How to Create a Pitch Deck: Structure, Steps, and a Real Example

You've all seen movie trailers, right? They're short, spark interest, highlight the key scenes, and the good ones have what it takes to hook you to see the full film. Creating a pitch deck that'll rock is somewhat similar to making a viral movie trailer.
Fundraising is never easy. Hence, when business owners and startup founders seek to get money from potential investors, having a decent presentation at hand is crucial. According to Dropbox DocSend’s research, investors spend less than three minutes reviewing a pitch deck, leaving founders little time to make an impression. Crafting one is tough, but there are secrets to how to make a good pitch deck that'll get others fired up and enthusiastic about the product or idea.
On this page, we'll introduce you to this vital documentation type, explaining how to make a pitch deck presentation for startup fundraising purposes. We'll also note what information is necessary to put together a solid pitch deck, how to cherry-pick the "must-have" information and data for the slides, and share expert tips.
Key Takeaways
- A pitch deck should earn the next conversation. Explain what your business does, why the opportunity matters, and why your team can deliver.
- Aim for 10–15 core slides covering the problem, product, market, traction, business model, team, and funding request. Keep supporting details in an appendix.
- Build the story before designing the slides. Define your audience, write your company purpose in one sentence, and give each slide a headline that communicates its main takeaway.
- Match the evidence to your funding stage. Pre-seed decks emphasize founder insight and early validation; seed and Series A decks need stronger proof of demand, retention, revenue, and scalable growth.
- Be specific about the funding you need. Explain how much you’re raising, what the money will fund, and which milestones it will help you reach.
- Prepare for both presenting and sharing. Rehearse a concise live pitch, create a self-contained send-ahead PDF, and test whether a fresh reader can follow the story.
- Follow pitch deck best practices: keep one idea per slide, use readable visuals, cite sources, and update your numbers before each send.
What Is a Pitch Deck?
A pitch deck is a 10–15-slide presentation that introduces your business, explains the problem your product solves, and outlines your market opportunity, business model, traction, team, and funding needs to help potential investors or partners understand its value and decide whether to continue the conversation.
Generally, pitch decks are accompanying materials used during presentation meetings. The deck's main aim is to make it simple to follow what the presenter is saying, line out the product's major benefits, profit opportunities, and key takeaways.
The deck has to raise interest, be encouraging and intriguing, help make the presentation memorable, and get you one step closer to the next round of talks. As let's face it, the startup funding process is ongoing, and funds aren't ordinarily raised on the first try.

The investor pitch deck format, as well as its level of detail and length, can vary depending on the purpose, company, product, service, and audience. As a rule, this visual backup for a presentation usually consists of slides that should provide enough pertinent information about the company and product. This way, it becomes a persuasive tool.
For example, the fundraising pitch deck can contain information about the:
- company and the story behind its creation;
- service, complete product, or built MVP;
- competitive advantage and value proposition;
- team;
- financials, analytics, projections, and needed funding;
- business and growth plan;
- overall plans for the future.
What Is a Pitch Deck Used For?
So, what is the purpose of a pitch deck? There are multiple use cases, but it mostly serves as a visual aid.
For instance, early entrepreneurs and startups often use pitch decks when seeking financial support or funding from investors, or when trying to join an incubator or accelerator program. Established businesses can also need it for getting capital when launching a startup, during another round of financing, or when making an exit.
As such, the deck will come in handy when businesses reach out to a list of possible investors in an attempt to schedule a meeting, as well as during such presentation meetings. So, a pitch deck is not just a popular startup term, it's a tool that allows entrepreneurs to:
- bring the big picture to light;
- introduce the project, business, or service idea;
- demonstrate the current vision or version of the product;
- explain its value proposition in a concise and organized manner;
- formulate a funding request (if that's the aim).
Pitch Deck vs. Elevator Pitch vs. Business Plan
These formats explain the same business at different levels of detail. An elevator pitch sparks initial interest, a pitch deck supports a more structured discussion, and a business plan goes deeper into strategy and execution. Let’s see how they differ and when to use each.
Think of these formats as different versions of the same story. Share enough to move the conversation forward, whether that means earning a meeting with a quick introduction or using your pitch deck to open a deeper discussion.
Let's dwell on how to create a pitch deck for investors in more detail.
What to Include in a Pitch Deck: Structure at a Glance
Your presentation and supporting pitch deck slides should be like a fluent song. Think of this combo as a duet of guitar music and a singer, when both complement each other and make sense separately. The composition should have a beginning, a culmination, and an ending.

