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Software is eating the world and more SaaS solutions are on the rise every day. Due to this, we get a ton of questions every week about what makes a great SaaS pitch deck. Today we are going to give you in-depth instruction on how you can build a great pitch deck for your SaaS solution.
To give you these best practices we analyzed over 50+ business-leading SaaS startup pitch decks, including pitch decks from Shopify, Front, Buffer, and many more.
What we found is, that there are certain key slides in a SaaS pitch deck, that have to be focused on. Additionally, telling a story with your SaaS pitch deck is more difficult than telling a story in a pitch deck for a product that can be "touched".
So let's jump right in...
Which slides to include?
With these 10 slides, your goal is to answer all the main questions an investor might have about your business. Any metrics you can show are especially important in SaaS businesses because there are many public benchmarks an investor can compare you with.
Title Slide
On the title slide, you have to make a first impression and make clear what your SaaS solution is about. A good way to do that would be to use your slogan or value proposition.
Problem Slide
Great businesses are built on huge problems. If you have found one of them and can describe it very specific so that the investor can relate - gratulation. You can also use this slide to underline the relevance of the problem through numbers.
Product Slide
The product slide is your time to shine and show how your SaaS solution solves the problem described earlier. It is always a great idea to show screenshots, mockups, or even live demos of your product.
Business Model Slide
After you have everyone on board regarding your solution one big question will be how you monetize your SaaS software. It is important to be aware of your target customer. Do you have to acquire just a few customers with higher payments or a mass-market with low payments?
Many startups also show off their pricing table on this slide.
Competition Slide
Every software startup has a lot of competition. Use the market slide to show that you know the market and your competitors.
Traction Slide
Any traction or metrics you have can be very helpful to convince the investor - because most of the time they are analytic people.
Down below, we have collected the main SaaS metrics you can put on the slide for your deck.
CAC Slide
Finding customers that use your software is hard. There are thousands of companies in the SaaS space. You can use the CAC slide to explain how you are acquiring customers (e.G. the different channels) and in the best case you can also show your current CAC and how it will grow/decline in the future.
Team Slide
The team is the most relevant factor for every investor. Use the slide to show your amazing SaaS team. You can do that by showing the previous experience of your key team members and any critical skills that are essential to the business.
Ask Slide
If you are talking to investors it is clear that you are looking for capital to grow your SaaS business. And often these businesses take a lot of money. The ask slide should therefore specifically state the amount of money you are looking for and what the outcome of that investment will be (e.G. milestones).
Contact Slide
The final slide of your pitch deck should include a direct call to action and several contact options so that the investor can take action right away.
Key Questions to answer
It is important to know which questions you should answer with your SaaS pitch deck. We collected the 10 main questions that we found over the analysis of hundreds of SaaS decks.
- What is your product and how does it solve the big problem?
- How do you acquire customers for your software?
- What is your SaaS pricing and business model?
- What is your traction?
- Which are your main KPIs?
- How big is your churn?
- What is the USP of your SaaS product?
- Why are you looking for an investment?
- How will the funds be spent?
- What are you going to accomplish with the investment?
SaaS Metrics
- CAC
- Churn
- MRR / ARR
- CLTV
- Customer Retention Rate
- Lead to Customer Conversion Rate
Design Tips
- Use a clear and quickly readable font style
- Make sure to use high-resolution pictures
- Keep the design simple
Example SaaS Pitch Decks:
Shopify
For small to medium businesses that want to easily set up an online store, Shopify is the go-to cloud-based e-commerce platform that will satisfy all needs.
From 2007 to 2013, Shopify raised over $122.3M in financing. The pitch deck you're looking at has never been part of a fundraising process, but provides great insights into how a SaaS pitch deck can be structured.
Buffer
Buffer is a software for social media management, built for companies that want to expand their brand on social media.
In 2011, Buffer raised about $500k in funding by reaching out to investors with this pitch deck.
2 more funding rounds later, Buffer has raised a total of $3.9 million in funding.
Front
Front is a cloud-based communication platform. This SaaS product consolidates all communication channels and thus simplifies the communication workflos.
One of the the biggest advantages of front is the auto-respond communication feature which allows administrators to set up rules for automatic messages which take action when certain rules are matched.
In 2018, the firm revealed it had received $66 million from series B financing.
Intercom
Intercom links organizations with clients for distribution, communications, and support using scalable messaging.
With the support of this pitch deck, Intercom received $600K in financing in 2011.
