In case you have a powerful traction slide, nothing else about your pitch deck issues
It’s a generally accepted knowledge that you simply want between 10 and 20 slides to inform the story of your startup. Loads of founders don’t appear to appreciate that not all slides are the identical, nonetheless. Some slides carry extra weight than others — and three of them are completely essential. As we speak, I’m taking you thru why these three slides are so necessary.
The best way to make use of this text is to consider which of those attributes you will have in your startup to assist set up your pitch deck. For instance, No. 1 on this record is traction. In case you have wonderful traction, that ought to most likely be the primary slide in your deck. In case your traction is flat (i.e., not rising, and even shrinking), poor or non-existent — perhaps don’t spotlight that and suppose as an alternative about how else you possibly can inform your story.
1 — Traction is king
Up and to the suitable. Which is sensible. Up and to the left can be time journey, and if you are able to do that, you will have an much more worthwhile firm than you thought.
Your traction slide is, by some appreciable margin, your trump card. If you’re exhibiting an enormous quantity of income and fast progress, all different sins are forgiven.
It doesn’t matter in case you have an inexperienced workforce, a horrible product or a doubtful market. When you can present that you’ve got cash coming in and rising at 9% or extra week over week, you’ll increase cash.
There’s a hierarchy by way of what sort of traction helps:
- Revenue. If you’re cash-positive and rising quickly, you most likely don’t even want enterprise capital — but when elevating money helps you develop even quicker, you’re in an excellent place.
- ARR. In case your annual recurring income is rising quickly, you’re in luck. Recurring revenues and SaaS dynamics imply that you’re onto one thing.
- Energetic customers. When you’re rising your variety of customers exponentially, with out essentially understanding the right way to monetize them, that’s nonetheless a formidable feat. When you can present which you could construct an enormous, sticky viewers, you possibly can most likely discover a strategy to generate income off that down the road.
- Signal-ups. When you’re seeing large progress within the variety of sign-ups to your services or products, however they aren’t producing income or sticking round, there’s nonetheless worth in that — though your traction slide needs to be paired with a stable “How is that this going to generate income?” slide.