Pitch Deck Tips [Advice by Expert Agency]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- May 23
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 2
Last week, our client Ben, asked us an interesting question while we were working on his pitch deck:
“How much storytelling is too much in an investor presentation?”
Our Creative Director answered...
“As much as it takes to get them to care, and not a sentence more.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on dozens of pitch decks every year; seed stage, Series A, B, even pre-revenue wildcards with nothing but a dream and a prototype. And in the process, we’ve observed one common challenge: Founders try to impress investors instead of making them believe.
So, in this blog, we’ll share no-nonsense pitch deck tips that make investors sit up, lean in, and ask, “When can we talk again?”
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
Why Pitch Decks Fail (Even the Pretty Ones)
Having a clean, good-looking deck isn’t enough. We’ve seen decks with sleek animations, custom illustrations, and premium fonts bomb within five minutes of the meeting starting. Why? Because investors aren’t looking for a polished keynote. They’re looking for clarity.
And most decks don’t have it.
Here’s what usually happens: founders try to cram everything they know about their business into a 10-slide format. They want to show ambition, data, traction, vision, product features, the team’s credentials, the tech stack, the go-to-market plan, and somehow still keep it “investor friendly.” The result? A scattered narrative with no clear takeaway.
The deck ends up reading like a brochure — not a pitch.
And the difference matters. A brochure is meant to inform. A pitch is meant to move someone. Investors are humans (surprise), and like all humans, they make decisions emotionally first and rationally later. If your deck doesn’t make them feel something early on, it doesn’t matter how smart your numbers are.
In short: most decks fail because they confuse complexity for depth and forget that the point of the deck isn’t to look good — it’s to get a second meeting.
Now that we’ve cleared the air, let’s get into the actual pitch deck tips that we’ve seen work across industries, funding stages, and investor types.
Pitch Deck Tips That Actually Work (Because We’ve Seen Them Work)
Alright, let’s get into it. These are the pitch deck tips we keep coming back to with our clients — not because they sound good, but because they get results. These come from pitch rooms, boardrooms, last-minute investor calls, and post-meeting debriefs where founders tell us what worked and what didn’t. Bookmark this. Screenshot it. Tattoo it on your arm if you need to.
1. Your first slide is not your logo — it’s your hook.
We can’t stress this enough. The first slide of your deck sets the tone. Most founders waste it by opening with a flat logo-on-white-background or some vague mission statement.
Bad idea.
You have 10-15 seconds before attention starts to drift. That first slide should answer one unspoken question in the investor’s mind: “Why should I care about this company right now?”
The best hooks we’ve seen usually fall into one of these categories:
A startling stat (“40% of all fresh produce is wasted before it reaches a shelf.”)
A massive market signal (“Apple’s Vision Pro launch created an $8B opportunity overnight.”)
A sharp observation (“Every small business uses spreadsheets for operations — and none of them like it.”)
Start with friction. Then solve it. That’s the rhythm of a pitch that works.
2. Use the problem slide to create tension — real, emotional tension.
Don’t just describe the problem. Make us feel it. Investors see problems all day long. What they don’t always see is how deeply those problems impact real people, real workflows, real industries.
Take a SaaS client of ours — they help logistics companies track returned goods. Not exciting on the surface. But we reframed it like this:
“Every year, $761B worth of products are returned — most of it ends up in warehouses, unprocessed, and eating up space and cash.”
That number landed hard. Not because it was big. But because it turned a mundane workflow issue into a bleeding wound. That’s what you’re going for.
One more thing — your problem slide should never be theoretical. No “might experience,” “can often,” or “may potentially.” Cut the hedging. Say what’s broken. Say who’s bleeding. Say how much it’s costing them. That’s how you earn the right to pitch a solution.
3. Pitch the solution like you’re teaching it to a 10-year-old.
This is where founders usually over-explain. We get it — you’ve lived and breathed the product for months, maybe years. But here’s the truth:The more brilliant your product is, the simpler your explanation needs to be.
When you pitch your solution, aim for clarity over coverage. We advise clients to describe their solution in one sentence before expanding:
“We’re building a reverse logistics engine that automates returns for enterprise retailers — in less than 3 clicks.”