A pitch deck should include six parts: an introduction, the problem, your product, the market, why your team will win, and a summary with your funding ask. Together, they answer what every investor wants to know: what you do, why it matters now, who will pay for it, how big it can grow, and why you're the right team to build it.
The exact slide order is up to you, but most decks that raise money follow the same logic. Sequoia's business plan template, one of the most widely copied structures in venture capital, moves from company purpose to problem, solution, why now, market potential, competition, business model, team, and financials. DocSend's analysis of seed decks found that founders who open with company purpose, problem, solution, and market size are more likely to raise funding than founders who lead with anything else.
You don’t have to build your deck from a blank page. These six parts give your story a starting point. Here’s how they fit together in the real deck we’ll walk through in the next section.
Use this structure to check that you’ve covered the essentials, but don’t force your story into it. Combine slides when the points work better together, and give a topic more room when investors need the detail. The goal is a deck that’s easy to follow, not one that follows a template perfectly.
How Many Slides Should a Pitch Deck Have?
Most pitch decks should have 10 to 15 slides, and early-stage decks often work best with about 10 or 11. That's enough to cover all six parts without making investors dig for the main point. A deck that runs past 20 slides usually needs tighter editing, not more content.
Guy Kawasaki, Canva’s chief evangelist, a former advisor to Google’s Motorola business unit, and a former chief evangelist at Apple, introduced the 10/20/30 rule. The rule is simple: use 10 slides, present for no more than 20 minutes, and use a font size of at least 30 points. Kawasaki argues that people can’t absorb more than ten concepts in one meeting and that a 20-minute pitch leaves the rest of an hour-long slot for discussion.
If investors need more detail, such as a full financial model, extra product screenshots, or customer case studies, put it in appendix slides after your ask. Keep it out of the core story.
Whatever the slide count, a strong pitch deck has three characteristics:
- It's brief. Each slide carries one idea and earns its place in the story.
- It's coherent. Each slide follows logically from the one before it, so investors can follow the story from the slide headlines alone.
- It explains itself. Investors often review a deck without you in the room, so it should make sense on its own and take under four minutes to read. DocSend’s analysis found that VCs spend an average of 3 minutes and 20 seconds reviewing a seed deck.
How to Create a Pitch Deck in 6 Steps
Before you open a slide editor, think through what investors need to know about your business. These six steps will help you turn that information into a clear story, build your slides, and prepare to share them.

