In almost every aspect of our life we have to pitch. We pitch ourselves for jobs and our projects for funding. One of the biggest areas where pitches matter is to get your business idea off the ground.
A good pitch can make the difference whether the idea gets marketing support, wins top talent, finds a sponsor, and even gets the $100 million of venture capital to go global.
In this post we look at proven pitch frameworks to get your idea the attention it deserves and some of the biggest example pitch decks of the last 10 years.
The Contents of The Ultimate Pitch Deck
So what content do you need in your pitch deck to wow your audience? Here’s a summary of the content and flow that some of the best pitch packs use.
- 1. Vision / Elevator Pitch
- 2. Team &/Or Board Members (Move to later if the team doesn’t have extensive credibility)
- 3. Market Opportunity
- 4. The Problem
- 5. The Solution
- 6. Product / Service
- 7. Traction*
- 8. Competition (and Your Competitive Advantages)
- 9. Business / Revenue Model
- 10. Financials* or Financial Projections
- 11. Your Financial Ask
- 12. Closing (Questions, Contacts)
* These are areas you’ll want to expand upon if your business idea has a history in the marketplace.
The 3 Big Questions to Grab Your Audience
If you don’t grab your audience in the first few minutes, you may lose them forever.
Among all the content in your pitch pack, in my opinion these 3 questions are the most important to nail upfront:
- Your Vision: people don’t just buy what you do today, they buy where you’re headed. They also buy the emotional story connected to your idea. This is why ‘vision’ is so important. It wraps up your compelling idea with a statement of inspiration and purpose to excite your audience.
- The Problem: for an idea to be worth anything, it has to solve something that challenges the world today. This is where your ‘problem’ statement comes in. As well as providing your audience with a concise summary of what your idea will solve, your problem statement also tells your audience that you have thought carefully about your purpose and target market.
- Your Solution: this tells your audience how you’ll solve the problem that you’ve identified. In your solution, touch on how your approach is different and unique from others out there in the market.
The Best Pitches – Large & Small
If you’ve ever wanted an example of a great pitch deck, look no further. Even the biggest companies today had to pitch sometime (including facebook). This list shows a variety of golden pitch decks from the smallest to the largest businesses.
Honorable Mentions
One Match Ventures pitch deck examples and templates is worth a look. As is Tim Young’s example deck for ACME, which I found gives excellent layouts for how to compress a good deal of information into a few slides.
Pitches keep innovation afloat in the world and, lets face it, take a good deal of courage. I wish you all the best in connecting your ideas with what they need to shift to the next level.
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Image Source: Maze Puzzle, by FutUndBeidl. https://www.flickr.com/photos/61423903@N06/7369580478
