Starting your fundraising pitch deck

The 4th & King team shares pitch plots, sample decks, and field notes to help early-stage startups prepare to raise capital.

Avatar Photo of Chris Laughlin
Chris Laughlin
Avatar Photo of Jared Bloom
Jared Bloom

Chris and Jared are the cofounders of 4th & King, an agency focused exclusively on helping companies craft, design, and deliver fundraising presentations. They鈥檝e helped companies raise $4.5B in capital.

  1. Introduction
  2. Think in acts, not slides
  3. The five most common pitch plots
    1. 馃攧 Starting over
    2. 猬囷笍 Doing that over here
    3. 馃挕 But here鈥檚 the thing鈥�/a>
    4. 馃摫 All the kids are doing it
    5. 鉁� I took it personally
  4. The plots thicken

Nobody starts a company because they love fundraising. But for many companies, accelerating a venture-scale business requires millions鈥攐r billions鈥攐f dollars worth of capital.

Unfortunately, building fundraising decks and pitching investors are not skills that founders develop before starting a company; they鈥檙e learned by doing. So first-time entrepreneurs often struggle to craft a story鈥�em>their聽story鈥攖hat will end in a term sheet.

While it鈥檚 true that every company is unique, it鈥檚 also true that every pitch has the same goal: to assure venture investors that your company has the potential to achieve a valuation over a billion dollars. Your startup may not yet generate revenue, but it must generate conviction.

This is no small feat. It requires a leap of both reason and faith, which means that an effective pitch must instill confidence and inspire belief. An investor needs to see you are an expert in your space, a master of your own data, and the kind of storyteller who can convince customers, employees, and the next round of investors to join you on an improbable journey. Early-stage founder, this is for you. It draws from six years of building pitches that have led to $4.5B in raised capital. As you embark on raising your seed or Series A round, you鈥檒l need to tell a story with a mix of vision and execution appropriate to your company stage. This resource will help you articulate why your company should exist鈥攁nd give investors the best chance at squinting and seeing that billion-dollar outcome. Let鈥檚 begin.

vision execution - From vision to execution (involving the team, traction, and trajectory)

Think in acts, not slides

The startup world has a lot of lore鈥攁nd deep archives鈥攐n pitching. There鈥檚 commentary on early decks of now-famous companies, pattern-matching posts on pitching from venture capitalists, and presentation templates galore.

Instead of thinking in terms of slides, we recommend that you separate your pitch into three basic 鈥渁cts鈥� and work through each of them one by one. These three acts represent the essential movements of every pitch and give founders a clear sense of聽what聽needs to be proven at each stage and聽how聽to prove it.

The three acts are as follows:

  • Act I: Make your case.聽What are you building? What can it become? Why now? Why you?
  • Act II: De-risk your approach.聽What have you done to increase your odds of success?
  • Act III: Broaden your case.聽What does success mean to you, your investors, and the world?
Three acts - Make your case, de-risk your approach, and broaden your case.

In this guide, we鈥檒l focus on the first act. This is where founders set the tone of the pitch and the framing for everything that follows, whereas the second and third acts lean into company-specific proof points. The first act is where we dedicate most of our time with founders鈥攚e find that we spend over half of our time crafting and refining the first few slides of the pitch. It鈥檚 that important.

The first act and its pitch plots

Your deck鈥檚 first act鈥攐r first few slides鈥攎ust hook an investor. There鈥檚 a misconception that you must follow a strict sequence of slides to make a compelling case. In fact, the first act of a pitch can contain any combination of slides, as long as it communicates your:

  • Unique understanding of your market
  • Key insight into that market
  • Unique product or service
  • Signal that your approach is working

That鈥檚 a lot of impression to make and information to convey over your opening slides, let alone an entire deck. The first act does the heavy lifting, and it must do so efficiently. Over the years, we鈥檝e noticed some recurring narratives when producing strong first acts. We call these pitch 鈥減lots鈥濃�攐r frameworks to organize your story. Choosing the right pitch plot is a critical first step.

The five most common pitch plots

Most early-stage startups map to one of five pitch plots. Each has a similar structure:

  • The beats聽are the parts of a story that build on each other to form a plot. A good rule of thumb is to allocate one slide鈥攁nd a minute or less of speaking鈥攑er beat.
  • The sample deck聽in each section illustrates how the beats connect and how each pitch plot might look in the wild.
  • The field notes聽are our top observations on each pitch plot鈥攏amely where they鈥檝e worked best and fallen short for founders and companies.

