Categories: Sports

I reviewed 1,000+ pitch decks. These are the most typical errors • TechCrunch

[ad_1]

Over the past six months, I’ve written up 25 Pitch Deck Teardowns — the favored collection of articles the place I evaluation a pitch deck intimately, celebrating the wins and gently (and typically not-so-gently) suggesting enhancements. We’ve seen 74-slide decks (sure, actually), decks which might be riddled with spelling errors and slowed down by hideous design (however nonetheless work extremely properly), and decks the place the founders don’t totally appear to grasp what market they’re in.

For each deck I reviewed for my TechCrunch collection, I noticed dozens of different decks as properly. Don’t inform my bosses, however I’ve a aspect hustle as a pitch coach, and thru that, I see a number of decks. I additionally am pals with a bunch of beautiful VCs and accelerators who usually ahead decks for me to check out. I’ve a folder with a whole lot and a whole lot of pitch decks, starting from $10,000 angel rounds to multibillion-dollar offers in progress. Individuals occasionally ship me screenshots of slides, too (I like to think about these as “unsolicited deck pics.” Ahem.)

In any case, I’ve lengthy since misplaced rely, however I’ve in all probability seen just a few thousand pitch decks over the previous few years. Suffice it to say: I’ve opinions about ’em.

On this put up, I wish to break down the highest 11 (sure, it needed to be 11) commonest errors I see in pitch decks, together with a bunch of examples of how these errors present up.

Oh, and if you wish to submit your individual deck for a possible pitch deck teardown, you’re in luck: Directions are right here.

Let’s gooooo.

Not understanding your viewers

A pitch is a narrative, and tales have audiences. You wouldn’t put a baby in entrance of Arnold Schwarzenegger hacking and slashing his approach by means of numerous elements of the Predator. Equally, the story you employ to promote to your clients is just not the identical story that you want to get throughout to your would-be investor viewers.

It’s worthwhile to perceive how VC works; that’s non-negotiable. If you happen to don’t, it signifies that you haven’t any approach of understanding learn how to inform your story, and also you don’t really perceive what they’re shopping for. Get that resolved for your self!

Examples of decks that get this proper:

Examples of decks that get this unsuitable:

Not totally understanding your market sizing

It’s painful to learn a pitch deck and understand that the founders do not know learn how to measurement their very own market. On the earliest stage, your organization must show precisely two issues:

Are you able to construct a venture-scale enterprise on this market?
Is that this the appropriate group to construct that enterprise?

The way in which you reply the primary query is by having smart issues to say in regards to the market you use in, and the way you see the dimensions and trajectory of that market. If you happen to fail to do this, guess what — you’re proving that you just’re not a great founder, and also you’re in all probability not the appropriate group to construct the enterprise.

Sure, calculating the TAM, SAM and SOM in your market might be actually exhausting, and typically it includes assumptions and guesswork, however that’s OK — you’re not getting graded on how correct your numbers are however on the way you view and take into consideration the market you’re in. If the numbers are “unsuitable,” however you possibly can defend why you considered them this fashion, it tells your potential buyers quite a bit about your high quality as a founder.