Pitch Deck: How to Make One That Wins in 10 Slides (with Examples)

A pitch deck is a short presentation, usually 10 slides, that sums up your business to win a meeting with an investor, a partner or a big client. It isn't meant to close the deal: it's meant to make them want to know more.

Most pages ranking for it only talk about startups raising millions. But a small business can use the same tool to raise money, land a retail chain or bring in a partner, and almost nobody shows how.

Here you get the 10 slides, a complete small business example with numbers, the market slide done right and the mistakes that get a deck closed. It's the shortest way to explain your marketing strategy to someone who has two minutes.

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What is a pitch deck (and what it isn't)

A pitch deck is a 10 to 15 slide presentation that explains what problem you solve, how, for whom, with what results and what you need to grow.

Its only job is to get the next meeting. If the investor or client finishes it wanting to call you, it worked, even if they don't know everything yet.

What it isn't: a business plan, which comes later, or a company brochure with your history since day one. It also isn't your 30-second spoken intro, and it isn't a sales pitch deck for buyers, although the two share most slides.

Pitch deck structure: the 10 slides

A pitch deck structure that works has 10 slides, from problem to ask, and each one answers a single question.

#	Slide	The question it answers
1	Title	What do you do, in one line, and what are you asking for?
2	Problem	What hurts, for whom, and what does it cost?
3	Solution	How do you fix it better than today?
4	Why now	What changed to make this the moment?
5	Market	How big is the opportunity you can actually serve?
6	Business model	Who pays, how much, at what margin?
7	Traction	What proves it works?
8	Competition	What are you compared with, and why do you win?
9	Team	Why you?
10	Ask	How much, for what, and what will it get you?

It's close to the Sequoia pitch deck outline from its guide Writing a business plan, which has ten sections. The difference: Sequoia lists financials and vision separately; for a small business, the numbers live in the model and the ask.

How many slides should a pitch deck have?

Ten is the most repeated number: it's Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 rule (10 slides, 20 minutes, 30-point font) and the number of sections in Sequoia's outline. Everything else, like detailed financials or case studies, goes in an appendix you only show when asked.

How long will an investor look at your deck?

Not long. DocSend's research found investors spend less than three minutes on a deck. In 2020, pre-seed decks that went on to raise money got more than four minutes, and the ones that didn't got a minute and a half. Your title and traction slides decide whether they reach the end.

How to make a pitch deck step by step

To make a pitch deck, start with your numbers and headlines and leave the design for last: the order matters more than the colors.

1. Write your one-line sentence

   Done

   What you do, for whom, and what you're asking for. If it doesn't fit in one line, the deck won't be clear either.

2. Gather the numbers before you open any software

   Done

   Revenue, number of customers, gross margin, growth and churn. Every slide needs a number; if you don't have one, don't make it up.

3. Size the market from the bottom up

   Done

   Possible customers times annual spend, not "1% of a billion-dollar market." Use the TAM SAM SOM calculator.

4. Write one headline per slide

   Done

   A sentence that stands on its own, like "40 cafes buy from us every morning." The headline is the message; the rest is proof.

5. Build the 10 pitch deck slides

   Done

   One idea, one number and one image or chart per slide. If you need more than 40 words, it belongs in the appendix.

6. Make two versions

   Done

   One to present, with little text because you're talking, and one to send that works without you. Both as PDFs.

7. Test it on an outsider

   Done

   Give it to someone who doesn't know your business and three minutes. If they can't repeat what you do and what you want, rewrite.

The market slide: calculate your TAM SAM SOM

The market slide convinces when the size comes from real customers times what they spend, not from a giant industry report.

Use three numbers: TAM (total spend on what you sell), SAM (the part you can serve) and SOM (what you can win in three years). Your starting data comes from your market research, and our TAM SAM SOM calculator does the math in a minute and gives you a ready-made line for the slide.

Investor deck or client deck: what changes

An investor deck and a deck for a big client share nine slides; what changes is the emphasis and, above all, the last slide.

Slide	For an investor	For a big client
Market	Size and growth of the opportunity	Size of the problem inside their company
Traction	Revenue, growth and retention	Similar customers and their results
Team	Why you can scale	Who will serve them, with what guarantees
Ask	How much, for what stake, for what	Proposal, timeline, price and next step

With a client, the deck opens the door and the business proposal is the document that gets signed. With an investor, the deck gets you to a second meeting where they'll ask for your full financials.

What goes on the traction slide?

Proof that what you're describing already works: revenue, customers, monthly growth, repeat purchases and churn. It matters more for a small business than for a startup pitch deck, because you have history. If you're not selling yet, show real validation: pre-orders, paid pilots or letters of intent.

Pitch deck examples: a small business in 10 slides

Most pitch deck examples come from famous startups, and the Airbnb pitch deck is the most searched one in the US (1,300 searches a month, per DataForSEO). Here's a small business instead: Morning Crumb, an Austin bakery made up for this guide, with sample numbers.

