How to Create a Pitch Deck: Part 3 – Going Beyond the Team Slide

In Part 3 of “How to Create a Pitch Deck”, we’ll walk you through the final critical slides—traction, financial projections, the ask, and of course, the team slide. These slides are your opportunity to showcase your progress, demonstrate financial growth, and, most importantly, highlight the people who will turn your vision into reality. 

If you haven’t already, have a look at the EWOR Pre-Seed Unicorn Slide Collection for more insights and hand-picked examples to inspire you as you create your slides. Or, If you missed you missed out on how to start your pitch deck from the very beginning, Part 1 and Part 2 of this guide are available now.

A Final Recap on Structuring Your Pitch Deck 

A successful pitch deck goes beyond just highlighting your business opportunity. It’s about telling a cohesive story that flows smoothly and leads investors through every key aspect of your business.

In previous articles, we discussed the slides that show why your solution matters, and it’s profitability, aka your:

• Mission and Vision,
• Problem,
• Solution,
• Product, 
• Value proposition,
• Competition,
• Why Now
• Business Model, and
• Go-to-Market slides.

In Part 3, we’ll shift focus to the final crucial element: how to present your team slide and other key sections that demonstrate you're the right fit to seize the opportunity you've outlined.

The Traction and Milestones Slide

Before we jump straight to the actual team slide of the pitch deck, we first need to cover traction. The traction slide is often the defining moment of your pitch, showcasing evidence of your start-up’s growth and potential. It convinces investors that your venture is not just viable but thriving, and that now is the perfect time for them to invest.

Key Elements

• Growth Metrics: Highlight key indicators of exponential growth, such as increasing numbers of paying customers, monthly revenue growth, user acquisition or retention statistics
• Market Validation: Include customer logos, testimonials, or data demonstrating product adoption and satisfaction. Visual representations of your customer funnel can further illustrate market traction.
• Milestones Achieved: For pre-revenue start-ups, focus on significant milestones like product launches, partnerships, team expansions, or advisory board acquisitions.
• Future Projections: Showcase anticipated milestones, such as converting design partners into paying customers, waitlist volume, or launch timelines, to highlight scalability and forward momentum.

Common Pitfalls

• Linearity: Avoid presenting flat or linear growth, as it lacks the dynamism investors seek. If exponential growth isn’t evident, focus on absolute numbers (e.g., “50 paying customers”) rather than incremental growth rates.
• Irrelevant Metrics: Ensure all metrics and milestones are directly tied to demonstrating traction. Avoid unrelated achievements (e.g., office expansions) or generic industry statistics unless specifically linked to your product.
• Overloading Details: Keep the slide concise and focused on the most impactful indicators of growth and progress.

By focusing on growth, relevance, and future potential, the traction and milestones slide cements your start-up’s appeal as a compelling and timely investment opportunity.

The Financial Projections Slide

The financial projections slide outlines your start-up’s anticipated financial performance over the next few years. While it’s less common for pre-seed companies to include this slide, it can be valuable in certain scenarios—especially when targeting investors who expect to see projected financial outcomes.

From our experience, both as entrepreneurs and investors, the financial trajectory of an early-stage start-up can be highly unpredictable. Instead of focusing on speculative financial forecasts, it’s often more valuable for early-stage start-ups to emphasize solid unit economics and demonstrate initial traction. This approach gives investors a clearer understanding of what your start-up can achieve and its potential, while also showing that you have a sound business strategy in place.

As your start-up progresses and reaches the Series A stage, however, the narrative changes. By this point, your business typically has at least three years of operational history, providing a much more reliable foundation for financial projections. With past performance data, you can make forecasts that are more meaningful and dependable.

Exceptions

While it may seem unnecessary to include financial projections for early-stage start-ups, there are some exceptions. If you’re in an industry with reliable benchmarking data, like heat pump manufacturing, or one that benefits from regulatory changes, you can use that data to create more accurate financial forecasts.

Likewise, start-ups in more predictable sectors, such as e-commerce or hardware, or those using well-established marketing channels (e.g., Google or Facebook ads), may find it easier to develop reliable financial projections. In these industries, the predictability of your business model and available comparative data can make financial forecasting more feasible.

When creating this slide, it’s important to focus on presenting a clear and concise table with the following key metrics:

• Headcount: Projected team growth.
• Customer Growth: Estimated increase in customers or acquisitions.
• Revenue: Forecasted revenue to indicate growth potential.
• ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) or MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue): Include either ARR or MRR to reflect consistent income streams.
• Burn Rate: The rate at which your start-up consumes capital before reaching positive cash flow.
• Cash Balance: Projected reserves over the forecast period.
• Required Capital: The amount of funding you’re seeking to raise.
• Major Milestones: Significant product or business developments that align with your financial forecasts.

