This document provides tips for creating an effective pitch deck to get funding. It recommends including essential slides on the problem, solution, market size, go-to-market strategy, competitors, team, use of funds, and exit strategy. Each slide should be concise and visually compelling. The goal is to grab attention, demonstrate a large market opportunity, prove the competitive advantage, and show investors how their money will be used and a potential exit. Feedback from experts can help strengthen the deck before presenting to investors.

1. How to Create an Epic Pitch Deck
That’ll Get You Funded
Tips, hacks and value bombs

2. • Serial entrepreneur.
• Wrote 5 books, one- best seller
• Been on over 80 radio shows, TV and other media
• Helped dozens of entrepreneurs get funded
• Founder and owner of Crowdsourcia
• Host of Ask the Crowd Podcast on iTunes
Mike Volkin
Built and sold 3 companies

3. Mike Volkin
Get feedback on your pitch deck from a diverse
range of expert perspectives.

4. What will you learn
• What slides you must include in a pitch deck
• How to make those slides look crazy awesome
• How to get an investor to want more information
• You have a business model in mind
• You’ve done research on the competitive landscape
• You are considering getting funded
I am assuming

5. There is no one right way…
So many variations…

6. Pitch deck essentials
• Title
• Problem you solve
• Solution
• Market size
• Go to market strategy
• Competitor matrix
• Team
• Use of funds
• Exit strategy
• Conclusion

7. Title slide | Timing
Develop a 7 second or less sentence that gets investors
attention right from the start. You need that funny, quirky,
crazy, unique, why didn’t I think of that, ah-ha moment
from an investor.
Doesn’t have to be an elevator pitch.

8. Title slide | Example
Ding! You are
now free to
move about the
country.
Everyone’s
Private driver.
Tradesy turns
your closet into
a pile of cash
Use visuals if you can!

9. Title slide | Example
If Quora and Upwork had a clever, inquisiti
and really cool baby…
This one sentence will probably take longer to create
than the rest of your entire deck.
Business projects
Social feedback

10. Problem slide | Pain points
Show that the market has evolved and the current
solutions don’t solve the clients’ needs/problems.
What pain point does your product/service address?
(preferably one sentence)
Biggest pain points
• Takes time
• Costs money
• Increases vulnerability

11. Solution slide | Value proposition
How will you solve that pain point?
This could be your value proposition.
The investor will want to see how you can solve
this problem better than your competitors.

12. Solution slide | Example - Airbnb

13. Market slide | The big mistake
Base the market size on your current traction multiplied by users/services over time. Don’t get
carried away with the numbers, just show that the market is interesting and that you have the
ability/experience to go after it.
Pre-revenue? Don’t pretend to know your market share. Instead, show market share for your
competitors. Investors will use their success as a benchmark.
Scary Mary’s Cupcakes:
“People spend 855 billion dollars a year on food, if we can get
each person on this planet to eat one of our cupcakes once a
week we would make blah, blah, blah."
Investors hate this. Once an investor doubts your market size
they are going to doubt the credibility of your entire deck.

14. Market size slide | TAM, SAM, SOM
TAM = Total available market (total market demand)
SAM = Served Available Market (size of that market demand you could serve)
SOM = Share of Market (how much of the market you’ll realistically obtain)

15. Go-to-market slide | Goal
Demonstrate how you will get your product/service to your
customers (without overspending).
How will you drive revenue? What sales channel will you
target?
• Sell direct to customer
• Licenses
• Partnerships
• Merger-acquisition

16. Go-to-market slide
Some other key questions to answer:
• What do you expect your customer acquisition costs (CAC) to be?
• What are the main risks to your model?
• What’s your plan for addressing them?
• What’s your sales funnel and production process.
• Any key partnerships already in place?
• How will you gauge your progress?
• What would success look like?
Don’t over engineer this slide. Just show you have an actionable plan. The
team slide will show that you’re the right team to carry out this plan.

17. Go-to-market slide | Examples

18. Competitor matrix

19. Competitor matrix | Examples

20. Competitor matrix | Goal
Your goal is to show your competitive advantage and
show it in a way that can’t easily be repeated by your
competitors.
Crowdsourcia is the only company that brings together multiple pre-vetted
experts to collaborate on your projects. The result is a diverse range of
perspectives that saves you time and money. But more importantly, you’re
able to make the right strategic decisions, faster.

21. Competitor matrix | Graphically represented

22. Team slide | Quiz
Investors mainly invest in:
A) Great business models
B) Interesting niches
C) People

23. Team slide | Quiz
Investors mainly invest in:
A) Great business models
B) Interesting niches
C) People

24. Team slide
Chrissy Snow
Secretary
Jack Tripper
Chef
Janet Wood
Florist
• Years of experience and
industry served
• Degree
• Accomplishment #1
• Accomplishment #2
• Awards/Certifications
• Years of experience and
industry served
• Degree
• Accomplishment #1
• Accomplishment #2
• Awards/Certifications
• Years of experience and
industry served
• Degree
• Accomplishment #1
• Accomplishment #2
• Awards/Certifications

25. Use of funds slide | Examples
Investors will want to know how their money is being used
and how it is going to help you achieve your goals.
Examples:
• Build inside sales team
• Expand marketing team
• Build support team
• Buying inventory to reduce
production costs
• Product development
• Focus on enterprise sales
• Expand product/service offerings
If you have already raised money,
be sure to let them know.

26. Use of funds slide
Graphically
represent if
possible

27. Exit strategy | What investors want
Investors goals:
1) Want their money back
2) Get their money back tenfold
Investors want their money back, ideally
in 5-7 years

28. Exit strategy | Type of exits
Initial Public Offering (IPOs): few and far between today.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As): When a larger company
acquires a start-up to gain a strategic advantage.
Royalties and revenue sharing: Some companies are not good
targets for either M&A or IPOs but they still have investment potential.
These companies can return multiples of VC and angel investment
through royalties or revenue sharing. (i.e. oil and gas or movie deals
are structured this way).

29. Exit strategy | Example

30. Conclusion slide
Your deck will be shared, whether you like it or not,
so make sure it is compelling with or without a voiceover.
Include your logo and contact info.

31. Post your pitch deck and get feedback from a diverse
range of expert perspectives.
OUR IRRESISTIBLE OFFER:
We’ll review your pitch deck FOR
FREE, or we will send you a
template to get started.
Email me, Mike Volkin, at Mike@Crowdsourcia.com with the
subject line “Webinar”