Visual Design Principles for Pitch Decks

In September 2024 I made a pitch deck so bad I am shocked an investor did not pay me to stop presenting. We had no brand identity, no real structure, and no clue. I grabbed a free template from pitch.com, threw in some market stats, and hoped for the best. It was awful, but it was also the first step. Since then, I have rebuilt that deck around 40 to 50 times. Every version was sharper, cleaner, and more targeted, until it became something that actually tells the story of what we are building at myGrape, why it matters, and why the right investor should care. Here is what I have learned about making those 10 to 15 minutes in front of an investor count. 1. KISS the pitch – Keep It Simple Silly. If it needs your voice to make sense, it is too complicated. 2. Lead with story, back it with numbers – Numbers prove you are credible, story makes you memorable. 3. Design is strategy – Your colors, typography, and flow are not decoration, they guide attention and build trust. 4. Make it investor specific – A deck that works for everyone works for no one, make them see why they matter to your mission. 5. Iterate without mercy – A great deck is never finished, it is rewritten until it feels obvious. Our mission at myGrape is to fix critical gaps in the ATMP supply chain, and today our deck reflects that with clarity and conviction. And if history is any guide, in a few months I will look at this “perfect” deck, cringe again, and start the cycle all over. Because pitching, like building a company, is never done. (PS if you’re a founder raising money, check out the book ‘Investor Pitching’ written by one of my mentors, Sven de Vocht and his wife,Nathalie De Schepper)

This pitch deck breakdown is absolute gold for founders. While every startup is different, the fundamentals of effective storytelling through slides remain surprisingly consistent. (I've also attached Vinod's walkthrough in the comments, worth every minute.) The core principles: - 5-second comprehension rule. Every slide should tell its story within 5 seconds of viewing. If investors have to hunt for your key message or do mental math to understand your traction, you've already lost them. - Front-load your metrics: Don't bury your 40% month-over-month growth on slide 12. Lead with progress that proves momentum, revenue curves, user acquisition, and market expansion. Make it impossible to miss. - Ruthless content curation: Everything non-essential goes to the appendix. Your main deck should be 10-12 slides maximum. The appendix can be 30+ slides for deep-dive questions, but the narrative flow should be crystal clear without it. - Visual hierarchy matters: Use appropriate font sizes, colours, and spacing to guide the eye exactly where you want it. Your most important number should be the biggest thing on the slide. Investors see 100+ decks monthly, and the ones that win funding tell compelling stories with data.

🔹 9 Seconds. That’s All You Get. 🔹 You might think investors will carefully analyze every detail of your pitch deck. The reality? They spend an average of just 9 seconds per slide. That means: ❌ No long-winded explanations. ❌ No dense walls of text. ❌ No unnecessary fluff. At pre-seed and seed, investors are betting on people, not just ideas. That’s why your team slide needs to come early. It’s often the most scrutinized part of a deck. If you bury it, you’re losing valuable seconds before they even consider your market, traction, or product. 💡 So how do you make 9 seconds count? 1️⃣ Lead with clarity. If they don’t understand your value prop instantly, they won’t stick around to figure it out. 2️⃣ One idea per slide. If your slides look like an essay, they’ll skim—or worse, skip. 3️⃣ Show, don’t tell. Use data, visuals, and key insights over paragraphs of explanation. 4️⃣ Make your team undeniable. Highlight relevant experience, past successes, and why you’re the ones to build this. 5️⃣ End with momentum. Investors are looking for a reason to say yes—make it easy for them. The best decks don’t just inform—they sell. A killer pitch deck isn’t just a collection of slides. It’s an exercise in precision storytelling. 🚀 Can you tell your story in 9 seconds per slide? #Fundraising #PitchDeck #StartupAdvice #InvestorMindset #LessIsMore

