Key takeaways
- Keep it to 10–14 slides that can be read without you in the room.
- Lead with the problem and why now, not the product tour.
- Show traction and the ask in numbers, not adjectives.
Why your deck matters
Most investors see hundreds of decks a month and spend only a few minutes on each. Your deck is not the whole pitch, but it decides whether you get the meeting. A good deck is short, specific and easy to scan.
The 12-slide structure
- Title: company name, one-line description, your contact details.
- Problem: who has the pain, how often, and what it costs them today.
- Solution: what you do and why it is clearly better than the current way.
- Why now: the change in technology, regulation or behaviour that makes this possible today.
- Product: two or three screenshots or a short flow, not a feature list.
- Market size: TAM, SAM and SOM with a bottom-up calculation you can defend.
- Business model: how you make money, pricing and unit economics if known.
- Traction: revenue, users, growth rate, retention, pilots or letters of intent.
- Competition: an honest map of alternatives and why you win.
- Go-to-market: how you will reach your first 100 and next 1,000 customers.
- Team: why this team is right for this problem.
- The ask: how much you are raising, the instrument, and what milestones the money buys.
Common mistakes
- Too many words. Use one idea per slide and a headline that states the takeaway.
- Vague traction such as "strong interest". Use numbers with dates.
- A market slide that says "1% of a $50B market". Investors want to see how you build the number from real customers.
- Hiding the ask until the end of the meeting. Put it on the last slide clearly.
Two versions of your deck
Keep a send-ahead deck that stands on its own, with more text, and a presenting deck with less text that you talk over. Send PDFs, not editable files, and track who opens them if you can.
Before you send it
Ask two people outside your industry to read it in three minutes and tell you what you do. If they cannot, simplify. Kreeaa reviews decks for founders we work with. Pitch your startup to get feedback.
This guide is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules and programme terms change, so check official sources and speak to a qualified adviser before making decisions.