital, you’ll need to stand out among the competition. Many startups add every detail they can fit in the deck. They describe the number of users, monthly growth, revenue, feature concepts, and more.

However, the best pitch decks provide an organized presentation with a story-like flow. They present the right information, in the optimal order, with supporting visuals that maximize impact.

Pitch decks can help you raise serious capital if done right. Some entrepreneurs utilize pitch deck writers to create the best presentations. But if you’re creating your own deck or using a startup pitch deck template, there are some tips that will help. Check out the infographic below so you can create a pitch deck worthy of investment.

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Why you should use a pitch deck.

A pitch deck is an effective way to present your startup to potential investors. It should be clear, concise, short, and persuasive. This document is used to convince potential investors about a startup idea, show how your product or service works, and the main benefits for potential customers in your target market. A good presentation is often the difference between failed ventures and successful startups.

Your presentation must be compelling enough to persuade potential investors to invest in your company. To do this, you need to provide convincing information demonstrating the value of your proposed investment. In addition to the crucial components of your business plan, it is equally important to showcase your ability to execute those plans with precision and display your growth potential within the target market.

What makes a great presentation?

A good slide deck should be engaging, informative, and entertaining. It should also have a clear message with just enough information to ensure people understand it.

The most important thing to remember when creating a presentation is to keep it simple. If you try to cram too many ideas into one slide, you risk losing your audience’s attention. Focus on telling a story instead of through images and text.

Get ready to pitch with confidence, knowing you have the perfect presentation that's sure to impress potential investors, partners, or new customers. With over  100 startup pitch deck templates  from some of the most successful venture-backed startups, you can easily customize yours to build a strong story and communicate your uniqueness. Each pitch deck includes easy-to-edit content blocks, making it super simple for you to tailor each slide to your specific needs so you can make an impactful pitch in no time!

What is a Startup Pitch?

A  startup pitch  is a concise, persuasive presentation of a new business idea, typically given to potential investors, customers, or partners. It is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to showcase their vision, unique value proposition, and growth potential. A great pitch should communicate the problem the startup is solving, the market opportunity, the team's expertise, and the execution plan. It should also highlight the competitive advantage and the potential return on investment for the investors. A well-crafted pitch can attract the attention and interest of investors, which could lead to funding, partnerships, or other opportunities to grow the business. Overall, a successful startup pitch requires a deep understanding of the target market opportunities, the audience, and the business model, as well as excellent communication and storytelling skills.

Most common Pitch Deck Format

A pitch deck typically follows a specific format that includes the essential elements listed below. The presentation should be concise, visually appealing, and easy to understand. Each slide should focus on a single idea and use images and graphics to convey your message effectively.

What's the standard structure of a Pitch Deck?

Based on the most successful startup pitch deck templates, your deck should include the following elements:

• Cover slide:  This one should include your business name, logo, and tagline.
• Problem statement:  Describe the problem your business is solving and why it's important.
• Solution:  Explain how your product or service solves the problem.
• Business model:  Describe how your business will make money.
• Market analysis:  Outline the size of the target market and the potential customers.
• Competitive analysis:  Describe your competition and how your business is different.
• Marketing and sales:  Outline your marketing and sales strategies.
• Financials:  Provide financial projections for your business, including revenue, expenses, and funding requirements.
• Team:  Highlight the key members of your team and their qualifications.
• Ask:  Clearly state how much funding you seek and what you plan to do with the funds.

Can I Create a Pitch Deck with PowerPoint?

Yes, you can create a successful pitch deck using PowerPoint. PowerPoint is a popular tool for creating pPowerPoint pitch deck,pitch deck use high-quality images, clear and concise language, and a consistent design throughout the presentation.

How Do You Layout a Pitch Deck presentation?

The order of slides in a pitch deck depends on your goal and company stage. When laying out your pitch deck, consider the following tips:

• Start with an attention-grabbing cover that includes your business name and logo.
• Use a consistent design throughout the presentation, including font type, color scheme, and layout.
• Use high-quality images and graphics to support your message.
• Keep the text on each slide to a minimum and use bullet points to convey key information.
• Make sure your presentation is easy to follow and understand, even for those who are not familiar with your industry or business.

How Many Slides Is a Pitch Deck?

A pitch deck presentation typically consists of 10-20 slides, depending on the complexity of your business idea and the amount of information you need to convey. The most important thing is to keep your presentation concise and focused on the essential elements of your business plan.

Use Slidebean pitch deck builder and presentation templates

Slidebean makes creating presentations easy. We believe that great design should be available for everyone. Simply choose a pre-designed slide deck template and customize it however you'd like. Our allows you to create your own unique theme if none of ours suits your needs. Once you're done editing, just upload your files and start sharing them with friends and colleagues. We also provide  design services  if that's something you need.

Pitch Deck presentation insights

Our Presentation Insights let your track individual viewer activity on your slides and helps you determine which ones they saw, how much time they spent on each one and what percentage of the presentation they engaged with. By knowing an investor's activity on your pitch deck, you could have a crucial advantage to determine their interest in your business!

Startup Pitch Deck Examples: Customizable Template redesigned by Slidebean

We  redesigned the presentation that Airbnb  used back in 2009 to raise their first $600,000 round and turned it into a fill-in-the-blank template. It's become a reference for startups worldwide because of it's simple, straightforward approach to the business model and market opportunities.

