What slides should a pitch deck include?

The usual core is problem, solution, market, product, traction, business model, competition, team, financials and the ask, often with a title slide first. Detailed material goes into an appendix.

How many slides should a pitch deck have?

Around 10 to 15 slides for the main deck. A deck you present live can be shorter with less text; a deck you email ahead needs enough words to be understood without you.

What order should pitch deck slides be in?

Start with the problem and solution, then market, product and traction, then business model, competition and team, and finish with financials and the ask. Move your strongest proof earlier if it makes the rest more credible.

What if I have no traction yet?

Show the evidence you do have: customer interviews, pilots, letters of intent, a waitlist or a working prototype. Be precise and honest rather than vague.

Can AI make a pitch deck for me?

AI can produce a structured first draft quickly. Slidy builds one from a topic or your business plan file and leaves missing figures as "XX" so you add your real numbers before exporting to PowerPoint.

Pitch Deck Structure: The 10 Slides Investors Expect (Guide)

The 10 core slides and what goes on each

Many decks also open with a title slide (name, one-line pitch, contact) and some add a 'Why now' slide after the problem.
#	Slide	Question it answers	What to put on it
1	Problem	Who is hurting, and how much?	A specific customer, the pain in their words, what it costs them today (time, money, risk).
2	Solution	What do you do about it?	One sentence on what you offer and why it is better than the current workaround.
3	Market	How big can this get?	Who buys, how many of them exist, what they spend. Show how you calculated it, bottom-up if you can.
4	Product	Does it really exist?	Screenshots, a short demo, or the key workflow in three steps. Less text, more proof.
5	Traction	Is anyone using or paying for it?	Revenue, users, growth, pilots, letters of intent, waitlist. A chart over time beats a single number.
6	Business model	How do you make money?	Pricing, who pays, average deal size, and margins if you know them.
7	Competition	Why you and not them?	A comparison table or a 2x2 matrix with real competitors, including "do nothing" and spreadsheets.
8	Team	Why can this team win?	Founders and key hires, the one relevant fact about each (domain experience, past exits, technical depth).
9	Financials	Where is this going?	Three to five years of revenue and costs, the main assumptions, and when you expect to break even.
10	The ask	What do you want from me?	Amount raised, type of round, runway it buys, and the milestones the money will reach.

Order: why this sequence works

The order follows the questions a reader asks in their head. First: is this a real problem? Then: does your answer fix it, and is the opportunity big enough? Then: is there evidence, a way to earn money, and a team able to do it? Only at the end: how much do you need?

You can move slides when your strongest card justifies it. If your traction is exceptional, put it right after the solution. If the team is the main reason to believe (deep expertise in a regulated field, for example), bring it earlier. The rule is simple: lead with what makes the rest believable.

How long should a pitch deck be?

Keep two versions from the same source: one to read, one to present.
Version	Length	Used for
Send-ahead deck	10–15 slides, readable alone	Emailed before a meeting; needs full sentences because you are not there to explain.
Presentation deck	10–12 slides, very little text	Shown live; you speak, the slides show figures, images and one headline each.
Appendix	As many as needed	Detailed financials, unit economics, roadmap, customer cases, cap table. Opened only on request.

Writing each slide: practical rules

Make the headline a sentence. A headline such as "Clinics lose XX hours a week to manual booking" (with your real figure) says more than "Problem". A reader skimming only the headlines should get the whole story.
One idea per slide. If a slide needs two headlines, it is two slides.
Show numbers as numbers. A big figure, a short chart or a small table reads faster than a paragraph.
Use your own data, with sources. Name where market figures come from. An unsourced number invites doubt about every other one.
Be honest about what is early. An exact count such as "X paid pilots, Y converted" is stronger than vague words like "strong interest".
End on the ask. State the amount and what it achieves, with dates.

Common pitch deck mistakes

Mistake	Why it hurts	Fix
A market slide with only a giant top-down number	It shows no understanding of who actually buys	Count real target customers times what they would pay
"We have no competitors"	Suggests no market or no research	List alternatives, including manual workarounds
Walls of text	Nobody reads them, live or by email	One headline, one visual, a few words
Hockey-stick projections with no assumptions	The numbers cannot be checked	Show the 3–4 drivers behind the forecast
No clear ask	The reader does not know what to do next	Amount, use of funds, milestones
Invented or rounded-up figures	One discovered error ruins trust	Only real numbers; mark unknowns as to be confirmed

Building the first draft faster with Slidy

Slidy, the AI presentation maker at slidy.fr, can turn a topic, your notes or a business plan (PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or text file) into a 5 to 35 slide draft in about 15 to 25 seconds, with layouts such as key figures, timeline, comparison table and 2x2 matrix. It never invents figures: any number you have not given appears as "XX" for you to fill in. You edit text and figures in the browser and export an editable .pptx. Two AI presentations every week are free, no card; an export costs €2.99, or €9.99 for 5, with no subscription. There is no co-editing or slide reordering, so finish team edits in PowerPoint.

Pitch deck structure the slides investors expect, in order

The 10 core slides and what goes on each

Order: why this sequence works

How long should a pitch deck be?

Writing each slide: practical rules

Common pitch deck mistakes

Building the first draft faster with Slidy

Stop staring at a blank slide.

Frequently asked questions

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