Hi, everyone. This is Alejandro Cremades, and today we’re going to be talking about
why the cover slide is so important in pitch decks. Before we get started, make sure that
you hit that Subscribe button, and this way, you will never miss out on any of the videos
that we roll out every week.
Let’s face it. Nobody really talks about cover slides. It’s actually one of the most
important slides in the presentation, but nobody talks about it. People just think that
it’s about putting a logo, an image, or putting a simple tagline. There’s much more
to that, and in today’s video, we’re going to be giving you all the insights, the actionable
steps to think about in a powerful way so that you can go out there and go get what’s
yours when it comes to raising money. So let’s get into it.
The science of the first impression: Ultimately, the cover slide is like a trailer because
a pitch deck is like a movie. It’s all about storytelling when you’re raising money.
When you’re thinking about movies before you even go to watch the movie you tell your
significant other, your boyfriend, girlfriend, brother, sister, mother, father, or whoever
that is, that you have done your research first because if you take them to a terrible
movie, they’re going to kill you. And the same thing happens with pitch decks.
The cover slide, in the end, is the trailer that sets the expectation to the investor
for what they are about to review. Remember that in pitch decks, typically, on average,
investors spend 2 minutes and 41 seconds. Essentially, what the cover slide is doing
is setting up the expectation so that they can quickly scan through the presentation
without the need to figure out what you’re doing.
So, right off the bat, you’re setting up the tone and the scenario for what they’re
about to see ahead. Then, it’s going to make their life simpler. Just think about,
for example, Apple products. They don’t even come with instructions – same thing.
That’s why you want to do that on the pitch deck where you are using that cover slide
as a trailer to push them in an effective and efficient way through your own presentation.
Essentially what you want is to have a very powerful image, an image that ideally is capturing
the essence of what your company or what your product is doing, or perhaps your service,
in a powerful way so that right away when people see it, they get it. Now, that’s
going to be in the background.
The other thing that you’re going to have is a logo. Obviously, you have that logo nicely
designed by a professional. Then put it along with a tagline. You want a tagline that is
self-explanatory. Think, for example, of Uber’s tagline: Everyone’s Private Driver. It is
self-explanatory, right away, it tells you what the business is about, and it is super
down and straight to the point.
The other thing that you want is your contact details. You want to have your first and last
names; you want to have your title; you want to have your cellphone. You want to have your
cellphone so that if an investor wants to call you at 2:00 am, or if anyone wants to
call you at 2:00 am that has an interest, they have a way to reach you.
The other thing is, you want to have an email. Stay away from putting a Gmail, Hotmail, or
Yahoo email – nothing generic. It needs to be professional, and it needs to come across
as serious, so you need to put the name of the company. The other thing that you want
to do here is very much align the design and make sure that everything is looking professional
and serious. So, to recap, you want to have the image, the logo, the tagline, and the
contact information.
When it comes down to the rest of the pitch deck, again, remember that the cover slide
is part of the structure of that flow that you’ve put together for this pitch presentation.
What you want to know or what you want to do is have the same type of consistency. Whatever
image you’re using on the cover slide, it should be images and visuals that are in line
with whatever you’re putting all across the presentation – also, the font, the way
that you’re positioning things, all of that needs to go in parallel so that you don’t
look like you’re all over the place. Like I was saying before, the cover slide is setting
up the expectation so that when they’re reviewing the presentation, it needs to follow
that flow in a very nice way. When it comes to the cover slide versus the
back cover slide, the cover slide and the back cover slide are two separate things.
The cover slide is literally to open up their eyes as to what they’re about to review.
On the back cover slide, what you want to do is to thank them in a powerful way so that
it triggers, to a certain degree, either them reaching out or them wanting to ask questions
or having more excitement to invite you to a follow-up meeting or to whatever that is.
You want to use the back cover slide as a way to trigger – to trigger action on their
end. One of the best ways to position the back cover slide is to use a picture of your
team, perhaps smiling, posing in front of the product, or around the service, or whatever
that looks like, but for people to see that there’s a real team and real human beings.
Perhaps with their smiley faces, you can show even how great of a culture you have, and
even posing with a branded tee-shirt, or a Polo shirt, or whatever that is. Make sure
that the image of the team is coming across in a very good light.
Hit a Like on this video, and also subscribe to the channel so that you don’t miss out
on all the videos that we’re rolling out every week. Then, also, leave a comment below
so that you can let me know what you’re up to. If you’re fundraising, shoot me a
note at alejandro@pantheraadvisors.com. I would love to help out. Thank you so much
for watching.