How to build a pitch deck: start with the story and finish with the design. First define the three highlights investors should remember. Then write the storyline as a memo or sketch, outside any slide software. Only then create slides with content, and polish the design last. The deck has one job: getting you the meeting.
How to build a pitch deck: what are the steps?
You build a pitch deck from your story outward, in four steps. Many founders pick a slide template first and then force their content into it. The order that works runs the other way:
- Three highlights: Define the three key points of your case that should stick in investors' minds.
- Storyline: Build the structure of your story around these three highlights. Do this outside PowerPoint or Google Slides: as a written memo, on paper, on a whiteboard or in a visual tool such as Miro.
- Slides with content: Only now create the deck. Put the content on the slides and start the visuals as rough scribbles.
- Design polish: Finally, make the deck look good. Every visual should support your message. Leave out stock photos that serve no purpose.
I summarise this in my CEO Briefing article Design follows your story: start designing your storyline before you open any presentation program.
What should you decide before you create any slides?
Before the first slide, decide on your three most compelling arguments and your three strongest moats. A moat is whatever protects your business from competitors: a competitive advantage or a barrier that makes it hard for others to enter.
The three arguments: If you had only three bullet points to convince an investor, which would you choose? The answer depends on your case. Some examples:
- A serial founder who has built and sold companies before.
- A deep-tech team (a team building on scientific or engineering research) that has researched its topic for years and has insights others lack.
- A market that grows fast and opens new opportunities right now.
- A product with engagement metrics (numbers on how actively people use it) far above the industry average.
The three moats: Venture capital (VC) investors want to invest in startups that are hard to copy. Possible moats include:
- A proprietary technology with its own intellectual property (IP), such as patents.
- Strong brand awareness in a niche, combined with a product that customers find hard to leave.
- A team that knows the industry better than anyone else after many years in it.
- A regulatory approval, such as an approval by the NHS (the UK's National Health Service) in health tech.
I have asked many founders raising Series A rounds (a company's first major round of venture capital) for their three most compelling arguments. Many of them were not prepared for the question. The exercise is described in Do this before creating your pitch deck.
Why do three highlights matter so much?
Three highlights matter because people remember only a few core ideas from any pitch. If you do not choose them, the audience chooses for you.
At a pitch roast in Hamburg, where I reviewed founders' decks live in front of an audience, I asked every founder one question before looking at the slides: "If the audience remembers only three things from your pitch, what should they be?" In 80 to 90 percent of cases, the three points the founder wanted people to remember were not the ones the audience actually remembered. The audience often remembered whatever was visually prominent or emotionally striking.
Three defined highlights give your pitch a backbone:
- They force you to choose what truly matters.
- They give the audience a simple structure to recall later.
- They make the storyline, the transitions and your delivery clearer.
The full story of the Hamburg session is in The three highlights rule.
What must every pitch deck cover?
Every pitch deck has to answer three questions: who, why and what.
- Who: Who is behind the startup, and what does the competitive landscape look like?
- Why: Which problem does the startup solve, and why does the world need the solution now?
- What: What exactly is your product or service that solves the problem?
Beyond these three, a useful comparison is a movie trailer. A trailer shows the most exciting parts and does not give away the whole plot. The first deck you send to investors can work the same way:
- Storytelling: Include the slides that best tell your core story. Leave out elements that add no excitement or value, even if a checklist suggests them.
- No mediocre content: If you have no strong content for a standard topic, leave it out. A few strong, focused slides work better than many average ones.
- Build anticipation: Each slide should make the investor more eager to learn more.
How much information belongs in a pitch deck?
A pitch deck needs everything an investor requires to understand your case and to believe it. Everything beyond that can stay out. Your deck has one job: getting you the meeting.
A helpful way to sort information is to use two boxes:
- Pitch information: what an investor needs to understand your case, like it and want to talk to you.
- Diligence information: what an investor needs to check whether your case holds up. Due diligence is the detailed review an investor does before investing.
A detailed competition analysis, for example, is diligence information. In the deck, one sharp sentence about why you win can be enough.
After reading your deck, an investor should have three things in mind:
- Understood: They know what you do and why it could be big.
- Believed: They have seen enough proof to take your case seriously.
- Curious: They have open questions and want the answers.
The open question is what makes the investor book a call. The CEO Briefing article The best decks leave questions open explains where the line runs.
How do you test your pitch deck before sending it?
Read your own deck as if you were the investor, and write down the first question you would ask:
- "What do they do?" The deck has a clarity problem. Go back to your storyline.
- "How did you get to that number?" Good. That is a question for a meeting.
- "Why hasn't the incumbent done this already?" Very good. The incumbent is the established market leader, and the investor is now thinking about your moat. The deck invites a conversation.
The deck also prepares you for the conversations that follow. Many VCs today read the deck in advance and skip the pitch presentation in the first meeting. The meeting then becomes a conversation driven by their questions. Knowing your three arguments and three moats lets you bring them up in that conversation, at the points where they fit.
“Your deck has one job: get the meeting.”
Frequently asked questions
Should I start my pitch deck with a template?
Start with your story instead. Define three highlights, write the storyline as a memo or sketch, and choose the slide design only after the content is clear.
How many slides should a pitch deck have?
There is no fixed number. Include the slides that tell your core story best, and leave out topics for which you have no strong content.
What are the three questions every pitch deck must answer?
Who is behind the startup and who else competes in the market, why the problem matters now, and what exactly your solution is.
What is the difference between pitch information and diligence information?
Pitch information helps an investor understand your case, like it and want to meet you. Diligence information helps the investor check whether the case holds up, and it belongs in the later conversations.
Do I need a fundraising advisor to build my pitch deck?
Not necessarily. An outside view helps most when you want to check whether investors remember the three points you want them to remember. See how fundraising advisory works.
