What Goes In The Appendix Of A Pitch Deck

A pitch deck appendix includes all financial data, risk assessment, legal status, patents and trademarks, performance and projection metrics, information on previous or existing high profile investors, and any other salient information you didn’t include in your main pitch deck for brevity.

In this article, I am going to outline the importance of the pitch deck appendix and explore exactly what information you need to include in greater detail. This will markedly improve your chances of finding investors for your business.

What is a Pitch Deck Appendix?

A pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It is comprised of additional slides and information that you do not normally present during a pitch deck.

A key component of a great pitch deck is that it is concise and focused In order to keep it in the 10 – 20 slides range in terms of length, and therefore under 4 minutes, it’s so important to only show a few figures that prove your business is one investor should take seriously.

Why is a Pitch Deck Appendix Important?

What makes a pitch deck important is that it proves to investors that you have the data and depth of research to back up all of the points you have made in your pitch. A comprehensive pitch deck appendix proves you are fully prepared for engaging with angel investors.

If you do not have an appendix at hand, then you will be left in the unenviable position of having to shoot from the hip. Hesitancy will creep into your answers, unnerving potential investors. Worse still, you could end up having to tell investors that you “will have to get back to them on that” when they ask a question at the end of your pitch.

If you don’t have the answers, you cannot be persuasive. 

How You Should Present Your Pitch Deck Appendix

When you have completed your pitch, you should end with a question and answers section. This is where investors get to prod at your business plan and learn more. Some of those questions you will simply answer, but others will require graphs and other data. That’s when you use your appendix slides.

In this way, the slides of your appendix which you use are guided essentially by how the investors engage with you. You are being reactive instead of proactive.

The downside of this approach is that there will be times when you do not get to use one or several of your appendix slides. However, it’s better to be over-prepared than to lose out on an opportunity by not being able to present important persuasive information.

The Two Ingredients of a Pitch Deck Appendix

There are two types of information you should include in your pitch deck appendix. They are anticipatory data and expansive data. Anticipatory data includes anything you anticipate potential investors will ask. Expansive data includes information you had in your pitch deck but now expanded and in greater depth.

Anticipating what investors will ask is not easy. Each investor has their own questions, but as you negotiate through the pitch process, you’ll come to realize that there are common threads, some of which we’ll go into in a moment. 

Expanding on what you have already included during your pitch is a little easier. You simply take any concise point in your pitch deck and include more information about it within your appendix. For example, if you included a graph showing month on month sales, you could expand upon this with data about the demographics buying those products.

What Should be Included in a Pitch Deck Appendix? 

Taking both anticipatory and expansive categories into consideration, we can now list some of the most useful points you should include in the appendix of a pitch deck.

Metrics, Metrics, Metrics

Investors absolutely love metrics. This type of data highlights important trends within your business and chosen market. By looking at such metrics, investors get a better idea about how a business is currently performing and how it will grow in the future.

Remember, the stats and metrics you use in your pitch should be focused and concise. You don’t want to bore investors with too many numbers. However, once the pitch is over, they are likely to ask about certain key performance indicators. If you have these on hand as part of your appendix, you will appear prepared and professional.

Metrics can be both anticipatory and expansive. 

Team History

A key part of your pitch deck is your team section. Through it, you will list team members’ most impressive achievements. This is usually connected to business acumen in some way. 

Investors may want to know more about your team. For each member, you listed in your pitch deck, you can create slides that expands upon their achievements. These could list further achievements or go into greater detail regarding those you mentioned during your pitch.

Risk Assessment

Investors will want to know about the risks and challenges your business faces. This can be explored in greater depth in an appendix slide. Be reasonable, but include the solutions to those challenges alongside the risks, so that you can focus on things going well in the future.
The truth is, you don’t present your appendix to investors. At least, not in the way you have presented your pitch deck itself. When presenting your pitch, you are being proactive, leading the conversation and talking points. The slides you need in your pitch deck are therefore guided by your own pitch deck plan. Below I actually cover how to create a pitch deck in detail. 

Don’t Include Everything

While you can split your appendix across more than one slide, try to be organized about it. The last thing you want to be doing is sifting through 30 appendices to find the relevant information while investors wait for answers. Be thorough, but don’t throw in the kitchen sink.

Investor questions will mostly revolve around team history, risk assessment, and metrics exploring current and future performance. If you stick to these three areas, you’ll cover most bases.

Keep Learning

A pitch deck isn’t something that should remain frozen in time. It should evolve to cater to the audience. You should also learn from the experience of pitching, and, if you missed something in your appendix, add it in for the next pitch meeting. Keep moving forward.

How do Successful Entrepreneurs do it?

I hope you found this article on what goes in the appendix of a pitch deck, helpful. If you would like to learn more about the pitching process and how to close a deal, check out The DealMakers Podcast where I interview some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. 

Remember that storytelling plays a key role in fundraising. This is being able to capture the essence of the business in 15 to 20 slides. For a winning deck, 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.