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  • Writer's picturePjotr van Schothorst

How does a good pitchdeck look like?

The 11/12 slides to include in your pitchdeck:

  1. Vision and value proposition. Punchline describing what the company aspires to do or become.

  2. The problem, addressed by the company and its products.

  3. The solution incl. IP, patents (provide links to the patents), research background/partners (university? Government research institute?)

  4. Target market and opportunity

  5. Revenue model or business model

  6. Traction and validation/roadmap incl. Letters of Interest, sales pipeline, awards in competitions incl. shortlists

  7. Marketing and sales strategy

  8. Team, including their functions, academic titles, pictures and links to their LinkedIn profiles.

  9. Financials incl.:

    1. Cashflow forecast, which shows the need for the requested investment

    2. Earlier investments and grants

    3. Profit & Loss since company foundation

    4. Balance sheet of last 3 years

  10. Competition. Who are they, how long do they exist, how many people do they have, how much funding have they received and from whom? You can find some of this on LinkedIn, Crunchbase or Dealroom.

  11. Requested investment and use of funds. Also show if, when and why you expect future funding rounds

  12. Captable. Table of existing shareholders and the percentage of shares they own. Also add here parties that provided convertable loans, as they will become shareholders, too.

Peter Thiel

When assessing investment opportunities I also use the criteria from Peter Thiel, as he described them in his book “Zero to One”:

  1. The Engineering Question: Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?

  2. The Timing Question: Is now the right time to start your particular business?

  3. The Monopoly Question: Are you starting with a big share of a small market?

  4. The People Question: Do you have the right team?

  5. The Distribution Question: Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your product?

  6. The Durability Question: Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?

  7. The Secret Question: Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?

My assessment criteria

  1. Confidence in the technical solution. Will it work outside the lab? Will it quickly scale up? Won’t it be bypassed by other technical solutions that are cheaper/better in a few years time? What is the expected electricity/storage price?

  2. Potential impact on energy transition. How much CO2 can be prevented/captured in 5-10 years time?

  3. Patents/IP that give the company a competitive edge

  4. Team background, track record, knowledge of technology and market.

  5. Strategy, incl. Initial focus market

  6. Progress made since founding

  7. Positive feedback from prospective clients

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