Your Branding - We should get a sense of the “vibe” of your company. The same way that the best marketing evokes emotions in consumers, you want to get investors to feel the brand and understand the type of company you are building. Without this, you risk the pitch becoming overly analytical.

Company Name - Very obvious, but this needs to be displayed in a way that is clear and visible. Don’t get too fancy with it.

One Liner - You need a clear and concise one-liner that explains what the company does and the value it provides. This sets the stage for the entire deck, so you need to nail this.

Links - Never provide a way for someone to “click off” the deck. The most common slide where this happens is the cover slide, where founders like to put their socials, emails, website link, etc. The biggest challenge you have with a pitch deck is to get investors to read it. Why would you ever give them a reason/chance to click off? This is a rookie mistake that I see far too often.

Contact information - You don’t need to put your contact information on the cover slide. Nobody is going to read one slide and then decide they need to call or email you. It makes zero logical sense, provides no benefits and distracts from the content that needs to be there. Leave this to the last slide.

Marketing one-liner - Most founders have some type of marketing phrase they use when selling their product. This isn’t the same phrase you should use on your pitch deck. Customers and investors are being sold different things. Your customers are buying your product; investors are buying your shares. Don’t use the same pitch to sell to both.