Short. Direct. Easy to repeat.
Also, this is where design plays a critical role. A simple product workflow graphic or user journey can save you five paragraphs of text. If your product is visual, show it. If it’s complex, visualize it. Don’t say it’s easy — make it look easy.
4. Keep your market slide believable.
Every investor has seen the “$200B market” slide. That’s not the problem. The problem is when it doesn’t match the product or the stage of the company.
Here’s the thing: investors don’t need your total addressable market to be huge. They need it to be realistic and relevant.
If you’re selling AI tools for indie game developers, don’t tell us the global gaming market is $300B. That’s not your market. Your real market might be $1.8B — and that’s okay. Show us you’ve done your homework. Break the market down:
TAM (Total Addressable Market)
SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market)
SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market)
This tells the investor you’re grounded in reality, not just riding a hype wave.
5. The traction slide is where you prove you’re not just a “pitch.”
This is the slide investors lean forward for. And the definition of traction isn’t always “revenue.”
Traction could be:
A growing waitlist
A pilot with a major brand
Letters of intent
User retention metrics
A product usage spike
Strategic partnerships
If you have any numbers — show them. If you don’t, show momentum. We had a client with zero revenue but a case study from a beta customer who doubled their productivity using the tool. That slide won them a second meeting.
Also, avoid vanity metrics like app downloads or social followers unless they directly correlate with growth. Investors care about traction that hints at repeatability and scale.
6. The business model slide needs to pass the “so what” test.
Founders often treat this slide like a checklist. “We make money through subscriptions.” That’s fine, but it’s not insightful.
Instead, show why this model makes sense for your user base and your growth plan. If you’re offering a freemium product, explain how you convert. If it’s usage-based pricing, justify it with adoption patterns.
And for the love of all things holy, make your numbers readable. No tiny font. No blurry screenshots of Excel sheets. Just one or two clean pricing visuals, and one short explanation of your unit economics.
The best models are the ones that make investors say, “Ah, I see how this scales.”
7. Keep the team slide focused on why these people.
Nobody cares about long bios. Nobody cares that your CTO went to a top school unless it’s relevant to the domain. What investors want to know is:
Why are you the right people to solve this?
What have you done before that makes us believe you’ll pull it off?
We usually present this slide with photos, titles, and one-liner proof points for each person.
Like:
Sarah, CEO: 2x founder, ex-Uber Ops Lead, scaled fleet from 50 to 2,000.
Marco, CTO: Built core infra at Dropbox, 10+ years in logistics tech.
That’s it. No paragraphs. Just credibility and context.
Also: if your team lacks something (say, a sales head), don’t hide it. Acknowledge the gap and show that you’re aware and planning to hire.
8. Kill the “ask” slide that begs.
You know the slide:“We’re raising $2M for 18 months of runway.”
It’s fine. But it’s forgettable.
Instead, make your ask more strategic. Say:
“We’re raising $2M to double down on growth, with a clear 18-month plan focused on 3 hires, 2 market launches, and $1M ARR.”
This tells the investor you’re not just raising money. You’re using capital to hit milestones that de-risk the next round.
Even better — split the use of funds visually (e.g., 40% product, 30% sales, 20% hiring, 10% ops). It signals discipline.
9. The flow matters more than the format.
Too many decks follow a rigid structure they found online. Problem. Solution. Market. Product. Team. Yada yada.
But here’s the truth: the order of your slides should follow the logic of your business.
If you’re pre-product but have a giant waitlist, put traction early. If you’re launching in a hot market, lead with the market. If your team is your differentiator, open with that.
Structure your deck like a story, not a form. The goal isn’t to check boxes — it’s to convince someone to believe in you.
10. Say less, show more.
A pitch deck is not a business plan. It’s not your founder manifesto. It’s not your autobiography.
It’s a conversation starter.
So keep your slides clean. Don’t use full sentences when keywords will do. Don’t write “We plan to scale using a multi-channel GTM approach…” Just say:GTM Strategy: outbound sales, inbound content, strategic partnerships.
Use icons, visuals, whitespace. Show mockups. Show roadmaps. Show usage flows. But never let design get in the way of clarity.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.