Creating an innovative digital solution for your customers entails much more than simply the development of an app, web app, or website. In fact, a lot of time and effort goes into the conceptualization of your idea, as well as finding the right digital partner for the project and an interested investor to help you raise the capital you need for the development of your solution. One way to attract the right investor for your project is to create a killer pitch deck that perfectly captures the essence of your idea. But what exactly is a pitch deck? Is it the same as a clickable demo? And what do you definitely need to include in your pitch deck to make it as convincing as possible? Keep on reading to find out!

What is a pitch deck?

First things first: what is a pitch deck exactly? A pitch deck, also called a pitch book, is a short presentation made to provide your audience and potential investors with a summarized overview of your business plan and strategy. Whereas an elevator pitch is simply a 20 to 30 seconds spoken summary of this business plan, a pitch deck is much more extensive and dives deeper into your business, your vision and mission, and your ideas of how to beat the problems your target audience is facing.

Clickable demo, digital brochure, or pitch deck?

There are countless definitions used to refer to a business presentation, and they don’t always mean the same thing. For example, while a pitch deck refers to a presentation that includes an extensive list of elements, a clickable demo is solely a tool you can use to showcase an interactive design of your solution. Let’s have a look at a few of these definitions to clear things up:

Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is a 20 to 30 second summary of your business and the solution you’ve come up with. It’s a quick introduction to describe the core aspects of your business plan, and is often used to pitch your idea to others in a casual setting, such as a networking event.

Pitch deck

A pitch deck is essentially an elevator pitch, but much more extensive and supported by a visual presentation with the most important information. While an elevator pitch usually doesn’t last longer than half a minute, a presentation supported with a pitch deck can last up to approximately 20 minutes, spending about one minute per slide. Preferably not longer than that, as an overdose of information can confuse the audience and distract them from the essential goal of your pitch.

Digital brochure

A digital brochure is often confused with a pitch deck, however, it is not designed to be a presentation. Whereas a pitch deck forms a collection of slides that discusses all the elements of your business and digital solution, from the problem statement to the look and feel of your app idea, a digital brochure usually consists of a single webpage that touches upon various aspects of a company, including the team, some major milestones and the product/services it provides. Take a look at our own digital brochure for an example.

Digital portfolio

A digital portfolio provides your target audience, potential clients and investors with a visual overview of the projects your business has worked on in the past. For example, our portfolio discusses the different verticals our clients are active in, and summarizes our most elaborate projects.

Mockups

Mockups are visual elements that are usually included in a pitch deck. They showcase the interface design, or UI design of your digital solution in the slides dedicated to the look and feel of your application. Mockups are purely visual, and don’t provide an interactive experience.

Clickable demo

A clickable demo is a mockup on steroids, and dives further into the design of your application by providing an interactive and immersive experience, combining UX design with UI design, without using any line of code behind it yet. Users can interactively test the clickable demo by clicking on buttons which result in an in-app action. Using a clickable demo instead of a mockup can greatly improve your chances of attracting the right investor for your product, as it provides a better and more professional experience of your digital solution. Including a clickable demo in your pitch deck gives investors a better understanding of what the product will look like and how key features will behave. This adds a level of legitimacy and excitement to investors.

Do you want to know more about clickable demos, or are you looking for a digital partner to help you create a powerful and convincing clickable demo? Give us a call, and let’s team up!

The recipe for a killer pitch deck

Now we’ve cleared several items that often get confused with pitch decks, we can dive into the essentials of a killer pitch deck. A convincing and professional pitch deck should include the following elements:

• The core problems your target audience face
• The potential solution you’ve come up with
• The state of the market your product will enter
• The look and feel of your product
• The growth process of your business
• The team behind the product
• The competition on the market
• Budget estimations and requirements
• Your contact information

The problem

In this slide, you discuss the gap your solution is supposed to fill in the market. What problems and bottlenecks are your customers experiencing? To what extent does it form a serious issue? Is it a problem that potential investors can relate to? The more your audience can relate to the problem you’re trying to solve, the bigger the chance they see the benefits of investing in your product. Keep in mind that clarity is key in a pitch deck, so focus on one main problem. Later on in the process of conceptualizing your idea, you can break that problem down into bite-sized pieces.

The solution

Once you’ve showcased the problem to your audience, the next slide should include the solution. It’s essential to keep this slide very concise and clear. Your solution slide should include the scalability of your product, as it gives investors a better idea if it’s worth investing in your business. Besides scalability, it’s also essential to emphasize the unique features of your solution, and why it’s different from and better than what’s already on the market.

