An inconvenient truth: people do judge books by their covers.

Which is why your fundraising deck is the most important asset you have to raising millions.

But most founders undervalue and underproduce their decks. They create materials that are not clear, concise, or compelling. And they lose out on deals and dollars they otherwise might deserve.

I'm here to help you avoid that.

I have a dirty secret: I'm really good at making fundraising decks. Some friends and I started a design agency, Crosby, that specialized in pitch materials and presentations. I led engagements to craft fundraising storylines for Elon Musk at SpaceX, A24, and hundreds of leading startups, venture capital firms, and corporations.

All told, the decks I worked on helped my clients raise over $2B in capital.

So I know something about great presentations. And the truth is, there is a right and wrong way to make your deck.

You might say, it's just a bunch of slides! It has nothing to do with creating a great product, or finding product/market fit, or building distribution! It's vaporware!

But here's the thing: investors do correlate your ability to sell your vision and business to them through your deck with your ability to sell to anyone: potential employees, customers, or partners.

And I've seen amazing founders with real traction and truly gamechanging products struggle and fail to raise funding because they couldn't communicate effectively.

So if you want to raise millions of dollars in just a few weeks from top-tier investors, here's everything you need to know to create a Killer Deck.

Fundamentals First

First, let's get some basics out of the way.

Use slides, not a memo.

It's somewhat in fashion to write a memo instead of making a presentation these days. And if you're a founder with a lot of leverage over investors—say, if you're growing 30%+ MoM with millions in revenue like us :)—you might be able to get away with a document.

But for everyone else, there's no substitute for slides:

• Slides force you to create a coherent, concise narrative. Like Churchill's famous line, "I didn't have time to write a shorter letter," memos allow for wordiness in a world where people don't like to read much. On average, investors spend less than 7 minutes looking at your deck; slides help you get your point across quickly.

• Slides enable visual storytelling. Photos, charts, graphs, and tables are more effective than long paragraphs at getting your point across, and add flair and depth to your narrative.

• Slides make you seem official. Your deck's design can make your product and company appear more complete and polished than they really night be, which is important for an early stage startup which might only have an initial idea.

Keep it short.

The best decks are 15, maximum 20 slides long. And they use every slide wisely. You can always create an appendix or data room to share additional information, but the best decks get an investor to yes in just a few slides.

Make it beautiful.

Substance is only part of the story with a great deck; how you communicate it visually can 10x its value.

Your deck's colors, fonts, backgrounds, and photo quality are the message as much as words you write. They channel how you're planning to sell your product and business to potential employees, customers, and partners.

Your deck gives you an opportunity to show how you'll market your product to break through the noise, convert leads into revenue, and build a following around your brand.

And if an investor isn't compelled by the feel of your deck, why should they think any customer would be?

So unless you're great at PowerPoint, hire a designer to make your deck look awesome. It literally could earn or cost you millions of dollars.

The Perfect Deck, Slide by Slide

Think about your fundraising deck through an investor's eyes. They have certain basic questions they need to answer about your business to get to "yes." And then they may also need to make the case to fund you to their partners or investors.

So your deck is not about you. It's not an opportunity to tell everyone how much work you've done.

Instead, your deck should speak to the key aspects of a business about which investors want to know, and provide specific data about yours to help them overcome any hurdles.

Slide 1 | The Market

Don't talk about your company on your first slide. Begin by defining the market you’re entering: its size, trends, and projected growth. Investors want to know that the opportunity (the TAM, or "total addressable market") is large enough to support venture-scale returns.

• Why It Matters: A large market suggests your company has room to grow and a broad addressable customer base.

• What to Include: Data points like market size (in dollars or user count), projected growth rates, and demographic or geographic breakdowns. Use data visualization to help numbers resonate.

Slide 2 | The Trend

Illustrate the trends or changes in technology, consumer behavior, or regulation that make now the right time for your product.

• Why It Matters: Investors are drawn to markets with rapidly evolving dynamics, as these often have opportunities for innovation.

• What to Include: Key industry trends, technological advancements, regulatory shifts, or emerging consumer preferences. Highlight how these factors create a gap or demand for a new solution—yours.

Slide 3 | The Problem

Lay out the core user problem your product aims to solve. Investors should immediately understand why your target market needs a solution.

• Why It Matters: The more concrete the problem, the more viable and immediate your solution will feel.

