What is a Pitch Deck? The Basics.

What is a Pitch Deck?

If you’re asking what’s a pitch deck, then you’re in the right place. We’ve been working on pitch decks for over 13 years, collaborating with companies that have raised over $100 million, as well as with companies that had just a few ideas and started them from scratch. A pitch deck is what you really need.

It’s a presentation necessary for showcasing your product. Now, a pitch deck doesn’t have to be solely for foreign investment, although it is commonly used for that purpose. However, a pitch deck can also be used to pitch a product for marketing or for a campaign.

Why a pitch deck?

There are many usages for a deck. In a nutshell, a pitch deck is a presentation or document used to present a product. That is it to the core. Yet, most people associate this with investments, similar to how people link burgers with McDonald’s. So, pitch decks are often associated with investment presentations.

Now, let me tell you what people refer to when they talk about a pitch deck as an investment document. A pitch deck, in this context, is most commonly a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation that showcases the market opportunity of a product. It displays how many people could potentially buy this product, as well as the problem it’s solving and the solution it’s offering.

All of those elements are commonly included in a deck. Aside from that, there is the team element and the financial projections. It’s a short presentation designed to do whatever it takes to secure that investment.

The Investor Deck

If an investor is interested in investing in a certain company, an optimal deck should answer all the questions they could think of. We have been building these decks for a long time because, in all honesty, most pitch decks follow a specific structure established by companies like Y Combinator, large accelerators, or venture capitalists.

This can be imperfect when creating a deck. You ought to work on a storyboard first, on your own storyboard, to pitch the narrative in the right way. After that, you should start designing it with your own brand or brand guidelines. Only after you’ve done those things will you be able to start writing.

The Stages Of A Pitch Deck

On average, working on a pitch deck has a couple of phases in our work: storyboarding and writing. Storyboarding, which is the creative and thinking element, consumes the most time in our process. It takes at least 60% of the time compared to designing and writing the deck itself.

You need to know what the pitch deck is for and what people want to look at when they’re asking for one. Some investors would simply need a couple of slides filled with market documents. Others would need just financial statements, and some would need to see how this idea could revolutionize the tech world.

So, what is a pitch deck? It’s a document tailored to the reader. If the reader is an investor, then it’s an investor deck. If the reader is a marketing agency, then it’s a marketing pitch. There are different approaches to what a deck can do, and that’s why you ought to keep that in mind while working on such a document.

PS. Check some of our free templates here; You’ll find some deck templates you could definitely use.