If you’re trying to get funding for your startup, you need an amazing pitch deck. This should be the primary tool in your arsenal. A pitch deck serves to get investors excited about your business. It’s a bit of marketing and a lot of deference toward the bottom line. Investors need to be able to see the ROI. Why is what you do so phenomenal? How will it pay off as an investment?

For women-owned businesses, the pitch deck is even more important. According to researchers, women-owned businesses are 63% less likely to obtain VC funding than their male-owned counterparts. There are different reasons for the disparity. Some sources suggest that fewer businesses founded by women seek funding. A more telling and troubling reason might be that investors don’t give female founders the same consideration as they offer to male business owners.

There is some good news for women entrepreneurs. From 2009 to 2019 the percentage of global startups with female founders doubled. Still, it hovers at around 20%. When 80% of the start ups are run by men, female founders still need to put in extra effort to compete. You set yourself and your business up for far greater success in securing funding by mastering the pitch deck.

Creating the Ultimate Pitch Deck that Wows Your Investors

Your investors are not spending a great deal of time on the pitch deck. In reality, they’ll want to be able to gain all of the pertinent information in a matter of minutes. That’s not a lot of time. You need to consolidate your information into small bites of great data that’s engaging for them.

Your focus on creating a pitch deck is similar to the focus you would take in marketing. It is a form of sales. But in this case, your investors are going to be heavily influenced by the financials. You can’t skimp on the pertinent business aspects of your pitch deck. In essence, you’re approaching a pitch deck the same way you would a business plan. But it should be engaging, rather than reams of copy and spreadsheets.

A typical pitch deck might be 19 or 20 slides. There isn’t a hard and fast rule on this. You’ll want it to be short enough that your investor can look through the entire deck in 3 or 4 minutes.

Here are some of the slides that you’ll absolutely want to include:

• About Your Company.  This gives an overview of your company, mission, and purpose. If you have a high or lofty goal for the consumer or a great story for why the world needs your service, here’s where you bring that to life.
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• The Customer’s Pain Point. What problem is in the market that you want to solve?
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• Your Solution. This highlights how you solve a problem for the ideal market.
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• Marketing Position. Investors need to see your research on the market, market share, and where your company fits into the field
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• Competition. Show the competition for your product/service and be ready to paint the picture of how your product will offer a better fit for a set market.
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• Business Model. You need to be able to show the business model you’re working with and why it makes sense for your products and the market.
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• Financial Information. The financials will be the highest priority for investors so it’s important that you really nail the storytelling and research on these slides.

Your pitch deck will be unique to your business and branding and it is an important tool for your business. That’s why so many founders get anxious about the process of creating a pitch deck. With the right slides, you will have investors interested in your Startup.