• What to Include: Metrics and stories that illustrate the impact of the problem, such as costs, inefficiencies, or pain points experienced by users or industries. Try to create a cost per person/company, which correlates to the price you'll be able to charge to solve it.

Slide 4 | The One-Liner

Your company introduction slide should be a concise statement summarizing your product, target audience, and unique value proposition. This is often called your “elevator pitch” slide.

• Why It Matters: Investors want a quick understanding of what you do and why it’s different, as you would sell it to a customer.

• What to Include: A single one line summary, along with a sexy product visual. “We do X for Y that achieves Z.” Example: “We provide affordable financial planning for young professionals to help them start investing with ease.”

Slides 5-7 | Product Differentiation

Your product section should span three slides, each highlighting a unique feature or benefit that sets your solution apart. Use visuals and data to substantiate your claims.

• Why It Matters: Investors look for products that offer distinct advantages over existing solutions. Each unique angle strengthens your value.

• What to Include: Key features or benefits, explained with clear data or customer testimonials. Focus on the three most compelling points of differentiation to avoid overloading your audience.

Slides 8-10 | Customer Validation

Shift from talking about your product to showing proof that it's gaining traction, with any indicators that show interest from your target market.

• Why It Matters: Customer validation demonstrates demand and proves your product has traction or a clear path toward it for investors.

• What to Include: Include one slide that shows a timeline and milestones of your path to market, one with testimonials from early adopters and customer feedback, and another with more quantitative engagement metrics and pilot program results.

Slide 11 | Competitive Landscape

Now that you've shown you have traction, you compare your company to the alternatives. You’ll want a high-level overview that quickly illustrates where you stand out.

• Why It Matters: Investors need to understand why customers will choose you over others.

• What to Include: A competitive matrix or a positioning map to visually highlight where your product stands out. Focus on attributes that matter to your target audience.

Slides 12-13 | Future Roadmap

Show investors your plan for the next 18-24 months. This slide is about where you’re going and how you plan to scale.

• Why It Matters: Investors want to know you have a clear, realistic growth path, and how the funding you’re seeking will fuel these initiatives.

• What to Include: Include one slide with a timeline for product development, marketing, or partnerships, and another with a revenue forecast mapped to those milestones.

Slide 14 | The Team

Introduce your team, highlighting each person’s role, experience, and relevance to your vision. This slide is often one of the three most viewed, and for early-stage companies, a capable, passionate team is one of the most significant factors in investor decisions.

• Why It Matters: Investors care more about team quality than early product details. They want confidence that you can execute well and grind it out until it's working.

• What to Include: Names, roles, and a short bio for each key team member. Emphasize experience or achievements relevant to your industry.

Slide 15 | The Ask

This is where you talk about your raise. State exactly how much you’re raising, and give a high-level breakdown of how you’ll use the funds.

• Why It Matters: A clear funding ask shows you’ve thought carefully about your financial needs and are not just "raising to raise".

• What to Include: A breakdown of how you'll use the funding by major category: product development, marketing, hiring, etc. Avoid overloading with numbers; keep it high-level and strategic.

Layout Pointers

Finally, some tips on drafting the slides.

The most important part of the slide is the "tag", or title, at the top. If you were to block out the rest of your slides and just read the titles at the top, they should tell your full story without any other context needed.

So, if you have to, start by writing out the titles in a document. Make sure it flows.

Then, pick one or two visual elements per slide to support the tag. Ideally it's a piece of data: a chart of your customer growth, a table with your prices, big quoted numbers showing your traction. If you don't have numbers, customer quotes are second best. Photos are a great way to illustrate your product's differentiation.

In other words, always show, don't tell. Whatever you do, do not add in paragraphs of text. If you must, include 2-3 bullets max of supporting text, of 10-20 words each.

Finally, make sure to add in sources. Add in URLs in small text at the bottom of the slide to cite market data or trends. Have a doc in your appendix with customer quotes and references. Include a link to your forecast in a Google Sheet. Don't make stuff up.

As I said, showing is better than telling—so if you want an example of how this can all come together with great results, I'm sharing the actual deck I made to raise our $9M Seed round in just 8 weeks. Just refer a friend you think would love Startup Tycoon with the link below, and I'll send it over.

Have any questions on fundraising that I missed? Drop me a note at [email protected] and I'll try to cover them in my next few newsletters!

Thanks for reading, and happy building.