Every founder should have a minimum of 3 types of presentations: a pitch deck for demo days, an investor deck, and a technical or sales deck. You should also have various versions of these, depending on who you are pitching to. We like to start with one big Master Deck and adjust the slides accordingly.
Here's a quick & easy breakdown of the various business presentations:
Pitch Decks for Demo Days or Flash Pitches
A demo day deck is typically a 4-10 minute pitch or presentation. This is short! Your primary goal here is to sell your idea quickly. TED Talks are good examples for demo day pitches because they focus on storytelling & teasers. Depending on your audience, you likely won't want to include too many financials or confidential technical information. You are typically presenting in front of your deck, so less text - more speaking. Demo day decks are between 3-10 slides.
Investor Deck or Investment Deck (Pitch Decks for Investors)
An investor deck is a more detailed demo day deck. An investor deck is often sent prior to securing a meeting, so you will have a bit more text (again, not an excuse to clutter your slide)! These are anywhere from 10-20 slides, and they will include financials & confidential product information. Not only are you selling your idea, you are showing the investor how your product works, providing risk mitigation, and charting your financial projections. You are intertwining your business model with storytelling. If you are pitching in front of the deck, these are 10-20 minutes.
Technical, Sales, or Capabilities Deck
A technical or sales deck is an even more detailed version of your investor deck. Often, your technical deck is a replica of your investor deck's APPENDIX. These presentations are often pitched in front of key decision makers and potential clients. Technical decks are by nature text heavy; for once, that's ok! Technical decks have to explain the ins-and-outs of how your product works or your service offerings, and they will be sent around the company. Technical or sales decks vary in number of slides & length. We've worked on decks as small as 20 and as large as 60.
Additional types of presentations to keep on hand:
- Conference presentation: typically a very technical talk at an industry conference
- Product decks: a simpler technical deck focused on only your product offerings & pricing for customers
- Master Template: we always include this, but you should absolutely have an easy to edit branded master template that every team member can use (this includes chart styles, fonts, different slide layouts, etc.)
- Internal slides: HR, recruitment, annual / quarterly company updates, internal pitches etc.
- Industry specific decks: example: a healthcare company may have cardiovascular, ortho & spine, and pharma decks showing specific use cases or offerings
- A Random WTF deck: these are actually something we recommend for clients when brainstorming or going through an internal website, deck, or product audit. Label each slide with a random topic (like a web page, or an event, or even a new revenue model). Throw your ideas, notes, comments on each applicable slide. It does not need to be organized or well-written, but it will get you thinking. It's basically a semi-organized junk drawer for your thoughts.
