Hello, everyone. This is Alejandro Cremades, and today we’re going to be talking about
the mistakes to avoid when creating your pitch deck. The pitch deck is critical. When you’re
raising money, it’s going to make it or break it. It’s really going to be that document
that is going to create or generate that story that investors are going to essentially buy
or not. That’s why you want to make sure that you’re avoiding stupid mistakes that
can really get you out of being able to access that money. In today’s video, we’re going
to really break it down for you. We’re going to give you the insights, and again, show
you what the typical mistakes are that entrepreneurs make when they’re putting their slides together
and try to put them in front of investors. With that being said, let’s get into it.
The first mistake is not articulating the problem clearly. The way that you want to
go about it is that essentially, you want to articulate the problem in a way in which
the investor either directly or indirectly relate to the problem. You see, their cousin,
their daughter, their son, their wife, or their husband actually experienced that same
problem. They can really relate to that frustration that that problem creates. Essentially, you
want to articulate it in a way in which it comes clearly. It’s not going to be three
problems, four problems, ten problems; it needs to be one problem, and it needs to be
a meaningful problem so that people get it and they get excited by it.
You also need to articulate the solution in a clear way. Again, this needs to come as
a follow-up, typically, to the problem because, obviously, here, you’re talking about the
problem; people relate to it, and then it needs to come with a punch, the solution.
That solution that you’re introducing and that you’re bringing to the market that
really addresses that problem. It needs to be done in a way in which right away they
get it. In a way, as well, in which it’s clear and simple, and you should not overcomplicate
yourself. Just make it simple. Perhaps, it’s a solution statement, and that’s the way
that you leave it. Then the other thing that you may want to
add in that slide to complement it is a powerful picture of your product or perhaps the service
in action, so that way, people really get it, also, with the visual there.
The next thing is using too many slides. Typically, on average, it’s going to be 15 to 25 slides.
You can actually grab the pitch template below that is being used by entrepreneurs to raise
millions all over the world, and you’ll get a good idea of the length. Also, you can
use it for yourself. But, again, keep it simple because, on average, it has been demonstrated
that investors only spend 2 minutes and 41 seconds per presentation. They’re literally
going slide by slide and skimming through it. They’re not even spending time to read.
So that’s why you want to keep it short; you want to keep it simple, and you really
want to go into the point. The problem here that I see founders making
all the time, that mistake is just putting a big bio for people to read. You should keep
it simple. Put a bunch of logos of companies that you and your team have worked at. Also,
avoid even putting your interns on the slide. Just put the leadership team. Who are the
key founders? Maybe there is a follow-up slide to this, where you’re talking about the
advisors. Why are you the right individuals to execute on this problem? What kind of expertise
do you bring to the table? What meaningful things have you done in your professional
career to demonstrate that people should be betting on you? Those are the critical things
that you want to do here. Avoid the noise; avoid trying to dress it up; just go to the
point; maybe bullet points and logos might be the best way to go rather than complicating
it too much. Not doing all the research: this is a big
one. Whether that is on the market size, making sure you have the right number, how big that
market is. Make sure that you have credible resources or credible sources that you have
looked up or that people can actually go and reference back to it.
You should also make sure that you’re keeping an eye out on the competitive landscape so
that you’re putting the right people in the right places. The problem that I see here
is that you just put a few of them, and then the investor thinks that you’re maybe hiding
something. Try to put as many competitors as possible so that they see that you’ve
done your research and that you understand where you fall in the market.
Also, not tailoring the pitch deck to the specific investor that you’re meeting. This
is a big one, as well, because it’s not going to be the same way that you’re going
to be representing things, perhaps, to an angel investor when you’re talking about
returns where they’re happy with a 5x return, a 5-times return on their investment versus
the return that a venture capital firm is going to expect, which is going to be 10x
their investment because that money needs to justify for the losses in other companies
in their fund, so it needs to be big enough where they can justify it making a bet in
your business. Again, it’s going to vary from investor to investor. Some investors
may be more excited about certain things versus others, so maybe what you want to do here
is put some time into really researching what kind of investment theses they have and what
makes them tick. Taking the long route: let’s face it. Most
of the things are out there; most of the things are invented. Don’t try to recreate the
wheel. Just go out there, do some research, see some other pitch decks that people have
done, and try to get some ideas and inspiration from what they’ve done and maybe incorporate
it into what you’re doing. That way, you can get a kickstart. Then, you can start to
iterate on that, to give it the right colors that adjust to what you’re doing, but don’t
try to recreate the wheel. Try to benefit from all the great work that other people
have actually published and have made available on the web so that you can get some inspiration.
Again, try to see what others have done that they’ve done successfully, where they were
able to raise a ton of money, and perhaps see what worked, what didn’t work, and try
to apply it to your own story. Another mistake is not prominently putting
your contact information. Let’s face it. You don’t know who that pitch deck is going
to be forwarded to. Maybe there’s going to be someone who receives it; they’re excited;
they want to contact someone, and then all of a sudden, there’s no contact information.
Who are they going to call? You should put it on the cover slide and also on the back-cover
slide, which is the slide at the end, even your cellphone number. If they need to call
you at 2:00 am, you should be ready to get up and pick up that phone because when investors
are excited, you need to strike while the iron is hot. You need to make sure to get
them involved whenever they are excited and when they are ready to go, so be ready. Have
that phone ready. Give them the contact information so that they can reach out. Don’t make the
mistake of not putting anything and just wondering if maybe they’re going to put a message
in a bottle and throw it in a river, and it’s going to land on your doorstep. That doesn’t
happen, so put your contact information. Lastly, another mistake is not getting a second
opinion. Instead of just grabbing your pitch deck and distributing it, why don’t you
grab that pitch deck, share it with your employees, share it with your existing investors, and
with other people like, perhaps, advisors that can give you, from their own lens, how
they’re seeing things, how you could optimize it, how you can make it better because maybe
they’re going to see holes that you’re not seeing. So, again, this is a crowdsourcing
type of plan or project that you want to do here, where you get a ton of people to give
you feedback on your pitch deck because that is going to allow you to ultimately have something
even better than just doing it on your own. I would love to hear on the comment section
how you’re thinking about those mistakes and what kind of other mistakes you’ve seen.
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find tremendous value in it. Thank you so much for watching.