The market

The next slide should talk about the product’s target market and the current state of that market. A small market can impact the scalability of your business, and therefore forms a risk to the investor, as their goal is to eventually receive a return on their investment. This slide should include a visual representation of the growth of your target market over the last several years. This will help the investor understand the potential in said market.

The product itself

This slide includes your product and its design. As mentioned before, including a clickable demo in this part of your presentation increases your chances of convincing your potential investor of the effectiveness and usability of your product. Even better is to let users test your clickable demo beforehand and include some of their positive experiences.

The growth

The next slide should showcase the previous growth of your business, which gives a better impression of the potential future growth. If you’re just starting off and you haven’t much growth to show yet, you can consider emphasizing the potential growth within the market, and tie those numbers in with your own projected growth.

The team

Investors generally want to know who stands behind the business. First of all, because it creates a closer connection between the investor and the passionate team behind your cause. Second, including previous experiences and achievements of the most important stakeholders in your business creates a promising picture for the future.

The competition

Creating an insight into your closest competitors showcases your position and value proposition compared to similar businesses. In this slide, it is essential to pinpoint exactly what differentiates your business from the competition, and what exactly it is that makes your business and product or service so unique. One way to dive deeper into competitors is by comparing your business to others with check marks that show how your products and/or services differ from the competition. A list of unique check marks for your business can greatly contribute to the likelihood of attracting an investor.

The budget

This is probably the most important slide for potential investors. After all, this is the reason your potential investors are here. Usually, you want to focus on a 3-year projection of your budget plan and burn rate. As a startup, this can be a tricky part, as it is mostly a case of guessing. However, even an estimated insight can provide a concrete idea of where your business is heading.Best is to split the budget slide into two parts. The first part gives insight into your current and potential future needed capital, the second part concretizes this into an official ‘ask’ slide, in which you provide an overview of the capital you’ll need to grow your business.

Do you need information about budgeting and roadmapping? Or do you need a hand with formulating and visualising the budget needed for the development of your product? Get in touch with our specialists, and we gladly help you create a digital roadmap to visualize the needed budget for the development of your product and its future needs.

The follow-up

Strangely enough, a lot of starting entrepreneurs often forget to include their contact information and links supporting documents in their pitch deck. This is critical information that investors need in order to follow up on your pitch in case of interest. Besides that, investors often prefer to look you up and get to know your business a bit better outside of your pitch before they decide to partner up. That being said, remember to also make sure that your social media profiles, such as your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, are cleaned up and ready for the scrutiny of a potential investor.

A killer pitch deck: the making-of

Now we’ve discussed all the information that should definitely be included in your pitch, let’s have a look at how to actually create a pitch deck that blows away the minds of your audience.

Use the right tools

First of all, your pitch deck needs to be created, and in order to do that, you’ll need the right tools and software to visually build your deck. There are countless tools, from web-apps to installed software, you can use to create your pitch deck. Important is to pick a tool you’re already familiar with, so you don’t spend too much time getting to know the functionalities of the software. Think of, for example, Microsoft Powerpoint, Apple’s KeyNote, or web applications such as Canva or Prezi. If you’re not too familiar with the use of these kinds of tools, you can also enlist a digital partner to help you with the setup of your pitch deck. Our professionals at Lizard Global gladly lends you a hand!

Create a visual design

Your pitch deck should be closely aligned with the brand identity design of your business. This includes using the right colors, typography, and other design elements that are closely aligned with your brand’s own design. Keep in mind that the content of your pitch deck is the most important part of the presentation. Make sure that your design elements don’t overshadow the information shown on the slides. If you’re not experienced with design, you might want to consider hiring a design specialist, who knows exactly how to bring forward the information without sacrificing a professional design, and vice versa. At Lizard Global, our designers are experienced with helping our clients to create a design that perfectly reflects the unique character of their business.

Follow the recipe

When your design elements are in place, it’s time to fill up the slides with the information listed above. Make sure to give each ingredient of the recipe enough space to preserve clarity. Sometimes this means you’ll need to implement two or more slides for one topic, and that’s totally fine. As long as the information in your pitch deck is easily understood by your audience.

Need a hand?

At Lizard Global, our cross-functional team is experienced in helping you towards the creation of a killer pitch deck, supported by a clickable demo. In case you need help with the formulation of a killer pitch deck, accompanied by your own clickable demo, get in touch with us, and let's see what we can do for you!

Our innovative new Lizard Global workshops are specially designed and set up to help starting intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs with the conceptualization of their app ideas. Together with you, we dive into the human-centered process of understanding your target audience. We do this by creating customer personas, in order to come closer to understanding the problems your end-users are facing. With that knowledge, we can create a fitting digital solution that will reshape your industry for the better. Want to know more about our innovative and personalized workshops? Get in touch!