How to Make a Public Company Pitch Deck [A Guide]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Aug 11, 2025
- 7 min read
A few weeks ago, our client Matt asked us a question while we were building his public company pitch deck.
He leaned back, looked at the draft slides, and said,
“What’s the one thing investors actually want to see first?”
Our Creative Director replied without hesitation, “The story behind the numbers.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on many public company pitch decks throughout the year, and in the process, we’ve observed one common challenge: too many companies dump data without giving it a reason to matter.
So, in this blog we’ll talk about how to structure and design a public company pitch deck that gets investors leaning in, not checking their phones.
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.
Understanding the Real Goal of a Public Company Pitch Deck
Let’s get this straight. The goal of your public company pitch deck is not to impress investors with how many facts you can cram into 20 slides. It’s to get them to believe your company is worth their attention and money. Those are two very different things.
Too many decks read like someone copied and pasted pages from an annual report. That’s not a pitch. That’s homework. Investors don’t want to read homework; they want to be drawn into a narrative that makes them curious and confident at the same time.
When we work with public companies, we always start by asking, “If the investor only remembers three things, what should they be?” Everything else in the deck should point toward those three things. It’s a filter that forces you to drop the noise and keep only the signal.
Here’s what happens when you don’t do this: investors walk away with a blur of disconnected charts and jargon. They might even remember your revenue curve, but without context, it’s just a squiggly line on a slide. A strong public company pitch deck puts that squiggly line in a story. Why is it going up? What made that happen? And why will it keep going?
Numbers matter. But numbers without a story are just math. And no one invests in math—they invest in meaning.
How to Make a Public Company Pitch Deck
If you want investors to take you seriously, your pitch deck has to be built for the way they think and the way they decide. This isn’t about stuffing every single company detail onto slides. It’s about creating a guided experience where every piece of information earns its place. Think of your deck as a runway. Each slide brings the investor one step closer to takeoff — the moment they say, “We should talk more.”
We’ve built enough of these to know that the difference between a forgettable pitch and a memorable one often comes down to structure and clarity. Here’s the process we follow when making a public company pitch deck that works.
1. Start With the Story Arc
You’re not just presenting numbers. You’re telling the story of a company’s journey, present reality, and future potential. Public companies have a unique advantage here — they already have track records, historical data, and market presence. The problem is most companies throw all of this into a pile and hope the investor will sort it out. Spoiler: they won’t.
Instead, decide what story you want to tell before you open PowerPoint or Keynote.
A simple structure that works almost every time is:
Where we’ve been – a quick context of your market, history, and achievements.
Where we are now – your current position, recent wins, and relevant financial metrics.
Where we’re going – your growth vision, strategy, and what makes it believable.
This story arc isn’t just nice to have; it’s what helps your numbers and projections make sense. Without it, you’re just showing disconnected snapshots.
2. Lead With the Hook
The first three slides decide whether the rest of the deck gets read or mentally skipped. We’ve seen too many companies waste this space on generic mission statements and boilerplate text. That’s like starting a movie with 10 minutes of legal disclaimers — people check out.
Instead, open with a hook. For a public company, this could be:
A powerful, easy-to-grasp metric (e.g., “Revenue grew 300% in the last 24 months”).
A major market shift that you’re uniquely positioned to capture.
A one-sentence summary of your competitive advantage that’s so clear, they can repeat it later.
Your hook should answer, “Why should I pay attention right now?”
3. Simplify the Financial Story
This is where most public company pitch decks lose people. Yes, your quarterly earnings, EPS, and EBITDA matter. But dumping the entire financial report into the deck doesn’t make your case stronger. It just makes it harder for people to follow your argument.
The smartest decks simplify the financial section into:
Key historical highlights – the past 2–5 years of performance in a simple chart.
Current position – the metrics that define your present strength.
Projections – realistic forecasts, clearly linked to your strategy.
We once worked with a client who had a 25-slide financial section. Investors’ eyes glazed over before we even reached the halfway point. We cut it to 5 slides, tied each metric to a strategic point, and suddenly the conversation turned from “I need to review this later” to “This makes sense, let’s talk next steps.”
4. Make the Market Opportunity Obvious
Public companies often assume investors already understand the market. That’s a dangerous assumption. Even seasoned investors don’t always have a detailed grasp of your specific niche or the forces shaping it.
Your job is to show:
Market size – total addressable market, served market, and your current penetration.
Growth potential – not just numbers, but what’s driving those numbers (e.g., regulatory changes, technology adoption, consumer behavior shifts).
Why now – urgency matters; if investors don’t see why timing is on your side, they’ll delay decisions.
And please, no cluttered market maps with 200 logos no one can read. Keep it clean, clear, and credible.
5. Highlight the Growth Strategy
Investors want to know exactly how you’ll grow from here. This isn’t about vague aspirations; it’s about a roadmap they can believe in.
Break it down into:
Core growth levers – new products, market expansion, partnerships, acquisitions.
Execution plan – high-level steps that prove you’re not just dreaming.
Evidence – small wins, pilot results, or past strategies that worked.
We worked with a tech client who laid out their next 18 months in four bullet points, each backed by a short case study from their history. It was short, but it made the future feel inevitable.
6. Put Leadership Front and Center
For public companies, leadership is a credibility anchor. But this section often gets treated as a formality — a list of names and headshots. That’s a waste.
Instead, highlight:
What each leader brings that directly supports the strategy.
Relevant track records (past exits, turnarounds, innovations).
A single, unifying leadership narrative that connects the team to the company’s mission.
Investors bet on people as much as they bet on business models. Show them they’re betting on the right team.
7. Keep Design Functional and Clear
Design is not decoration. It’s communication. Your deck’s visual style should make it easier to read, not harder.
Here’s what we’ve learned works best for public company pitch decks:
Consistent structure – same font sizes for headings, same color hierarchy, same spacing.
Readable charts – one key message per chart; if you need to squint, it’s too small.
Controlled color use – colors should guide attention, not compete for it.
We once redesigned a deck where every chart had a different style. It looked like a patchwork quilt. Investors spent more time figuring out how to read the visuals than actually absorbing the content.
Once we standardized everything, the data finally spoke for itself.
8. Remove the Fluff
Here’s a truth that’s hard for some companies to accept: investors don’t care about every single detail of your journey. They care about the details that affect the decision in front of them.
We advise clients to go through their deck and ask for every slide, “Does this make the investment case stronger?” If the answer is no, cut it.
One of our clients cut their deck from 40 slides to 18. That forced them to clarify their points, drop filler slides, and focus on persuasion instead of information dumping. The response from investors was immediate: “This is one of the clearest decks we’ve seen.”
9. Anticipate Investor Questions Before They Ask
A good public company pitch deck isn’t just a presentation; it’s a pre-emptive strike against doubts.
Think through the tough questions:
How sustainable is your growth?
What risks could derail the plan?
How will you handle market volatility?
Address these in the deck subtly — not by adding a “Risk” slide that scares people, but by weaving reassurance into the story and numbers.
10. End With a Clear Next Step
Your last slides should answer: “What do we want them to do after this?” It’s surprising how many pitch decks end with a polite “Thank you” and no guidance.
Instead, close with a call for the specific action you want — a follow-up meeting, a due diligence review, or a deeper discussion with your CFO. This isn’t about pressure; it’s about momentum.
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.