How many slides should a pitch deck be?

Picture this: you're standing before one of your potential investors. You managed to get an introduction, then an email, and finally landed an in-person meeting.

A thousand questions race around inside your head, chief among them how many slides should my pitch deck be? The short answer is: it depends.

It's no surprise that this is one of the most common questions first-time founders have when they start pitching investors. Striking a balance between respecting a potential investor's time and ensuring you cover everything you need to say about your company is a difficult task, but one of the most important ones when creating an effective pitch deck.

When you start creating a pitch deck, you have to think about the ultimate goal behind it. A great pitch means getting potential funders interested in your idea. It also involves being able to engage in a conversation with them regarding your company. For that, a pitch deck template or format can make it easier to follow the steps of a proven successful presentation. 

Here are some common types of startup pitch decks with different specific goals and functions.

Types of Pitch Deck

Elevator Pitch Deck

As the name suggests, this deck is designed to deliver a pitch in 1-2 minutes, as if during an elevator ride with a potential investor. These decks are highly condensed, focusing on the most critical information: problem, solution, traction, market, use of funds, and growth.

How many slides should an elevator pitch deck be?

Since an elevator pitch deck is supposed to be delivered as quickly as possible, it is rarely longer than 5-6 slides.

Demo Day Pitch Deck

Usually more detailed than an elevator pitch but still brief. These decks are standard on demo days, where startups present sequentially, and time is of the essence. Founders typically have no more than five minutes to present, so the deck should have minimal text and be heavy on visuals to capture the audience's attention.

How many slides should a demo day pitch deck be?

You must impress investors enough to interest them in further meetings while remaining brief and concise. Aim for no more than 10-12 slides.

Full Investor Deck

This is the most commonly used pitch deck you typically find when searching for "pitch deck definition." It's a comprehensive presentation designed to showcase your company to potential investors, helping them determine if it is a viable investment.

How many slides should an investor pitch deck be?

These decks usually contain 15-24 slides and provide a thorough and in-depth look at your company in as little time as possible. They can be used to secure investor meetings or guide in-person discussions.

The benefits of a pitch deck template

Having a template can make the task of creating a winning pitch deck a much less stressful endeavor. It also ensures you list everything that is expected from your pitch deck. And it gives you more time to prepare your overall presentation. Those are good enough reasons to follow a pitch deck format. Yet, the preformatted design also ensures a minimum level of design quality that can only enhance how your pitch deck is received by your audience. Let’s get to its composition now. 

How many slides go into a pitch deck format?

One of the best rules about the number of slides that make up your pitch deck template is the 10/20/30 rule. As this rule stands, you should come up with 10 slides, your overall presentation should extend no longer than 20 minutes, and your font size should be no smaller than 30 points. Focus on meeting those numbers to guide your overall pitch deck presentation. You’ll hopefully find how much this helps in the short and long run. 

What goes into 10 pitch deck slides?

Let’s now move on to actual content. Your pitch deck can’t really afford to miss some of the following slides. These are essential to a successful pitch. The ones on which you could come or go are highlighted in each section. But we put these together for you to be aware of the slides that make up your pitch deck format according to Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule, which we explained above. 

Your company’s information

Consider this one of the slides you can switch for a different choice for optimization. Careful, though. If you remove it and add something else, make sure it’s for a very valid reason that makes it distinctive. The idea is to exchange for the better, not to miss out on valuable information that brings your pitch deck down. 

Otherwise, this first slide is precisely about your company and contact details. Display your name and contact information and brand it with your company logo. Your overall pitch deck, but this slide, in particular, must already speak of your company culture.

If you go for this slide, you want to open your presentation on a high note. Remember the power of first impressions. Seek to make this slide identify you in front of your audience and begin by setting a great tone for your audience’s disposition. 

Another place to which you might want this one is to move to the end for investors to get in touch with you after your presentation is done. Of course, it won’t be necessary if you’re already in a 1-1 or private meeting with a VC. They evidently already used this info to get back to you. 

