How to get a million dollars for a startup: effective project presentations for investors.

In the modern world there are many opportunities for startups to attract investment. It has become easier to develop your business, especially when you already have a well-thought-out idea, an experienced team and initial developments that can be packaged into a presentation for investors. 

Investment Presentation Concepts

Before we move on to the structure and features of a startup pitch, let's get acquainted with the basic related concepts.

Pitch deck is a presentation about a project created to attract investors or partners.

An investment teaser is a document with a brief summary of the main ideas of the project. Its purpose is to leave a feeling of suspense, to spark the investor’s interest in order to move to the next stage - an investment agreement, contract or individual investment condition. 

So, if you have already decided on the idea of the project, assembled a team, studied the market, developed a business model, but you do not have enough of your own finances to implement your business project - do not put it off until tomorrow, rather pack your ideas into a well-designed pitch deck.

Target portrait of an investor

Let's start with who you will be showing the presentation to. Study the personality of the future investor or partner. What are his interests, work experience, investment portfolio? If a person initially invested in the IT field, he is unlikely to be interested in agriculture. If this is a young and modern investor, a prim and dry presentation of information will not attract him, and vice versa. An important point is that the presentation is very important, but it will only help you if the future project is truly promising and workable.

How to make a startup presentation correctly?

Let’s move on to the structure of the pitch deck using the example of the “Mobile application for finding friends” project.

1. Title slide. We recently wrote a detailed article on this topic. We advise you to familiarize yourself with this slide, which especially influences the first impression of the entire presentation.

The headline could be like this: “FriendsAround – a mobile application for finding friends and spending time together in Russia.” Avoid claims in the headline like: “We are the only/unique/best company.” As a rule, this is immediately repulsive. Let your professionalism be assessed through a detailed study of the project and separately listed on the slide introducing the team.

2. Description of the problem. Any project must solve a real problem in the market. Briefly and clearly state the key problems of your target audience. At this stage, it is important to evoke emotions and show the real “pains” of users. “About 70% of young people in Russia work remotely. 50% of them live in a non-hometown. According to the latest data from the Association of Psychologists, 1 million young people in Russia experience a feeling of loneliness due to the lack of close friends.” 

3. Your decision. Explain how you are going to solve your target audience's problem. Try to present your idea as clearly and concisely as possible. “We have developed an application that helps you find friends and like-minded people anywhere in the world.”

4. Market analysis. Numbers, facts, and visual graphs are especially important in this section. Describe the market potential, market size, characteristics of the target audience. Use graphs to show the growth in demand for similar products over the past 5 years, etc. Here, briefly tell us about your main competitors, their pros and cons. 

5. Product. Describe your project or idea, why it will best solve the problems of the target audience and what competitive advantages it has. How will it compare favorably with competitors' offers?

6. Business model. How exactly will your product be monetized, how will it make money, how to scale? Write accurate calculations, avoid “water” at this point. You need to prove to investors that the product can make a profit. The more metrics you calculate, the more transparent and manageable your project will be.

7. What has already been done. Tell us what is already ready in this project and what you have achieved, write the stages of development in the roadmap. For example: “Today the corporate style and application interface are ready, the mechanics of work have been thought out, the backend will be written in a month.” We recommend using a Gantt chart to present your project roadmap. 

8. Market entry strategy. How do you plan to launch your product? Describe marketing strategies, planned budget, possible difficulties and their solutions, how many users you plan to attract at the first stage, etc.

9. Team. Tell us about the headliners of the project and all the involved employees. Indicate their work experience, achievements, your team should be as effective as possible, capable of developing a long-term and profitable business.

10. Offer for investors. Why exactly your project is promising and financial investments in it will pay off many times over, how much money is needed, how the company’s shares will be distributed. 

11. Final slide. This is one of the most important slides, here we indicate not only contacts, but also an invitation to the reader to the next stage, which could be an investment treaty, agreement, etc. Read more about the last slide in our article.

The design of the pitch deck should be visually pleasing, logical, not distracting from the startup itself, with an appropriate color scheme and infographics. The quality of your presentation determines whether they will cooperate with you in the future. Use simple words, short phrases, do not overload your slides with too much text. We advise you to create no more than 15 slides so as not to lose the attention and interest of your future partner. 

We know exactly what a cool and effective investment presentation should look like. The creative director of the graphics studio Veonix worked for a long time in the Ministry of Economic Development as director of the investment attraction department. More than 500 major Russian projects were implemented through it. And now every business presentation ordered undergoes a thorough professional check. If you need our help in raising money for a startup, leave a request for an investment presentation.