Pitch Deck: Team & Thank You Slides

This post has been updated and can be found here.

The post covers the final 2 slides: The Team and Thank you (we’re outta here) slide.  The original outline is here: THIS is the OUTLINE.

The Team Slide

Ah, the team slide. I’m not a huge fan of the team slide as I personally prefer the details (background, passion, expertise, etc.) of the team to come out in the presentation and subsequent discussion.

That said, your potential investors will want to know about you and your team so you should be prepared to have a slide that allows you to brag on yourself and your team a bit.  This is especially true if your team delivers some competitive advantage or special expertise to your business.

My advice is to keep the slide short and sweet. The example here is from an early-stage company I know and it represents a nice, simple, to the point example. Pictures are optional but it’s a good, visual touch…and clearly less likely as your company and executive team grows in size.

Finally, this example reminds me to make one note on titles.  My personal rule of thumb is that company size should match title size; very early companies should have teams with titles that don’t over emphasize a hierarchy that doesn’t yet exist.

It doesn’t make too much sense to have four C-level executives in a company of four people (I’m not picking on this example slide…I’m talking “in general”).  President instead of CEO; Director of Finance instead of CFO; perhaps just “development” on the business card until there are more than 2 developers.  While this is not a critical point, reasonably scaling into your mangement-team titles does send a good message that the team is focused on the “right” things and that outcomes matter more than titles.

Thank you slide

Be polite; say “thank you.”  More than anything else, this slide serves as the indication of the end of the presentation.  Questions and other discussions are welcome.

That said, if you somehow managed to get here in a linear, non-distracted manner it’s probably more cause for concern than celebration.  The flow of most investor pitch presentations diverge wildly as questions, deeper details and anecdotes drive the conversation – and that is a good thing. It shows your investors are interested.

…that’s it for now.