How-to guide
How to make a pitch deck: the 12 slides, what goes on each, and how AI helps
A pitch deck wins or loses on the story, not the layout. This guide gives you the 12-slide structure, what each slide has to prove, and how to build the deck with AI.
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Example pitch deck for a fictional startup. All figures are sample valuesSee all 10 slidesExample in detail
A pitch deck is a short set of slides that tells investors what problem you solve, why now, what proof you have and how much you are raising. The core is 12 slides: title, problem, solution, why now, product, traction, market, business model, competition, team, financials and the ask. To make one with AI, write your story in five sentences, collect your real numbers and let Slaide build the deck. Then edit the problem, traction and ask slides, and export a PDF to send and a PowerPoint to present.
The structure draws on what Sequoia, Y Combinator, Guy Kawasaki and DocSend publish about decks. Treat the order as a starting point, not a rule or a promise of funding. What stays the same: one clear claim per slide, real numbers with dates, and an ask that says what the money buys.
What a finished result looks like
Every page below was designed as a real deck: layout, charts and copy. Click a page to see it large.
Step-by-step: how to build a pitch deck with AI
Write the story in five sentences
Before you open any tool, write five sentences: the problem, why now, what you built, your proof and what you are raising. The sentence that will not come is the slide your deck will struggle with.
Collect your real numbers
Take revenue or usage, customers, growth and the round size from one source, as of one date, and gather your business plan, model and customer quotes. Numbers that disagree between slides cost more credibility than small ones.
Write the brief, not the deck
Give the AI your company, stage, round, audience and the five sentences, plus the three things an investor must remember and any order you want, such as traction on slide 3. A vague brief gets generic slides.
Let AI build the whole deck
Slaide plans the slide order, writes and designs every slide and checks each page before you see it. Attach your files, let it research current market facts (sources show in the run log, not on the slides) and give it your website for your logo and colours.
Edit the three slides that decide the meeting
Read the problem, traction and ask slides first. Click any text to type, or describe a change in plain words, and check every figure against your source.
Rewrite the traction slide so the headline states the result: recurring revenue tripled since January. Keep the chart and add the date of the numbers.
Export one version to send, one to present
Send a PDF that reads on its own and present from the PowerPoint file with speaker notes. Rehearse out loud once: slides that read fine often feel rushed when spoken.
Pitch deck structure: the 12 slides and what each must answer
What to include in a pitch deck, in an order that works for most seed rounds. A slide that answers no investor question goes to the appendix.
| Slide | What it must answer | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| 1Title and purpose | What do you do, for whom, in one sentence? | A logo and a tagline instead of a claim. |
| 2Problem | Who has which pain, and what does it cost them today? | Describing a market instead of a pain. |
| 3Solution | What changes for the customer with your product? | A feature list with no before and after. |
| 4Why now | What changed that makes this possible or urgent now? | Leaving it out, so the obvious question stays open. |
| 5Product | What does it look like when it works? | An architecture diagram instead of the product. |
| 6Traction | What has already happened, and since when? | Rounded numbers with no date or definition. |
| 7Market | How many buyers can pay how much? | One huge top-down number and no bottom-up math. |
| 8Business model | Who pays what, and how does an account grow? | Writing “SaaS” without prices or terms. |
| 9Competition | What do buyers use today, and why switch? | Ignoring the real rival: spreadsheets or doing nothing. |
| 10Team | Why are you the people to build this? | Full CVs and a wall of advisor logos. |
| 11Financials | Where do revenue and costs go, on which assumptions? | A hockey stick with hidden assumptions. |
| 12The ask | How much, for how long, and what does it buy? | “Raising to accelerate growth” with no numbers. |
Based on the roughly 12 sections in DocSend's deck research, in an order that blends Sequoia's and Y Combinator's templates (sources in the next section). Move traction forward when it is your strongest proof.
What makes a good pitch deck: what investors say they look for
Five public guides from investors and from DocSend, whose sharing tool records how investors read decks.
| Source | What it asks for | What it means for your deck |
|---|---|---|
| Sequoia Capital | Open with the company purpose: “define your company in a single declarative sentence.” Then problem, solution, why now, market, competition, model, team, financials, vision. | Write that sentence before any slide. |
| Y Combinator, seed deck template | Clarity and concision over detail: ideally one slide per topic, rarely more than three, and an ask that states the amount and what it buys. | Cut commentary; end with the amount and the milestones for the next year. |
| Y Combinator, deck design guide | Slides that are “legible, simple, and obvious”: large bold type, one idea per slide, the conclusion written on the chart. | Write each headline as a statement a stranger gets at a glance. |
| Guy Kawasaki, 10/20/30 rule | Ten slides, twenty minutes, no font smaller than thirty points. | Good for the deck you present; the one you send can say more. |
| DocSend deck research | About 12 sections in four groups. Most decks run roughly 20 pages at about 50 words per slide, and investors spend “less than 3 minutes” reviewing one. | The first slides carry the story. Put your strongest proof early. |
Sources read on September 27, 2026. Sources: Sequoia: Writing a Business Plan, Y Combinator: seed round pitch deck, Y Combinator: design a better pitch deck, Guy Kawasaki: the 10/20/30 rule, DocSend deck research (Dropbox, 2025)
Pitch deck design rules: one message, big type, charts that say something
These rules follow Kevin Hale's Y Combinator guide and Kawasaki's 10/20/30 rule.
