6 Types of Business Pitch Decks [With Real Examples]

An investor pitch deck is typically a slide-based presentation document that communicates key aspects of your business to the investors. 

The primary purpose of the deck is to make investors see the potential in your business, sparking their interest in investing in it. 

Pitch decks are used when you are verbally pitching your business to investors, as a visual support to your speech.
Below, we have discussed the investor pitch in detail: 

• what topics to include
• when to use it
• a real-life example for each

An investor pitch is a persuasive briefing you give to your potential investors about your business, trying to convince them to invest in your business. 

In this briefing, you talk about your business's mission, historical performance and growth potential, making investors see the value in your business. The briefing is typically verbal, supported by a slide-based pitch deck.

What to include in an investor pitch

1. Introduction

Company overview, mission statement, logo and tagline
2. Problem

The pain point you are solving

3. Solution

Your product/service details and how it addresses the problem

4. Market Opportunity

Target Audience, Market size and Growth Potential

5. Success So Far

Key financial milestones, Testimonials, and other early achievements

6. Unique Value proposition and Competitor Analysis

7. Product Demo

Screenshots, demo video clips, or visual walkthroughs of the product

8. Financials

Current Revenue/Profit, forecasts, expense projections

9. Team

Profiles of key team members with relevant experience highlighted

10. Ask/Closing

Specific investment amount sought and how funds will be used

When to use:

• In investor meetings, when seeking funding from investors
• During startup competitions
• To present a detailed view of your business plan to any relevant party
• Networking Events to introduce your business

Real Example

In 2008, Airbnb, now a $90 billion company, closed a $600k seed round. They did a great job of preparing a comprehensive, easy-to-digest investor pitch deck. 

A few slides from the deck have been discussed below:

The purpose of this slide below was to prove that the problem is real and consumers are looking for solutions. 

They showcased the magnitude of the problem by detailing the number of temporary house listings on Craigslist and the number of users on Couchsurfing.

In this slide, the founders visually depicted their competitive edge over competitors, being more affordable, and supporting hassle-free online transactions. 

This would have given investors huge confidence in their idea.

The slide below displayed testimonials from a few of their customers. 

The testimonials give investors confidence that the solution truly adds value to consumers’ travelling experience, validating the problem and the solution. 

They also added the customers’ photos to make testimonials look authentic and have more impact. 

👉 Explore our guide on what slides you must include in your investor pitch deck

Anything from a 20-minute presentation to a 2-minute speech on a call with your prospect where you are trying to convince them to buy your product or service is a sales pitch. 

Your pitch could be a scripted call, an impromptu conversation, a video sales letter, a slideshow presentation, or a Word doc proposal with pricing and offerings listed.

What to include:

1. Compelling Narrative

Compelling narrative that touches on customer’s fears or desires to hook them in

2. Problem Statement

Customer’s challenges or pain points

3. Proposed Solution

Details about your product/service and how it solves the problem

4. Features & Benefits

Key functionalities and the tangible benefits for the customer.

5. Unique Value Proposition

What makes your offering stand out from the competition

6. Social Proof

Customer testimonials, case studies, or success stories

7. Pricing & Packages

Cost structures, available packages, and special offers

8. Implementation Timeline

Clear timeline for deployment or execution.

9. Call-to-Action (CTA)

Clear next step to encourage immediate action.

When to use:

• In-person meetings with potential customers
• networking events 
• Scheduled sales calls (phone or video)
• Industry conferences
• Email or digital outreach presentations
• Product demos or client workshops

Real World Example:

 

Pocus is a Series A funded startup that sells product-led sales enablement software, with customers such as Asana, Canva, Miro etc. under their belt. They were able to crack such elite customers with their persuasive sales pitch.

Below is a sneak peek into some slides from their sales deck.

In the slide below, Pocus built the narrative that the way buying and selling happen is changing. They claimed that the world is shifting towards product-led sales, highlighting its benifits. This narrative sets the context for why their ICP should listen to them.

