STRATEGY & BRANDING

Investor Presentations

Startups frequently prepare a “pitch deck” to present their company to prospective angel or venture capital investors. The pitch deck typically consists of 15-20 slides in a PowerPoint presentation and is intended to showcase the company’s products, technology and team to the investors. We rarely see presentations with a memorable and interesting story that shows a company’s passion for its business.

Raising capital from investors is difficult and time consuming. Therefore, it’s crucial that a startup absolutely nails its investor pitch deck and articulates a compelling and interesting story. 

Investors see hundreds of business plans each year and even more executive summaries; but they fund only about three to five companies per year. Most companies that submit a business plan never get a first meeting, and those that do still face incredibly long odds.  At SAGE we help startups tell compelling stories, ones that will rise above the rest and leave a lasting impression.

We understand that for entrepreneurs the first meeting with investors is really a make-it-or-break-it event. By building and delivering a high-quality investor presentation we help our clients not only with a successful pitch, but also pave the way to an effective long-term relationship with investors.

Here are some common mistakes we see when companies build investor presentations:

• Decks which are too long – more than 15-20 slides (people have limited attention span. If you feel you need to add more information, include it as an appendix)
• Too many wordy slides
• Excessive financial details (you can always provide that in a follow-up interaction)
• Using a lot of jargon or acronyms
• Underestimating or belittling the competition
• No clear value propositions
• Poor layout, bad graphics, or a low-quality “look & feel”

Investor presentations are an important part of communicating the value of your company. Telling a story that will focus on clear, consistent messaging to communicate the value of the company, building a deck with strong branding and using effective visuals will all help to ensure that your message will capture investors’ attention.