How to build a better pitch deck

A 12-part series

A few months ago I launched my newsletter and started with a walkthrough of the slides in a typical pitch deck. 12 posts and 20,000 words later it’s done. Actually, it still a work in progress and I keep finding new topics to explore.

I put together this summary so everything is in one place. You can start at the beginning or jump right to the section you care about.

I’m always learning and I value feedback, so please message me or leave a comment. If you’ve applied anything to your own pitch and it’s worked (or hasn’t) those are the stories I want to hear.

About the Series

This is a resource for entrepreneurs building pitch decks. I discuss each slide in depth, talk about storytelling frameworks and give examples.

A pitch deck is a funny animal. It’s about selling the future but it’s built on the past. It’s a sales document, not a business plan. But it’s often the only business plan. Investors have expectations you need to learn, but one of those is to be a rebel.

I believe every pitch should be unique. You are different, your company is different and the times are different. There are infinite stories to be told and an infinite number of ways to tell yours.

There are no standards but there are conventions you should learn. Invest the time to prepare and make something solid. But don’t lose sight of your real goal: to tell a great story.

Table of Contents

1. 🤔 Problem - Make your problem real, talk about who has it, describe the impact you’ll have on the problem.

2. 💡 Solution - What is your unique approach? Talk about alternatives.

3. 💻 Product - Connect your product and solution. 4 ways to design this slide.

4. ❓Why Now - Find what’s changing in your environment. A tool for answering Why Now?

5. 🗺️ Market - How to do a bottom-up analysis of your market size.

6. 💪 Competition - Linking your solution and competition slides to find your unique competitive advantages.

7. ⚙️ Business Model - How to talk about how you make money. Looking at flywheels.

8. 📣 Go To Market - Elements of a GTM slide. How to talk about your channels.

9. 📈 Financials - A non-boring template for your financial projections.

10. 👥 Team - Answering Why You? A sample format for this slide.

11. 🚗 Traction - Definition of traction. Three ways to describe traction.

12. 📖 Title Page & Ask - How to design your title page. What to include in your Ask.

13. 🎁 Bonus material - A complete sample pitch deck with detailed annotations.

Further Reading

This series, and all of my updated content, is now hosted at www.founderinresidence.co.