Ten to twelve slides, in the order that makes the argument. What each one has to prove, and the three that decide whether the rest get read.
7 min read
A pitch deck is not a description of your company. It is an argument that a specific, large outcome is likely, and that you are the people it will happen to. Every slide either advances that argument or is costing you attention.
The order that works
Problem — who has it, how often, and what it costs them today. Name a person, not a market segment.
Insight — what you know about this problem that most people do not. This is the slide that makes an investor lean in, and the one most decks skip.
Product — what it does, in one screenshot and one sentence. Not a feature list.
Traction — the evidence. Retention curve, revenue, cohort behaviour. Put it early if it is good.
Market — how you get to a large number from the bottom up. Top-down TAM slides are discounted to zero by anyone who has seen a few hundred decks.
Business model — what you charge, to whom, and what it costs you to serve them.
Competition — who else solves this, including the spreadsheet and the status quo. Positioning, not a checkbox grid you win.
Go-to-market — the specific channel that works, and why it keeps working as you scale it.
Team — why these founders. Relevant, specific, and short.
The ask — how much, over what runway, and the milestones it buys.
The three slides that decide it
Traction, insight and team. An investor reading a deck cold is asking three questions in this order: is this working, is there a reason it will keep working, and are these the people. Everything else is context for those answers. If your traction is thin, your insight has to be sharper and your team slide has to earn more.
Practical things that matter more than they should
One idea per slide, stated in the headline. The headline should carry the point even if nobody reads the body.
Numbers with their denominators. "40% month-on-month growth" from a base of ten users is a rounding error, and an investor will assume the worst if you make them ask.
A PDF, not a link that tracks them. Send the thing they can forward to a partner.
An appendix. Detailed cohort tables, the full model and the competitive teardown belong after the ask, ready for the second meeting.
Send the deck before the meeting, not after. A partner who has read it arrives with questions about your business; one who has not spends the call being walked through slides.
General information for founders, not legal, tax or financial advice. Fundraising documents are binding in ways that are not obvious from reading them — take professional advice on anything you are about to sign.