Pitch deck magic: 4 Steps to raise capital & find partners for your startup
Highlights from the article:
- Emotional Connection. Start your pitch by sharing your emotional connection and “superhero origin story” to deeply engage your audience.
- Urgency. Clearly explain why the problem needs urgent solving, detailing the consequences of inaction to evoke a shared sense of urgency.
- Visual Impact. Use expert visual design to vividly portray the future impact of your innovation, leaving a lasting impression on your audience.
What do audiences want? If your main goal as a presenter is to secure funding or to find a business partner, your audience is ultimately asking themselves if you are someone they can trust.
They’re also evaluating whether your idea is solid enough to put their money and energy behind. And whether or not they want to trust and invest in YOU.
Pitch deck magic in 4 easy steps
After over a decade of specializing in design that builds trust, I’ve distilled the essential work of creating a magical pitch deck down to four easy steps.
Avoid costly missteps and missed chances by following these four easy steps so that when your pitch ends, you have a line of curious people waiting to talk to you.
- Dig into emotions.
Start with your emotional connection to solving the problem at hand. What is your personal motivation for dedicating your life (or the next several years) to solving it?
As humans, we love storytelling. Stories woven with emotions capture our attention—and our hearts. Your audience will empathize with you and care more about what you have to say when they understand why you care.
My friend John Bates calls it your superhero origin story. What moment in your life put you on your current remarkable path? It could be that your sibling was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease and wasn’t able to get the treatment she needed, catapulting you into solving this problem.
Or you had a life-changing conversation with your boss that clarified your desire to pursue a wildly different career. What event changed your perspective and gave you the rocket fuel to pursue this dream of yours?
Tip: Do not start your pitch deck with ”overview of my technology” unless you want to slay your audience with boredom.
- Why now?
People take action when there is an urgent reason to. So clarify why this problem needs to be solved now. What are the stakes? What will happen if this problem doesn’t get solved now?
Also, how can you share this portion of your pitch deck in a way that makes your audience feel the pain of this problem going unsolved?
- What’s the solution?
In this portion of your deck, design will make or break your trust. While you share the solution your team has carefully devised, ensure your slides don’t upstage you. That means distilling your message into as few words as possible. An expert design partner can guide you here.
If your audience is reading large blocks of text or lists of bullets, they’re distracted by reading and therefore aren’t listening to you. Less text allows you to speak more naturally, infusing humor and emotion into your presentation – and to hold everyone’s attention. To avoid too much text, use 3 to 5 short bullet points that trigger stories containing the details you’ll share.
Finally, think of each slide in your pitch deck as a highway billboard. Try what my friend Tino at Giant Shoulders called the squint test: Can you read it if you’re squinting (or you’re a distance of 500 feet away in your car)? More than a few words and your entire message is lost.
- Show me the promised land.
What does life look like after your technology has been implemented?
Describe ‘the promised land’, or what life looks like once your solution has been implemented. Let visual design paint the picture at this crucial moment in your presentation. Whether it’s an original professional photograph, high-quality stock photography, or a custom illustration that supports your brand, expert visual design gives your audience a chance to relax after so much listening and (a bit of) reading.
The right visual has the potential to pull together your entire pitch deck, driving home how reliable and organized you are. A talented visual designer can guide you here or create original illustrations that drive home your point.
I’ve won their (initial) trust. Now what?
Now that you’ve established trust with your audience in hopes of landing a business partner or securing funding talk about one or two super cool aspects of your technology. Just a taste to get your audience hungry to talk to you afterward.
Remember, while you’ll be tempted to talk about the many amazing features of your innovation or how you’re using AI, very few people will care about any of that until you ground them in your compelling, emotionally-laden story.
What’s the best way to wrap my pitch deck?
The end of your pitch deck is not a boring “thank you for coming” type message. While you address questions as your presentation closes, instead of plastering a huge logo across a slide, end with your call to action (CTA) and include how you want people to reach you. Your CTA might be:
- We are looking to raise $1.5 million in our first round of funding.
- We are seeking a university partner to provide research and technical support.
- Meet me at Booth 17 between 10am-1pm today to discuss this exciting new technology.
If you do a bang-up job of showing your audience that you are someone they can trust — regardless of how cool your technology is — you will go much further in finding the right investor or partner. In short order, establishing trust is your primary goal, and an expert designer will create slides that look as powerful as the stories you’ll tell.
Key takeaways
- Use emotions to convey why you care deeply enough about this problem to dedicate your life to solving it.
- Clarify why the problem needs to be solved now — and what would happen if it’s not solved.
- Explain your solutions with as little text on each slide as possible. Let your visual designs and storytelling shine.
- Show your audience the promised land — what does our world look like when we’ve solved this problem together?
Got a hot presentation coming up and want to score big like Caitlin Clarke on the basketball court? I may be the perfect visual designer for you.
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