How to make a successful presentation for investors
21 October, 2020
Material created with the support of Reprezent
To attract the attention of the investor, you must have not only an interesting idea, but also a relevant presentation. After all, you have 3-5 minutes to interest the investor.
Pitch deck is a presentation of a project for investors. A successful presentation must be properly structured.
Three aspects of preparing a successful presentation for the investor:
- The structure of the presentation (determines how well they will understand and remember your idea).
- Slide design.
- Preparation for the performance.
The structure of the presentation
The presentation should contain the main theses of the project. Don't try to transfer the whole business plan to slides. 10-20 is enough to fully present your idea.
The purpose of your speech is to touch the investor. Show the size of the market, the understanding of your audience and the first achievements: sales, prototypes or project partners.
The general structure of the presentation for the investor from the team Reprezent.
Note that not all slides are required. Depending on your product or service, you can delete something and add something.
Project name
- Describe your project in one sentence.
Problem
- Describe the problem that your product or service solves and for whom.
Decision
- How your project solves the problem.
Market
- Indicate the size of the market in monetary terms, and add a link to the source.
- Describe your target audience.
Product description
- Describe how your product or service works.
- Specify the capabilities of your product or service.
What is at this stage. Show a product prototype if you have one:
- screenshots;
- number of registered users;
- how much the company already earns.
if you don't have something to say here — skip this slide.
Competitors analysis
- List the main competitors.
- Indicate your competitive advantages.
Business model
- Describe how you plan to make money: product sales, subscriptions, advertising, services.
Marketing strategy
- Indicate how you plan to move in the market and look for new customers.
Team
- Tell about team members, their relevant experiences and roles.
Finances
- Add tables with financial calculations: how much you plan to earn, spend and when your project will pay off.
Investments
- How much money do you need and for what.
Contacts
- Provide a name and contacts to contact you.
Design as a way to show the main thing
The main task of the speech is to interest the investor, not to impress with your knowledge of PowerPoint or Keynote. If you are not sure that you can make a presentation yourself, hire a designer.
Basic rules for slides design.
- Text. The text on the slide should not duplicate the speaker's text. Font size should be from 14-16 pt.
- Image. Use ones that visualize your idea. You should not add images to entertain investors. Give up white men and poor quality stock photos. Images can be found on free resources unsplash.com, pixabay.com and paid — depositphotos.com, shutterstock.com. In order for the photo not to be pixelated, it must be in FullHD - 1920 × 1080.
- Contrast. Use a contrasting background and font. If you are using a dark background, increase the font size to 18 pt and line spacing to 1.3.
- Animation. Use animation to show your product, for example, gradually demonstrating its benefits. Avoid complicated transitions and animations of each element. This only increases the time of your speech and distracts from the essence of the speech.
Keep in mind that a badly-made presentation will prove you to be an irresponsible person. After all, if you do not spend enough time to prepare a good presentation, you are unlikely to be responsible for further work.
Preparation for presentation
A presentation with a perfect structure and good design will not sell your idea if you are poorly prepared for the performance.
Try to describe your business using simple words. Imagine that you are telling your child what you are doing. If you are unable to do so, the text of the speech should be rewritten.
Find out how much time you will have to speech
- If you do not know the rules of the speech, prepare a short presentation for 30 seconds and a longer one — up to 3-5 minutes. So you will be ready for any situation.
Rehearse the speech performance
- Try performing speech with the slides. It is better to present your idea to friends or colleagues and pay attention to their feedback: whether everything was clear, where there was a lack of details, and where, on the contrary, it was too obvious.
Learn the text of the speech
- In no case do not read the text of the speech from the sheet — it will seem that you are not guided by what you are talking about.
Check the technique
- Before the speech, make sure that the presentation starts and that the slides are displayed correctly. If something goes wrong, you will have time to fix everything. It is important to check the audio and video during the online presentation. Before the speech, ask if the interlocutor sees and hears you.
Stories are best remembered. Tell the investor a compelling story that demonstrates your passion for business and desire to succeed.