Getting started with pitch decks
In this blog, Vesper Copywriters walks you through the fundamental first steps required to build a compelling pitch deck for your blockchain venture (or cryptocurrency venture).
But first, what is a pitch deck?
A pitch deck is a collection of words and photos that showcase your startup’s story and business model.
Why do you need a pitch deck?
- To persuade investors to understand your venture
- To invite them to care about your business
- To encourage potential investors to take action and fund your blockchain venture
Here are the three key elements of a pitch deck
- Story
- Design
- Text (or copy)
Historically, entrepreneurs have used pitch decks to raise money, hire employees and sign customers, partners and suppliers.
Vesper Copywriters can provide you with text (or copy) for two kinds of pitch decks:
- Presentation deck: Vesper Copywriters will provide the text to complement your presentation during a meeting or on stage
- Reading deck: Vesper Copywriters will provide the text for your detailed, comprehensive pitch deck which can be digested and consumed independently by an investor
The key benefits of a pitch deck
Pitch decks replaced the rigid, structured business plan in the late ’90s. Unlike its predecessor, the pitch deck is flexible and allows founders to tell a story. On the other hand, a business plan focuses on key stages of a business from launch to exit. More often than not, a business plan fails to materialize due to uncertainty in the business environment or other factors. For these reasons, the pitch deck remains paramount for startups seeking capital financing today.
How to build a pitch deck:
You’ll need a presentation deck with at least ten slides:
- Overview
- Opportunity
- Problem
- Solution
- Traction
- Customer or Market
- Competition
- Business Model
- Team
- Use of funds
Cover Slide:
Your cover slide should not only capture your audience’s attention, it should also set the tone and showcase your passion for the startup or idea.
Things to include in your cover slide:
- Logo
- Inspiring image
- Descriptive title (“Investor Presentation”)
1) Overview
Key questions to address:
- What does your company do?
- What industry are you in? (Blockchain, cryptocurrency, web3, metaverse, etc.)
- Is your idea brand new?
Remember, the first slide serves as your 15-second introduction. What’s the problem and how does your venture solve it?
How a copywriter can help:
- To stand out, your Overview slide benefits from clarity. In other words, your audience should easily understand what the venture does. Here, a good copywriter will use powerful words that illustrate your passion and energy for the venture while keeping it simple and clear.
2) Opportunity
What forces are shaping the market? And why is this important right now?
Key points to address:
- Describe the industry and how your venture operates within it
- Outline trends within this space
- Address market size
- Discuss the growth potential of your startup
How a copywriter can help:
- By presenting your argument compellingly and persuasively, your audience is more likely to agree with you on how the market is shaping up, paving the way for buy-in
3) Problem
What trends is your venture capitalizing on? What is the market size? How can your company grow within this space?
Key points to address:
- Describe the problem and why it’s a pain point for many people
- Showcase how well you understand the problem and how you can solve it
- Use an example to demonstrate the scale of the problem from a human perspective
How a copywriter can help:
- As we get deeper into the pitch deck, it becomes more critical than ever to effectively address big questions in a persuasive, compelling way. Selecting the right words to pose a problem and solve a solution can play a big role here.
4) Solution
You’ve identified a problem. What can your venture do to solve it?
Key points to address:
- Deliver a solution that is not only inventive but also realistic, plausible, scalable and solves something truly painful for the customer
- Show and tell by demonstrating your solution through videos, illustrations, or live demos
How a copywriter can help:
- A great copywriter will caution you against using words on this slide. Ideally, you’ll show and tell. Keep the text on the Solution slide down to a minimum and focus on wow-ing your investors.
5) Traction
Can you show how you’ve been successful? What’s your growth strategy?
Key points to address:
- Refer to progress made as this will inherently validate early-stage assumptions about your venture
- Insert a graph or chart revealing growing sales or users; remember, you’ll need to show momentous growth. If you’re not at this stage yet, showcase your proposed sales process to attract, educate and close customers
How a copywriter can help:
- A copywriter will articulate your sales and marketing strategy using relevant words, metrics and research
6) Customer or Go-to-Market Strategy
Who are your customers?
Key points to address:
- Who’s your ideal customer? Where do they live? What do they do? How old are they? And how much are they willing to pay for your product or service?
- Define your market. How many customers fit into your description? What percentage will buy?
- Do you have any paying customers? What is the revenue per customer?
How a copywriter can help:
- A copywriter will continue to articulate your story and build your customer slide
7) Competition
Who are your competitors? What will it take for future customers to switch to your competitors?
Key points to address:
- Do you know your competitors? List them and describe how each competitor competes in your market, including advantages and disadvantages.
- Is your venture differentiated from the competition? You’ll need this to compete.
- What’s your advantage over your competitors? Articulate how you’re different.
How a copywriter can help:
- A copywriter can look at the big picture, understand your story and craft the Competition slide using succinct, articulate words
8) Business Model
How will your venture make money?
Key points to address:
- What are the key drivers of your business model? If you’re in the blockchain or cryptocurrency industry, you’ll need to address your tokenomics, unit economics and/or revenue model.
- If it’s relevant to your business, mention how much it will cost to acquire a new customer.
- What’s the expected lifetime value of each customer?
- Break down costs on a unit basis.
- A financial model would be relevant to include here (include your assumptions, projections and critical insights)
How a copywriter can help:
- A finance-literate copywriter knows how to write for a startup and investor audience. They’ll also fine-tune their words to speak to the numbers.
9) Team
Who’s on your team?
Key point to address:
- Provide a background for each of your key team members, mentioning their current roles, prior experience, accomplishments and academic achievements
How a copywriter can help:
- A copywriter will capture the essence of your story and pen a succinct bio that builds rapport and confidence on paper
10) Use of Funds
How much do you want and what will you do with investor funding?
Key points to address:
- How much investment do you need to raise and why?
- How do you plan to spend the funds? Demonstrate what you plan to achieve using milestones if possible.
Other slides to include (optional)
- FAQs: There will be various questions your team will need to answer several times. Put them on the FAQ slide, along with answers.
- Patents: If you’ve got intellectual property to protect, you’ll need to showcase how you plan to defend your business.
- Milestones Achieved: Use a timeline slide to demonstrate your team have the skills required to get things done.
- Vision: A vision statement communicates your venture’s aspirations and persuades others to buy-in.
- Mission: Use a mission statement to answer the question “why do we exist?”
- How it works: Briefly show your audience how your product or service works.
- Technology: Describe and illustrate the technology underlying your product or service and how it differentiates your venture from the competition.
In this blog, Vesper Copywriters provide you with a basic outline on how to build a pitch deck. There’s much more that needs to be done to bring your story to life. If you’re looking for a cryptocurrency copywriter, blockchain copywriter or web3 copywriter to co-create your venture’s pitch deck, please get in touch with Vesper Copywriters today.
Further Reading
Here are 5 pitch decks from big crypto firms that you can refer to for more information.
Read HBR’s “Get Your Venture Backed with Persuasive Data Viz”