Step 1: Define Your Goal, Audience, and Funding Stage
Before writing slides, decide what you want the deck to achieve: an introductory meeting, a follow-up conversation, or discussions about a specific funding round. Research each investor’s thesis, preferred stages, and portfolio to understand whether there’s a genuine fit. Then choose evidence that matches your stage. A pre-seed startup might emphasize findings from startup idea validation, while a Series A company needs a stronger case around traction and scalability. Keep the facts consistent, but make the relevance clear to your audience.
Step 2: Write Your Company Purpose and Storyline
Explain what your company does in one sentence before expanding it into a presentation. Sequoia recommends defining your company in a “single declarative sentence,” rather than getting caught up in a list of features. Try this starting point: “We help [specific customers] solve [specific problem] through [your approach].” Then outline the story behind that statement: what’s broken, why existing options fall short, what you’ve built, and why the opportunity matters now. Each section should give investors a reason to keep reading.
Step 3: Draft the Content Before Touching the Design
Open a document or a set of plain slides and work through the deck slide by slide. For each one, write the point you need to make and the evidence supporting it: a customer insight, product screenshot, revenue figure, or market estimate. For the funding slide, use your startup budget to connect the amount you’re raising to planned expenses and milestones. Don’t worry about design yet. First, spot unsupported claims, repeated arguments, and missing information, and move detailed calculations into the appendix.
Step 4: Make Every Headline Communicate a Takeaway
Give each slide a headline that says something meaningful, not just names a topic. For example, replace “Problem” with a specific statement about the customer’s pain, or “Traction” with a result your data supports. Then read only the headlines, in order. Can someone understand the opportunity without seeing the charts or hearing your explanation? If the story jumps or repeats itself, adjust the sequence. Think of this as a clarity check: every headline makes a point, and the content underneath earns it.
Step 5: Choose Your Tool and Template, Then Design
Pick a tool your team can comfortably edit: Google Slides, PowerPoint, Keynote, Canva, Figma, or Pitch. Start with a simple template, then adapt it to your content rather than filling every available placeholder. Use consistent fonts, generous spacing, and charts or screenshots that make your argument easier to understand. AI generators such as Microsoft PowerPoint Copilot can help draft an outline, suggest layouts, and refine wording, but review their output and verify every claim before sharing. Prioritize readability over decoration throughout.
Step 6: Test, Rehearse, and Prepare Two Versions
Share the draft with mentors, founders, or advisors who know your industry, and ask where the argument feels unclear or unconvincing. Rehearse aloud, time yourself, and practice answering difficult questions, not just delivering the slides. Prepare a lean presenting deck that supports your spoken pitch and a send-ahead PDF with enough context to make sense on its own. Add appendix slides for supporting financials, market assumptions, and technical details, keeping the main narrative focused. Finally, check that the PDF preserves your formatting.
Next, we’ll walk through a real pitch deck we built at Upsilon for a knowledge management R&D project, showing what went into each slide and why.
Have questions about pitch deck presentations?
Upsilon is a tech partner that provides support from getting your first funding to further product development.

How to Build a Pitch Deck [Using a Real Example of a Pitch Deck]
Now that we know what should be in a pitch deck, next, we'd like to go over how to make a pitch deck, noting what to include with explanations and tips based on the example of a real deck. We'll use the slides of one of our previous r&d projects for knowledge management to demonstrate the content.
Slide 1. Introduce Yourself
If you're not sure how to start a pitch deck presentation, you'll need a slide to help you introduce yourself. You should clearly indicate the name of your product or company with the logo and catchphrase.
Think of this as a super short description that has to explicitly convey what your company or product does and why it's valuable to customers. Limit it to about one sentence (or even a sentence fragment) that'll serve as a memorable slogan or vision statement that defines you and what you want to be remembered by.
Plus, as you see in our pitch deck example, it's also considered good practice to indicate your contact information on this cover slide too, but don't get carried away. For instance, leaving just your valid email address is enough. In fact, if your email address is short, you can duplicate it as a static element with the same placement on all pitch deck slides, so it's always in sight.

Slide 2. What Problem Needs Solving
So, why did you decide to bring this product to life or offer this service in the first place? How did you come up with the idea, and why is it a hot topic?
Use this pitch deck slide to describe the existing problem. Don't scatter the focus on multiple problems, choose only one major pain point (preferably one that's simple to relate to). Perhaps, you can fall back on a story from your personal experience. Yet backing up your argumentation matters a lot at this point, so share your proof of concept (POC).

Slide 3. Why the Time Is Now
Think about why the problem should be solved now. It's crucial to support your ideas in your pitch deck for fundraising with statistics or facts that would showcase:
- the unmet user needs;
- the current market state and market trends;
- the competitive landscape;
- why you see a "market gap" to be filled in this niche;
- or why this is an opportunity to get a hold of before it's too late.
Perfect timing is crucial when it comes to business. But don't make the listeners take your word for it, provide some data, evidence, and proof when creating pitch decks. If all of this doesn't fit on one slide, you can split your findings into two, but only if this information can really pull ropes and make a difference. Otherwise, drop the excessive numbers and facts when building a pitch deck.

