Stop Doing This One Thing with Your Pitch Deck

Looking at pitch decks is basically my full-time job along with talking to amazing female entrepreneurs. It’s the part of my job (among other things) that I love because I get to learn about a new company. Over the past 10 years of being in the Angel/VC world I have laid my eyes on some beautiful pitch decks that paint a story like no others, and on the flip side decks that looked like someone put them together in five minutes. Dear lord, please make sure your deck never looks like you just threw it together. What a major turn off!

I always say that your pitch deck should be the accessory to your script, it emphasizes the points you want to hit home and helps you make a connection to a potential investor.

And at the end of the day, it is your pitch deck. YOUR pitch deck. Why am I emphasizing that? Well, because I have witnessed time and time again decks that no longer belong to the founder.

When I meet a new client and we are going through their script and deck we always come up with a pitch strategy. That strategy gives us a game plan and direction the pitch should go. Do you want to know what about 80% say to me?

“That is close to our original pitch”

I’m never shocked when I’m told that. Do you want to know why?

It’s because their deck got away from them. Their deck is no longer in their voice telling their story. Founders can lose confidence and passion in their pitch. This leads me to…

The one thing you should stop doing with your pitch deck

Stop listening to the advice of every investor that you talk to and making changes to your deck.

Look, I know that most investors that give you advice on your pitch are coming from a place of love and wanting you to be successful. But you have to remember that they are telling you what would make your deck appealing to them.

Your pitch script and deck should be a reflection of who you and your company are. It should give both of you time to shine. You also need to feel like your pitch is yours, in your words, in your way of storytelling. That will help investors get connected to you and also will make pitching a little bit easier.

What to do with all that feedback?

You are probably asking yourself what you should do with the investor feedback you receive.

Keep track of it, if you start to see a pattern emerge with the same feedback then make the change. But first, ask yourself, does it clarify or hit home something and will it help attract my ideal investors.

I do want to mention that your pitch should evolve because you will evolve the more that you pitch. You will learn more and more about yourself with each pitch. If you are doing it correctly the pitch deck you started with should have a couple of iterations along the way, but make sure those changes come from you.

If you are actively pitching take a moment to step back and realize how much you have changed. Now ask yourself if you need to revaluate your pitch? have you touched it too much based on the opinions of others?

I always love to hear a pitch, reach out to me if you want to talk through your script and your deck. www.vcworthybusiness.com