How to Make Your Startup’s Investor Pitch Punchy
A Thought Leader Guest Post from Dr. Fred Haney, Author of The Fundable Startup:
How to Write a Punchy Pitch for Your Startup 
Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of startup pitch decks that are loaded with beautiful graphics that confuse me.
I’m not sure who decided that pretty graphics improve your pitch, but sometimes they don’t. More and more, I find myself telling entrepreneurs, “Sometimes a word is worth a thousand pictures.”
Here’s an example. Would you rather see this:
Or this?
Sometimes a few well-chosen words can be much punchier and to-the-point than the most beautiful graphics. Besides, there are some reasons to favor words over graphics in your pitch deck.
On the other hand, you might rather see this:
Than this:
Some graphics help to clarify your message, but some just make things more complicated.
“Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose”― Leonardo da Vinci
Should a Pitch Deck “Stand Alone?”
There are several reasons that your pitch deck should be fairly self-explanatory—that is, not require someone to explain every slide.
First and most important is that your pitch deck is often the “face” of your startup. It’s the first thing investors see. It is highly likely that investors will see your pitch deck before they see you, so it needs to make a great first impression.
Investors don’t care about your use of color or clever graphic constructs. They care about the content of your message. What’s your great idea, and why does it deserve funding? Who are the people who are going to make your startup work?
Investors frequently tell startups, “Send me a copy of your pitch deck, and I’ll follow up.” What they are really saying is ...
Read the rest of this article at TheFundableStartup.com…
About the Author
Thanks for this Guest Post to Dr. Fred Haney, the Founder and President of the Venture Management Company, a firm that provides assistance to high tech companies. He is the author of The Fundable Startup: How Disruptive Companies Attract Capital, published by Select Books of New York.