Hello, everyone. This is Alejandro Cremades, and today we’re going to be talking about
the deadly signs of a bad pitch deck. 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 we roll out
every week. Let’s face it. If you are raising money, you’re going to need a pitch deck.
You’re really going to need to capture the essence of your story in at least 15 to 25
slides. There’s, obviously, a lot of noise out there.
There are terrible pitch decks that are floating that are going toward investors that are really
capturing some of that size in their inbox, and you do not want to have your pitch deck
being one of those that is terrible, that people are opening and closing right away.
You want yours to be open, that it’s going to be enrolling the investor and getting them
excited about giving you a meeting. So how do you know if you have something that
is worthy or not, or perhaps, you can really find some of those bad signs that are letting
you know that it’s time to go back to the drawing board. In today’s video, we’re
going to break down what some of those deadly signs are so that you know when it’s time
to get some work more and more, and perhaps tender love and caring into that pitch deck.
So with that being said, let’s get into it.
The first deadly sign is an NDA, a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Basically, what you’re doing
here is you are putting friction in order for people to see you’re there. I hate,
for example, when I get someone that is reaching out, and they tell me, “Oh, my gosh. I’m
going to send you my pitch deck, but I need you to sign the Non-Disclosure Agreement.”
And then, it’s like, “But we’re just going to have an introductory meeting. Why
do I need to sign anything just to say hello?” So, don’t make that rookie mistake because
you’re ultimately creating all types of friction, so that pitch deck ends up not being
opened. With that in mind, never put any of that friction where you’re just going to
say hello and using those meetings to get to know each other. You use that Non-Disclosure
Agreement later on when it’s time to disclose some of the secrets of your business, but
not at the time when you’re just getting to know each other.
The next thing is the pitch deck just being ugly. Here’s the thing. The first impression
is everything. So you want to at least put a little effort into the design. Get a designer.
You can even go on sites like Upwork and get someone like a freelancer to throw a little
bit of creativeness in that pitch deck because most of the pitch decks that I see, they’re
very text-heavy, and the problem is that when you have a text-heavy pitch deck, you’re
not allowing for that investor to skim through the presentation quickly, and you need to
remember that you only have 2 minutes and 41 seconds to capture their attention.
You can, by the way, use the pitch deck template below that founders are using all over the
world to raise millions, and where you can see that balance between test and visuals.
But, again, always have that design where you’re finding that nice balance, and where
you’re allowing someone to really go through it very quickly without the need of hand-holding
them and making them read absolutely every single slide.
Your pitch deck lacks information. This is another critical issue. Many, many times,
I find, and I come across pitch decks that don’t have a problem slide, a solution slide,
a market side slide, or perhaps the competitive landscape slide, so you always want to be
sure that you are following the right type of structure and the right type of flow that
investors are used to seeing at your current financing cycle whether you’re at a seed
round of financing, Series A round of financing, or perhaps Series B round of financing. But
always, always, always make sure that you’re incorporating every single one of the expected
slides and that you’re not missing out on any of the information that they’re wanting
to review. There are too many slides. This is another
issue. You always want to try to compress and capture the essence of what you’re of
what your business is about, and don’t try to give them absolutely all the data, all
the features, all the things that are part of more of the details of it. You want to
give them the 30,000-foot view, and if they’re interested in learning more, then you can
give them that information. But forget about dumping all in there, trying to put an appendix
with absolutely all the additional information because the attention span of the investor
is very small, and you want to use that attention span to give them a lay of the land of what
you’re trying to accomplish and to get them excited enough so that they can ask you questions
to keep at it. So don’t try to do too much, to put too much because you’re going to
end up losing people. Not being crystal clear about the problem
or the solution. In those pitch decks, where there’s not just one slide or that it’s
focused on one single problem. I’ve seen it all the time where you have three, four,
five, six, even ten different problems all into the problem slide. That becomes too messy.
You really want to create one problem that people can relate to. Perhaps your cousin,
your sister, your uncle – some of that went to that problem, and when you’re on the
other side of the spectrum, like reviewing the deck, you have that relatedness to the
problem because either you are someone that you know experienced that same problem. So
just keep it to one single problem. One single problem that you know that people out there
reading are going to relate to. So, just keep it stupid-simple.
Then, on the solution slide is the same thing. You want to introduce the solution that you’re
bringing to market with a punch so that really clearly, they see the problem, the problem
that you’re addressing, and then they also see very clearly the solution that you’re
bringing to market to really address that problem. So always keep it super simple on
the problem, and as well on the solution. Overstating claims. The last thing that you
want here is for people to think that you’re lying, that you’re making stuff up because
you’re going to lose credibility. The thing is that fundraising is all about trust; it’s
all about integrity; it’s all about being your work and delivering on your promise.
When you’re going in with grandiose claims, with things that are maybe very hard to back,
also with a blanket statement, you are going to put yourself into trouble. Also, the other
thing that you want to be very careful with is when you’re showcasing a potential roadmap,
and you’re making promises on that, you’re going to be shooting yourself in the foot.
So avoid making promises unless it’s strictly necessary for that investor to completely
get what that 30,000-foot view is all about. Not acknowledging the competition. So many
different times, I’ve seen slides. We’re talking about the competitive landscape, or
you see the competitive landscape of a certain company that has put your pitch deck together,
and there, you see a few competitors, three or four, and it’s like a crowded space.
You’re left thinking, “What else are they hiding? What else are they hiding, or why
haven’t they done their job or their homework on this? So always, always, always try to
put the biggest players on the competitive landscape and put them all in a diagram-type
of structure so that they can see where you’re at and where everyone else is in that segment,
in that market that you’re operating in. Again, don’t try to forget about people
or not putting people in because you think they’re not going to make you look as good.
That’s not going to be well interpreted by the investors. So always be upfront; always
be crystal clear; always showcase that’s what-so, and, obviously, the what-so is including
every single one of your competitors and include them in a way in which you are showcasing
what are your key strengths that play to their weaknesses, and that’s the way that you’re
going to be labeling the Y-axis and the X-axis and putting yourself on the top-right of that
slide. There’s no unique selling proposition. When
you’re all over the place when there’s not one single thing that you can put out
there that makes you better than anyone else, that is going to allow you to go faster, to
go better than whatever your competitors are doing, you are going to be in trouble. You
can accomplish this by introducing certain slides. For example, like the value proposition
slide where you talk about what is that that you’re bringing to the market, to your customers,
that gets them excited. You can talk about your competitive advantage where you’re
setting yourself apart and breaking down into bullet points what makes you different from
all the other solutions that are out there. But, again, you want to showcase here, what
is your edge? What is setting you apart? That ultimately is going to allow people to really
get it, which is critical. I would love to hear from you and what you’re
up to. Leave a comment below. Also, if you like the video, shoot a Like in there. And
then subscribe to the video so that you don’t miss out on all the videos that we’re rolling
out every week. And if you need any help with anything with regards to your fundraising
efforts, shoot me a note at alejandro@pantheraadvisors.com. We’d love to help out. Thank you so much
for watching.