You Googled didn’t you? Or you saw one of those articles claiming this startup’s pitch deck is the one to follow. And you thought, great I’ll use their format and I will get millions of dollars.

We know. Because we’ve been there. And the truth of it is - that’s a mistake. You’ll get a lot of people telling you which decks inspired them and you’ll think it’s a short-cut to your fundraising, but here’s what we know:

A pitch deck at any stage needs to tell YOUR story. Now we’re not saying you won’t find inspiration along the way, and many investors offer outlines or templates - like this one from MaRS Discovery District - to help you get things moving. But the real trick is to identify the best attributes of your business and the actions you’re taking, to create a compelling business case, path and trajectory.

In general, pitch decks should include:

• An overview of the market and the pain points of your customer(s)

• A description of your solution and how it addresses these pain points

• An understanding of your competitors and your differentiators

• Your go-to-market strategy and/or marketing efforts, and big wins

• Financials and projections based in reality with detailed pipeline intel and cost of acquisition

• What you’re going to do with the money

Pulling this information together is no easy feat and you’re going to take a critical look at your business in a way that because you run your day-to-day is going to be quite difficult. You’re going to find the obvious strengths - like the super cool tech you’re building, and the impressive team of innovators at the helm - but then things can get a little harder. What if you don’t have points on the board yet? What if you haven’t found product-market-fit? Then what? What do you say that will convince investors that your business is the one that will generate returns?

This is where story and strategy come into play. Startups need to take a critical look at their businesses to find the gaps, determine what strategies will address those areas, and bring a new story forward to best position their company.

Then, it’s about testing. Shopping your story with a few friendlies to hit this checklist:

• Is the story of your technology and the problems you’re solving easy to understand? If people get lost in your words, you are D.O.A. Too many technical founders ignore this - don’t be one of them.

• Does you ability to execute give a clear picture of what you’ll be able to accomplish with the funding? you don’t need to have all the answers, but you do need to go beyond a high level strategy to articulate how you’ll invest for growth.

• Can you articulate your ability to deliver a return on your investment (eventually)?

From here you can refine and finalize your presentation. But wait, you’re not done yet. You need to actually pitch this. As the name implies, this is a pitch, it’s a performance of sorts. Practicing your delivery is part of the package you’re putting together. If you aren’t as excited about your business as you want your investors to be, it’s unlikely you’ll inspire confidence or encourage investors to champion you. Don’t underestimate this last tidbit.

Not sure how to create your pitch deck? Give us a shout. We’re here to help - even just to strategize your storyline.