I'll give you my perspective as someone working in a venture capital investment firm.
VCs invest in high growth startups so that they can eventually sell stake they own in the company.
That's the general premise of it, and everything in a pitch deck should do its very best to communicate the above.
A good startup pitch deck has the following:
Problem - What's the problem? Is it a really big issue today? Some problems aren't really problems.
Market Size - How big is this problem? Does it impact many people or is it something only a small group of people face? Who is the target? The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity if it can be solved. We like people solving big problems.
Solution - What's the solution to the problem above? How have you as a team solved it?
Business Model - You can't continue to solve the problem if it doesn't make money. Sustainability is eventually important. How will you generate sufficient income from solving this problem?
Traction - Do people want your solution? Were they willing to pay for it? Traction is about showing there is a market willing to pay for your solution. You should know your numbers.
Team - Who are you guys? Why are you the BEST people to solve this problem? Why are you more likely to succeed?
Investment Requirements (The Ask) - How much money do you need? What is it for and how long will it last you? What do you expect to achieve with that money? How much have you raised so far and how much commitment have you gotten?
Generally these are the most important things the deck should have.
At the early stages, we pay a lot of attention to the team and product.
Other useful things you can add into the deck are:
Competitors - Who do you compete with? Why do you stand a chance?
Goals / Projections - What do you expect to achieve in the coming months/years. Include some basic/overview financials. We don't know how much you'll make, but we know how much you'll spend.
Marketing Strategy - How have you attained your traction so far? What are the marketing numbers? (CPC, LTV, Churn, etc.)
Backers and Advisors - Who backs you? Do you have existing investors? All are not needed, only the prominent ones. We generally prefer companies that already have some early angels who can support them.
From the perspective of investors, they would have thoughts like "What makes this startup interesting". And even though investors may be interested in profitability ratios and IRRs (Internal Rate of Return), you would have to capture their attention and interest first.
To do that, crafting a story behind your startup would be great. It can include what inspires you to create, what problems that you want to solve for everyday people. Storyboarding can be a place to start.
If investors are drawn by your story, metrics and numbers can be easily pitched to investors.