Provide projections for the next three years, breaking them down monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on your growth rate. For a more comprehensive view, include historical data alongside your projections to show how your business has been progressing and what the future holds.

The Team Slide

The team slide is one of the most important parts of your pitch deck, offering investors a glimpse into the people who will drive your start-up’s success. It should highlight the strengths, qualifications, and chemistry of your team, demonstrating your ability to execute your vision and attract top-tier talent.

Key Elements

• Team Members: Include high-quality photographs, full names, and key roles of your team members. Provide a brief overview of their professional background and highlight any notable achievements, experiences, or affiliations with recognisable brands, companies, or universities.
• Key Skills: Showcase a balanced team with complementary skills. Include at least one member with technical expertise to develop the product and one with marketing or sales acumen to bring it to market.
• Attraction Potential: Demonstrate your team’s ability to recruit additional top-tier talent, emphasising diversity and collaboration.
• LinkedIn Profiles or CVs: Include links to each team member’s LinkedIn profile or a brief CV to allow investors to explore their credentials further.

Common Pitfalls

• Sparse Content: A bare slide without logos, accomplishments, or links fails to communicate the team’s strengths effectively.
• Excessive Text: Avoid overwhelming investors with dense paragraphs. Use bullet points or brief statements to keep the slide concise and engaging.
• Missing Members: Including only one founder or omitting critical team members can signal a lack of collaboration or capacity. If you’re a solo founder, reframe this slide as a “Founders Slide” and detail your expertise and relevant advisors or collaborators.

Creating an Effective Team Slide

• Visual Appeal: Use high-quality images of team members and logos of notable companies, universities, or awards. These visual cues quickly establish credibility.
• Balanced Strengths: Show how your team combines technical, operational, and market-focused skills to address the challenges of your start-up’s goals.
• Tailored Experience: Highlight expertise that aligns with your business’s needs. For instance, if scaling a sales force is crucial, include examples of relevant past successes.
• Advisors and Early Contributors: If you’re a solo founder or still building your team, mention any advisors, early contributors, or volunteers who support your venture.

The Ask Slide

The ask slide is your chance to articulate what you need from investors and why their contribution will yield significant returns. It demonstrates that you have a clear plan for using the funds effectively and advancing your start-up toward greater valuation and success.

Key Elements

• Funding Amount: Clearly state how much funding you are seeking. Be transparent about your needs and whether you’re open to a range of funding options based on potential outcomes.
• Planned Allocation: Detail how the funds will be used. Typical categories include team expansion, marketing, product development, operational costs, or technology acquisition.
• Past Fundraising Efforts: If applicable, mention previous funding rounds, including the amount raised and the valuation. This helps build trust and shows your ability to attract investment.
• Outcome Scenarios: Consider presenting a tiered funding approach, such as:some text
  • $500k: For achieving X goals at this valuation (e.g., launching a product or securing early customers).
  • $2.5M: For broader efforts, like scaling operations, entering new markets, or launching complementary products.

Common Pitfalls

• Excluding the Slide: Always include an ask slide. Omitting it can leave investors unclear about your needs and funding strategy.
• Ambiguity: Avoid being vague about the amount or how the funds will be spent. Clearly tie the funding request to specific goals and milestones.
• Lack of Goals: Go beyond just stating expenses. Outline milestones you aim to achieve with the investment, such as reaching profitability, expanding into new markets, or securing a Series A round.

That’s a Wrap

You now have the building blocks for creating a pitch deck that communicates your start-up’s potential in a way that resonates with investors. From clearly outlining your solution and business opportunity to presenting traction, financial projections, and those behind it all with the team slide, each section is designed to give investors the confidence that your business can execute and scale. The key takeaway here is that a pitch deck is more than just a collection of slides—it’s a strategic tool that tells your start-up’s story in a way that gets results. With these elements in place, you’re in a strong position to refine your pitch and present a compelling case.

Like what you've read and are ready to supercharge your startup journey? Explore our Founder Resources—the ultimate toolkit for founders, featuring expert-crafted templates, guides, and strategies to help you build, launch, and grow with confidence.

Imagine you’ve convinced investors that your idea has huge potential, your product solves a real problem, and the market opportunity is ripe for the taking. Now, it’s time for the final piece of the puzzle: proving you’re the team that can capitalise on the opportunity.