Hi, everyone. This is Alejandro Cremades,
and today we’re going to be talking about how long it takes to create a 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 that we roll out every week.
In today’s video, we’re really going to go into it, provide you with some insights, breakdowns,
and all of that good stuff that is pertaining to the time, the length, and effort that are going
to go into putting together your pitch deck. So with that being said, let’s get into it.
Timing is everything. This is one of the things that you really want to keep in mind because the
thing is that you want to time the creation of the pitch deck with the market, with your situation,
with perhaps the amount of money that you have on hand in order to get to the next level and get
that money in. What you want to do is understand how much time do you need in advance to sit down
and start putting together all the slides so that you’re not pressured? As Napoleon said,
“Dress me slowly as I’m in a hurry.” Essentially, that’s the same thing. You want to know
what timeframe are you dealing with? By when do you need this money?
Are there going to be any market conditions? Is there perhaps going to be
another coronavirus, or is there going to be a presidential election, or what that is that could
impact your potential opportunity of getting access to money? This is why you really want
to get clear as to what’s going on with timing. Then, you just get in motion.
When it comes to the amount of time, it can literally be from as little as a couple of hours
all the way up to hundreds of hours. The truth of the matter is, is that creating a pitch deck
is never going to be a complete process. It’s never going to be final. The reason for this
is because it’s a work in progress. You’re always iterating. You’re always optimizing
the story because every day, you’re listening to customers; you’re listening to investors,
and every single conversation is going to open up perhaps a hole that was there
that you didn’t even know was there. As they say, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
Typically, on average, I’ve heard that it could be closer to the 100 hours if you put all the
research, all the thought, all the conversations, that network of discussions that have happened
around the problem, around the solution that you’re bringing to market before you actually
put it on paper. Obviously, you’re going to account for all of that research as well.
Two hacks to really kick it into high gear. One is using a template. You can use the template below
that founders are using all over the world to raise millions. It’s completely for free.
You can literally grab it and make it your own, even throw in there your own design, and that way,
you don’t have to start from scratch. The thing is that when you’re putting together a pitch deck, it
needs to have a certain flow, it needs to have a certain structure that the investor actually knows
and that recognizes from other decks that they’ve seen. You don’t want to make them extra hard. For
that reason, you want to give them something that they’re used to, that they’ve seen in the past.
For that reason, don’t start from scratch. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Just replicate it.
You can also hire a pitch deck pro. This could be a site like Upwork, or perhaps you’re hiring a
company like what we’re doing at Panthera Advisors to help you with putting all of the materials
together. Essentially, you’ve got to understand that you have enough going on with understanding
the execution of your business, and that’s a massive, steep learning curve. Perhaps you can
relieve yourself by getting someone to capture the essence of the story that you share with them
and to put it with pen and paper so that it comes in the most powerful way possible.
Then you want to build the target list of investors. The target list of investors
also is going to help you understand how you’re going to be crafting the deck,
what kind of investment thesis they’re excited about, maybe you’re going to see that pattern
recognition there of these guys or gals that are investing in the same way with the type of
business in a certain shape or form, and that is going to help you understand the amount of length,
time, and effort that is going to go into putting together your deck. The investment thesis of these
people typically is going to evolve around the financing cycle, your segment, and the geographic
location. Those are things that you want to make sure that you’re including as part of the deck.
Then you need to allow for research and time. Putting all that time into research is going
to be essential because you want to make sure that whatever you’re putting on paper
– anything you put on paper is going to stay forever. Once you send it, you’ve lost control
over that. Whatever you’re putting out there, make sure that you can back it up, any claim,
any statement, any numbers that you’re putting out there around the market, you want to be
able to back it up. Some of those things that you want to research for are the following.
Market size Market trends and direction
Verifying the problem Marketing strategies
Costs and profit margins
Now in terms of images and editing, please stay away from creating a deck that is full of text
that requires someone to read from top to bottom because you’re going to lose people. Remember,
the attention span of investors is very small. Literally, they only invest two minutes and
41 seconds per presentation. So, with that being said, you want to have a very nice balance between
visuals and text. Less text and more visuals are actually better. You want to allow at least two
to four weeks for this because it’s not just the images. It could be your logo. You can use great
websites like 99 Designs to help you with the logo. You can use perhaps Upwork or other websites
where you can hire a freelancer to help you with the design or with the visuals that you’re going
to be adding to the deck to represent your product and your service in the best light possible.
Developing the copy is another big one. Here, it’s not about just throwing whatever text on the deck.
You want to be thoughtful about the words that you’re using. You want to use linguistics that
is going to land for whoever is in the deck in a very simple and concise manner
so that they understand and they are excited about what you’re putting out there for them to review,
and that they get enrolled in that future, in that possibility that you’re coming up with.
Here, you may need a copywriter. Again, you can get a freelancer.
Typically, these people get booked very quickly, so allow there for two to four weeks, again,
to really get it and nail it to the T when it comes to the right language that you’re
using on those 15 to 25 slides, which is essentially the length of a pitch deck.
Then, you’re going to allocate another one to two weeks for tweaking, for sharing with
people in your first and second-degree networks because here’s the thing:
before you go out there, you want to really grab this and put it with people that you can trust,
that they know you, that they are familiar with what you’re building and perhaps they can help you
with identifying certain things that you didn’t know were there. It could be your family member.
It could be your former colleague. It could be another fellow entrepreneur that you can
share the deck so that they can give you some feedback. Feedback is critical. Don’t just keep
the idea to yourself. Don’t just say, “I want to get everyone to sign an NDA.” Really get this to
be crowdsourced because the more eyes, the more help is going to be the better way to nail it
with the right sophisticated investors that you’re going to be putting this in front of.
With that being said, hit a Like on this video. Leave a comment below and let me know what you’re
up to. Then also, subscribe to the channel so that you don’t miss out on all the videos that
we’re rolling out every week. Then, if you’re raising money and you need help, shoot me a
note at alejandro@pantheraadvisors.com. We love to help out. Thank you so much for watching.