09 – PITCH DECK TEAM SLIDE – 10 SLIDES TO VC FUNDING SUCCESS

9: Pitch Deck Team Slide – 10 Slides to VC Funding Success

❏ Today, in Part 9 of my series on 10 Slides to VC Funding Success, I’ll speak on Pitch Deck Team Slide: 10 Slides to VC Funding Success.

The ninth page of every successful VC pitch deck is the team slide. After discussing the financial slide, you should immediately talk about the team making all this happen.

What is the team? You’ll be able to learn in this article the answer to this question and what is essential to show on your pitch deck team slide.

My History:

One of my responsibilities as an executive coach is to assist company founders with creating their investor pitch deck. Throughout my career, I have made and reviewed many investor pitch decks. Upon reflection, some of our team’s investor pitch decks, especially early in my startup career, were “horrible.”Upon reflection, some of our team’s investor pitch decks, especially early in my startup career,

Sometimes, our teams were successful in raising money from investors. Many times, they were not.

I never thought that the content and presentation style of the investor pitch deck might be hurting us. Boy, was I ever wrong? Working with many investors taught me what they want in an investor pitch deck. In my last company, we raised $87 million over rounds A, B, and C.

So, in this series and an upcoming book, I look to share my hard-learned lessons from 20+ years of being an entrepreneur.

The Investor Pitch Deck Series:

In this series, you will learn the order and importance of each of the following pitch deck slides:

1. Cover Slide
2. Problem Slide
3. Market Slide
4. Solution
5. Traction
6. Competition
7. Monetization
8. Financials
9. Team
10. Ask

This 10-part series covers the ten investor pitch deck slides’ ideal content, order, and flow. You’ll have learned how to craft your story into a successful ten-page investor pitch deck that can get you funded!

When an entrepreneur assembles their investor pitch deck, they usually make a hoard of information. Sadly, they often construct a “book” that is 20, 30, or even as much as 80 pages in length! Most of us humans have a concise attention span. Even ad networks know that most ads over 30 seconds don’t work with consumers. For investors, the successful length of an investor pitch deck is about ten pages and 7 to 15 minutes in presentation length.

Pitch Deck Team Slide – Why Important?

Last week, in Pitch Deck Financials Slide: 10 Slides to VC Funding Success, I spoke about the financial slide and its importance.

This week, I’m discussing the Pitch Deck Team Slide, the ninth page of every presentation, and its significance. After discussing the financial slide, you should immediately talk about the “team” making all this happen.

Why? The investor should be convinced of your company’s idea, or they’re surfing the web on their iPhone! If you’ve done your job well, it’s the former. As an investor, I now want to know the team I will invest in if I move forward.

If you’ve followed this series and your investors are in your market space, they’ll be on the edge of their seats!

Pitch Deck Team Slide – Content

Most pitch deck team slides I see from entrepreneurs could be more generic. Often, they are as simple as a list of names. Sometimes, they are a single group picture. Sometimes, there is no team slide because there is no team. The company only has one founder and no management members.

Your pitch deck team slide should show who your management team is. Use a simple color headshot—usually, the image on LinkedIn works. Below the picture, please put their full name and, below that, their management title. Under the management title, include their relevant experience—”10 years”—if it adds to your story.

While we’re speaking of LinkedIn, review each management member’s profile. Ensure the picture is current and appropriate (no casual shots). Ensure the content follows “best practices,” as many prominent business coaches and other professionals outline. Take a look at the management team’s other social media sites. Make sure general Facebook users can’t see derogatory or unprofessional content. Delete any pictures of the person drunk at a party or a video of them doing anything many moms would find objectionable. Even strong positions of a political nature can prevent an otherwise excellent team from raising money.

See the image associated with this article to see a great example.

Pitch Deck Team Slide – What’s Your Story?

So, what do you say while your pitch deck team slide is visible? Speak to the talents that each team member brings. Speak of their specific contributions to a prior, well-known company. Mention any outside philanthropic activities. Speak about your abilities “last.”

Allow me to give one pitch example.

“Now, I’d like to introduce my incredible team! Mary Simmons is our Chief Technical Officer (CTO). She has been building websites and mobile applications since her college days. She most recently worked at Square Space, where she was VP of Technology in charge of template development. John Myers is our VP of Sales. He has over 20 years of sales experience at companies including IBM, Incorp, and Cisco. I’m Jim Johnson, and I serve as the CEO. My experience includes VP of Business Development at Sun Microsystems and Director of Business Development at IBM.”. Short, sweet, and focused. You’ve shown the investor that you can assemble a rock-star team. You’ve also minimized any concern that if you drop dead, their investment is in the hands of a competent team.

Presentation: We Can Read or Listen – Not Both!

Most humans can “read” or “listen,” but we cannot do both simultaneously. Your Pitch Deck slide presentation exists to support “the story” you will be telling your audience. Does your investor pitch deck have a lot of words, charts with numbers, or distracting images? Then, your audience will switch their brains into “reading mode” and out of “listening mode.” As soon as that happens, you’ve lost your audience and will struggle to get them back to listening to you! To avoid this, use primarily images and as few words as possible, usually in bullet form. So absolutely, positively, no sentences!

Conclusion

So, I suspect many of you were surprised concerning the importance of the Pitch Deck Team Slide. If you’re starting to create your first investor presentation, congratulations! You will start on the right foot if you follow my recommendations above. You can go back and look at your team slide and apply what you’ve learned above. You should wait to read the remainder of the series before you present it again. I can promise you a better reaction from your audience.