How to make a pitch deck: a 10-slide structure

What a pitch deck is

A pitch deck is the presentation a startup brings to an investor, a partner or an accelerator. Its job is not to tell everything about the company but to win the next step: a second meeting, a call with a partner at the fund, a request for the financial model.

A pitch lives in two forms. In a meeting the founder presents it, and the slides only support the story. Before the meeting it goes out as a link or a file, and the investor reads it alone, without your voice. A good deck works both ways: one clear idea per slide, and numbers that make sense without explanation.

Order matters more than looks. Investors see many decks in a row and look for answers to the same questions: what is the problem, why are you the ones to solve it, how much money is in it, and what will you do with theirs. When an answer sits where they expect it, they find it in seconds.

The 10-slide structure

Here is an order that fits most early-stage startups. Sequoia gives a similar list in its guide to writing a business plan; it also has "why now" and "vision" slides — add them if you have something real to say.

1. Title. The name, one sentence about what you do, and a contact. Skip "innovative platform": "Neighbours sell each other home-cooked dinners" is clearer.
2. Problem. Whose pain it is and what it costs them. One story about a real person convinces more than three general bullet points.
3. Solution. What you do, without jargon, so that someone outside your industry gets it. If the solution fits into three steps, show the three steps.
4. Market. How many people or companies have this problem and how much they pay to solve it today. A bottom-up estimate — number of customers times the price — is more convincing than a big number from an analyst report.
5. Product. A screenshot, a diagram or a short demo. Show what already works, not what will exist next year.
6. Business model. Who pays, how much and how often. Add unit economics if you already know them.
7. Traction. Revenue, growth, retention, pilots, letters of intent — whatever is already proven. Three or four numbers with captions beat a table.
8. Competition. Who you will be compared with and why customers pick you. "We have no competitors" usually means you didn't look hard enough, or there is no market.
9. Team. Why these people will build it. Experience that matters for this problem, not full CVs.
10. The ask. How much you are raising, what the money is for and where it gets you — for example, in 18 months. Without this slide nobody knows what you are asking for.

How many slides you need

Usually 10 to 15. Guy Kawasaki's well-known 10/20/30 rule says ten slides, twenty minutes, no font smaller than 30 points. It comes from a venture investor who sat through many pitches in a row, and it works well as a reference point: if you have more than fifteen slides, some of them probably carry two ideas or repeat each other.

If the deck is sent as a link, add an appendix after the ask: detailed numbers, a quarter-by-quarter plan, answers to the questions investors ask most. The main story stays short, and whoever wants the details will find them. More in the guide on how many slides a presentation needs.

Presented deck vs. sent deck

For a meeting, keep a headline and one anchor on each slide: a number, a picture or a diagram. You will say the rest.

For a deck you send, every slide has to read without you. The headline is the conclusion, not the topic: not "Market" but "€420M a year goes on dinner delivery in three cities". Captions under numbers are complete: what period, what currency, where the data comes from.

If you show the same deck to several funds, a link is handier than a file: you can fix it after sending, and everyone sees the new version. With a file you never know whether it was even opened.

Common mistakes

• Three ideas on one slide: the investor remembers none of them.
• A market "worth trillions" with no calculation behind it: the number says nothing about your business.
• No ask: it's unclear how much you want and why.
• Metrics without a period or a trend: are "1,200 users" from last week or from two years?
• Small text nobody can read on a meeting-room screen.
• A file with no feedback: you don't know who opened the deck or how far they got.

How to do it in JamPres

Open a new presentation with “Pitch” selected under “What it's for” — the button below opens it that way. Describe your startup in your own words: the problem, the solution, the market, your numbers, the team and how much you are raising. A couple of paragraphs work, and so does a finished pitch script.

The model builds an outline along the pitch story: problem, solution, product, market, business model, traction, team, the ask. From this story the outline takes only the parts your text supports. The outline is free: fix titles and order, pick a layout for each slide, add or delete slides. “Credits are charged only when building.”

At the style step the templates suited to a pitch come first.

After “Build the slides” the slides appear one by one, and then a second model checks them against your text: numbers, names and meaning. Numbers in metrics, tables and charts come only from your source. You see the result of the check right away: how many spots were fixed, or that there were no mismatches.

Then press “Publish”, and the deck gets its link. If you built it without signing in, save it first: sign in by email, no password. Also useful:

• A form at the end. Turn on “Add a request form” at the outline step — the form goes on the last slide, and requests arrive by email and in the “Requests” tab. Forms accept requests from the Base plan.
• Who viewed it. “Email” access (from the Base plan): the investor enters an email before viewing, and analytics shows who opened the deck and how far they got. How to read those numbers — in the guide on tracking presentation views.
• A file for the fund. If they ask for a PDF or PowerPoint: “PDF” on any plan (on Free with the JamPres mark) or “PPTX” from the Base plan.