Our  Investor deck template  by  500 Startups  is truly the Silicon Valley deck standard. Originally published by the program Founders, this presentation outline serves as a perfect storytelling canvas for a startup, from problem to traction.

Slidebean's Pitch Deck Services

If you're looking for a more professional and polished pitch presentation, consider using Slidebean's pitch deck services. Slidebean offers a range of pitch deck services, including custom design, content creation, and pitch deck presentations coaching. With Slidebean, you can create a high-quality pitch deck that stands out from the competition and helps you raise funding for your business.

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See the 14-page pitch deck Jukin Media vets used to raise $4 million to disrupt travel media

• Jukin Media leaders are launching travel media company Lost iN with $4 million in seed funding.
• Lost iN says there's a market of professionals underserved by current travel media offerings.
• Lost iN plans to grow through M&A, travel creator partnerships, and multiple revenue streams.

Three leaders of digital publisher Jukin Media, known for making videos like Pizza Rat go viral, have teamed up again, this time on a creator-driven travel media company called Lost iN.

The trio just raised $4 million in seed funding led by MaC Venture Capital . Other advisors and investors include BDMI, Pitbull Ventures, Pocket.Watch founder Chris Williams, Fullscreen founder George Strompolos, Hawke Media founder Erik Huberman, Skybound founder David Alpert, Kevin Gould of Kombo Ventures, Richard Wolbert, and Matthew Rutler.

Brothers Jonathan and Mike Skogmo, and Anton Reut, built Jukin Media before it was sold in 2021 to Trusted Media Brands , parent of Reader's Digest.

Jonathan Skogmo, who will serve as CEO of Lost iN, said after selling Jukin and advising others, he realized he wanted to build a new company. He thought travel media had become fragmented, with traditional, ad-driven publishers like Condé Nast Traveler aimed at the high-end and niche publications focused on areas like camping, leaving a big market underserved.

"There's a middle market of working professionals who are being ignored," he said. "There's more opportunity here."

Skogmo acknowledged that his idea to start a media company raised some eyebrows. He flew to Croatia to pitch his brother on the idea, joking, "I had to meet him halfway around the world to convince my brother who lives down the street from me." Mike Skogmo, who was on a multi-country trip, knew firsthand how hard it is to find information when planning travel.

Lost iN acquired a city guidebook publisher by the same name and plans to build other products and services around it by partnering with creators and doing M&A. It's working with Rob Levy of Digital Media Capital Advisors to acquire other travel-related companies in areas like consumer products and media. In this way, Skogmo said he hopes to grow Lost iN to a $500 million enterprise value in five years.

It's been a punishing time for media companies , with tough competition for ad revenue, subscriptions hard to come by, and digital platforms shrinking as a distribution channel. Skogmo said he was inspired by media companies like Epic Gardening and Betches that have built fandoms and make money in various ways.

Check out Lost iN's 14-page pitch deck for more details on how it plans to scale.

Lost iN wants to use creators to reach travel buffs.

The founders want to take a page from Jukin Media, which they built on user-generated content.

Lost iN says travel media is challenged.

As the founders see it, legacy publishers are struggling, travel blogs lack the video that audiences crave, and independent creators don't have the broad reach that advertisers require.

Lost iN wants to capitalize on growth in travel.

It wants to reach young adults who are prioritizing travel more than older generations.

Lost iN wants to be a single source for travelers.

Its founders have a track record reaching huge audiences at Jukin.

The founders lay out their video-focused media plan.

They plan to produce everything from short-form video for social platforms to unscripted series for big streaming platforms.

Creators are a cornerstone of the strategy.

It plans to start with a handful of creators, which it hasn't named, making original content with some of them. The idea is to experiment with different revenue-sharing models.

It's aiming for people with money to spend.

The target audience is young professionals who are willing to pay more for extra comfort or exclusivity — the so-called premium economy customer.

Lost iN wants to make money in lots of ways.

Like many media companies today, Lost iN is aiming for diversified revenue streams. It plans to make money through advertising, branded content, books and other products and experiences, and sales of video content to distributors.

Rollups are a big part of the growth plan.

Lost iN acquired a city guidebook publisher of the same name and plans to build up other travel-related products and services around it.

Lost iN lays out its M&A strategy.

Skogmo said Lost iN has already looked at 100 potential acquisitions, working with Rob Levy of Digital Media Capital Advisors.

Lost iN lays out the case for acquiring a guidebook company.

It liked Lost iN for its strong logo and visuals, small but loyal customer base, and established network of contributors.

It plans to build up a following for the guidebooks on social media and pause publishing the physical books until it has a stronger digital presence.

Advant Beiten in Munich and Sklar Kirsh in Los Angeles advised the buyers in the transaction, while Flick Gocke Schaumberg represented the seller. Digital Media Capital Advisors served as advisor.

Lost iN's founders helped build Jukin Media.

The viral video company made money by acquiring and distributing or licensing user-generated content.

Lost iN positions its leaders as startup vets and media and entertainment experts.

Founded in 2009, Jukin raised a relatively small $6 million in funding. It was sold in 2021 in a deal that valued it at $100 million, Forbes reported.

Lost iN raised $4 million in seed funding.

MaC Venture Capital, which led the round, is known for backing tech startups including Pipe, a financing company; Stoke, a reusable rocket company; and Zigazoo, a social network for kids. The majority Black-owned firm is based in LA and Silicon Valley.

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