Slide 4. Who's Facing the Problem
Optionally, you can dwell a bit more on who the potential customers, target buyers, or users are. Specify the target audience and how it can benefit from your product or service as much as possible. This is one of the nonobligatory components of a pitch deck, but if you believe that the information is important, you can mention it.
Do you need to segment the customers? Details like your potential users' demographics, needs, and how you plan to reach and engage this audience count during your product or MVP pitch too.
Slide 5. How You Are Solving the Problem
What do you have in mind about the ways to tackle this problem? Present your ideas or product to demonstrate how you're addressing the problem. Note why your approach is optimal and effective, your unique selling point (USP) and product benefits, and why customers should choose you. These are essentials to how to make a pitch deck for investors more valuable.

You've most likely already done something by now. Maybe you've done in-depth market research and gone through the discovery phase. Make sure to focus attention on how your solution differs from the existing competitors when creating a startup pitch deck. You can even compare your solution to the competitor's side-by-side.
Do you already have something to show? That's even better! If you have a prototype or MVP, share a preview of how the solution works or state that a demo is available. The quality of idea execution really matters, but don't go too deep into explaining the features and the technical details. Here you can also tell a bit more about the product's transformation plan down the line and its scaling capabilities.

Slide 6. Analytics and Proof of Traction
Nothing will prove more that your idea has potential than actual startup analytics data. Think of these elements of a pitch deck as the pinnacle of a movie trailer scene when you decide that you're going to watch the whole thing.
Single out those product performance metrics and KPIs that can verify that you're already visibly gaining traction. For example, you can show the number of monthly active users, how many early adopters you have on the waitlist, or how many successful sales you've made. Optionally, adding reviews and testimonials can put a positive spin too.
Nonetheless, mind that if your data only covers a short period of time (say, two weeks or so), these figures won't be persuasive enough. Hence, the longer you track data, the more dynamics can be seen, which is great.

Slide 7. Go-to-Market Strategy and Further Plans
You've explained how your product or service can serve your audience's needs. Now you can go over your startup growth strategies. What are your current goals and next steps? Which milestones do you have?
From our experience as an MVP development company that was once a startup, giving relevant information and a comprehensive view of your go-to-market (GTM) plan when making a pitch deck will help demonstrate your business model and the projections for the future. It can also show which steps you're taking to ensure success (for instance, your initiatives regarding customer acquisition, your marketing and sales strategies, and other ways you plan to receive a return on investment).
This will clarify the potential of your business and its chances for successful scaling and growth. Plus, it can shed light on the required funding range and what the money will be used for.

Slide 8. What's the Monetization Model
You may also continue outlining your product or service by sharing a few thoughts about the ways you make money. Your startup pricing strategy and further plans in this regard are vital as well.
Are you putting the focus on profit from paid advertising? Or maybe you're opting for free trials or freemiums that are highly popular product-led growth strategies?
Provide the investors with a clear understanding of how your business is generating or will generate revenue. Explain your monetization model, how it works, and how it will help you achieve profitability and long-term success. If you have some data to share in this regard, you can place it on a separate slide. Otherwise, consider mentioning it in the previous one about the GTM strategy.
Slide 9. Total Addressable Market (TAM)
In this slide, you have to compare your market size to that of competitors. Of course, calculating and indicating an adequate estimate of the total addressable market bottom-up isn't simple. Yet this allows you to assess your product's or service's potential market size, its reach, and the profitability of your tech business ideas. The possibilities for business growth and your potential exit make a difference, likewise.
Is it a large market? What about your competition? If the market scale is impressive, this can be one of the reasons why a product or service like yours is necessary and worth investing in. But the financial projections have to be reachable and plausible since if your assumptions seem like wild guesses, your pitch won't be realistic enough. This is a vital point to note if you're wondering how to develop a pitch deck that'll be powerful.

