How Long Does It Take To Make A Pitch Deck

How long does it take to make a pitch deck? A great pitch deck can make or break a sales pitch. Hence a great deal of time needs to be invested in a pitch deck that is appealing, professional, and concise.

It is generally possible to craft a pitch deck in an hour. Or a few months depending on the level of experience. But making a successful pitch deck and making a pitch deck should be viewed much more differently.

A pitch deck is just a set of business ideas you’ve hazily put out to sell your pitch to the investors. But a successful pitch deck may take several iterations to come up with something that truly appeals to your target VC.

That’s how it will help you secure funding for your startup for a Series A, B, or C pitch deck.

In this article, we will discuss the process of minimizing the preparation of the pitch deck. And improving its appeal to the target group of investors.

If your first pitch deck doesn’t generate as much traction or a windfall that your startup needs, then go back to the drawing board. And renovate your pitch deck.

Some entrepreneurs admit to having rewritten the pitch deck 32 times before getting the initial funding.

Often the trouble that one will face when creating a deck is that you feel that you have hammered everything home. And that’s each time you make a deck.

You have to muster the courage to keep inventing and reinventing as the pitch deck is never truly complete.

The process can be grueling, with some taking 3 hours, with others taking 320 hours putting the pitch deck together.

Schedule The Entire Pitch Deck Creation Process

Timelines are everything when you need anything done well, but you are pressed for time.

You have to know all the necessary steps needed in creating a pitch deck. And, even other steps such as pre-marketing campaigns to get prime investors to see your pitch deck.

At times, the scheduling activity has nothing to do with the ample time needed for the creation of a good pitch deck. But it boils down to the finances your firm has in hand to prepare the deck. And how soon you need to do it.

Whatever timelines are presented to you by your particular situation or financial constraints, it is up to the entrepreneur to plan. They must ensure that they get the best pitch deck that sells to the venture capitalists.

Whatever the timeline and budget you have to create the pitch deck, it is best to divide the tasks into small manageable tasks. And assign them in a short period.

You have to give each job a professional or team that best fits the skill necessary. That’s how you’ll create a world-class pitch deck that will make you billions in funding.

Get a Working Template

It takes an awful amount of time creating a new format, themes, and deciding the slides that really matter to your business.

The best deal is to get a great pitch deck template that meets the themes. Make sure it has design consistency and guides to help you get started in creating the content for your pitch deck.

It also helps reduce the chances of adding excess visuals that may confuse investors. A template also saves you the time you need to design. That’s so you can set your sites on other aspects of the pitch deck.

It is easier to gauge the success of pitch deck templates and get an idea of how successful your pitch deck might be.

A great tip in choosing a template is to ensure it is professional and to get in your way of pitching the idea to the investors.

Keep this tip in mind when working out how long does it take to make a pitch deck.

Get Professional Help

Chances are that you do not have time to learn new trends in the pitch decks that get the venture capitalists’ most attention. Then you can consider giving the task to professional pitch deck creators.

Professional creators have lots of experience making pitch decks that sell. They can help craft outstanding pitch decks for seed funding or Series.

It is best to have an expert who exclusively deals with pitch decks to have pitch deck keynotes. That’s so they understand the nitty-gritty of pitch deck creation.

They can craft a deck that gets straight to the investor’s hearts on a low budget and for a fraction of the time.

Another great option is to hire various freelancers to help you deal with multiple aspects of the pitch deck creation process.

In dividing the task and giving each freelancer a gig, they are best suited at. That’s how you shorten the pitch deck creation process to at most a few weeks.

Yet you still have an impeccable pitch deck that markets your idea and sells your story convincingly.

You could use the services of pitch deck designers, image and video editors, researchers, copywriters, and fundraising experts.

You can reach out to the best talents worldwide through sites like Fiverr and Upwork. They will help you find people who offer their services at competitive rates with negotiable timelines.

These factors are necessary when you are working on a budget and strict deadline.
When you’re ready for more detailed information about how to create a pitch deck, check out this video. I have put together some more aspects aside from the appropriate length of the deck.

Have a List of Target Investors

All pitch decks are geared towards investors. A pitch deck should be targeted toward getting funding from a niche group of investors in a given sector.

If you have particular investors in mind, it is wise to tailor the pitch deck towards their interests.

You can shortlist some potential investors beforehand as you set your sites on creating a perfect pitch deck.

Having the knowledge of the types of investors that may invest in your startups can give you an idea of the data, traction, and themes that will get to them.

The process of building a list of investors can take time as you have to identify, filter, and sort to ensure you have a list of potential investors that can offer funds.

You may target angel investors, venture capitalists, and family financing to meet different financial needs.

You can get your entire team together to figure out the most potent investors in your area or industry for an opportunity to make up the round for each investor financing.