Pitch deck format: PDF or PowerPoint, and how many slides
Most decks do two jobs. The send-ahead version is read alone, often on a phone, so each slide must make sense without you; DocSend's data puts most decks at roughly 20 pages. Send it as a PDF, which looks the same on every screen and cannot be changed by accident.
The presenting version supports you while you talk: stay near Kawasaki's ten slides in twenty minutes, move detail into speaker notes and an appendix, and present from PowerPoint so you can still fix a number the night before. Slaide exports both from one deck: a PDF, and a .pptx with editable text boxes, shapes and speaker notes. The full model, cap table and contracts belong in a data room, not in either deck.
How to create a pitch deck with AI: prompts for three situations
Fictional companies and numbers; swap in your own facts.
Pre-seed, before revenue
Build a 10-slide pre-seed pitch deck for Sortwerk, software that sorts and books supplier invoices for craft businesses. We have 22 customer interviews, 6 pilot companies and no revenue yet, and are raising €600,000 to launch in Germany. Audience: angel investors. Mark market size and pricing as assumptions and add speaker notes.
Start with this promptSeries A partner meeting
Create a 14-slide Series A deck for Fernbach Robotics, which rents welding robots to small metal workshops by the hour: €3.1 million annual recurring revenue, 180 workshops, 124% net revenue retention. We are raising €12 million for France and Poland. Separate results from forecasts, give the period for every metric and add a due-diligence appendix.
Start with this promptFive-minute pitch event
Make a 6-slide deck for a five-minute accelerator pitch for Segelbase, a booking system for sailing schools with 35 schools on board, raising €400,000. Problem, solution, traction, market, team, ask: one sentence per slide, large type, and speaker notes of about 50 seconds per slide.
Start with this prompt
Where to go next
- AI pitch deck generator
Describe your raise and get the finished deck to edit.
- Best AI pitch deck tools
How the AI tools founders use compare on output, export and price.
- ChatGPT for presentations
What ChatGPT does well for a deck, and where it stops.
- Slaide for founders
Investor updates, board decks and one-pagers after the round.
Common mistakes to avoid
FAQ
Anything missing? Ask us
How many slides should a pitch deck have?
Between 10 and 20. Present close to Guy Kawasaki's ten slides in twenty minutes; for a deck you send ahead, DocSend's data puts most decks at roughly 20 pages.
What should be included in a pitch deck?
Company purpose, problem, solution, why now, product, traction, market, business model, competition, team, financials and the ask. Each slide answers one investor question with evidence, such as a dated number, a customer quote or a screenshot.
Is a pitch deck the same as an investor deck or a business plan?
Pitch deck and investor deck mean the same thing. A business plan is the longer document behind the deck, with the full model and assumptions: lead with the deck and keep the plan ready for due diligence.
How long does it take to make a pitch deck with AI?
The build takes a few minutes: Slaide plans, writes and designs the deck and checks each page. Your part takes longer: the story, the numbers and a careful read. Plan an afternoon, not a week of layout work.
Does AI know what investors want to see?
It knows the common structure and an order that works, not your numbers, your customers or why you will win. Real traction and a clear model give a convincing draft; vague input gives a thin one.
Can ChatGPT make a pitch deck, and how is Slaide different?
ChatGPT is useful for working out the story and drafting slide text. Slaide builds the finished deck: it plans, writes and designs each slide, checks every rendered page for layout problems and exports a PowerPoint file you can edit.
Can Slaide use my business plan, financial model or old deck?
Yes. Attach a PDF, Word document, Excel model, PowerPoint, images or notes and Slaide builds from them instead of inventing content. You can also import an existing PowerPoint to improve it.
Can I edit the pitch deck in PowerPoint afterwards?
Yes. The export is a real .pptx with editable text boxes, shapes and speaker notes, and you can keep editing in Slaide by clicking any text or asking for changes in plain words.
Is the free version watermarked?
Free exports carry a small Slaide badge. The free plan covers one document, with all pages planned and the first 3 built, no credit card needed; Plus, from €7.99 a month, and the higher plans export without it.
Does Slaide use my pitch deck to train AI models?
No. Your account, files and documents are stored with Supabase in the EU. To create the deck, your request and the content it needs go through OpenRouter (USA) to the language model, and training on your content is contractually excluded.
Build your pitch deck with Slaide
Describe what you need and Slaide plans, writes, designs and self-checks the whole thing. Free to start, no credit card.
