This document is a guide for creating an effective pitch deck aimed at attracting investors. It emphasizes storytelling, concise delivery, and the importance of visuals while outlining the essential content structure including problem-solution and financial projections. The guide also details how to handle Q&A sessions and stresses the need for thorough preparation and follow-up to secure further meetings.

1. Building a Powerful Pitch Deck
Wednesday 6pm March 4th 2015
Presented by Robin Lee
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2. – Guy Kawasaki
“For an entrepreneur, life’s is a pitch! ”
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3. – Mark Twain
“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I
wrote a long one instead.”
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4. –Eli Manning, New York Giants
“No, we believed in ourselves all year. That’s
the position you want to be in.”
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5. – Daymond John
“An entrepreneur must pitch a potential
investor for what the company is worth as well
as sell the dream on how much of a profit can
be made.”
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6. Pitch deck = business plan
• Tell a story. Entrepreneur should be able to tell a story
in a sentence, in a paragraph and in 20 min
presentation.
• Have a three versions of deck (20 min full version + all
appendix, 10 slide deck (no appendix), High concept
pitch)
• Elevator pitch: Traction, Product, Team and Social
proof
• Don’t ask NDA
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7. Who do we pitch to?
• Future co-founder(s), team members, hires, business
partners
• Investors
• Customers
• At networking events
• Anyone who questions you why not get a j.o.b.
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8. Style Guide
• Clean, simple, and visually pleasing
• Use high contrast colors that allow background and
type to be readable from a distance
• Use bullet points instead of sentences
• Use the presentation as audience’s guide woven with
valuable stories as you lead (not read) the audience
• Guy Kawasaki’s 10 slides/ 20 minutes/ 30 point fonts
rule
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9. Style Guide
• If must, 20 point should be the smallest
• Don’t use “-“ as bullets as it implies minus
• Add page numbers
• easy to read fonts (arial, hevetica, etc)
• consistent formatting
• check typos!
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10. Presentation Guide
• Tell a story
• Stick to the presentation time frame
• Be concise and to the point
• Use easily understood plain English, not just jargon for
industry insiders
• Persuade your “investability”
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11. Presentation Guide
• Use this presentation time to ‘increase interest in the
company’, not to ‘explain everything’
• Remember, your goal is to get a date (a.k.a. second
meeting)
• Can the audience say what your company does after
your presentation?
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12. Q&A Guide
• Answer concisely. The faster you can answer -> the
more questions answered -> The higher chance of
getting funded
• If you don’t know the answer, don’t answer. Get back
with an answer later time, while using it as an
opportunity to engage and explain in details.
• Be prepared for any question regarding why your
business might not be successful (utilize FAQ/
Appendix)
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13. Q&A Guide
• Know your numbers
• Show you have done homework
• If there are multiple members of the team present, have
the appropriate team member who knows best, answer
a given question
• Show your coachability during this time
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14. Content Guide
1. Introduction to you and your company
2. Problem
3. Solution
4. Business Model
5. Underlying Magic/ Secret sauce/ Unfair advantages
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15. Content Guide
6. Marketing and Sales
7. Competition
8. Management Team
9. Financial Projections and Key Metrics
10. Current Update & Proposed Deal
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16. 1. Your product/service
• List organization name, your name, title, contact info
and a tagline if you have one.
• You should simply describe your product or service
within 10 words = Elevator pitch.
• Example: We offer B2B integrated social media
advertising solution (your service/product) for small
businesses (your market) by proving low cost
integrated turnkey solution (or your special sauce)
• Demo your product or service
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17. Tell a story
Example 1
We have a mission and a team that is taking us there.
Why? We discovered a large problem and solved it with
a product that has this amazing technology inside. We’re
going to market and sell it to these customers, with
these advantages over our competitors. In particular,
we’re working towards these milestones over the next
few quarters. In conclusion, this financing is a great
investment opportunity.
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18. Tell a story
Example 2
ABC company will operate America's most widely used
comparison shopping portal for consumer driven
healthcare, enabling businesses and their employees to
choose health plans, ancillary health benefits, and
medical services objectively and transparently.
