A step-by-step guide to crafting the perfect fundraising pitch deck

While it’s hard to tell a startup what exactly to put in its pitch deck, there’s an effective framework that can help a company build one.

As one of the more famous VC firms in the world, Sequoia Capital’s pitch deck is worthy of a deep review, and it can be a model for any company.

Sequoia Capital’s pitch deck template

The company’s deck is made up of 10 key slides:

1. Company purpose
2. Problem
3. Solution
4. “Why now?”
5. Market size
6. Competition
7. Product
8. Business model
9. Team
10. Financials

One immediately noticeable thing about it is the simplicity of its slides. Design can be helpful in clarifying ideas, but they should be a secondary focus; the content is far more important.

The first rule: Humans have a short attention span

The most important information needs to be stated at the start of the pitch. If a meeting is an hour long, it’s a rookie mistake to assume receiving a full hour of the audience’s attention. It would be smarter to have a 30-minute presentation instead and allot the remaining 30 minutes for Q&As, with supporting slides.

The typical attention span during an investor meeting follows this curve, which must be taken into consideration when building a deck:

If a startup can’t convince investors that its idea is interesting within the first five minutes of a presentation, they will most probably lose interest in following through with the investment. The first few minutes of a pitch must coherently present crystal-clear ideas.

Company purpose

This slide must define what a company does in a single declarative statement. While that sounds easy, it’s often the most difficult part of the process – and also extremely important.

It shouldn’t be bogged down with explanations of features, products, or metrics; the focus should be on communicating the startup’s mission.