A final, important note: There is not one plot that works best鈥攖hey鈥檝e all worked with investors. Before you pitch, experiment with different pitch plots to find the one that allows you to authentically explain the best, most resonant case for your opportunity.

馃攧 Starting over

Many investors like to make bold bets鈥攆ew wagers are more daring than reinventing a market from the ground up. Think聽Tesla聽or聽Ethos. Or perhaps economist Joseph Schumpeter, as this plot unleashes the 鈥済ale of creative destruction鈥� through which an industry evolves by leveling and recreating itself.

The beats

鈥淭his is the mess that is our market today鈥︹��/strong>

The idea here is to paint a picture of a market, an industry, or a workflow that is stuck in the past. Maybe it鈥檚聽still聽mired in paperwork. It might involve hours of manual work that could be completed in seconds with automation. Maybe the software hasn鈥檛 gotten better since 1980. Or it simply hasn鈥檛 taken off. Your goal is to make the audience聽feel聽this criminal level of inertia鈥攚hether it鈥檚 with statistics, images, or a powerful anecdote.

鈥淗ere is how it got there鈥︹��/strong>

Educate your audience. Help them to understand聽why聽the market looks the way it does. Is it dominated by incumbents with no incentive鈥攐r ability鈥攖o innovate? Is there a historical reason why it聽had聽to be the way it is, but no longer does? Has there been a big technological challenge that is yet to be solved? Whatever the answer, it should neatly set the stage for the key insight you鈥檙e about to unveil.

鈥淲hat if we could start over from scratch?鈥�/strong>

Wipe the slate clean and show how your company has a distinct advantage precisely because you are a new entrant. Show the investor how this market might be rebuilt if a founder didn鈥檛 have the baggage of being an incumbent, the burden of history, or lack of available technology. Make the solution seem simple, straightforward, and inevitable.

"That鈥檚 what we鈥檝e done鈥�"

Contrast your solution to the mess you described earlier. Walk your audience through how your product works, with a focus on the tangible differences that result from starting from scratch: Is it faster, cheaper, more delightful, less onerous, or simply better than what鈥檚 out there?

Starting over - Sample deck title

The field notes

When it works.聽This plot works best if you are educating investors on a market that鈥檚 unfamiliar to them. It allows you to demonstrate expertise and gives your investors the freedom to evaluate your business in a vacuum. If you can convince an investor that your company is the聽only聽one taking your approach, then you are the only founder who matters.

Use caution.聽Avoid 鈥渆ducating鈥� an investor with a story they already know. If you don鈥檛 know what an interested observer of your field definitely knows, you don鈥檛 know your field. And worse yet, it鈥檚 a negative signal. For example, don鈥檛 hinge your pitch to fintech investors on the challenges of the unbanked. They鈥檝e almost certainly heard (and probably have funded) that pitch. The last thing you want is to get caught in a ten-minute debate on the first slide鈥攐r worse yet, generate knowing nods and blank stares. It鈥檚 also important to consider what it is about your approach that makes it unique. For example, if what sets you apart is your marketing strategy鈥攁s opposed to something more defensible鈥攊t might be hard to argue that you are fundamentally reimagining your market, and your pitch might seem like an overreach.

猬囷笍 Doing that over here

A precise and powerful analogy goes a long way, especially when your analogs are valued in the $1B+ range. Early-stage versions of聽Catch聽(鈥淕usto for freelancers鈥�) or聽BallerTV聽(鈥淓SPN for amateur sports鈥�) would鈥檝e been good candidates for this plot. This is a particularly useful choice when your investors are not already intimately familiar with your market.

The beats

鈥淟ook at聽this聽other market (or聽these聽other markets) that have evolved鈥︹��/strong>

Big waves move all boats, so if you see other major markets transformed by a trend, plausibly that trend will arrive in your market soon. In the past, these forces might have been mobility, the cloud, or the internet of things. Today, they鈥檙e more likely to be artificial intelligence, real-time decisioning, or any number of trends that are reshaping markets. These examples are powerful, because they prime your approach before you introduce it.

鈥淥ur market has been left behind鈥︹��/strong>

Next, draw a sharp contrast between these markets and yours by explaining how your market works today. Focus on the pain points created by these forces聽not聽being reflected. If done well, you鈥檒l create a sense of inevitability. Nature abhors a vacuum.

鈥淚t would look like this鈥︹��/strong>

This is your chance to pay off the analogy. Paint a picture of what your market聽would聽look like if it met the modern standard. Take your audience step-by-step through a transformed experience and its implications for users, for your industry, and for the company that can deliver that experience.

