What is a Startup Demo Day? Template and Example

Demo days are often an early-stage startup's first chance to get in front of investors. For most startup accelerators, this is your graduation event and a lot of work goes into preparing your slides and pitches.

We're going to dig into what investors are looking for, how to stand out from the crowd, and lessons learned when preparing a demo day pitch deck.

What is a Demo Day?

In short, a Demo Day is an event in which startups present their pitch decks in front of an audience, usually formed by angel investors and key industry players. It's a platform for startups to gain visibility and open avenues for networking with potential investors.

Now, there's another reality we must discuss on demo days, and that's the fact that no company gets funded on Demo Day. Let me say that again; COMPANIES DON'T GET CHECKS ON DEMO DAYS.

The typical Demo Day is just the first of many, many steps in the fundraising process. If you do get interested investors coming to your booth or asking for your business card, by all means, take those meetings, but know beforehand that they will be the first of many and the exception instead of the rule, and that you will need to reach to a lot more investors if you want to close that round.

See the Demo Day as an opportunity to introduce yourself to the startup ecosystem. After all, it's an exclusive event where active investors scope out the newcomers with the most potential for future investments.

The Demo Day Pitch Deck

A Demo Day pitch deck is not too different from a full presentation deck you'd use for investor meetings. It's a 10 or 15-slide introduction to your company, that should paint a good picture of what you do and why you will get rich doing it.

The core difference is regular pitch decks get sent over email or presented in person. This time you are pitching on stage, and it's your responsibility to carry the audience through the deck, to sell your company vision, all while against the clock and as part of a batch of startups that might steal the spotlight from you.

This is, in order, the slides a full pitch deck should have:

• Cover
• Problem
• Solution
• Product Demo
• Market Size
• Business Model
• Competition
• Underlying Magic
• Go to Market
• Team
• Traction/Milestones
• Fundraising Information

And this is how you could re-arrange them for demo day:

• Cover
• Traction/Milestones
• Problem
• Solution
• Product Demo
• Business Model
• Market Size
• Competition
• Underlying Magic
• Go to Market
• Team
• Fundraising Information

Both of these templates are available on Slidebean, so feel free to download them on the links below.

Pitch Deck Template | Demo Day Template

Check out our article how to create a pitch deck for investors if you are looking for guidance on your design. Remember, the pitch deck is the very first impression at investor might get at your business, and it should look stellar.

Demo day presentation sections

The Opener Section

Demo Days are long. Often they're an accelerator's annual pitch event, so dozens of startups will present one after another. After the fifth pitch, anyone will get bored and start blurring the memories between one company and the other. Also, investors are busy people; they can easily divert to their laptops or Twitter if they aren't interested in what they're seeing.

When you get on stage, you have 5 seconds to catch an investor's attention. If you succeed, you've earned an extra 30 seconds of their attention span and finally, if you nail those 30 seconds, chances are they'll pay attention through the end of your presentation. Using your first 5 seconds to say- 'Good Morning, my name is what, I'm the CEO of what' is a terrible waste of that time. They aren't remembering your name or your company name, and it's quite obvious you are one of the co-founders.

Use these 5 seconds to catch their attention in some other way. My favorite approach is starting with a question, one that speaks about your problem statement.

Reference: Slidebean Pitch at DreamIt Ventures Demo Day

When we pitched in 500 Startups, I started with 'How much time do you waste creating slide presentations?'. We crafted this question after weeks of trial and error, but it meets the requirements:

• When you get asked a question, you inevitably answer it in your head.
• We are talking about a struggle that we know for a fact every one of them has encountered.
• It hints about our product, the problem we are trying to solve, and the dimension of the problem.
• It creates empathy. It relates them to the problem on a personal level.

Again, my name is on the slide. The company name and logo are on the slide, so the point here is, let's get right to business. Chances are by the end of the event they'll remember 'the presentation company,' not Caya from Slidebean; and that's fine, because now they know what you do.

CREATE FREE SLIDEBEAN ACCOUNT

The Traction Slide

Now, notice how we've moved the traction slide to the second place instead of the very end.

If you've nailed your opener you've now earned an extra 30 seconds. The absolute best way to stand out is by bragging about what you've accomplished - it's proof that you can make it happen again on a bigger scale.

A lot of accelerators focus too much on the pitch itself- when your focus at all times should be growth potential. Investors in the Bay Area want to see 30% MoM growth for seed-stage companies. 20% should still be rather good.

If you are below this, then your sole focus should be going back to the drawing board and getting to 30%, not reading me talk about Demo Days.

Still, if you must pitch and you don't have revenue, then brag about your user growth, retention, or other outstanding KPIs you have achieved.

The point here is, this will give you CREDIBILITY. The reaction you need here is curiosity about what the hell your company is doing to be growing so fast. This is the kind of thing that grabs someone's attention for the 3 minutes you have left.

Now your pitch deck turns into a more traditional deck. We have a full video explaining how to solve each one of these slides.

The difference here is you'll want to keep this short- because you need to deliver it in 3 minutes.

SOME BASIC TIPS FOR THE SLIDES

• The slides are a guide for you to keep the story straight, there's no need to transcribe what you are going to say. You could very well do it with an image and a large number rather than a whole paragraph.
• Remember, people can either read or listen, they can rarely do both. Whatever you write on the slide pulls attention away from what you are saying.
• Big, bold fonts and bold colors. Your branding should be visible on every single slide: people are quite good at remembering color palettes.
• Practice a lot! Practice with a chronometer and make sure you nail your time limit on every attempt. Knowing you won't run out of time no matter what will give you a lot of peace of mind.
• Don't memorize. I've seen people write a script and spit it out on stage; trust me, people can tell. If you are the CEO, you need to be able to deliver this stuff effortlessly, or at least pretend like it's effortless.

I interviewed Andrew Ackerman some years ago - he's the managing partner at the DreamIt accelerator. Watch the full video here.

So are demo days useless?

My answer here is, they are less useful than what you'd expect. With all the hype and the prep, you'd expect to get a lot more out of it, but by 2019 Demo Days have become more of a press stunt and a graduation/deadline sort of event for accelerators, rather than a place to get funding.

First, you can bet anything that a high-end VC will not be sitting in the audience. They'll send their interns to collect notes and business cards and brief them on the exciting companies.

Second, many companies come into Demo Day with some progress on their investor relationships. If a company is truly ready to raise funding, it has probably been getting intros and doing meetings for weeks or months leading up to demo day. Demo Day could be useful to meet a couple more investors or to close the last few thousand dollars of an already-committed round.

Startup press is often present on Demo Days- so this is an excellent opportunity to shine to them, meet some reporters and get some exposure.

And finally, the Demo Day is just the first of many, many steps in the fundraising process. If you do get interested investors coming to your booth or asking for your business card, by all means, take those meetings, but know beforehand that they will be the first of many, and that you will need to reach to a lot more investors if you want to close that round.

Demo Day Template

A Demo Day Template is a must-have tool if you want to shine on Demo Day and leave a lasting impression on potential investors. This template streamlines the process of creating a compelling pitch that conveys the essence and promise of your startup. It's like having a seasoned pitch expert by your side, providing you with a structured, visually appealing format that ensures your message is clear and impactful. With this template, you'll confidently present your startup's journey, achievements, and future prospects, increasing your chances of attracting the support and funding your business deserves, so go and check that out.

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We have another video on the reality of startup fundraising, so go and check that out.