Fact is, most investors are skimming your pitch deck. Don’t fight it, harness it. You put so much time into crafting your deck, only to have it breezed through in 30 seconds. Feels unfair? Maybe. But it’s just human nature. You would skim too, if you had 10 decks to read each day. We humans skim information daily → To find things that are worth our time and attention. 💡Advertisers know this, and seek to optimize for it. They HOOK you by making their points SUPER CLEAR in a 1 second SKIM. Then, they win your attention on a deeper read. ⭐️We can learn from their tactics, when we’re crafting pitch decks. So that all your hard work gets rewarded with more attention from investors. The # 1 thing you can do to optimize for the ‘skim’ is… 🛑 STOP making investors DO WORK to get the point. 🛑 Example: On your “problem” slide, if your headline is “THE PROBLEM” and your content has lots of text for the investor to read, they may take the time to read each word, but they may not. You’re making the audience DO WORK to figure out “The Problem.” So many people do this. It’s ineffective. → Improvement # 1: USE DIRECT HEADLINES. Direct headlines are a full sentence: Subject, Verb, Object. Like, “Widget Manufacturing is 40% more expensive than it was 5 years ago.” Direct headlines make it so: Your Point. Cannot. Be. Missed. → Improvement # 2: Use less text, more numbers and visuals. Humans glaze over long blocks of text. *Hence why I use short sentences, on new lines in THIS post :)* The human eye latches onto BIG NUMBERS and VISUALS. → So complement your Direct Headline, with slide content that… A) Explodes big # ’s with large font B) Uses visual diagrams & images when you can C) Eliminates as much text as possible If you do this, you can harness the “skim.” You can optimize for the undeniable fact that viewers are skimming. You can get your points across FASTER. You can earn their attention for a deeper read. If you’re struggling to get meetings, try using these tips in your deck. I’m confident ‘conversions’ will improve. TLDR: 1. Humans skim 2. Advertisers harness that, with simple tactics 3. You can use those tactics too in your pitch deck

💡 Here are the top 3 things which always come up in pitch deck reviews. I've reviewed a lot of decks both as a VC and as a startup mentor. Some are amazing, others are in need of some work. The great thing about having been a founder who has made the same mistakes that others make now, and also being an investor who knows what makes our industry tick, is that I really enjoy helping get these things in order with the people who value the advice. And whilst there are of course often things which are unique to each deck, there are also things which come up in 99% of decks I see. 📝 Too many words. Honestly we've all been there. Trying to explain every point being made on every slide. We feel that every word is important. The honest truth? Most things could be said in fewer words (probably including this post 😂). 🎨 Inconsistent design. One page a stock image, the next a hand drawn graphic, the next block colours. It might seem quirky and different, but it can be jarring. You don't have to have a whole brandbook but having some consistently across the design of your brand is so important - why? It makes it easier for investors to digest (we're simple creatures really 👼🏼). 📖 No flow through the story. It's not just the stats and facts that matter, it's the way you relay that through your pitch whether verbally or visually. A story that flows it not just easier to follow but also more engaging and exciting. As the lesson goes, every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Too much jumping around might work in a series like Dark, but when trying to raise capital, keep it simple (vision might seem like fantasy but that doesn't mean you need to write a whole lore 😅) Every deck is different. Every pitch is different. Every founder is different. But learning the tricks that make a pitch more likely to reach a call are things every founder can incorporate to every deck to use in every pitch. 👋🏻 Always happy to chat, reach out, and let's get some time in! #Investment #Fundraising #Founders #Mentoring #VentureCapital

Early Stage Fundraising Deck Dos: ✔️ Simple charts – No data dumps. ✔️ Big fonts – If I can’t read it, I won’t. ✔️ Ask is specific – $X to do Y in Z time. ✔️ Confidence, not hype – Facts, not fluff. ✔️ Market size = real numbers – No TAM fluff. ✔️ Traction early – Show proof you’re winning with revenue. ✔️ Clear problem + clear solution ✔️ Fewer slides > More slides – Less is always more. ✔️ Clean design – Visuals support the the words you say, not distract. ✔️ Plain language –I’m an angel investor - talk to me like I’m 5-years old.