Draft pitch deck template for early stage founders from Ascend.vc venture capital.

1. COMPANY NAME
What you actually do and for whom

2. Setting the Table
■ Banker approach
– We analyzed the value chain in this industry and we believe we see something nobody else sees/a hole in the chain/inefficiency/rent-seeking/unfairness.
■ Personal crusade approach
– Why you passionately HAVE TO DO THIS because it means so much to you personally.
■ Nostradamus approach (my personal favorite)
– What is the *future state* an investor needs to believe will exist in order for the rest of the presentation to be worth paying attention to?
– Phrased as some form of “In five/ten years, every X will use Y to do Z.”
– Investor either won’t believe this (in which case, probably not getting the meeting) or they will, in which case the table is now set for you to explain why your
company will create massive value by enabling/driving/drafting off of this shift to future state.
■ What investors are thinking: IS THIS PERSON AND IDEA COMPELLING ENOUGH FOR ME TO ENGAGE OR AM I WASTING MY TIME?
■ The ONE POINT YOU LAND: “There is no question the future will look this way. The only question is, how will we benefit/drive.”
And the rest of the deck tells that story.

3. The Opportunity Size
■ Top-down
– SuperHuman uses total email market as TAM, professional email as SAM, early
adopters/knowledge workers as SOM
■ Bottom-up
– Uber uses total driver market as TAM, supplemental income seekers as SAM, black
car drivers as SOM
■ What investors are thinking: “Is this opportunity big enough to create a $1B+ outcome?
■ The ONE POINT YOU LAND: “We have a clear and believable path to $100M revenue in
revenue within 5-8 years.”

4. The Problem
■ What *critical* (ref Maslow’s hierarchy) thing do people use your product for?
■ How did they/do they do that thing before your product existed?
■ Why does that state of being suck to the point where it HAS TO CHANGE
■ Why hasn’t it changed yet?
■ The ONE POINT YOU LAND: “This HAS to change or people will get fired/experience
pain/be sad.”

5. The Solution
■ Why is your product 10x better than the current solutions at doing this thing?
■ What reliances/barriers does your product remove?
■ NOTE – this slide is not meant to be How It Does the Thing – that’s later. It’s more How
the User’s Life Changes when using your product.
■ The ONE POINT YOU LAND: “People are amazed by this solution. They tell their friends nd
will do almost anything to get this solved.”

6. How It Works
■ What does the product actually do, in simple terms?
■ How does the product work, in simple terms?
■ How does this compare to the current/past solutions?
■ This is where you put screenshots.
■ The ONE POINT YOU LAND: “We have a novel approach to the problem and it’s
elegant and easy and delightful.”

7. Competition
■ Typical approach here is the 2x2 grid. It has its flaws but you’ll never get funny looks for
including it; and if you don’t the alternative (power grid or other) better be really good).
■ What investors are thinking (Hunter Walk from Homebrew says it best):
– I’ll review the slide, grok what they’re basically trying to convey and ask “what
would your competitors say about this slide?”…hopefully leads to an interesting
conversation about how the entrepreneur sees the market. Or how articulate
(and intellectually honest) they are about why they selected the two matrix
attributes versus any other comparative set. When the discussion falls flat it’s
often because the slide isn’t based in reality, the matrices are swerves made to
enhance the startup’s position but with very little actual connection to customer
needs or strategic advantage. Or it reveals a lack of understanding of the
competition. This is one of those pitch deck slides that’s similar to an iceberg —
90% of the the mass is below the surface.
■ The ONE POINT YOU LAND: “I know my market *cold* and am realistic about, deeply
cognizant of, and at the same time hugely optimistic around where we sit today and
where we are going.”

8. Unit Economics
■ What does it cost you to acquire a customer?
■ What does it cost you to produce/sell/ship the product?
■ What is the average order size or contract value?
■ What is the customer lifetime value?
■ Early on these can be tough to quantify/know. So estimate!
■ What investors are thinking:
– SaaS: Can this ACV support inside/outside sales?
– Marketplace: Is this take rate realistic and sustainable and will it profitably fund customer acquisition?
– Consumer: What are the gross margins and what will steady-state EBITDA look like given efficient frontier on customer
acquisition?
■ The ONE POINT YOU LAND: “This business has attractive (or at least category-appropriate) unit economics.”

9. Early Signal or Traction
■ Proof enough people in your target audience care enough about your product to adopt/pay for it
■ Never use cumulative numbers! Show monthly numbers, month over month growth. If these
numbers are bad, you’re in trouble. If they don’t exist yet, see below…
■ Absent growth numbers, this is the place to show your hack/hustle: examples:
– Built a 10K person email list for people in Seattle who care about recycling household goods
– Talked to 100 marketing managers at enterprise SaaS vendors
– Pilots and pipeline
■ What investors are thinking: “What are the signs that customers care about this/love this/use this
aggressively? Is there organic growth/pull from the market?”
■ The ONE POINT YOU LAND: “Customers (potential or actual) are clamoring for a solution here and
we can credibly reach them and convert them.”

10. Go To Market/Customer Acquisition

11. Milestones/Inflection Points

12. Financing
■ Past financing/investors (if good names)
■ Current round size and terms
■ Use of funds/workback from next financing metrics/hurdles (how we get to
Institutional Seed/Series A)

13. Team

14. Appendix

15. Secular trends/historical value creation
analogs

16. Customer personae

17. 3 year quarterly financials