Hello, everyone. This is Alejandro Cremades, and today we’re going to be talking about
how to make a pitch deck on PowerPoint. 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. Creating a pitch deck is essential for raising
money. In today’s video, we’re going to be breaking it down for you on how you can
use PowerPoint to make it happen and how to do it in a way that is super powerful. So
without further ado, let’s get into it. The fastest track to start a pitch deck on
PowerPoint is to not start from scratch. So, use a template. You can actually use the template
below that entrepreneurs are using all over the world to raise millions that has the proper
flow and the proper structure. That way, you don’t have to start from scratch.
Remember that ultimately, it’s all about understanding what is going to be the format,
what is going to be the structure, the flow, and what investors typically expect to see
on every single one of those slides. That’s why, when you’re using a template, it also
acts as a nice guide and as a nice roadmap that you just replace with your own content,
and again, with that structure and that flow that people are going to want to see. Again,
don’t start from scratch. Start with a template. There are different methods to create a pitch
deck. You can either use a freelancer. You can use an agency or an advisory firm. You
can do it yourself, or perhaps you can just use consultants or in-house. Let’s go one-by-one.
Freelancers: You can use websites like, for example, Upwork, where essentially most of
the stuff is going to be around the design as well as the copywriting. Those are the
types of expertise that you may want to bring. Here, the type of expense that you are going
to be looking at is anywhere between $1,000 to perhaps $5,000.
Agency: If you go to an agency, it’s going to be much more expensive. Here, they’re
going to be bringing different types of teams that are coming in together, and also, especially
if you do advisory firms and other consultancies, they may be charging you all the way up to
$50,000, but that price ranges all over the place.
In-house: You can also do it yourself. The thing about doing it yourself is that it may
take a little bit more time. You may be making some mistakes, and you’re going to go to
market, and you don’t really know if it’s going to stick or not.
Consultants: On the other end, you can also use consultants, people that can help you
that have the background operational expertise, that have been in your same market, and that
bring that insight to create something that is going to address head-on some of the investors’
concerns when they’re reviewing your pitch deck. Because, on average, an investor is
only going to spend 2 minutes and 41 seconds, 2:41, per presentation.
Creating a pitch deck is going to be a key part of the sales process. In order to get
to the next meeting – your goal is always to get to the next meeting because getting
to the next meeting allows you to address more concerns. The more concerns that you
address, the closer that you are to the money. Obviously, when there are no concerns, money
is in the bank. Some of the critical factors that the pitch
deck needs to do in order for you to spark and really get that interest that it’s going
to allow you to secure the next meeting are going to be the following:
Help you stand out from the crowd. Spike interest from the potential investor.
Convey credibility and capability. Drive and facilitate action.
So what makes a good pitch deck? A good pitch deck is all about having clarity on the vision,
on where you are today, and where you want to be. In order to do that, you also need
to have a great team, and the team needs to present itself in a way where the investor
is going to know that you are the right team on the right seats and that they need to bet
on you. Remember that those investors are ultimately
speaking with your competitors. They have done their research on the market, and they
have a clear idea of why they want to invest and what is separating them from making the
investment. So by having the right team with the right expertise and skillsets is going
to allow them to understand that it’s going to be okay to place a bet.
The other thing that you want to do and that you want to convey on your pitch deck is that
it showcases that the market is big enough because remember that typically the investors,
especially the ones that are institutional investors like venture capital firms, are
going to want to invest in companies that have the potential of a 10x return.
That means that if you are getting money in at a $20 million valuation from these investors,
the company needs to be acquired for at least $200 million for them to justify the risk
of having placed a bet on your business. Again, clarity, team, and market are going to be
a magical combination in order to spark interest from those investors.
