Over the final six months, I’ve written up 25 Pitch Deck Teardowns — the favored sequence of articles the place I evaluate a pitch deck intimately, celebrating the wins and gently (and typically not-so-gently) suggesting enhancements. We’ve seen 74-slide decks (sure, actually), decks which can be riddled with spelling errors and slowed down by hideous design (however nonetheless work extremely effectively), and decks the place the founders don’t absolutely appear to grasp what market they’re in.
For each deck I reviewed for my TechCrunch sequence, I noticed dozens of different decks as effectively. Don’t inform my bosses, however I’ve a aspect hustle as a pitch coach, and thru that, I see a variety of decks. I additionally am mates with a bunch of beautiful VCs and accelerators who usually ahead decks for me to try. I’ve a folder with lots of and lots of of pitch decks, starting from $10,000 angel rounds to multibillion-dollar offers in progress. People from time to time ship me screenshots of slides, too (I like to consider these as “unsolicited deck pics.” Ahem.)
In any case, I’ve lengthy since misplaced rely, however I’ve most likely seen just a few thousand pitch decks over the previous few years. Suffice it to say: I’ve opinions about ’em.
In this put up, I need to break down the highest 11 (sure, it needed to be 11) most typical errors I see in pitch decks, together with a bunch of examples of how these errors present up.
Oh, and if you wish to submit your individual deck for a possible pitch deck teardown, you’re in luck: Instructions are right here.
Let’s gooooo.
Not figuring out your viewers
A pitch is a narrative, and tales have audiences. You wouldn’t put a toddler in entrance of Arnold Schwarzenegger hacking and slashing his means by means of varied elements of the Predator. Similarly, the story you employ to promote to your clients will not be the identical story that you must get throughout to your would-be investor viewers.
You want to grasp how VC works; that’s non-negotiable. If you don’t, it implies that you haven’t any means of figuring out inform your story, and also you don’t really perceive what they’re shopping for. Get that resolved for your self!
Examples of decks that get this proper:
Examples of decks that get this incorrect:
Not absolutely understanding your market sizing
It’s painful to learn a pitch deck and notice that the founders don’t know dimension their very own market. At the earliest stage, your organization must show precisely two issues:
- Can you construct a venture-scale enterprise on this market?
- Is this the proper group to construct that enterprise?
The means you reply the primary query is by having smart issues to say concerning the market you use in, and the way you see the scale and trajectory of that market. If you fail to do this, guess what — you’re proving that you just’re not an excellent founder, and also you’re most likely not the proper group to construct the enterprise.
Yes, calculating the TAM, SAM and SOM in your market may be actually onerous, and typically it entails assumptions and guesswork, however that’s OK — you’re not getting graded on how correct your numbers are however on the way you view and take into consideration the market you might be in. If the numbers are “wrong,” however you possibly can defend why you considered them this fashion, it tells your potential buyers quite a bit about your high quality as a founder.