Also, dare include your value proposition in this slide. A short and catchy sentence can help draw your audience from the start to mitigate losing listeners as you progress.

Here's a quick breakdown of each slide we believe you must include in most cases. You can check more examples in our Pitch Deck Sample Template.

The problem

Start by clearly defining the problem your company aims to solve, making a point of its relevance and market potential to attract investor interest. If possible, use storytelling to make the issue relatable and engage your audience from the beginning.

The solution

Shine a spotlight on the market need you're addressing and showcase at least three key benefits of your solution. Make emphasis on how your approach directly resolves the issue, using creativity to build empathy and buy-in from your audience. If relevant, follow up with a product slide to visually demonstrate your solution, ideally with a demo or engaging visuals. Remember to focus on the what, not the how.

Market size

The size of your addressable market is key for attracting investors and determining your company’s potential success. Clearly define your target market, estimate the share you aim to capture, and demonstrate a deep understanding of your audience and market specifics.

Competition 

Like above, you need to show how well you know your competition. The need here calls for you to be a master of your competition’s status. Also, define your competitive advantage on this slide. 

Business model

Here’s your chance to explain how you plan on making money. Your investors will be very interested in this as this is where you tell them how they’ll get their money back, too. 

Mention details on who your customers are, what value they’ll be able to find in your offer, how money flows, the entire business cycle, and where profitability is visible. 

Only engage in details that make your business model easy to grasp. A great business model might be hard to define at first. Take it easy if this is troubling you and read up on the BMC and so many options. 

What’s essential beyond fitting the slides that make up your pitch deck format is for that content to genuinely speak of your startup’s composition. These are an opportunity to fix any areas that call for attention. 

We’ve jotted down 5 keys to a successful business model slide in case you want to be better informed about this one. 

Traction 

If you have provable traction, then show it off as best as possible via this slide. The idea is for you to display with data how you’ve already gained and grown in value. You’re basically going for validation in your market. For that, you can resort to an increase in sales if you have them, user quantity increase, even user engagement figures! 

On the other hand, this is another one of those slides people tend to just leave out when they haven’t really gotten to any sort of traction. However, if no traction is the case for you, it might be best to get some traction before you try to raise funds. As we say above, it doesn’t exclusively have to be financial. 

Team

If there’s one slide that needs to be at the top of your game, it’s your team slide. As we detailed in our list of European seed funds, sometimes VC funds solely need a great team to be able to trust you with funding for your business. That’s because an excellent team is genuinely vital to a successful business. 

Use this slide to stress how you’ve got just that. If you don’t, we recommend making any necessary adjustments to get to that stellar group of people who are the most suited to drive your business forward. 

Display the strengths of each person you’ve got on board. Talk about the vital experiences they bring to your business table. Though ivy league education tends to be a common show-off, relevant business backgrounds to your market or line of business can certainly explain why they’re the perfect person to lead that part of your startup. Make a case of that, be straightforward, and do so very visually. 

Marketing plan

Focus on long-term customer acquisition strategies and explain these briefly here. This part of your pitch deck is vital because it answers how you plan to capture your target market for revenue. How will you tackle selling your product? 

Investors need to agree with you on this, so these need to be reasonable, also. Don’t just promise impossible deliveries here. As with every slide, the idea is for these to be areas you’ve considered carefully. 

Our marketing plan template can help with various ways of presenting a marketing plan. From pie charts for your market share ideals to thoughts on partnerships and distribution channels, there’s a lot to stir your creativity in case you need it.

Fundraising

And we finally get to the juice of your whole pitch deck goal. Part of fundraising is being clear on how much money you need to accomplish what exactly. This is bluntly what goes into this final slide of your pitch deck format. 

It should be clear to them how much they need to give you and what you plan to do with that. 

Secure your path to successful funding

As usual, we’re more than willing and able to clarify any challenges you might face when you put your pitch deck together. With over 30,000+ happy customers through our consulting and design services, there are tons to learn from the samples of our work alone. 

Let our team of experts assist in your pitch deck design. And, if not, rest assured our winning pitch deck templates will lend you a useful hand. 

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