Katzenbar Limited

The Pitch Deck for our Equity Investors is a brief presentation that you will give over Zoom.

• It should give an overview of your business opportunity and your current traction.
• It should help you tell a compelling story about your business opportunity.
• It should motivate why Investors should give your company their money.

The primary goal of the Pitch Deck is not to secure the funding – it is to get Investors interested and want to move to the next step = Question & Answer discussions.

Thus it needs to be a short slide presentation – ideally 10-12 slides, 5 minutes maximum.
 

Pitch Decks obviously vary from industry to industry and company to company, but usually the format is

• Cover slide- make it clear which company is receiving the investment and selling their Shares, which country, and a few words explanation of the opportunity.
• Executive Summary of the funding request = short overview, amount requested, Return On Investment, and other key numbers.
• Then with a few slides explaining the Business Opportunity.
• = problem, solution, maps, site plan, current traction, pricing, go to market / sales plan, competitor analysis, IP & ownership, market size, etc as appropriate.
• Next, who the full-time Directors will be, and their relevant Experience.
• Then, the Amount and Use of Funds, i.e. the high-level budget – include a pie chart.
• Ask for a specific amount not different amounts, also no ‘contingency’.
• The large amounts should tie back to explanation on earlier slides.
• Finally, the annual Revenue & Profit projections for 3-5 years –include a graph.
• Closing slide – ‘Thank You’, your name and contact details, plus “we welcome your input and help”.

Below are somekey things our Investors will want to see.

• How much money you are asking for in this Round of funding – typically to cover the next 9-12 months or 12-18 months.
• What you will achieve with this money.
• Whilst it is good to share your vision, be clear what the Investor should expect from this Round of funding (your vision will probably require additional funding at a later date).
• Investors get many pitches that are just concepts, these are rarely fundable.

      Thus, you need to differentiate your opportunity from these -

• If you have a location, include a Map - this helps make your opportunity more ‘tangible’.  Also, location can be an important factor for some businesses – logistics, demand, raw material, etc.
• Include your Go To Market / Sales Plan.

• Only include your full-time Directors and their relevant Experience (include a photo of each Director),  i.e. the people who will be leading the company and will be legally accountable.  n.b. Investors are assessing if they can trust the Directors to grow their money.

Remember to grab the audience’s attention in the first 30 seconds.

There are many other factors that make each opportunity unique, highlight your specific differentiators.
 

Style / format of the Pitch Deck-

• Use large fonts and bullet points - (Google the ‘1-6-6 Rule’).
• Avoid large paragraphs or blocks of text.  Use short bullet points.  

• Don’t use abbreviations unless they are common.
• Show amounts in US$ or £ Sterling or Euros, rounded to the nearest 1,000 or 10,000.
• Show staff costs under the business area where they are employed, not as salaries (i.e. marketing / operations / development / etc.)
• Include contingency in the relevant areas, not as a separate item.

Finally, don't try to educate the Investors, rather use the limited time to build Trust.

The Investors can also ‘open doors’ for you, so welcoming their feedback on the Closing slide is important.

Following the above guidance will re-assure the Investor that this opportunity is ready for funding, that you

• have already made progress / invested into the opportunity yourself,
• understand your market,
• and have the right people leading the company.

Remember to make the Pitch Deck clear,
memorable about your Opportunity,

and how the Investor will make money.

As an example –

In a Real Estate opportunity, as well as the Amount being asked for and the number of houses -

• The 1st thing we usually look for is a Map showing where the property is in the country.  Remember the Investors are international and may not know your country.
• Then a Map zoomed in to show the location in more detail - local amenities and roads are usually important for Real Estate.
• Next, we look for a Site Plan.
• Then, the Architect's drawings of what the houses will look like. 
• Next would be the Quantity Surveyor estimates at a high level to show what the money will be Spent upon.
• Then the Revenue and Profitability. 
• Finally, who are the Directors, and do they have relevant Experience.