10 Common Pitch Deck Mistakes
Raising money is hard. It may be the hardest part of starting a company. But you don’t have to make it even harder on yourself through unforced errors in your pitch deck.
Because our mission at Wisdom Partners is to help founders succeed, I see a lot of pitch decks. I share a few decks with potential investors almost every week. Here are some of the most common mistakes I see. Most are easy to fix.
Out of Date: Don’t show something from last quarter and speak to this quarter. Always include the most up to date information available, especially in your revenue data. If you originally projected more sales than you do now, please fix the slide before sharing the deck. Otherwise, it will come back to bite you as time drags on and you move from meeting to meeting.
Burying the Lead: This week, I was talking with a founder whose company saves their ideal customers 20% on one of their most expensive costs. This gold was buried in a corner of the 10th slide. One of the most common bits of feedback in Dasha Shunina’s Twelve Angry Viewers pitch events at The Gathering is: Put your best stuff first. Seriously, put it on slide 2, right after your title slide. Knock their socks off right from the beginning. Then, you can explain how you do that amazing stuff once they’re really interested.
Too Many Slides: I got this bit of wisdom from Travis Hedge, cofounder of Vouch. Have a short deck and a long appendix. The goal of your pitch is NOT to answer all their questions or objections. The goal of your pitch is to make them really interested, so they ask lots of questions. Then, when a common question or objection comes up, you can politely skip to that slide in the appendix and demonstrate that you have actually given significant thought to that issue and have a plan.
Too Much Text: Nobody wants to see a wall of words or numbers. If you have more than 50 words or numbers on a slide, you probably have 2X too many! Keep it simple. Hone it down. Reduce the sauce. Get to the point, the really good stuff, and only use that.
Unclear Story or Value Proposition: Most founders spend most of their time talking about what they do. I’m guilty of this, too. Here’s the thing. People don’t actually care what you do. They care about themselves and their pain points. As much as possible, build your story around the customer’s experience and how your company will add significant value to their lives.
Projecting World Domination: Those nested circles of TAM, SAM, and SOM are getting really trite. Yes, investors want to see the potential for outsized returns, but these days, what they really want to know is how fast can you make real money. Especially in a tight investor climate, describing your beachhead and your path to profitability is far more important than having a gazillion dollar TAM.
One-Size-Fits-All Deck: Ashley Trick, of Capital6 Eagle, gave a little workshop on pitch decks at Founders Village Tech Weekend. She said founders should have at least two decks: one short and one long. The goal of the short one is to interest the investors in a first meeting. The goal of the long one is to convince the investors that your company is worth another meeting. (But remember #3 above and put most of the nonessential stuff in the appendix.) Some founders also use a follow-up deck with even more info that they send immediately after the meeting.
No Emotion: Duncan Carlson of Lowercarbon Capital said starting a company is signing up to get repeatedly punched in the face for a decade. Naturally, in addition to having a scalable business idea, investors want to know two things about every founder: Are they passionate about solving this problem? And do they have the grit to stick it out? You need to show why this is personal for you.
Hiding Behind the Deck: You worked long and hard on your deck, but you can’t use it as a crutch. Do not read the slides. DON’T DO IT! The slides are conversation guides and visual supports. A good slide highlights and illustrates what you are saying, but the words coming out of your mouth are most important.
Pitching Before Listening: A meeting with an investor is different from a pitch competition. You are not on a stage. You are in a conversation. Plan some meaningful questions that will help you gauge the investor’s familiarity with your space and where they might have a personal connection to the problem you are solving. Then, when it comes time to talk through your deck, if that time even comes in the first call or two, then you will be able to make direct connections to the things that matter most to the investor(s).
The bad news is that there are lots of little ways to get your pitch deck wrong, and investors have to make decisions in a hurry. The good news is that most of those mistakes are easy to fix, and the most important thing is telling an authentic story about why you are doing this in the first place.
You can do it. We’re here to help.
