The Recipe For The Perfect Pitch Deck

Josh (00:00:00) - Good day, everybody. Welcome to the deal, Scout. On today's show, we're going to have a conversation with Donna about investor decks and pitch decks. So welcome to the show. Donna.

Donna (00:00:11) - Hi. Great to be here. Josh.

Josh (00:00:12) - All right. I'm sure you've created a ton of pitch decks and investor decks and helped raise a tremendous amount of money for people. When someone comes to you and they say, hey, we take a look at our deck or help us create a deck, where do you start with that, and what are the most important components to have in that presentation?

Donna (00:00:28) - Usually after my eyes stop bleeding because their deck looks so overloaded, I so I send them to my framework, which is very simple, and it's a tried and tested thousands of year old model of how our brain processes information. when we learn to speak as kids or when early cave people or medieval were writing, they knew how to distill it into chunks. That's how our brain works. So you're going to chunk your information into four sections.

Donna (00:00:59) - First one at first two actually being problem and solution. And yes, I know probably you're like I learned that in my MBA. What's new about that? There's nothing new about it. It's just it's there and it works. So first of all, you need to motivate the problem. You need to have what investors in Silicon Valley will call the hair on fire moment of either the opportunity that people are about to miss, or the problem that needs major solving and is not getting solving. And the best way to achieve that is through telling a powerful story. I have a strong preference for your origin story, how you started it, what you saw, what made you get onto this crazy journey and do it, and then you want to open that up to the transition between the problem solution is okay, but it's not just us or not just this company or not just this case. There's millions, billions out there being wasted, people suffering. And then you move on to your solution. Now, the inclination of people is to start with the solution.

Donna (00:01:57) - I have to grab their toes. I'm just going to talk about the solution. But what that does is it alienates people because they don't get it in their body. We want to aim at their head, their heart and their gut. So and where we feel things is that's where we're going to resonate and empathize with them and be like, oh, wow, this person gets a need and it's a strong need with a huge dollar amount attached to it. Now your solution simple solution statement. We do x for y by z. You need to be able to explain it in a sentence or two so that anyone my grandma, my eight year old daughter, anyone would be able to get what it is that you do simply. And then as fast as possible, you want to move into a demo. It doesn't have to be fancy bells and whistles, it just has to be a user journey so that people can imagine themselves using your product. You walk them through that 3 or 4 wow features and then the results.

Donna (00:02:50) - If you can use a real customer, a real user, that's great because it also validates their love for you. Then we move into what I call act three. So we had act one, act two. I borrow from the world of theater because this is very theatrical writing. I grew up as a theater baby, so it just made sense for me in my book to block it into four acts. The third act is the business side. Okay? Now that they understand there's a problem, now that they get how you're going to solve it, how are they going to make money? How is this going to grow in scale? and there's a lot of components there that you can see in my book. It's, it's, it's there. And then the fourth one, which people usually don't amplify enough is the vision for the future. Okay. You've come full circle now. You've shown them how this is all going to work. Now, this is the why. This is how big this is going to get.

Donna (00:03:38) - Will it be in other industries? Will there be other products? Is this something that's going to get even bigger and be able to solve other problems as well? And then of course, your ask and very important with your ask is to have a specific amount that you're looking for, the big allocations you're going to use it for. But also what is your round objective? How long will this last you and what will you achieve? Investors are on the hook when they're writing you. This check for next round, and they want to know that next round they'll feel confident either investing and or bringing others from their network to invest. If they don't, you know, invest in bigger rounds, which is legit. But if they're not investing, it's a very bad signal to other investors that you might want to get for your next round. So for acts, the problem or opportunity, your solution, the business to back it up and your vision for the future and what you need to get you there. That is the baseline.

Donna (00:04:32) - And you wouldn't believe how people mess that up and have it all discombobulated all over the place. so, you know, so that's kind of the, the big, big main thing that will help you start to, to sort through it all. And in my book that came out last year, sticking to my story The Alchemy of Storytelling for startups, this I see this as my cookbook. It's like a chef releasing a cookbook. Here's the recipes. Feel free to cook it at home and enjoy it. I'm sure you'll do a great job if. You are struggling with all the components, come to the chef's table and I will cook it for you, with you in front of you.

Josh (00:05:09) - What is the number one ingredient that needs to be yanked out of every single pitch deck that you've, you know, you've reviewed and you see this faulty ingredient that gets no's from investors. What's that component or what's that one thing that.

Donna (00:05:22) - The discombobulation it's being over technical. It's not being clear. It's not motivating the problem enough, and it's not differentiating yourself enough.

Donna (00:05:30) - Within the act three, you need to also talk about two major things. One is your competitive landscape and what sets you apart for other without dissing your competition. Grow, build on them. And the second one is this is kind of a little hack of mine. I don't see this in anybody gets rave reviews from investors and that's trends and opportunities. What are the trends that are now converging that show that you are an extremely timely and extremely attractive, investor? case, because if you can show them something new that they didn't know, could be a behavioral trend in the market, it could be a regulatory trend that's about to happen, and you're there to serve that. It could also be heat in the market. Other investors, other, competitors of yours that have either gotten big rounds or, have been acquired. And that's actually a great signal. So I know this is a lot to take in. And and if you do need help putting it all together and when it's yours, you're so close to the data that it often just clouds your vision.

Donna (00:06:34) - You can reach out to me at Donna griffith.com. It's two FS one t no h and I'm happy to share my knowledge. You can also read the book and it's okay if you can't do it yourself. Not all founders are gifted with the ability to tell their story.

Josh (00:06:52) - Yeah, so that's sticking to my story by Donna Griffith. guys, I hope you're enjoying these seven minute talks about deals. As always, reach out to our guest. The contact information's in the show notes below. Love you guys, and we'll see you on the next episode of the deal. Scout.