Slide 10. Team and Advisors
Who sails the ship is fundamental. So, pinpoint a few key team members, co-founders, or bright minds with minor descriptions of their backgrounds. What have they achieved? Why does their contribution to the project matter?
Furthermore, indicating an advisor or two in a startup pitch deck can emphasize that your team receives valuable advice and knowledge about the industry and the market from experienced and accomplished people. This could be a business consultant, industry expert, knowledgeable outsourced CTO, or some other professional. Including such names can give more confidence in your team, demonstrating the level of expertise you have access to, much like the strategic foresight provided by seasoned business plan consultants who can steer your venture towards success.

Slide 11. Final Overview
The "concluding chord" is very important. Mind this when creating a pitch deck for investors, as this slide might be up before their eyes for a rather long period of time, such as during the question-answer part or when you'll be discussing your funding ask.

This is your chance to summarize everything you discussed and highlight the major takeaways. What is the most important conclusion you'd like to make? Summarize what the product's about, who it targets, and its prominent strengths. A good tip here would be to stress a few principal metrics, key performance indicators, or features that really make the product stand out.
Moreover, this last slide should drill down your contact details so that the people you're communicating with will have them at their fingertips as you proceed to the question-answer part of the pitch deck presentation. The specific example above leaves just the email. Alternatively, you can simply add a QR Code linking to your electronic business card so that the audience can save your contact information and have all of it in one place.
What Investors Look For in a Startup Pitch Deck at Each Stage
What should you emphasize if you’re still building your first product? And what changes once you have paying customers? The core story stays similar, but the evidence investors expect develops as your business grows. Use the table below to see which parts of your deck deserve more attention at each funding stage.
Treat this as a starting point when deciding what to include. Expectations vary by investor and industry, so focus on the evidence that best answers the questions your business is likely to face.
At pre-seed, you may still be testing the product and figuring out how to charge for it. A working MVP gives you something concrete to discuss: how people use it, where they get stuck, and whether they return. Even a small group of active users can help you explain what you’ve learned and what you plan to test next.
The key is to distinguish interest from actual use. A waitlist shows that people are curious; sign-ups that turn into active users give you more to work with. Likewise, a letter of intent signals potential demand, while a pilot lets you show how the product performs in a real customer setting.
If you’re tracking early traction, consider including:
- Active users: how many people use the product and how that number changes over time.
- Retention: how many users return after a defined period, such as four or eight weeks.
- Pilots: who is testing the product, what they’re testing, and the results so far.
- Waitlist conversion: how many people move from signing up to actually using the product.
Choose the signals that fit your product, and make the timeframe clear. When pitching an MVP to investors, focus on what early usage reveals about customer demand and what you still need to validate. As you move through the startup funding stages, your deck should reflect the progress you’ve made and the evidence behind your next growth plans.
Pitch Deck Tips and Best Practices
According to the startup failure rate, over 15% of startups fail because they weren't able to get funding, it's well worth approaching the pitch deck creation process seriously.
There are plenty of low-quality and substandard investor pitch deck examples out there. So here are some extra recommendations that can help you improve yours.

