A Simple Recipe for Pitch Decks
Your Pitch Deck: Company Story Plus Visuals
Sounds easy? Well, yes and no.
First, why is your pitch deck design important? Because often pitch decks are the first brand visual a potential investor sees from your company.
They might not have gone to your website, or your Instagram, or seen your product UI. The pitch deck is your visual brand. So, do you want to be seen as sloppy, confusing, and unclear? Or clean, streamlined, and thorough?
So we can agree that deck design is important, but where to start? First, let’s dive into your story. Start with your audience. What do they want? And what do YOU want? Where do those desires meet? That is what your deck should focus on.
Part 1: Story Tips
1. Create engagement with a varied path
Think of your deck like a journey. Craft an exciting landscape of peaks and valleys to keep your audience’s interest.
Brainstorm ways to inspire moments of excitement. Think about how your company will change the industry. How will it create a better world. Why there is no other company like yours.
2. Storytelling = emotion + logic
Hooking your audience with key moments of emotion can lead to engagement. Take opportunities to draw your audience in through a sense of excitement about the future or by creating a feeling of urgency or by connecting them to a human element of your company – the customer.
3. Make your title WORK
Don’t use weak titles like “The Problem” or “The Solution” — those are a waste of space! Every pixel of your pitch deck should sell your company. Instead use titles like, "Precise Tools for Surgery" or "Evolving Consumers' Access to Care" or "We Address 3 Key Marketplace Needs."
4. TELL your audience what to think
It’s tempting to present a lot of information and let your audience draw their own conclusions. But that creates friction — you’re forcing your audience to take an extra mental step — even if it’s a split second. It’s also a risk. They might draw the wrong conclusion, or think of questions that are not necessary at this stage.
5. The click-through test
While you’re creating your deck, click through the slides quickly. Is your story clear as you are clicking through in 20 seconds? Each slide's main point should be understood within a 2-second glance. This could also be thought of as a bird’s eye view — if you zoom out of your slides, is the story clear?
Part 2: Visual Tips
1. One key takeaway per slide
When everything is important, nothing is important. It takes guts to hone in on one takeaway per slide—be brave!
2. Make sure the design highlights the takeaway
Your audience’s eye should be led around the slide from most important item to least important. Don’t put the most important information at the bottom, in small type.
3. Make it visual
Your presentation is a visual medium — take advantage of it! What are your goals for the slide — could they be met with a large photography + one line of text? Or 3 key points represented by icons?
4. Convey your brand identity in the deck
Do you have a visual brand? A logo, typefaces, color palette? A vibe that you’re going for? Youthful, fun, positive? Or traditional, reliable, strong?
5. Know your specs!
Fonts
If you use installed fonts in the deck (i.e. a font that doesn’t come already installed on Macs/PCs), you must install that font on any computer the deck is being presented on. Or create a PDF of your deck, and deliver that.
If you know you’ll need to deliver the Keynote or PowerPoint externally, it’s safest to use fonts that are common across computers.
Aspect Ratio
The latest PowerPoint creates 16:9 decks automatically, but you have the option of selecting 4:3 if it is preferred. Keynote has gone to 4:3 as automatic in the latest edition, but has the option of selecting 16:9 (it used to be reversed). 99.5% of the pitch decks I create are 16:9. However, there are certainly reasons to use 4:3.
Reasons to use 16:9 (widescreen)
- Fits most modern presentation displays and projectors
- Most common in most industries
- More real-estate for layout
Reasons to use 4:3 (“standard”)
- If the goal use is printed only — 4:3 fits an 8.5"x11" paper a little better
- If the goal use is for display on a tablet (for example, at a convention)
- If it is specifically requested by an event organizer or VC firm/investor
- Some industries (financial, medical) have more of a prevalence of 4:3 than other industries (media, tech)
Overall, I recommend using 16:9 unless there are specific reasons for needing it to be in 4:3.
Video
- If you embed a video in your Keynote or PowerPoint, be prepared for what you’ll do if it does not work as expected. If there is no audio, what will you do? If the video does not play, what will you do?
- Keynote generally is more reliable when it comes to video. If you use a lot of video in decks, try Keynote.
- And test in the presenting environment if at all possible.
Resources
Story / Flow
Lessons From A Study of Perfect Pitch Decks
Photos
Unsplash — Free — Stylish, kind of hip
iStock — Low-cost — Wide selection, decent-sized medical selection
PlaceIt — Free and low-cost — If you have a UI screen, it’s nice to integrate it into a device.
Icons
The Noun Project — Free and low-cost icons
Diagrams
Diagrammer — Duarte provides free PowerPoint files of pre-built diagrams in these categories. Suggestion: Remove the drop shadow on downloaded items for a cleaner look.
Additional Reading & Listening
Interested in learning even more about pitch decks?
Articles
6 Powerful Pitch Deck Tips to Get Seed Funding
The Greatest Sales Deck I’ve Ever Seen — Andy Raskin
Books
Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences
Slideology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
Podcast
The Pitch — A show where real entrepreneurs pitch to real investors.
Visual Inspiration
My Presentation Design Pinterest Board
Ta-da! You’re done with your deck, right? Not quite yet? That’s ok — pitch decks are time-consuming and require a lot of creativity and calculation. Once you’ve created your pitch deck, it will constantly evolve as your company does. It’s a process!
