The art of the investor pitch deck: how to make a presentation that will get noticed.

In many cases, your pitch deck will be your calling card: It’s what investors will see even before they agree to meet with you. The investors we spoke to tell you what should go in it — and what shouldn’t. Ultimately, preparing a pitch deck is an exercise in communications — you must tell a story that hits all the right notes.

You already know what investors look for when evaluating your startup: A clear explanation of the problem you’re solving, the size of your market, potential competitors, growth models, and the ability of your team to pull it off.

But how do you cram that all into a pitch deck? How do you boil down something you’ve spent countless hours obsessing over into a handful of pithy slides?

Think of your pitch deck as a calling card, a persuasive presentation that you’re onto a big opportunity. Even before it comes to an investment, a good deck may help you land a coveted meeting with the right investor.

“The best decks provide a narrative,” says Karin Klein, a founding partner at Bloomberg Beta, Bloomberg LP's venture arm. “The deck can show that a founder has thought through the critical aspects of her business. The deck also gives a glimpse as to whether the founder can sell, including if she'll be able to recruit the right team and win customers and partners.”

A typical VC or angel investor may see hundreds of pitch decks every year. They may take 2 to 5 minutes to read it before deciding whether to meet with a founder, which is why, VC Jean de La Rochebrochard, says it “must be both complete and short.” Investors may ultimately end up doing as few as a couple of deals a year. In a time of crisis, like in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, they may do none.

While a stellar pitch deck won’t land you a term sheet, you need to know what goes into the best of them, what’s essential and what’s optional, and how best to communicate your proposal effectively. These eight tips will help.

1. Create a compelling narrative

“The best decks have a cohesive story,” says Klein.

While there’s no single way to tell a story, most good ones grab their audiences right off the bat. Your pitch deck should do the same, opening with something relatable about why you’re passionate about the opportunity, or why others should be, says Klein.

In its 2004 pitch deck, Facebook hit the mark, as it led with this compelling quote from the Stanford Daily, the …