“Send me your deck” - what needs to go in your pitch deck and why
If you are building interesting things then the words “Send me your deck” will be uttered in your direction during early interactions with investors.
This requires the crafting of what I would call a “send-it-on” deck. A set of slides tailored for the purpose of being read by someone, on their own time, without the benefit of you being there to present the content to them.
Ideally you’d have a face to face presentation, where you could passionately argue the case for your startup but life isn’t ideal. Therefore the “send-it-on” deck must fill in what is being lost: context, a fleshed out narrative, and presenter/brand personality, all of which were previously being provided by you in-person.
Why are they asking for a send-it-on deck?
In brief they want to know in a quick and frictionless manner about what you are building, where you’re going, and to see if you’re a good fit for them and their investment goals. On top of that there is a brutal reality that because they are so inundated with decks, they are looking to use your deck as a quick rejection filter.
“Like it or not, investors are probably getting dozens or hundreds of emails and pitches each week — they’re almost looking for a reason to move on and reject startups, they’re not reading every word and considering them carefully — be their favourite founder by making life easy for them”
- Matthew Stafford, co-founder of 9others and angel investor
What you’ll be tempted to do…
You’ll be tempted to go with a “one-deck-fits-all” approach, one deck that suffices for 1) in-person presentations AND 2) send-it-on presentations. Avoid this temptation, because the send-it-on deck exists as a unique class of communications medium, as illustrated below.
The key difference
1) An “in-person” deck should ideally be as light as possible content wise. The main star of the show is you the presenter. It will make a very poor send-it-on deck, as flicking through the minimalist content will be confusing.
2) A send-it-on deck should be comparatively dense in information and context making. It would make a very weird in-person deck, as you would be essentially repeating what is on the screen at all times like an autocue.
Therefore pursuing this “one-deck-fits-all” approach will lead to a deck that is ineffective at both jobs, and displays your own laziness. Taken together that is not a winning combination in the eyes of people you are trying to impress.
Rules on making a good “send-it-on” deck
Rule 0: Know the deck’s purpose, and limitations.
The rule that underpins the rest is to understand what the deck is for. It’s just one of the many steps in your fundraising journey. It’s the first date not the wedding proposal. It’s not going to seal any deals. The objective of the send-it-on deck is to get your foot in the door, and deliver a compelling opener. So with that in mind following the rules below will help you do justice to your startup’s vision:
Rule 1: Keep things dead short.
Everybody’s time is limited. Assume this document is being read by a busy person in between incoming notifications, calls, etc. Therefore you need to get across what you need to get across in 2 or so minutes of reading. Content should be zippy, quick, getting the main points across swiftly. When in doubt, leave it out.
Rule 2: Do not be boring.
Your startup is competing for a very busy person’s brain-space, and you’re not there in-person to try and win over their attention. Therefore the document you create must be fascinating. Boring stuff isn’t finished. Be exciting enough that they want to meet you in person.
Rule 3: Tell them what you do and your ah-ha moment quickly.
Too many decks seem to obscure the “what would you say you do” part. Rambling on for several slides without getting to the point is a recipe for non-completion of the slides (there are more interesting things to do). Get to the a-ha moment quickly.
Rule 4. Be clear, not cryptic or drenched in insider lingo.
Anything that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood. In the words of Jason Fried of 37Signals: “Be clear first and clever second. If you have to throw one of those out, throw out clever”
Rule 5: Write clear, descriptive, active headlines.
Just assume the recipient will only read the headlines, so make them useful. Contentless, uninteresting headlines are a huge lost opportunity.
For e.g.
Title Before: “The problem space being tackled by Carsuro”
Title After: “CarSuro is disrupting the $123bn US car insurance market”
or
Title before: “The CarSuro Team”
Title after: “A team with 34 years industry experience”
Rule 6: Assume it will be read on a phone.
This means that along with competing buzzes, pings, and calls you need to bare in mind that it will probably be read on a tiny screen. Design and test accordingly. Give the send-it-on deck a thorough test run on your phone to see how legible it is. You probably need to make things bigger than you thought.
But really try to ONLY include the links on the last slide. Otherwise you risk the viewer clicking out to emails, texts, tweets etc outside the deck. Once they are mentally disconnected from your deck they probably aren’t coming back.
“So good they can’t ignore you”
Hopefully the rules above help guide you when you are crafting your next send-it-on deck. You’re on an exciting journey, don’t let a poor pitch scupper your chances at the beginning. Make your vision clear, compelling and “so good they can’t ignore you”.
(PS Next time I’ll write a little about the actual visual design of the send-it-on deck, keep an eye out on my twitter account and you’ll see it posted in the near future.)