In this slide, they reinforce their narrative that product-led sales are what everyone has started to prefer in the SaaS space.

In the slide below, they talked about their solution to the problem of ‘the changing way of buying and selling’: Pocus, a platform to enable Product-led sales and help businesses adapt to this new way of selling. 

An elevator pitch typically is a 30-60 second long speech given to sell your product/service or acquire investors. Within these 30-60 seconds, you can’t close a deal, but you can generate enough interest in the stakeholders to open doors for detailed communication in the future.

 

Elevator pitches were originally delivered verbally but now, they are also used in written format on websites, social media, marketing campaigns, etc.  

What to Include:
 

Introduction/Hook

Introduce yourself and start your pitch with a strong claim or a contrary opinion that grabs the attention.
Problem Statement

The actual real-life problem you are trying to solve
Solution Overview
How is your product going to solve the problem?
 

Unique Value Proposition

What sets you apart?

Success till now

Financial milestones achieved, customer success stories
 

Call-to-Action

Exchange contact details, take time for the next meeting

When to Use:

• Networking events
• Quick introductions
• Conferences or industry meetups
• Investor warm introductions
• Elevator ride opportunities (figuratively speaking!)

Real Life Example

 

Elon Musk, founder of Tesla gave this brief elevator pitch, in China, at an industry event:

“What we are trying to do with Tesla is to change the world by bringing electric cars, sustainable transport, to the world and showing people that an electric car can be fun and sexy and fast and long-range. 

But in order to be successful in that, we need people to take a chance on the company. We need people who are willing to be early adopters of new technology. People like yourselves and without people like you there is no hope for a company like Tesla”
 

The pitch starts with a good hook (Tesla is trying to change the world). It conveyed the solution to people concerned about global warming (sustainable electric cars) and what makes Tesla stand out (electric cars that are ‘fun and sexy and fast and long range’). 

the end, Elon urged people to be early adopters and try out Tesla (CTA).

This pitch was good enough to pique the interest of the listeners, in Tesla, which is the entire purpose of the elevator pitch.

A demo pitch is where you try to convince your prospect to buy your product by showcasing them how your product/service can make their life easier, through a live or recorded product demonstration. 

You showcase your product’s key features and benefits in real time during the pitch, giving the customers a taste of how their life will be if they get the product. 

This hands-on approach gives customers more clarity about their need for your product and hence inspires the next step from them.

What to include:
Introduction/Hook

Briefly introduce the product and capture attention.
Problem

Customer’s problem that the product addresses
Use Cases/Applications

Real life examples or scenarios of how the product solves problems
Proof of success

Testimonials, customer success case studies
Call-to-Action

Clear next steps such as signing up for a trial, a follow-up demo, contacting sales for more information or buying the product
When to use:

• During new product launches or updates
• At trade shows or industry events
• In sales meetings
• Product education webinars
• As part of digital marketing or outreach campaigns
• When selling complex products that benefit from a live/recorded demonstration

Real life example

To get people to download (or ‘sell’) their new ‘Place’ app, they created a demo video for it. They talked about the problem users face currently while buying furniture from IKEA. Then, they showcased how this app can solve that problem and make their life better. 

They created an engaging demo video, making people truly feel how their lives can change for good if they start using this product.
https://youtu.be/UudV1VdFtuQ 

Partnership pitch is where you are trying to convince another party to partner with you on a project, by talking about the benefits they will have out of the collaboration. At the same time, you are transparent about the benefits you will have from this partnership, to build a mutual trust. 

This pitch is usually supported by a PowerPoint presentation or a doc where you lay out all the required details about the partnership. When companies do partnerships at scale, they have their partnership pitch laid out on a public platform, such as their website or social media channels.

