In English, the word “pitch” is used to introduce, sell or summarize an idea. The word “deck” is originally used to mean a deck of cards. In business, it refers to the set of slides used in a presentation. The term “pitch deck”, formed by the combination of these two words, started to be used in the sense of presentations prepared by entrepreneurs to present their projects in a short and effective way.
Among the ultimate goals of every startup is to reach an investor who will strengthen their idea. This is one of the hardest parts, because investors evaluate countless startups every day, and in this process, you only have minutes to catch their attention. That’s why preparing an effective pitch deck is critical to presenting your venture in the best light.
We had the chance to see hundreds of pitch decks during our journey. But how many of these pitch decks were good? Here it is quite possible to think -Good for whom? Well, it varies for everyone, this is very true, but there are some gold standards, the most important of which is “measure”. Yes, your content may be quite assertive, but the investor is looking for your meticulousness and care in this presentation you present to him.
For example, details such as the quality of the images you use in your slides, the readability of the texts, and the ordering of the information show the professionalism of the presentation. Investors pay great attention not only to what you say, but also to how you present it. If a presentation seems disorganized or hastily prepared, it may lead them to question the care and attention that went into your work.
That’s why your pitch deck is not just an information transfer tool; It is also a reflection of how committed and prepared you are to your job. Remember, first impressions are lasting, and a meticulously crafted pitch deck reveals how professional your work is and how seriously you take your vision. So what should you pay attention to?
Many successful products or services can maintain their success and position in the industry as long as they identify problems in their field and produce innovative and comprehensive solutions. Sometimes, it can be successful without finding a solution to a problem with completely successful marketing strategies, but this is often not possible for institutions and organizations that do not have a large budget. Especially if you are a product or service provider that is taking its first steps and gradually increasing its efforts to meet the demand in the market, you should proceed problem-oriented, not product-oriented, and constantly verify and reinforce this problem.
As humanity, our daily lives consist of many problems. Issues such as inefficiency, money losses, and time loss are among the biggest problems, especially for businesses. For this reason, especially if you are a b2b product or service, re-evaluating the accuracy of the problem you have identified with people at various levels of expertise in the field will seriously affect your success in your approach to solving the problem. Sometimes problems that seem very simple to solve can lead businesses to serious losses. Therefore, you should turn to the fastest, most effective and at the same time easy to understand solution that you can produce, especially when marketing your product or service. You should definitely use the fear factor, especially in the pitch deck presentation. The thought of what they will lose if they do not use your product or service, rather than what benefit you will provide to them when they use it, will encourage the customer and indirectly the investor.
Even if you do not know exactly where your route is when you set out, you should be able to estimate it. Even though many unknowns await you in this process, knowing what obstacles you face on the road and how long it will take to solve them is very important for your team and investors. The systematicity of these plans is especially important for experienced investors. These are very important points. It will be very difficult to calculate risk and return without identifying these. For this reason, being able to feel the basic dynamics and up and down movements of the market you are in is a very vital function for a project. Shaping this intuition clay into a sculpture and sculpting it at every stage is essential for the success of the project team.
Cognitive overload is the situation where the other person gets confused by too much information at the same time and therefore misses important points or cannot process the information they need to understand. This can seriously reduce the effectiveness of your pitch deck. To avoid cognitive overload, you should position your images in a format that preserves the contrast of the leaner content.
Any design that has a design and brand identity and provides consistency within certain patterns will be of much higher quality and more interesting. Most of the time, rather than the solution produced, how this solution is produced is at least as important in the eyes of the investor and the user as the basis of the problem, so getting the support of a designer and constantly ensuring this compatibility will contribute to your process.
Always keep in mind that no product or service can be perfect, you can always make mistakes, and do not seek perfection. Try to get feedback from everyone you have regular access to. Never defend the bad aspects of your project, create solutions for them, identify the shortcomings, and in this process, both you and your project will be improving.
As we have specifically left to the end in this article, unfortunately, law is a reality that every entrepreneur leaves last and always tries to escape, but eventually has to face. While the excitement of the job, product development, customer acquisition and growth strategies are at the forefront in the beginning, legal compliance is often seen as a “detail”. However, when this aspect of the business is ignored, the problems that may be encountered can have serious consequences not only in financial but also in terms of reputation.
This situation is similar for investors. Even though you see your project as an important part of you, for many investors it is just a good or bad investment, and investments require a safe basis.
Legal compliance shows investors that your project is built on solid foundations, risks are minimized and predictability is ensured in the growth process. That’s why investors attach great importance to legal processes and compliance regulations. If your startup has a weak legal infrastructure, even the best idea can turn into a risky investment in their eyes.