鈥淭his is exactly what we are building鈥︹��/strong>

Present your company as the agent of change between where the market is today and the perfect world that you鈥檝e just laid out. Explain what you鈥檝e already accomplished to put you on that path and what remains to be done. The idea is to show, simply and clearly, that you are on course to realize that vision.

Doing that over here - Sample deck title

The field notes

When it works.聽This plot is entirely dependent on the size of the gap between where your market is and what it should, would, or could be with the right technology. It is also particularly effective if you can distill what makes you unique down to a single technology or business model (e.g., artificial intelligence, SaaS, etc.) so that the link to other markets is extremely clear.

Use caution.聽Pressure test every aspect of the analogy to make sure it鈥檚 airtight. If there is any inconsistency between your market and its analog, investors will start poking holes. The fewer variables between the two markets the better. The last thing you want to do is to get dragged into an argument about a market that you don鈥檛 even operate in. Plus, there鈥檚 a good chance investors have spent time鈥攁nd capital鈥攇etting smart on your analog markets.

馃挕 But here鈥檚 the thing鈥�/h3>

This is less of a plot than it is a rhetorical device, but it can be an incredibly effective way to open a pitch. If your goal is to convince an investor that you are the聽best聽person to solve a problem, then the best thing you can do is demonstrate that you understand the problem better than anyone else. For example, this plot might be a nice fit for聽Rahul Vohra聽of email service聽Superhuman. He has spent over a decade reimagining email as a founder (Rapportive, Superhuman), investor (sendwithus), and advisor (InboxVudu).

The beats

鈥淚nsiders in our market know that鈥︹��/strong>

Open with an interesting fact or statistic that an investor doesn鈥檛 already know and likely wouldn鈥檛 find in her cursory research before your meeting. Ideally, this statistic is unexpected, counterintuitive, or just plain interesting. But, most importantly, it should set up the next beat of your story.

鈥淏ut here鈥檚 the thing鈥︹��/strong>

Introduce your unique insight here. If it鈥檚 an observation that insiders know, then your insight should offer a perspective that is exclusively yours. The idea is to go one level deeper than your opening fact or statistic to reveal a hidden truth about your market. For example, if your interesting fact is that your market is growing incredibly quickly, then your insight might be that the market is still significantly聽smaller聽than it should be.

鈥淭his opens the door to a massive opportunity鈥︹��/strong>

The next step is to connect your unique insight to the business opportunity in front of you. The implication is that armed with your unique insight you can build a specific kind of company that is unlike anything else in the market. For example, if your market is massively underpenetrated, you might focus on the fact that you鈥檙e building a product that won鈥檛 immediately compete with incumbents, because it serves a hidden market that is adjacent to the current market.

鈥淲e are built for this鈥︹��/strong>

Introduce your business in this context. Explain clearly how everything about your company鈥攆rom the product to the go to market鈥攈as been designed to exploit this unique insight.

But here's the thing - Sample deck title

The field notes

When it works.聽This is a challenging plot to pull off because it requires you to present both (1) a fact or statistic that your audience doesn鈥檛 already know聽and聽(2) an insight that feels fresh and original. As a result, this tactic works best when you have a significant information advantage over the investor, which means that founders who have worked in the industry and establish credibility often have the most success.

Use caution.聽If either your 鈥渋nteresting fact鈥� or your 鈥渦nique insight鈥� are already familiar to your audience鈥攐r if they are intuitive to most people鈥攖his opening will fall flat, and your rigor or credibility may be in question. Once you鈥檝e settled on the stats and insights that you plan to share, first validate that they鈥檙e truly unique. Run them by colleagues, industry insiders, and friendly investors. If you鈥檙e not impressing them with your originality, you likely won鈥檛 impress investors either.

馃摫 All the kids are doing it

One of the biggest challenges in any pitch is demonstrating differentiation. To do so, show how your offering is sparking undeniably new customer behavior or uniquely benefiting from it. This plot might be the first choice for an earlier-stage聽GitHub聽or聽Figma.

The beats

鈥淭here is a big shift in behavior underway鈥︹��/strong>

This plot opens with an underlying trend that sets the foundation for your company鈥攂ut not the trends you see in every other pitch. You need to give a sense that you have聽uncovered聽a trend, not just read about it. So avoid Gartner studies and consumer surveys and look for data or anecdotes that reveal a trend that is hidden in plain sight. Imagine Airbnb in its earliest days pointing to the emergence of temporary housing listings on sites like Craigslist as evidence that people were interested in non-hotel accommodations.