What to include:

Introduction & Overview

A brief overview of your business and the partnership opportunity
 

Benefits to both parties

Explanation of how each partner benefits, highlighting complementary strengths and resources
Roles and Responsibilities

What is precisely expected from each party in this partnership
 

Success Metrics

Key performance indicators and benchmarks to measure the partnership’s success

Success Stories

Success stories of past partnerships, if any.
FAQs

If you are doing partnerships at scale, you might want to address FAQs.
Call-to-Action

Clear next steps such as scheduling a follow-up meeting, signing a preliminary agreement or applying for a partnership 

When to use:

• In-person meetings, when seeking strategic alliances with the party
• At trade shows and industry events 
• When partnering to break through into the new markets/geographies

Real-life example

Hubspot runs an affiliate partner program, which you can apply for from their website. On their landing page, they have laid out the whole partnership pitch to attract the right partners for their program.

 

In the below screenshot, you can see they have clearly specified the benefits their affiliate partners will have if they join the program.

This screenshot specifies the ‘success’ metrics for the partnership, which is the sign-ups per month. 

As the number of sign-ups increases, you move to an upper bracket in which you get even more benefits.

They have also put the FAQs on their landing page, as seen in the screenshot below:

They clearly explain the next step: ‘Join the program’, as shown in the screenshot below.
 

A customer pitch is a type of personalized sales pitch where you pitch to sell your product or service to a particular customer (or prospect)/customer segment. Just like a sales pitch, this pitch could be a scripted call, a slideshow presentation, a sales letter, or simply a Word doc proposal with all the required details listed out.

What to include:

Introduction
Warm, engaging greeting and a brief overview of your company

Problem Statement
Customer’s specific pain points or challenges.

Solutions
Customer-specific solution and benefits

Features and Benefits
Key functionalities and benefits relevant to the customer.

Social Proof

Testimonials, case success stories, ratings on public platforms

Call-To-Action
Clear next steps, such as scheduling a demo, signing up for a trial, or contacting sales for more details.

When to use

• During personalized sales meetings or calls
• For digital marketing outreach targeting specific segments
• When upselling or cross-selling to existing customers
• In tailored presentations at industry events or webinars

Real Life Example

Wisestamp is a SaaS company that helps you generate email signatures for your company. They have more than 15k+ businesses as their customers. They use personalized customer decks to sell to their prospects/clients.

 

Below, we have discussed a few slides from their personalized customer deck.

 

Wisestamp uses dynamic variables to personalize their deck as shown in the screenshot below. These variables are replaced with the respective client details. 

As an email signature management software, they include a live sample signature for each customer in their deck (see the right side of the screenshot) for a more personalized experience.

They have specified clear benefits for the customer in their deck, as shown in the screenshot below:

They have displayed the relevant customer testimonials in their deck, as shown in the screenshot below:

Your pitch should unfold like a compelling story for investors. Start with how your target audience is suffering from an urgent, critical problem. 

Paint a picture of how big the problem is. Then, talk about how your solution is going to solve the problem and ‘transform’ the lives of people. Each element of your pitch should logically flow into the next element, like a story.

 

As Dave McClure of 500 Startups advises, “Investors invest in teams and stories, not just ideas.”

Use data to add credibility to your claims, wherever possible.

Market size indicators such as overall industry revenue, size of target audience, industry CAGR can be used to showcase how big the market opportunity is. 

Customer testimonials and ratings help you validate the ‘problem’ for investors and depict the effectiveness of your solution. 

Use company’s financial data, such as revenue, costs, profit and growth rate to shed light on the business’s performance so far.

Highlight the complementary skillsets and relevant experience/achievements of the team members to gain investor confidence.

Check out the screenshot below from the Airbnb deck, where colleges of the founders (same for Joe and Brian) have been mentioned, indicating how they might have met.

Paul Graham from Y Combinator stresses, “A great team is the best asset of a startup.”

Wrap up the pitch by stating the investment amount sought and how the funds will be allocated to drive growth. 

State growth milestones that you aim to achieve with the timeline. 

Mark Cuban, a billionaire entrepreneur and investor says “If you don’t clearly state what you’re asking for, I have no idea what you need and how to help you.”

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