10-Pager (Main Deck)
The 10-pager is your main fundraising deck. It should describe a compelling yet simple story about your startup, unique insight into the future, and how you will win.
The 10-pager is the main fundraising deck aka the pitch. As mentioned previously and further discussed in Phase II - Fundraising, you may or may not use the actual slides when meeting investors. Regardless, investing in a great 10-pager is absolutely essential to raising capital, because it clarifies your thinking and story.
Here are a few guidelines about creating an effective pitch:
Many decks focus on the straightforward problem-solution template, where you start by describing a painful problem experienced by a specific customer, followed by a slide that explains how your product / service solves this problem. This template is very common and is a particularly good fit for B2B and some marketplace startups. Many choose to use it and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.
However, in my experience, the problem-solution approach creates rather dry fundraising decks that are mostly mechanical in nature. By contrast, the most effective pitches are great at telling a story, which is inspirational and emotional beyond just solving a customer pain. I believe that this matters not just for investors, but also for recruiting, sales, partnerships, media outreach, and so on.
That is why I recommend starting with a worldly trend. Great decks - and great companies! - are about a unique insight into the future. Try answering the question how is the world conspiring to enable the opportunity you are working on. This tends to work especially well if you can combine it with a strong opener that explains how you are uniquely qualified to spot this trend before anyone else and why you understand a secret that remains hidden for the majority of the rest of the world. Even though it’s not an early stage deck, you can check out Pendo’s Series B pitch (backup) for an example of this approach.
Whatever approach you take, make sure to cover all major topics that investors expect to see. For a good list, check out Sequoia’s “Writing a Business Plan” (backup).
Each slide should argue 1 point and be as simple, clear, and succint as possible. What you are looking for is the kind of slide that an investor can look at, get immediately, and then nod in approval. Investors have famously short attention spans, so the emphasis is on simplicity. This is harder to accomplish than it sounds..
Each point you make should be inarguable. There is nothing worse than starting to quibble over whether the market size is $5B or $3B. Select and state your arguments carefully to avoid such derailments. Note that an investor might agree with all arguments and still not invest because they don’t believe in whatever leaps of faith your venture requires, or for any number of other reasons.
Each slide should be “offensive.” What I mean by that is that you should be actively building the “bull” scenario about how and why things will come together to result in a massive success. Don’t fall into the trap of sounding weak or defensive, or making up excuses.
Each slide should set up the next slide to create a nice flow that is easy to follow and builds the case for investing in your company gradually and convincingly.
Even though I have named this section the “10-Pager” there is no hard rule to have exactly 10 slides. Perhaps you have 9 or go up to 12. In any case, your pitch should be simple, concise, and powerful.