📊🚀 How startups prepare their pitch decks to impress investors

1️⃣ What is Pitch Deck?

Simply put, the Pitch Deck is a startup’s “survival weapon”🗡️.
A 10-15 slide deck (PowerPoint/Keynote/PDF) to present to investors:

• What is your product/service?
• Solve the pain points of the market
• How to make money
• How strong is the team?
• Why should investors compare money to you?

My observation: Many startups in Hong Kong don’t prepare their pitch decks well. They may have good ideas, but they can’t express their value, and as a result, investors lose interest after listening to them.

2️⃣ What do investors want to see most? 👀

Investors have limited time, so the Pitch Deck cannot be as long as a business plan. It needs to be short, fast, and accurate.
Investors generally want to see the following points:

• The market is big enough🌍
• The pain points are real enough 😣
• The solution is innovative enough💡
• Sustainable business model💰
• The team has execution ability👥
• Financial data is credible📊

A reminder: Investors don’t necessarily want to hear about how perfect your product is; they want to know how to make money and how to scale up.

3️⃣ Pitch Deck Essentials 📝

The following is a common structure for an international startup pitch deck (10–12 slides):

1. Cover 👋

Company name, logo, slogan, and an eye-catching image. First impressions are crucial.

2. Problem

Clearly articulate the market pain points. Use data, stories, and case studies to convince investors that this problem truly exists.

3. Solution

Introduce how your product/service solves the problem. You can use diagrams, demos, and flow charts.

4. Market Size

Use TAM (Total Addressable Market), SAM (Serviceable Market), and SOM (Sales Available Market) to explain potential. The figures should be sourced; don't make arbitrary estimates.

5. Business Model

Explain how you make money: subscriptions, commissions, advertising, one-time sales? Ideally, include unit economics.

6. Competition Analysis

Use a 2x2 Matrix or table to show your differentiation from your competitors.

7. Product Demo

Add pictures, images, and prototypes to make it clear to investors.

8. Go-To-Market

How will you acquire customers? TikTok? SEO? Partners? Be clear.

9. Financial Forecasts

Revenue, costs, and gross profit margin for the next 3-5 years. Be realistic, not unrealistic.

10. Team

Show the background of core members and highlight their professional experience and success cases.

11. Investment needs (Ask) 💵

Clearly state how much funding you need and how it will be used (for example, 40% product, 30% marketing, 20% team, 10% operations).

12. Closing

A powerful slogan or vision will make investors remember you.

4️⃣ Tips to impress investors🎯

• Storytelling : Telling ideas with stories is better than using a bunch of numbers.
• Visualization : Diagrams and flowcharts are more powerful than words.
• Keep it simple ✂️: Each slide should only have one key point and not be filled with words.
• Data support📊 : All market figures should have a source, otherwise investors will question them.
• Show your passion🔥 : Investors invest not only in ideas, but also in the passion of the team.

5️⃣ Challenges facing Hong Kong startups🚧

• Investors are more conservative and prefer to focus on "cash flow" rather than "burning money for growth."
• The market is so small that investors will ask: "How can we expand beyond Hong Kong?" 🌏
• If your pitch deck is too complex, investors will lose patience.

The editor recommends that Hong Kong startups place special emphasis on "cross-border potential" and "scalability," such as entering the Greater Bay Area and Southeast Asian markets.

6️⃣ Success Stories🌟

• Canva (design tool): Pitch Deck emphasizes that "everyone can design" and has a large and clear market.
• Airbnb: The early Pitch Deck only had 10 slides, but it clearly explained "traveler pain points + solutions + market potential."
• Local example: Klook (travel platform) pitch deck impressed investors by focusing on the fact that the Asian travel market is not fully digitized.

7️⃣ Editor’s Summary📝

A Pitch Deck is not about piling up numbers, but about convincing investors in a simple, clear, and powerful way:

1. Big market 🌍
2. Your team can do it 👥
3. The investment will pay off 💵**

I think the most important thing for a Hong Kong startup to succeed is a fast, accurate pitch deck:

• Fast: 10-15 minutes
• Ruthless: Highlight pain points and solutions
• Accurate: Clear data and clear investment needs

If you do this, investors will look at you with admiration.