A pitch deck with 5 slides and other useful tips on fundraising

I think it's important to remember that he has ~40 slides in reserve to talk about the specific points that investors want to cover. These 5 slides are fantastic and will cover the bases that you want in a short meeting but I don't think we should gloss over the point that there is a deep well of hard data to draw on if the investor wants to.

Also, demos rock. If you took away the demo I don't think this approach would work. So, I'd rewrite the title as "A pitch deck with 5 slides ... and a demo ... and 40 backup slides." (not really but I think all three sides need to be there for the 5 slide deck to work :)

Not the voice of experience here, but has anyone considered pitching on an iPad? I did demos of Appointment Reminder from one and the user experience was awesome: they hold it and are in control, you have physical proximity and can say things like "... and if you tap here, you'll see..."

Plus, geek high. (The I wouldn't try it in a room full of people obviously.)

I like this deck because it gets right down to the current health and state of the company. Too many pitches leave that out -- focusing only on the future, as if things will magically come together once X million dollars are stirred into the mixing pot.

Ideally, the story you want to sell is that your company doesn't need the money to survive. Your company needs the money to scale more quickly than you could by bootstrapping. (And hopefully that story is true).

Great post, but a few notes:

- The 5 slides are actually 6 with the blank one included, and like others said, he has a demo and 40 backing slides.

- "I try not to have more than one point or key message per slide." He may have one key implied message like "we are a real established company on the right track with several employees, investors, advisors, etc.", but there are several points/messages being conveyed on each of the slides. That's not a criticism, but I think the quote is inaccurate.

Excellent deck. Brevity is definitely key. However, the first thing that came to my mind after finishing the post was: what about competitors? You seem to mention server utilization in reference to a competitor at the bottom right of slide #1, but nowhere else do I see any mention of competition. If I were considering investing, I'd want this information up front, and might even think something was amiss without it. Has this not been the case in your experience?

I like this because it's different from the usual 10-slide, boring template that everyone mentions. I can see why those slides would make you more likely to raise money.

This was especially helpful to me. Thanks.

You made a minor point about the advantage of putting you on the same side of the table when you don't use a projector. I think that point is actually huge. I'm frequently an imposition to restaurants getting them to set the seating up at a 90 degree angle instead of across the table for the same reason. It's conspiratorial instead of competitive.

Good tip on when NOT to use a projector