13 Step Startup Pitch Deck

Pitch decks are important. They serve as the founder’s guide to telling their story and are often the first thing a VC reads. I see 20+ pitch decks a week and wanted to publish what I have found to be the most effective template.

1. Team
2. Necessary assumptions (what theses do I need to believe to “get there”?)
3. The problem
4. Your solution
5. Why now?
6. Why you?
7. Market size (both total and serviceable)
8. Competitive landscape
9. How you are different from competitors (What’s your moat? How is this defensible?)
10. Distribution plan, how do you get this into the hands of your target customers?
11. Metrics: retention/churn, revenue, growth, active users, other KPIs (plot on time graph)
12. Long-term vision (How is this going to generate a venture return? What is your plan to get there?)
13. Pass-worthy reasons (What’s not impressive about your company? If you were an investor and were to pass, why would that be? Market size? Low traction? Too many potential incumbents? Sometimes not needed for deck but just think through this.)