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19. 2. Problem
• Describe the pain that you’re alleviating
• The goal is to get everyone “buying in”
• Avoid looking like a solution searching for a problem
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20. 3. Solution
• Explain how you alleviate this pain
• Ensure the audience clearly understands what you sell
• Ensure the audience clearly understands your value
proposition
• Do not get too in-depth technically here
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21. 4. Business Model
• Explain how you make money: who pays you, your
channels of distribution, and your margins
• Walk through the economics of one unit of whatever
you are selling
• If your model is complicated, try to explain it in terms
of familiar ones
• Mention any customers that are currently using your
product or service
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22. 4. Business Model
• Show numbers
• Example
• 100 clients x A units x B fee = $ C revenue
• 50% savings of current method
• Average revenue per user, Life time value of
customer, cart size, etc
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23. 5. Underlying Magic
• Describe your underlying magic /unfair advantages /
secret sauce behind your product or service. What
makes your company unique?
• Be better at describing it with fewer words
• Better? Faster? Cheaper? Easier? (value to customers)
• And how do you maintain this underlying magic?
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24. 6. Marketing & Sales
• How do you get to your market?
• How do you reach/acquire your potential customers?
• Show how you define your total addressable market
and your understanding of your target market,
audience, and business space
• How do you intend to scale the business?
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25. 7. Competition
• Provide a complete view of the competitive landscape
• Explain why your product/service is better, faster,
cheaper and more valuable than your competitors’
• Focus on why are you good rather than why is the
competition bad
• Include both direct and indirect competitors
• Are you changing customer behavior?
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26. 8. Management team
• Names, titles, relevant skills and experiences from past
ventures/positions of the key players
• Be prepared to explain how you are going to
bootstrap, hire, outsource, or contract the needed
resources to fill any holes
• List names of advisors, board members and major
investors
• Describe the history of any team members that have
worked together in the past
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27. 9. Financial Projections
• Three or five year projection. Show how you are
currently thinking about growth.
• Provide $ amounts but also key metrics: target market
size, # of customers in target market, conversion and/
or penetration rate
• High level financials: revenue, expenses, EBITDA,
margin %, break out key revenue streams, gross vs net
revenue
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28. 9. Financial Projections
• Clearly explain and break out the underlying key
assumptions behind your projections
• Have an additional slide in your appendix to refer to
during Q&A with more detailed financials
• summary of the financials in investors’ perspective.
Example: By year 5, conservative revenue would be
$50m +, 10 x of investment, EBITDA margin 30%
• a hockey stick!!!
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29. 10. Current Update &
Proposed Deal
• Explain the current status of your product or service
and what the near future looks like. Share details of
your positive momentum and traction (including any
previous monies raised)
• Explain what you have learned since inception that
supports your hypothesis. Have you been employing a
test and iterate approach?
• How much are you raising and how will you use the
money?
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30. 10. Current Update &
Proposed Deal
• Explain what milestones you hope to achieve, how long
the capital will last and future funding needs
• Pre-money valuation, structure details: discount, cap,
type of security, warrant, etc
• What is the exit? List a few comparables and a
potential exit/acquisition target price
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31. Follow up
• Goal is to get a second date
• Exchange contact information
• Take a proactive role in planning the follow up meeting
- Follow up with an email within few days
• Have in-depth detail version of pitch deck ready
• Ask questions
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32. Appendix
• The appendix can include as many slides as you
want. The more the better. Nothing beats responding
to some VC's question with a slide from the appendix.
• Financial model, Press, Users, Customer testimonials,
Product screenshots, Technology stack
• Exit strategies
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33. Resources
• Collections of best startup pitch decks: http://
www.pitchenvy.com/
• Guy Kawasaki’s pitch deck template: http://
www.marsdd.com/mars-library/how-to-create-a-pitch-
deck-for-investors/
• How to not write a business plan: http://
whohastimeforthis.blogspot.com/2005/11/how-to-not-
write-business-plan.html
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34. Resources
• Elevator pitch: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/
228070
• Elevator pitch elements: http://
www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-altman/the-best-elevator-
pitch-has_b_4216415.html
• slide tips: http://www.garrreynolds.com/preso-tips/
design/
• LinkedIn pitch deck: http://reidhoffman.org/linkedin-
pitch-to-greylock/
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35. THANK YOU
For further questions, please contact:
Robin Lee
RobinLee@college.ucla.com
to make consulting appointment:
http://ucla.thelaunchpad.org/
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