When creating your pitch deck ensure you avoid the following mistakes
1) Failing to articulate the big market opportunity
The purpose of designing a pitch deck is to convince prospective investors about the existence of a significant market for a designed product or solution. If you fail to explain the market opportunity and your approach to capture a valuable stake for that market, your pitch deck will serve no purpose to the investors and they may lose interest in your forecast. Thus, the collected information and facts on this aspect should be comprehensive and concise so that a clear overview of the company’s strengths and the big market opportunity is disseminated to the prospective investors.
2) Not describing the company’s traction and progress
Summarizing the advances and progress that the company is necessary. It can lure investors’ attention. What the company has achieved so far should be shared with the investors. Providing information on the following points with an additional slide called ‘Traction’ will help you showcase your progress and achievements. You can include details about:
- Early customers or pilot programs started
- Revenues or other key financial metrics from the initial launch
- Strategic partnerships achieved
- Press and PR efforts
- Customer Testimonials
- Progress on product development
Instead of investing just in an idea, investors prefer to choose a startup that has existing achievements and traction in the record.
3) Not able to explain the big problem that needs a solution
The ability to outline and address the big problem that needs a solution is very important. With a clear and concise explanation, you can help the investors to understand if the problem you have picked up is actually serious and needs a solution. And whether a solution to that problem yields a substantial revenue and healthy return on their investment. Explaining this part can be challenging
4) Lack of information on what makes your designed solution better than the others
When a problem is discovered in a market many start-ups offer a solution to that. You are just one of them. Thus, coming up with a common solution won’t help. You must be able to explain how your proposed solution overweighs the competition or the existing solutions. How will you prove that? Having some facts and practical tests collected and organized which show that your designed solution actually has more features, a better functionality, a hassle-free operation, and an effective or reasonable cost may help you stand ahead of the competition.
5) Not stating what make your technology and intellectual property rights so valuable
The underlying technology of your company is always of great interest to the investors. Thus, inserting a particular slide to showcase information on your technology and intellectual property rights raises your chances of impressing them. In contrast, hiding that completely may push you to the back foot.
The ideal points that this slide should address are
- The important elements of your technology
- Key intellectual property rights the company has (patents, patents pending, copyrights, trademarks, domain names)
- Why the technology is or will be superior
- Why it will be difficult for a competitor to replicate the technology
