Pitch deck

What it means

A pitch deck is a short presentation, usually ten to twenty slides, in which a startup or growing company tells investors its story. It covers the problem, the solution, market size, the business model, competition, the team, results so far, the financial outlook and the amount of investment sought.

Unlike a detailed business plan, a pitch deck exists to spark interest and open a conversation. A business angel or fund often skims it in a few minutes and decides from it whether to meet the team and ask further questions.

The presentation usually also states how much money the company is raising in the funding round, what it will spend it on and how much runway it buys. These figures are the starting point for the later discussion about valuation and the investor’s terms.

How it works in practice

When a client prepares a pitch deck, we mainly check the financial part. Revenue, margins, customer numbers and monthly spending in the presentation must match the books, because the investor will verify them in due diligence and every discrepancy undermines trust.

We also help make sure the financial outlook rests on understandable assumptions: how many customers, at what price, at what cost to acquire them. Investors trust a modest plan with clear logic more than a steep growth curve with no explanation.

Ownership structure usually gets its own slide. An up-to-date cap table shows who owns what share of the company and, together with the proposed pre-money valuation, lets the investor quickly work out what stake their money buys.

What to watch out for

The most common mistake is presenting as revenue something that is not revenue in the accounts, such as signed but uninvoiced contracts, free pilot projects or gross transaction volume on a platform. Due diligence will reveal it and the company will lose credibility.

The second risk is promising things in the deck that later end up in the contract. Figures and statements from a pitch deck can turn into warranties in the investment agreement, and if they prove untrue the company may have to compensate the investor.