鈥淭he incumbents aren鈥檛 ready for it鈥︹��/strong>

If you鈥檝e effectively demonstrated that a trend is real, then your next task is to show that the incumbents either don鈥檛 see it or can鈥檛 move fast enough to respond to it. Illustrate the clash between the expectations of the user and what the incumbents offer.

鈥淲e saw it coming鈥︹��/strong>

Leverage your origin story to illustrate founder/market fit. Show that you鈥檙e at the cusp of the opportunity that you鈥檝e prepared for for years, not because of an accident but because you鈥檝e been planning it. Show how your company was built with a deep understanding of this trend, and how this has translated to your approach to product development, go to market, team building, and more.

鈥淲e built a company for this new world鈥︹��/strong>

Provide early evidence that you are benefiting from this trend. This could be early traction, customer testimonials, or any other indication that you are resonating with early adopters. Give investors a sense that you鈥檝e discovered the inevitable.

All the kids are doing it - Sample deck title

The field notes

When it works.聽If your company is on the forefront of an emerging trend that others are not yet seeing, this can be a powerful plot. The Airbnb example is an instructive one. Ideally, the trend you鈥檙e identifying can only be found if you look聽deep聽inside the data. It should be something that only you were looking for鈥攁nd found. Epoch-making insights are probably not available via a Google search; show you聽won聽the knowledge.

Use caution.聽Investors are looking for long-term trends that transform markets, not temporary blips. In recent months, we鈥檝e seen pitch after pitch leverage COVID-19 as the tipping point for their market or their product. But is the change you鈥檙e seeing likely to outlast the pandemic? And if so, how can you make that clear to an investor?

鉁� I took it personally

Investors are looking for founders who dedicate their lives to solving a problem, which means it鈥檚 incredibly powerful if you can speak to how that problem has impacted you personally. For example, this plot could have been used by聽John Crowley. When two of his kids were diagnosed with Pompe disease, Crowley left a career in finance to develop treatments for people with rare diseases and few options. Driven to help his children, he鈥檚 spent decades working at and founding biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He now leads聽Amicus Therapeutics, which discovers, develops, and delivers medicine for people living with rare metabolic diseases.

The beats

鈥淟et me tell you about a time when I tried/had to鈥︹��/strong>

Share your personal story of struggle. This can be a 鈥渇ish out of water鈥� story in which you鈥攁s an outsider鈥攖ried something for the first time (e.g., applying for a mortgage). Or it can be an 鈥渋nside baseball鈥� story in which you struggled with a problem that has long plagued members of your community of practice (e.g., manually reviewing mortgage applications).

鈥淚t was an awful experience鈥︹��/strong>

Summarize the story by distilling the two to three fundamental barriers that stood in the way of making this process as seamless, intuitive, simple, or effective as it could be. This is where you set up the problems that you had to聽believe聽you could solve before starting your company.

鈥淚 did my research鈥︹��/strong>

Walk through the steps you took to better understand this problem. Who did you talk to? What did you learn about the size and scope of this problem? How long did you spend iterating on your idea? Who were you able to recruit to help you take on this challenge? These are the stories that resonate with investors and give them the confidence that you are committed to solving the problem in front of you.

鈥淚 built the solution that I would want鈥︹��/strong>

Illustrate how your product solves the problem that you were facing. But quickly transition to the value that your product can bring to the market at large. This is your chance to demonstrate that in solving a problem for yourself you uncovered a massive business opportunity.

I took it personally - Slide deck title

The field notes

When it works.聽We only recommend this plot to founders with an authentic story to tell. Investors are bored to tears by founders forcing themselves in as the hero of the story. But if your origin story is core to the narrative you share with customers or employees, it鈥檚 a good indication that it will resonate with investors as well.

Use caution.聽Even if your story is authentic, it only works if it鈥檚 relatable. It鈥檚 not necessary for investors to have experienced the problem themselves, but they should be able to put themselves in your shoes. If a problem is complex or esoteric鈥攐r feels like a 鈥渘ice to have鈥� versus a 鈥渕ust have鈥濃�攁 personal story can not only lose its momentum but also its currency.

The plots thicken

Once you鈥檝e chosen your pitch plot, you鈥檝e taken a significant step in defining your fundraising presentation. Stay the course on your deck and build out the second and third act of your pitch. If you need help, watch the聽recording of our AMA, where we go into more depth on fundraising pitches.聽Learn more about 4th & King聽and reach us at: hello@4thandking.com

Stripe Atlas has additional resources to help with your fundraising. Read more on聽pitching your early-stage startup. To stay current on聽similar guides for startups or if you have any thoughts about what other guides would be useful to your online business, please write us at: atlas@stripe.com

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