For entrepreneurs hoping to attract investor funding for their startup, a powerful pitch deck is a must-have. You may have the most exciting product or the best service in your industry, but if your pitch doesn’t adequately describe what you do, how you are different, and what your future looks like, you may still fall flat when it comes to attracting investors. Don’t start with background information.
“After you have the potential investor interested, there’s time enough to talk about your qualifications, the history of your startup, or whatever else they may want to know,” stated Ferrari Energy CEO, Adam Ferrari.
In this article, Ferrari Energy, a family-owned private oil and gas company, shares seven tools that can help you create a winning pitch deck. Each of the tools discussed below has its respective strengths and weaknesses. Choose the one that works best for you and your team.
Google Slides is a good choice for Google Docs and Google Sheets users. It may lack fancy features, but it is easy to use, and if you’re experienced with it, it could be preferable to learning a new program.
PowerPoint is the most commonly used presentation application. We’ve all heard the term “death by PowerPoint,” but that’s more a reflection on the user’s capabilities than it is on the program’s abilities. It’s full-featured, and if you know how to use it, you can do just about anything related to presentations with PowerPoint.
Keynote from Apple is an excellent choice for iOS, iPad, and iPhone users. For the same reasons Google Slides is a good choice for Google aficionados, Keynote works well for Apple devotees. It’s not fancy, but it works well.
Adobe Illustrator is probably overkill for most pitch decks, but if your business revolves around graphics and image creation, this is an excellent way to show off your proficiency. Your imagination is the limit for graphics and illustrations, but it takes some practice to learn to use it fully.
Canva, like Illustrator, is suitable for graphic intensive presentations. If you want to tell your story with pictures, Canva is a great choice.
Pitch Deck is explicitly designed for making a business pitch. They offer some pre-built templates that may be useful for presenting your ideas.
Prezi is well suited for creating a memorable presentation with some pizzazz. For example, you can include a video of yourself talking to your audience or other multimedia features.
Whatever tool you use, design your presentation to grab and hold your audience’s attention right out of the gate. You only have a limited time to get your ideas across, so don’t fill that time with information that won’t help an investor make a favorable decision.
Also, remember that if you’re making your pitch in person, they may ask you to leave a copy of your presentation behind so they can review it further. That’s a good thing, so make sure you come prepared to leave them a digital copy that will run on all operating systems without special software.
About Ferrari Energy
Ferrari Energy is a family-owned private oil and gas company focused on mineral and leasehold acquisitions. Founded in Denver, CO, with a focus on educating landowners, Ferrari Energy has consistently served the needs of the landowner community in the basins in which it works. Its operation covers several areas throughout Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and ND. Ferrari Energy has provided oil and gas leases to over 850 homeowners and held multiple lease-signing events to accommodate the residents of Broomfield, Colorado.