A great presentation needs to also have a great structure. When it comes to the structure
for a pitch deck, it should be the following: The Cover
The Problem The Solution
Market Size The Product
Traction Team slide
Advisors and Board Members Competition Analysis
Financials The Ask
The Thank You slide Another critical piece of this is to get your
content together. When it comes to content, some of the things that you want to keep in
mind are the following: The logo
Contact information Co-founder resumes and bios
Charts and graphs Pictures and images
Financial projections The text
Getting started with PowerPoint is going to be the first step. Obviously, PowerPoint is
part of Microsoft. You’re going to need to get your account. You’re going to have
to use either a PC or Mac, but you need to have the license in place so that you can
operate PowerPoint. Another way of getting started could be using
Google Slides, which is on the web where you can collaborate with other team members because
PowerPoint probably lacks the component of collaborating with others. So, if you need
to collaborate with others, you can always create the document in Google Slides, collaborate
with your team, and then you can download it into PowerPoint and then work from there.
When creating the deck on PowerPoint, you want to start with naming the document. This
is going to allow, as well, to be able to put the document on auto-save in case you
want to click out of it and you want to actually get back to it later on. Also, you want to
name it because this is going to label the file that is going to be sent and the way
that it is going to be perceived by others when they see it, rather than having just
a blank file. It is essential that you label it right away.
Then once you’ve labeled it with perhaps the name of your company, you want to pick
the theme for your slides. If you’re starting it from scratch, there are themes in there
that you can use, but my personal recommendation is that you use themes that are good for the
eye. Try to stay away from dark and too bright colors. Try to stay in the middle and go with
colors that are going to be okay and that are not going to be too sparkly or stuff like
that because it could invite the investor to click out of it. Use white, blue, and colors
that are normal and that are not too much on the edge when it comes too dark or too
bright. Then you want to go with choosing the font
size. You don’t want to go too small, and you don’t want to go too big. You don’t
want to go too big because then it’s going to take too much real estate. And you don’t
want to go too small because if you go too small, some people are not going to be able
to read it because remember that many of the people that are going to be reviewing those
presentations are going to be a little bit more advanced in age, and perhaps they have
lost some of their eyesight. Keep it to 30 points. That’s the size that is universal
when it comes to creating pitch decks. Then you want to add text and images. With
the images, you want to make sure that they represent well your brand, your tone, the
design, and goes in parallel, and has that consistency with the way that you’re packaging
your company or your service offline. What you want to do here is have that nice
balance between text and images because, as I always say, investors tend to skim through
those presentations. They’re not literally spending the time investing themselves in
reviewing and reading. They just go right away, one after the other. That’s why you
need to make it easier for them. Don’t make them work harder. Just have that nice balance
between the text and the visuals. The good thing, as well, about PowerPoint
is that you can add your notes when it comes to the narrative. One thing is the pitch deck,
but the other thing is how you’re going to be delivering the pitch on all those different
slides. Typically, the pitch, the narrative, is going to be between 10 to 20 minutes. You
could be spending between 1 to 1.5 minutes per slide. But what you want to do here is
PowerPoint allows you to put some comments on whatever narrative you’re giving per
slide and under each one of those slides. So, on the comment section, you want to put
in there what you’re going to be saying, so that way, you remember, and you know what
kind of narrative goes into each one of those slides.
Then you’re going to want to review and cut, especially after you’ve put all the
content in, then you want to make sure that the furniture is in the right places of the
house. Once you have that solid structure, then start cutting down and simplifying because
simple is better. Try to avoid filler words. Try and see if you can combine certain visuals.
Again, the less that you have, the better it is going to be for them to digest the story.
Then you should start to get feedback. They can put feedback on the comment section of
the PowerPoint on each one of those slides. That way, you know on which one of those slides
people have commented and what they’re suggesting so that you can make some of those changes
to the deck. Then you want to upload the pitch deck, the
PowerPoint document of the pitch deck into a Dropbox folder or a Google Drive folder
where you can grab that link and share it with those potential investors or with whoever
you want to share it. The last thing that you want is to add that PowerPoint into an
email because the attachment may be too big, and some of those investors may be too picky
with you taking over their inbox. Again, hit a Like on this video. Also, leave
a comment and let me know what you’re up to, and Subscribe to the channel so that you
don’t miss out on all the videos that we’re rolling out every week. If you’re raising
money, send me an email at alejandro@pantheraadvisors.com. I would love to help out with your fundraising
efforts. Thank you so much for watching.