3-Minute Pitch Decks

The startup world is pretty obsessed with pitch decks. A Google search will turn up thousands of templates and plenty of dubious advice on how to build a winning pitch deck that will land you a big pile of venture capital. The reality, of course, is that venture capitalists don’t invest in slides—they invest in people. The ability to build a set of pretty slides is not a predictor of startup success, but the ability to deliver a crisp, clear, and compelling story is. 

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the first piece of advice I have about pitch decks is: don’t use someone else’s template! This is your startup and your story. Do you think Steve Jobs copied a template he found somewhere? I don’t think so, and neither should you. Here are my thoughts on preparing a great pitch deck:

Start by writing out the story. 

If I’m preparing a pitch deck, the first thing I do is write out the narrative. Once I’m happy with the story, then I start building some slides to go with it. Many people do it the other way around; they build slides first and then try to decide what story the slides tell. That’s bass-ackwards. 

Here are some of the things that might be part of the story you tell:

• What problem are you solving?
• Why does it matter?
• Why you?
• What’s your “secret sauce”?
• What does the current competitive landscape look like?
• How big is the opportunity?
• How will you efficiently acquire customers?
• What are your initial capital needs, and what milestone will that initial capital get you to?

This is not a definitive list, of course. Every venture is different, but in three to four minutes you should be able to tell an interesting story that incorporates most of these key points and leaves the recipient intrigued and wanting to hear more. And that’s your desired outcome with a pitch deck – leaving the audience wanting to hear more. You’re not going to sell the deal with one pitch deck, but hopefully you’ll leave them intrigued enough that they want to know more. 

If you have a one-hour meeting scheduled with an investor, do not go in with an hour’s worth of slides! No one wants to sit through that. Not only will they not invest, they will block you on all their phones so that you can never torture them again!

If I have a one-hour meeting scheduled with an investor, I like to walk in and say, “Let me give you the three-minute overview, and then we can dive deeper into whatever part of this you’d like.” Some investors want to know more about the market size, some will want to focus on understanding the competitive landscape, and others will just want to learn more about you. Either way, I guarantee no one wants to sit through sixty minutes of slides. 

Why you?

To me, nothing is more important to articulate in your pitch than the reason why you are exactly the right entrepreneur for this venture. Investors want to know that your passion for this startup is so deep it will carry you through good times and bad. They may even be looking at three similar startups, trying to decide which one to invest in. Their decision will be based on their perception of the founder, every time. Make sure they understand why you are exactly the right entrepreneur for this venture. 

Different decks for different purposes. 

Ultimately, you’ll end up with different pitch decks for different purposes. Most startup founders use three decks or, more accurately, three sets of messaging. One is investor-facing, one is customer-facing, and one is for thought leadership (when you speak at a conference, for example). Great entrepreneurs are able to talk about one set of benefits when meeting with a potential investor, a different set of benefits when talking with a prospective customer, and yet another set of messages at a conference. 

It’s actually not about slides at all. 

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur happened when I took my carefully prepared pitch deck into a meeting with a grumpy venture capitalist named Rich. 

I opened up my laptop, got ready to show him my awesome slides, and was taken aback when he said, “Close that damn thing up. I don’t want to see your stupid slides. What I want to know is whether you can tell me—using words and words alone—why what you’re working on is so interesting that I would want to invest.”

I did, and he invested, but he never saw those beautiful slides I had worked so diligently on—because venture capitalists don’t invest in slides. So, can you deliver a compelling story about your startup without slides? If not, go back and work on it some more.