Before building a deck

The deck is just a visualization of your narrative, so focus on your story first and then build a deck.

Before you start crafting your story, understand what are you pitching:

1. Traction — create a fear of missing out on a high-growth startup.
2. Team — make investors believe your team is uniquely capable of building a high-growth startup.
3. Product / Technology — make investors believe you have a unique technology that may be capable of becoming a high-growth startup.

Not all investors like to go through decks at meetings, so also prepare:

1. Live product demo
2. FAQ

The process of building is ongoing:

• Tune the deck for different investors to match their backgrounds.
• Update the deck after meetings as you get more feedback.
• Add new slides to your appendix to answer questions investors ask you most frequently.

Do not spend too much time building an initial version of your deck. Get the first version done in one day and get feedback from your friends/advisors/friendly investors as soon as possible.