Capturing the investors’ imagination with your pitch deck
Now you have the building blocks of a great deck.
You’ve seen examples of the slides that work and why they work.
You are aware of the information investors want to see, why they want to see it and how you can convey it convincingly.
But how do you put these elements together?
What are the fundamentals of a winning pitch deck?
It’s time to pay attention to the finer details – combining your slides and the information about your startup with a good storytelling structure.
As I’ve outlined before, your pitch deck must tell a story – it must not be a list of figures and facts but an engaging journey down the path your startup is on – from the idea to the business.
So, you need
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And it worked, as the startup raised $500k with the pitch deck.
They tell a story
Pitch decks tell stories.
And stories often follow a specific structure, which you should use as the basis for your deck.
The winning storytelling formula comes in the form of Freytag’s Pyramid:
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So, what does it mean for your pitch deck?
Let’s look at the possibilities it offers in its purest form:
THE EXPOSITION – INTRODUCE THE TEAM AND THE COMPANY PURPOSE (VISION)
INCITING INCIDENT – OUTLINE THE PROBLEM
RISING ACTION – SET OUT THE CURRENT MARKET, COMPETITION
CLIMAX – PROVIDE THE SOLUTION, SHOW THE UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION
FALLING ACTION – INTRODUCE THE FINANCIALS
RESOLUTION – OUTLINE THE BUSINESS MODEL, FUNDRAISING STRATEGY
DENOUEMENT – TALK ABOUT TRENDS AND FUTURE PREDICTIONS
That’s the basic composition for a good story and a solid way of structuring your essential slides.
However, you can change the impact of your story focusing on how you tell the story, even if you don’t fundamentally change the structure of the slides.
Soren Petersen and Steven Bussard brought up two great examples of this in their blog post ‘Using Storytelling to Pitch Startups’.
They used the slides introduced by Guy Kawasaki and noted that by changing the structure slightly and focusing on how you engage the listener, you can create different types of stories.
First, you could tell an origin story – emphasising how things started with your
In my Powerpoint display I am creating an easy to follow guide for the CNWL and BCS App-a-thon. This display consists of ten slides. Each slide gives information about the event and what to expect on the day. For example No.1.Outline slide is about the underlying contents of the event 2.Introduction slide is basically saying what the event is all about 3.What is a mobile app slide, states the mobile app and its uses.4.What is an Android
Please, Elene maybe we can put some of the information in the notes, since the slides text is very long?
you will need to prepare a set of slides and presentation notes (speaker notes with details that you will give during the presentation).
Please note that in the presentation_content file, the person who has drafted the presentation has left you some instructions in red.
Create an 8- to 12-slide Microsoft® PowerPointC® presentation, including detailed speaker notes, in which you discuss your personal brand and future story. Include the following in the presentation:
For our presentation, I believe that we stated our main point, and reiterated it throughout the presentation that we wanted our fellow students to be able to understand the physiological influence of altitude on cerebral blood flow following a concussion. We included some sub points that were at a level of content that was appropriate for our audience, and I believe that our slide design emphasized relevant pictures rather than words, while maintaining the pictorial aspect of the rule of thirds. I believe that we could have emphasized the use of pictures rather that word throughout our presentation, as some our slides were indeed a bit too wordy. We meant to include a question and answer sequence within our presentation, but a lapse in our performance lead to this segment being excluded, so I
What is…. And what could be? That is how a presentation can go depending on how you present your message. Using Steve Jobs and MLK (both known to history as being great speakers and motivators), Nancy Duarte showed that these men did not rely on some pre-written speech to dictate how their messages would come across. Establishing your point, acknowledging what is and what could be, and finally say why others should listen to what you have to say. It is also critical to make sure you are addressing the right audience. If you stick to a boring presentation, there is no clear vision for the future.
Will the presentation and information give your employees an actionable plan to improve their lives and/or work methods? A public speaker’s presentation needs to be more than a simple monologue people forget about the next day. It has to resonate with the audience on a long-term basis.
But my storytelling wasn’t strong enough because I wouldn’t finish telling the story of each slide, 15 min wasn’t enough time for me. Other than that, I believe my presentation was interesting because by the look at the audience faces; they were all paying attention and manage to laugh at some parts that I presented. My narrative was quite easy to understand because I wouldn’t finish what I had to say for each slide for talking at a normal pace. I should have talked a bit faster than that.
Presentations should reflect a careful analysis of audience interest and be relevant. Presentations should also reflect the theory we
To give a rhetorically convincing speech Lunsford and Ruszkiewicz suggested that “you want your organizational structure to be crystal clear. So offer an overview of your main points toward the beginning of your presentation” and “avoid long, complicated sentences and use straightforward syntax”(349). Both Melissa Fleming and Anand Giridharadas began their speeches with a story. Fleming’s story was about a young, refuge man, named Hany, who realized the importance of education and took his high school diploma when his life was in danger. This opening story engaged the audience and allowed Fleming to introduce her main point in the beginning of her presentation. Fleming also uses straightforward syntax when she is speaking. Those two reasons
Hints: You must limit your presentation to twelve (12) slides. You do not want to overwhelm your audience with too many slides or bore them with information they already know.
Your Subject matter is presented at an appropriate level of understanding for the audience and is supported
The narrative form exhibited in the opening sequence seems simple at first glance, but actually conveys a multitude of
Our presentation slides focuses more on pictures, charts and key-points for visual aid. By keeping the slides simple, audiences can focus more on the speaker. The videos uploaded by the Centre for English Language Communication department tell us our weaknesses which we do not realize by ourselves. Reflecting on my first and second presentation through videos and feedbacks from Ms. Christine has helped me