When it comes to pitch decks, variety is the spice of life. There are many ways to create a successful startup pitch deck that convinces potential investors, partners, or customers to engage with your business. It all depends on the story of how and what problem your business plan solves and why someone should invest in you. No matter your choice, keep it engaging, visual, concise, and to the point.
Here you will find the best variety to help you craft your pitch deck.
Powerful Pitch Deck Examples to Inspire your Startup
Currently, staying ahead in the startup race is paramount. Launching a business requires strategic execution and startup pitch decks examples and templates can be a convenient starting point and beneficial guide. Successful pitches lead to funding, partnerships, new customers, and growth opportunities.
Startups can effectively communicate their vision and strategy with a well-crafted pitch deck. This increases their chances of securing investment.
Key Elements of a Successful Pitch Deck
A successful pitch deck needs to be professional, well-designed, comprehensive, engaging, and straightforward. All pitch decks should include the following elements:
Problem and solution slides
Open your deck with a problem slide, which is the basis of your presentation and the whole justification for your business. Use bullet points and a relatable, easy-to-follow narrative to engage your audience, including potential investors.
Follow the problem slide by presenting the solution. Expand on what makes your solution unique, existing industry solutions, and specific gaps that your business will fill. Intercom’s solution slide is a great example of showcasing the selling proposition (USP) in the SaaS market through easy, self-explanatory bullet points.
Market opportunity and validation slides
Your market opportunity and validation slides should prove to potential investors that your product or service will be purchased. Include basic information about your target market, their purchasing power, and their habits in your industry.
For instance, LinkedIn’s market validation slide has clear data from top competitors and breaks down barriers to growth and revenue for these competitors. It shows potential investors how their company would improve on those models.
Business model and financial projections
Business model slides cover how your startup will run and launch its product or service for sustainable growth. To better support this, compare your startup to other businesses or use internal data of your product, if available.
In your financial model slide, clearly show how your product or service will create revenue and any plans to guarantee a steady income. If you offer a subscription-based service with premium features, explain these models.
Team and traction
Team slides introduce the members and brains behind your startup. Include the information about founders, leadership, and top existing investors. Add anything that showcases your experience and will generate confidence in your ability to launch this startup.
Contently’s team slide, though extensive, covers top employees, proprietary technology, advisors, and the amount raised so far. This is all relevant information to potential investors. This shows them, along their financial model slide, that their investment will be used wisely and profit will be made. Check the pitch here.
In your traction slide, show how your business currently performing. Include current sales, growth, valuable partnerships, endorsements, pre-orders, or data from a pilot study outlining current consumer interest.
Competitive landscape
Include a slide that gives context to potential investors about your competition. Include information about revenue data, what competitors do well and what they do not, and how your startup bridges product gaps.
16 Inspiring Pitch Deck Examples
Check the following 16 startup pitch deck examples to inspire yourself to create your own. These are among the best pitch decks ever! Many other
Airbnb
Airbnb pitch deck is one of the most searched references. It raised a $500K Angel Round in investor funding. It is a classic 10-slide investor deck template. The takeaways are its focus on the company's unique value proposition and growth potential. Check the pitch here.
Uber
The Uber pitch deck is 25 slides. You learn how this company solves key issues with traditional cabs. The information is given in chunks on multiple slides to avoid overwhelming their audience. This great pitch deck emphasizes the importance of believing in your product.
Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn’s co-founder and chairman, released his series B pitch deck with advice for other entrepreneurs on how to build it. This pitch raised $10 million. Check the pitch here.
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is renowned for its investment reputation. In this pitch deck template, every slide has a purpose. The highlights are the ideas, the clarity of their thinking, and the scope of ambition.
The original Facebook pitch deck included a value proposition, key metrics, and online marketing services. Their first pitch deck used a quote from the Stanford Daily student newspaper that evidenced the product was already gaining media coverage and being used in its initial market. Check the pitch here.
Intercom
Intercom’s pitch presentation exemplifies how to communicate your business vision, product strategy, and growth prospects to potential investors. In their market strategy, their target audience was stated clearly: SaaS providers. This first pitch deck raised $600K. Check the pitch here.
Buffer
In the Buffer pitch deck, the traction slide is the focal point. It was the critical one for ensuring funding. In it, the problem, the solution, and the numbers on the current status of the company were given. This is the competitive advantage of this deck.
