🧑🏫 What makes a product pitch deck work?
I think a pitch deck is almost like a passport for a startup =)
It needs to contain all the important information about the business, but at the same time, it has to be presented in the right, clear, and aesthetic way.
I’m realizing how difficult that balance actually is...
Too much information - nobody wants to read it.
Too little - the business isn't clear.
Too much design - the message gets lost.
Too little - it becomes just another boring document.
So, I have a lot of questions =D
I’m curious how other people approach it.
Do you make your pitch deck yourself?
Do you start with the story or the design?
Do you use design tools or AI?
Do you make one version and keep improving it, or completely rethink it after feedback?
And I’d love to hear from anyone who has seen a pitch deck that helped a startup get investment - what did it look like?
What has your approach been when creating a pitch deck?
What worked for you, and what would you advise others to do?
Replies
story first, always. we made the mistake early on of opening with the product screenshots because we were proud of what we'd built, and every investor meeting turned into a feature walkthrough instead of a conversation about the market. once we rewrote it so the first three slides were just "here's the problem, here's why now, here's why us" and pushed the product deep-dive to slide 6+, the meetings got shorter and the questions got sharper - which is the actual goal, you want them pattern-matching against their portfolio, not being polite about your UI. we use Figma, not because it's better than Canva but because we could keep the deck in the same file as our brand assets. one version that keeps evolving, not a rewrite - every rejection debrief (when we could get one) turned into 1-2 slide edits, never a teardown. what stage is RunEvr's deck aimed at right now, pre-seed conversations or further along?
@galdayan We’re at the pre-seed stage and have a pitch deck draft. We keep working on it again and again though =)
Have you only gotten rejections so far, or have you had some positive responses already?
The pattern I keep seeing is the same one @galdayan has mentioned - teams protect their product over their story. Easier to lead with what you built than with the problem first. BUT investors care about the problem first!
@bdennis11907 Yes, that's true..
Have you had any meetings with investors?
@adana yeah, multiple times
I’d start with the story and keep the design simple. What’s the one thing you want investors to remember after seeing your pitch?
@shivam_kushwaha16 ig the goal is that they will simply remember our pitch =) To not be just another one.
@adana Makes sense! Keeping the story simple and memorable is key Thanks for sharing your approach
The passport analogy is spot on. I'd add it also has to work differently depending on who's holding it a deck that's clear read cold by an investor is different from one you're presenting live.
My approach: story first, always. I write the narrative as if I'm explaining it to a smart friend over coffee problem, why now, why me before touching a slide tool. Design only earns its place once the logic holds up on its own in plain text.
One thing that's helped me: before building the deck, I stress-test the actual business case (market size, costs, risks, go/no-go) separately from the storytelling. If the underlying numbers are shaky, no amount of design saves the deck it just makes shaky numbers look confident, which investors see through fast.
Rebuild over polish, in my experience. First version is never it. Each round of feedback usually kills a slide rather than improving it.
@samuel_nwokemodo Thanks for sharing your experience.
And I agree about the numbers. What do you think - how should we do the real research? Or can we rely on AI statistics?
@adana AI stats are a good starting point, not the final answer. I use AI to surface rough benchmarks and the right questions fast, then verify anything that matters with real sources customer interviews, industry reports. An AI-hallucinated number on a slide is the fastest way to lose an investor's trust.
This is actually part of why I built a tool that forces AI advisors to cite real risk/cost checks instead of just guessing- happy to share more if useful.
@samuel_nwokemodo Wow ! really? Of course, super interested =)
@adana glad to hear it! Yeah, it's been a fun (and humbling) problem to work on getting AI agents to actually disagree productively is harder than it sounds.
Happy to walk you through how it works if you want to try it on an idea of your own even a rough one. What are you building / thinking about right now?
I usually start with the story first. If I can explain it simply, the design gets much easier.
I also like keeping each slide focused on one idea. Then I tweak the deck based on the questions people keep asking.
@tsiriniavo_rabemananjara Thanks for sharing your experience.
But don’t you keep some storyline from one slide to the next? Or do you strictly keep one idea per slide?
@adana Yeah, there’s still a story. I just try to keep each slide about one main thing so it’s easy to follow. Always making sure each slide naturally leads into the next
@tsiriniavo_rabemananjara Good =) Thanks for sharing your vision
So the most crucial part is your reference, where the hypothesis come from and how your numbers are backed.
Can you prove that your problem is a real problem? With numbers? researches, tests validation etc.?
Same for value proposition, solution, product model, market size and your framework, or entry strategies.
Of course I'm assuming that all the other essential pages, structures are already done and we're looking for the decks that come a step ahead.
@denizcanilgin Proving that the problem exists is the most important part ig.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Pitch deck is the goldmine
@kshitij_mishra4 indeed =)
Try sending the deck without presenting it and ask someone to explain the business back to you
Who pays and what problem you solve
If those answers need your voiceover I would fix that before polishing the slides