Download Pitch Deck Template

Download CFI’s free investment pitch deck template by filling out the
form below. This PPT template can be used to create your own pitch for
raising capital or present to investors to tell your story.

Download the Free Template

Enter your name and email in the form below and download the free
pitch deck template now!

Thank you!

Your download will start immediately. You will also receive a copy
of your free PowerPoint template by email.


How To Structure Your Pitch Deck
Let’s look at how to structure the pitch from start to finish.  The whole
deck should ideally be about 20-30 slides, and more importantly, take
only 15 minutes to present.  The bullet points below correspond to
specific slides in the free template I provided above.

Introduce yourself and the big idea (slides 1-8)

1. Your background and your team

1. What is your claim to fame?  It’s better to focus on just
one/two really positive things, so stop there (everything else
you list is dilutive).
2. The big idea
1. What massive problem are you trying to solve? For who? Why
now? What motivates you?
2. How are you unique? Why will your product or service
resonate with people?
3. What are the key customer or financial metrics that indicate
your business is really taking off?

Explain your secret sauce (slides 9-18)

1. Business Model – How does your business work?

2. Customers – Who are they? What do they have in common? Where
do you find them? How much does it cost to acquire them? Why do
customers keep coming back?
3. The Growth Plan – Why are you raising money? How will you grow
the business? What are your products? Why are you better than the
competition?

Offer the deal (slides 19-22)


1. Financial Information (the output from your financial model)
 1. Unit Economics – What is the profitability or contribution
margin per customer or per unit?
2. Budget – What is your burn rate and what are you spending
money on?
3. Cash Flow Forecast – What are your targets for the next few
years?
2. What Investors Get – Describe what investors get from doing
business with you
3. Use of Proceeds – What will you use the proceeds for? How will you
invest the money?

Close (slide 23)

1. Leave your audience feeling inspired – refer back to your

mission/vision or use a powerful customer quote. You want to leave
investors with enough information to feel excited and intrigued, but
still wanting more.

How To Connect With Your Audience

Here are some important themes to keep in mind when building and
delivering your pitch:

1. Simple – make it easy to follow with minimal jargon. Imagine you’re

explaining the idea to a small child.
2. Clear – ensure it follows a logical progression (generally starting
with the big picture and then zooming in)
3. Intriguing – give the audience enough information to get them
interested but leaves them wanting more
4. Novel – the last thing you want is the reader to say to themselves “I
already know about this”, as that will cause them to disengage. Even
if it’s not new, try to put a new spin on it.
5. Concrete – use facts and figures that build your argument in a solid
way (irrefutable evidence)

 6. Emotional – use quotes from customers or employees that
illustrate how your business is directly impacting people’s lives
7. Visual – most people are better at processing information visually
so include as many infographics, charts, images and visual content
as you can. Consider using a graphic designer, as I have done with
this template deck.

How To Generate The Financial Information

It’s important to have a financial model supporting the information in
your pitch.  If you don’t have a solid operating model in place, be sure to
check out resources on fundamentals of financial modeling or how to
build a startup financial model.

The focus of your outputs in the presentation should be on things like

unit economics, contribution margin, and customer metrics as opposed
to income statement items like revenue or EBITDA.  If you’re an early
stage or startup business, you should focus on your budget and burn
rate.  It’s more important to show you understand your cost structure
than posting a big revenue forecast that everybody knows is made up.

Ultimately, a financial model is only as good as the assumptions that are

used to build it, so be sure to clearly state all the drivers and assumptions
in your model and how they change over time.


Additional Resources
Thank you for downloading CFI’s free pitch deck template.  To keep
learning and advancing your career these resources will be helpful:

• Investment banking pitch book

• Investment teaser
• Confidential Infomation Memo (CIM)
• All Pitch Deck Templates


Financial Analyst Certification

Become a certified Financial Modeling and Valuation Analyst (FMVA)® by

completing CFI’s online financial modeling classes and training program!