Mattermark
Mattermark pitch led to its $6.5 million series-A funding in 2014. To present the problem, a flowing arrow diagram to visualize the outcome was used. The use of different types of graphs is what makes this a great pitch deck.
Moz
Moz’s pitch deck explains this company’s business model very well for non-SEO savvy investors. At that time, Moz was novel for stating the unexploited potential of organic marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). Check the pitch here.
Mint
Mint’s competitor slides are the centerpiece of this pitch deck. They show current competitors along with future projections for these competitors. Competitors are used as an inspiration in their defensive strategy.
YouTube
Youtube’s pitch deck was used in 2005. It was a straightforward 10-slide pitch deck to go up in front of Sequoia Capital for fundraising. The company raised $3.5M in Series A that year.
Snapchat
Snapchat’s pitch raised $50 million in 2013. The press slide had strong social proof, which at that time was very innovative. Check the pitch here.
Tinder
The original Tinder pitch presentation raised $50 million in its seed stage in 2016. The deck explained how the app connected single people in proximity to one another, but only allowed messaging when both parties mutually liked one another’s profile. It even included a plan for monetizing the app, with in-app purchases to access more than the first few free matches.
Foursquare
The Foursquare pitch deck focused on the pain point of local search and why this company was the solution. It was explicitly stated that no competitors were explicitly focused on the consumer problem Foursquare was solving. This is what makes it so effective.
Front
Front’s pitch deck raised $65 million. It is an 11-slide-deck that opens with a mic drop. Shopify, Airbnb, and Hulu rely on Front to scale customer communication.
Wework
The WeWork pitch deck raised $42.8 million in 2014. It was created to convince investors and users of the opportunity in the coworking space. The pitch presentation highlighted their market leadership in the industry.
Best Practices for Creating your Pitch Deck
Here are some best practices for creating your pitch deck:
- Make your pitch deck template design-forward. Less is more. To save time and resources, you can use an AI deck creator such as Typeset which will format your slides for you.
- Tell your story. Include the most important information on your slides such as the problem you are solving, your solution, your business model, and your team. Include milestones, if any available. Be comprehensive but also provide a narrative that is easy to follow—and remember. Good storytelling goes a long way in making your company stand out to potential investors.
- Highlight your market strategy and opportunity.
- Keep your startup pitch deck as exciting as possible. To do so, break down the information and add illustrations and block quotes.
Tools and Resources for Pitch Deck Creation
There are many tools and templates available for creating your pitch deck. Many of these platforms will provide a pitch deck template to help you get started.
AI slide deck creators, like Typeset, are a great solution if you lack the design expertise or time to create a deck in Google Slides, Canva, or PowerPoint.
These tools, depending on your level of design abilities, are also a good place to create your deck.
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, and InDesign are also a good design option for those who have a higher level of design experience.
Pitch Deck FAQs
What is a pitch deck?
A pitch deck is a short presentation to attract potential investors for your startup business plan. Pitch decks are also known as marketing decks or startup pitch decks.
What should be included in a pitch deck?
A typical startup pitch deck template includes the following slides:
- Problem
- Solution
- Market validation
- Market size
- Product
- Business model
- Market adoption
- Competition
- Team
- Press
- Testimonials
- Financial model
Depending on your needs, you may skip or expand on these slides.
How can Typeset help in creating a pitch deck?
Typeset’s AI-powered presentation tool simplifies the creation of pitch decks by providing one-click intuitive formatting, consistent global themes, and adaptable content layouts. You can easily create and embed charts and personalize presentations to suit various scenarios, all by just typing your ideas and letting the AI handle the design.
Are there any pitch deck templates available in Typeset?
Yes, Typeset offers a variety of pitch deck templates that you can customize to fit your business needs. These templates are designed to help you create a professional and cohesive presentation quickly and easily.
Can I personalize my pitch deck for different audiences using Typeset?
Absolutely. Typeset allows you to personalize presentations for any scenario, whether it's an onboarding presentation, training session, sales pitch deck, or board meeting update. Just type your ideas, and the AI slide tool will handle the design and formatting to suit your audience.
Is there a learning curve for using Typeset’s AI-powered presentation tool?
Typeset is designed to be user-friendly, allowing you to start typing your content and let the AI handle the design. This makes it easy for anyone, regardless of design expertise, to create professional-looking presentations.
Discover how seamless and impactful your presentations can be with Typeset. Start creating your pitch deck today and get immediate results. Click here to start designing
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