PitchDecks

To persuade investors to fund your startup, your pitch deck must do more than present a solid business case. It must generate an emotional response.

The flow of a fundraising pitch deck is vital for striking a chord with investors and clearly displaying the narrative of the business. Going through a successful pitch deck slide by slide is one of the most effective ways to learn how to build a flow.

Toptal Finance Expert and fundraising guru Jeffrey Fidelman put together a list of the top 5 pitch deck mistakes he sees most often. Within these common mistakes, Fidelman also highlights best practices and shows you how to write a perfect pitch deck.

Fundraising, for companies at any stage, is undoubtedly a challenging process. Even for seasoned entrepreneurs and startups already experiencing market traction, a compelling pitch and accompanying pitch deck are still necessary. While there is variance around stylistic delivery of the pitch and aesthetic of the deck itself, you might be relieved to hear that the infamous pitch deck boils down to a formula.

Many have a love-hate relationship with Microsoft’s PowerPoint. While super flexible, the tool can also be manual, tedious, and all-consuming, especially for the uninitiated. Authored by a former management consultant and finance expert, this article will help every user—from the beginner to the advanced operator—smooth out some of their points of friction and become an expert-level user of the application.