#	Slide	What it says
1	Title	Sourdough for cafes, delivered before 7 a.m. Raising $175,000
2	Problem	Cafes serve frozen bread or run out by mid-morning
3	Solution	Daily delivery at 6:30 a.m., orders by text until 10 p.m.
4	Why now	Our customers already ask for more bread than we can bake
5	Market	TAM $16.2M (3,000 venues × $5,400); SAM $4.9M; SOM $648K in 3 years
6	Model	$450 a month per customer on average, 55% gross margin
7	Traction	40 cafes and $216,000 in revenue over 12 months, 1.5% monthly churn
8	Competition	Cheaper industrial bakeries with no early delivery; other bakeries at capacity
9	Team	Lola, 12 years as a baker; Marcus, logistics
10	Ask	$175,000 for a second kitchen and a van: from 40 to 120 customers in 3 years

Every row has a number, and the product's stage is obvious without saying it: growth, with demand ahead of capacity. That reading comes straight from the product life cycle, and an investor makes it in seconds.

Airbnb pitch deck and Uber pitch deck: what to copy and skip

The two most studied decks are both early ones. Airbnb's walked through problem, solution, market, business model, competition and team, and Uber's, then called UberCab, ran 25 slides for a $200,000 round, according to TechCrunch's teardown.

What to copy from Airbnb, based on Slidebean's slide-by-slide breakdown:

• Market proof with a nearby number: 17,000 weekly listings on Craigslist for San Francisco and New York. You can do the same with local searches, a waitlist or a rival's review count.
• A business model in one line: a 10% commission, about $25 per transaction on average. It's easy to follow in seconds.
• A market size with a named source: over 2 billion trips a year, credited to the Travel Industry Association.

What to skip:

• The top-down share: Airbnb assumed 15% of the market. That's the "if we get 1%" shortcut from the mistakes list, so size yours from the bottom up.
• Uber's order: TechCrunch calls its traction slide terrible and criticizes putting it last. Show proof early.

Both decks come from another era and another market. Copy their logic, one idea per slide and a number that backs it, never their length or their scale.

Pitch deck template: which tool to use and how to send it

Any slide software works as a pitch deck template: Google Slides, PowerPoint, Keynote or Canva. What matters is the 10-slide structure, not the template.

Free templates save you design time, but they all look alike, and so does whatever a pitch deck AI generator spits out. Swap in your brand colors and fonts and delete whatever you don't need. Send it with a three-line email: what you do, what you're asking for and why you picked that person.

How much does a pitch deck cost? DIY, freelancer or agency

A pitch deck costs anywhere from your own time to five figures. Slidebean, a company that sells this service, gives these ranges on a page from 2023, so treat them as a ballpark and ask for current quotes.

Route	Cost, per Slidebean	Best when
DIY with a template	Templates usually run $30 to $100, plus your time	You have the numbers and the story
Redesign of an existing deck	$400 to $1,500 from online companies	The content is solid and only the look is rough
Freelancer	$50 to $150 an hour	You want writing and design help
Full deck from scratch, experienced provider	No less than $1,500, up to $5,000 or $10,000	The deck goes to investors who don't know you

Your own time counts. The steps above take one to two days: at $50 an hour, 12 hours is $600 of your work. What moves the price is slide count, rush delivery, whether someone writes the copy or only redesigns it, and how many revisions are included.

Our rule: pay for design only after your ten headlines pass the one-page test. A designer polishes a story; they can't invent one. Ask who writes the copy, how many revisions you get and whether you receive the source file.

Frequently asked questions about pitch decks

01

What is a pitch deck for a film?

It's the film and TV version: the document a writer or producer uses to pitch a movie or series to financiers, studios or streamers. Instead of market size and traction, it covers the logline, synopsis, tone, visual references, audience, key cast and crew, budget and distribution plan. The logic is the same as a business deck: little text, strong visuals and a clear ask.

02

What format should a pitch deck be in?

Send it as a PDF unless the investor asks for something else: it opens on any device and your fonts and layout won't break. Use a 16:9 layout, keep the file small enough to email, and name it clearly, such as company-pitch-2027.pdf. Many founders share a tracked link instead, through tools like DocSend, so they can see who opened it and which slides they read.

03

Is there a pitch deck template for Google Slides?

Yes. Google Slides includes basic templates, and Canva and Pitch both offer free pitch deck templates too. Pick one with clean layouts and room for charts, then swap in your brand colors and fonts. The template only saves design time: the 10-slide order and your numbers are what make it work.

04

Should I make a pitch deck with AI?

Use AI for the first draft and for headlines, not for the numbers. Tools like Gamma, Canva or ChatGPT can turn an outline into slides in minutes. What AI can't supply is your data: revenue, customers, margin and churn have to come from your books, and AI tends to fill gaps with numbers that sound plausible. Check every figure before you hit send.

05

How do I find angel investors?

Start with people who already know your industry: customers, suppliers and former bosses often invest or know someone who does. Then look at local angel groups, startup accelerators, pitch events and platforms like AngelList, and ask founders in your area who backed them. A warm introduction gets read far more often than a cold email, so spend your time on referrals first.

06

What's the difference between a pitch deck and a sales deck?

A pitch deck sells your company; a sales deck sells your product. The pitch deck is for investors or partners and ends with an investment ask. A sales deck is for buyers: it focuses on their problem, your solution, proof from similar customers, pricing and the next step to buy. Many slides overlap, but the ending and the numbers you show are different.

Keep going with these guides

• Proposal

  Marketing strategy How to Write a Business Proposal That Wins Clients (with Template) Read the guide
• B2B
  Marketing strategy What Is B2B? How It Differs from B2C, with Marketing Examples Read the guide
• Churn−3%
  Marketing strategy Churn Rate: What It Is, How to Calculate It and How to Reduce It Read the guide