Use Storytelling, But Keep It Short
Your pitch deck should make sense even without your spoken explanation. Think of it as watching a movie trailer on mute: can you still follow what’s happening and understand why it’s worth your attention?
When deciding how to write a pitch deck for investors, connect the slides into a short, coherent story. Introduce the problem, show what you’ve built, and explain why the business has potential. Keep details that interrupt that story, such as technical specifications or how you’re distributing startup equity, for follow-up discussions or supporting materials.
Write Headlines That Make a Point
A heading like “Traction” tells investors what the slide covers, but it leaves them to work out the conclusion. A headline such as “Active teams doubled in three months” gives them the takeaway immediately, provided your data supports it.
Write each headline around the most important thing you want someone to remember. Then read the headlines in sequence. Together, they should explain your business opportunity without requiring the reader to study every chart or paragraph.
Keep One Main Idea Per Slide
It’s tempting to fit more information onto fewer slides, especially when you have plenty to share. But combining your pricing, acquisition strategy, and product roadmap on one slide makes each point harder to follow.
Give every slide one takeaway. If it needs two unrelated headlines, consider splitting it or moving the supporting detail to the appendix. A focused slide with a clear argument is more useful than a crowded one that tries to answer everything at once.
Mind the Deck Structure and Timing
Use the 10–15-slide range as a starting point, then adjust it to your story and the meeting format. The aim is to cover the essentials without rushing through them or repeating yourself.
Rehearse with a timer and leave room for questions. For a 30-minute meeting, prepare a presentation that takes less than the full slot. Practice a shorter version too, so you can still cover the problem, product, traction, and fundraising target if introductions or discussion take longer than expected.
Keep the Text and Design Simple
Look at each slide and ask yourself: what can I remove without losing the point? Replace long paragraphs with short statements, use plain language, and make the most important information easy to spot.
Apply the same approach to your design. Stick to one font family, your brand colors, and consistent layouts with enough empty space around the content. Your deck should feel like a natural extension of your startup branding. Check the slides in presentation mode and as a PDF to make sure the text, labels, and screenshots remain readable.
Use Visuals That Explain the Data
Thoughtful data visualization helps readers understand the point you’re making. A line chart can show how revenue or active usage changes over time, while a timeline can make your next milestones easier to follow.
Label the axes, units, and timeframe, and explain what each metric represents. For example, clarify whether “users” means registered accounts, monthly active users, or paying customers. Keep decorative elements to a minimum so the evidence remains the focus.
Put Sources and Context on the Slide
If you use an external market estimate or industry statistic, add a short source note on the same slide. Include enough information for someone to find the original research, such as the publisher and year.
Your own numbers need context too. State the reporting period and distinguish actual results from forecasts. If your market estimate relies on assumptions, briefly show the calculation and keep the detailed breakdown in the appendix. Readers should be able to understand where a number comes from without having to ask.
Test the Send-Ahead Deck on a Fresh Reader
Share your send-ahead version with someone who hasn’t heard your pitch, ideally including a person outside your industry. Ask them to explain the company back to you in two sentences and point out anything they found confusing.
Avoid explaining the slides while they read. The exercise is meant to reveal what the deck communicates on its own. If they misunderstand the customer, product, or business model, revisit the wording and sequence before adding more detail.
Keep the Data Fresh and Share the Right Version
You’ll likely send your deck to several people over time, so check the numbers before each send. Update traction, financials, market references, and the the amount you’re raising, making sure the same figures appear consistently throughout. As your business moves through different startup development phases, revisit the story as well: your strongest evidence and next milestones may have changed.
Share a PDF or a tracked viewing link rather than an editable working file. Give the document a clear name that includes your company and the date, and test any links and sharing permissions. Keep appendix slides available for readers who want to explore the supporting details.
Final Thoughts on How to Create a Pitch Deck
We went over the detailed checklist on how to create a business pitch deck and highlight the vital information. A deck is a powerful instrument that can help investors understand the potential of your product or business and induce them to make an informed investment decision. Additionally, it can allow you to draw attention to your product and get a better startup valuation for your company.
Start with the story you want investors to remember, then choose evidence that fits your funding stage. Early on, that might mean customer insights, a prototype, and initial usage. As the business grows, retention, revenue, and customer acquisition become more important. Connect your funding request to specific milestones so investors understand what their capital will help you achieve and how you’ll measure progress.
Applying pitch deck best practices means making the deck easy to follow and preparing for the discussion it opens. Give each slide one clear takeaway, label your charts, and distinguish actual results from forecasts. Prepare a concise presenting version and a self-contained send-ahead PDF, with supporting details in the appendix. Before sharing, ask a fresh reader to explain your business back to you, update the numbers, and rehearse answers to likely questions.
Preparing for your next funding round? Our MVP development services can help you turn an idea into a working product you can demonstrate to investors, test with users, and refine based on feedback. To discuss the scope, timeline, and priorities for your launch, contact us.
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