You have to show the total budget and the expected funding so that the investors can understand the total funding required by your firm.

You’ll talk about the exact project that the funding is going to handle. Keep this in mind when estimating how long does it take to make a pitch deck.

Perform Market Research

Most of the venture capitalists that you’ll be working with have experience in the business you are pitching them. Hence you have to ensure that the plan holds water before you can present it in a pitch deck.

Venture capitalists may have all sorts of questions about your plan, and poor research can harm your story.

You have to dedicate your efforts in this stage and network with the right group of investors. Study a lot of information on the market size to prove that the market is truly viable.

A small market size means that the business may not be profitable, or at least not scalable or exciting enough.

You have to have all the new trends at your fingertips to ensure you can make the right business decision that augers well with the market.

Have a clear understanding of the problem to ensure that you have a grasp of the problem that you are solving.

If your solution is not adequate to the problem that you are solving, that could spell disaster to the business. It may not be attractive to the investors.

Have bulletproof marketing strategies that ensure that the business will keep on running for years with contingency plans for any eventualities.

Ensure you know how you will get your product to the customers and have a good revenue model that can get big investments on board.

Let the research be comprehensive to get the most realistic profits and cost, so you do not seem inept.

Find Great Images

A pitch deck is one of the most graphic-intensive documents that will require you to get quality images to please the investors for your pitch deck.

You have to get original images and avoid images that have watermarks. Also avoid stock photos seen everywhere else on the web, as they seem unprofessional.

You can use screenshots, have logos, modeling prototypes, and use case images. The process of getting images and editing can take at most four weeks. Of course, that depends on your level of skill or the freelancers you use on the task.

Keep in mind that in fundraising, storytelling is everything. In this regard for a winning pitch deck to help you here, take a look at the template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) that I recently covered. Thiel was the first angel investor in Facebook with a $500K check that turned into more than $1 billion in cash.

Remember to unlock the pitch deck template that is being used by founders around the world to raise millions below.

Develop the Writing Copy

While pitch decks are not designed to be verbose, any word you use has the power to influence how the pitch deck sells to your audience.

Any misconstrued words in the pitch deck can lead to a sour taste in your mouth. At the end of the day, the investors are looking for a compelling story to be part of.

Settle down and go phrase by phrase to ensure your editing copy not only makes sense but sells your story. Your pitch deck is part of a large sea of pitch decks that may cross an investor’s desk. So you would have to make yours truly outstanding and attractive.

Keep the story passionate and coherent to give a picture of a focused team that truly understands what you are solving.

When understanding how long does it takes to make a pitch deck, remember to keep the narrative concise.

The trick is to ensure the story explains why your product exists at a basic level so that anyone can understand. Make the solution timely and the narrative unstoppable.

The copy should be as simple as possible yet very clear and straight to the point. Keep the text supportive of the data and let it flow naturally from the previous slide.

Creating a writing copy can take up to two weeks to ensure the text, graphics, and supporting data complements the story effectively.

Review and Tweak the Deck

After putting in all the efforts and having a pitch deck complete, it is wise to get some input from investors and other trustable advisors.

When you need good feedback, send the pitch deck to venture capitalists you trust. Get some valuable suggestions so you can start polishing the pitch deck.

You also have to keep in mind that the pitch deck should be tailored towards marketing needs. You have to keep an open mind and ensure that the pitch deck is dynamic. It should reflect the market changes and pitch deck trends.

It is also wise to have different versions of the pitch deck for each investor audience. Keep reinventing the pitch deck to ensure it can help you raise the necessary funding.

As much as you need to keep the text and images in check, you have to ensure that the traction data is up to date. Make sure you reflect the company’s current position.

Outdated data can make it seem as if the team is incompetent and make it impossible to secure any funding. Ensure you keep the content modernized and revitalize it to make it appealing to the audience.

However, you have to retain simplicity and avoid going too technical in adding the traction data and other graphs and images.

The process of review can at times be longer than the pitch deck creation. Some of the people reviewing the deck have very busy schedules.

The process can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 weeks. That’s how long it takes to make a pitch deck.

Conclusion

Often it may take two to three months of creation, presentation and feedback, and revision to create a pitch deck that truly stands out.

You have to make the pitch deck interesting and short to capture the attention span. Though some can create a powerful deck in hours. That is if all of the background homework has been done and compiled in advance.

Most investors will often ask for the pitch deck beforehand, so you have to keep it sleek and easy to share. You may never have sufficient time to present the entire pitch deck to them.

Work with a qualified team and ensure that they keep the strict deadlines to have a pitch deck ready in the most efficient timeframe. That’s how you’ll ensure you get your business running in the shortest time possible.

Understand how long does it take to make a pitch deck, so you can plan ahead of time.

You may find interesting as well our free library of business templates. There you will find every single template you will need when building and scaling your business completely for free. See it here.