Crafting a Pitch-Perfect Financial Slide: Your Roadmap to Investment Success

You’re about to write a perfect pitch deck to convince investors your startup is worth their funding. To show how well your business is doing financially, you need a solid financials slide. Wondering how to craft a good one? Use these helpful tips from professional pitch deck design services and learn how to show financials in a pitch deck to demonstrate your growth potential and secure funding for your project!

Understanding the Purpose of the Financials Slide

A financial slide is a critical part of any successful pitch deck. In fact, investors will pay more attention to it rather than exploring the product you offer. That’s why you want this slide to be as realistic and persuasive as possible.

The pitch deck funding slide has two major purposes:

1. Conveying trust and business viability

Showcasing how well your business has done in the past and what you expect in the future proves that you can meet your commitments.

2. Providing clarity to potential investors

Your startup’s financial landscape allows investors to easily get an idea of cost structures, revenue streams, and the overall profitability of your company. 

Key Elements to Include in the Financials Slide

To win investors and have them make a decision in your favor, you don’t want to pile up as much data as possible. You want a neatly structured slide.
Whitepage experts have researched the best pitch deck examples to discover the list of must-have elements. They are the following:

• Revenue projections
• Costs & expenses breakdown
• Profit & loss projections
• Cash flow statements
• Key metrics & KPIs

Let’s take a look at each of those.

Revenue Projections

Whatever investor round you’re in – a Pre-seed or a Series C, a financial projections slide is a must. It’s about rough estimates of anticipated income and expenses within a specified timeframe. Pitch deck financial projections aim to show how much your business can grow and make a profit.

If your business is already doing well, use that info in your pitch deck financial projection slide. If not, you can use research on the market, how your niche is growing, and what your competitors are up to, to guess how your business might do.

With no doubt, you won’t be able to offer a precise forecast but you should try to be as realistic as possible. 

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“...a fatal move is to over-promise. Some entrepreneurs think they can pull the wool over investors’ eyes and make their projections too good to be true. Do not do this.”

Alejandro Cremades, 

startup consultant and investor

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By clearly portraying your growth and fiscal responsibility within the next 3 to 5 years, you’ll be able to establish credibility and ensure transparency. The specified timeframe is an optimal choice – it helps you plan for the future and takes into account any mistakes that might happen when you're trying to predict things in the long run.

Costs & Expenses Breakdown

This section aims to provide a detailed overview of where you allocate your financial resources and whether you utilize them efficiently. 

Before we cover the breakdown of possible costs and expenses, let's quickly go over the two main types of costs that businesses have to deal with. These are fixed costs and variable costs. 

‍Fixed costs are the same no matter how much a business makes. They stay pretty steady. Variable costs, on the other hand, go up and down. They change based on how much stuff a business is making. If the business makes more stuff, the variable costs go up.

Let’s take a look at the cost breakdown using a hypothetical business as an example. Their expenses may look as follows:

1. Fixed costs:

• Rental expenses (office space, warehouse)
• Salaries and associated benefits
• Insurance 
• Utilities (internet, electricity, water supply, etc.)
• Depreciation (the cost of assets (equipment, machinery, etc.) over their useful time)
• Property taxes
• Loan repayments (if any)
• Software subscriptions (if any)

2. Variable costs:

• COGS (Cost of Goods Sold; manufacturing, package, design costs)
• Marketing & advertising
• Sales commissions
• Shipping
• Warehousing & fulfillment expenses
• Customer support
• Returns & refunds

Profit & Loss Projections

The Profit and Loss (P&L) projection statement is a forecast of a business's revenues, costs, and expenses over a defined timeframe, typically a quarter or fiscal year. It offers insights into a startup’s capability to generate profits through cost reduction, revenue growth, or a combination of both strategies. It should be mentioned inventors aren’t looking for immediate profitability. Instead, they are focusing on the overall revenue potential.

The P&L statement includes the following key elements:

• Revenue – The total income your business can generate from selling goods or services
• COGS/Cost of sales – The money you spend on making stuff, including the materials and the workers' pay. For software companies, you can use the Cost of sales. It includes things like web hosting, salaries for training and customer support, subscriptions and apps for the teams, and the cost of using outside technology.
• Gross profit – What’s left after covering all operating costs
• Gross margin – You calculate it by dividing your Gross Profit by the generated Revenue. Keep in mind that it should be realistic. Use industry benchmarks as a reference
• Operating expenses – The day-to-day costs of running your business
• EBITDA – Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.  EBITDA = Gross Profit – Expenses

Cash Flow Statements

A cash flow statement provides a list of the sources of cash. It informs about incoming (money coming from financial activities, investment activities, and operating activities) and outgoing money (expenditures incurred in the course of operations). The purpose of the cash flow statement is to show investors the amount of cash necessary to run a business.

A cash flow statement tells us if a startup can make money and handle upcoming bills. It's all about business profitability and liquidity. Profitability means making a profit and liquidity means having enough ready cash (or things that can be quickly turned into cash) to deal with unexpected costs without messing up the business.

Key Metrics & KPIs

Apart from cash flows, every business has its own special signs of how well it's doing. These are called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and they help measure if the business is healthy and successful. These indicators let investors see how much your company can grow, how strong it is, and if it can make your plans work and bring in profits.

Some common business KPIs include:

• CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
• CLV (Customer Lifetime Value)
• ROI (Return on Investment)
• Churn rate
• MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)

Keep the number of metrics to a minimum and focus on the critical ones that are specific to your industry.

“When we speak to founders to learn more about their companies, we ask them for these KPIs along with their narrative and other information. It is a quick way for us to understand the current state of the business and we have serious concerns about founders who do not know their KPIs.”

Phil Nadel,

 Founder and Managing Director at Forefront Venture Partners

Design Tips for an Effective Financials Slide

Design can break or make the first impression. A good-looking presentation not only makes the info easier to understand but also shows off your company's professionalism in every little aspect.

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Below, you’ll find some tried and tested best practices for creating the right visual narrative.  

Use of Charts & Graphs

If you have a ton of info in a spreadsheet, it might be too much for investors to quickly understand. Using charts and graphs is a good idea because it makes the information easier to grasp.

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Here are the most commonly used data visualization types:

• Bar charts. Best for comparing data between categories or groups.
• Line graph. Best for showing patterns and trends over time.
• Pie charts. Best for parts of a whole and the proportion of each category.

Color Schemes

Choosing the right colors for your pitch deck financials might seem insignificant. However, it plays a critical role in enhancing focus and comprehension. A clean color palette of two to three primary colors aligning with your brand identity will be the best decision. Contrasting colors are also appropriate to highlight relevant content.

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Take a look at some noteworthy pitch deck financials examples.

Data Visualization Tools & Software Recommendations

There are multiple tools and software solutions for creating appealing visuals. Here are a few options for you:

• Google Sheets

This is one of the simplest options. Google Sheets offers a range of options including pie charts, line graphs, and bar graphs. The integration with other Google services makes it a great choice for collaborative real-time editing.

• Canva

Canva is a design platform that’s not limited to traditional spreadsheets. It offers multiple templates and comes with versatile customization options. And the drag-and-drop interface makes creating visuals quick and easy.

• Infogram

Similar to Canva, Infogram allows for streamlining the process of data visualization. This web-based tool is known for its dynamic features to create interactive visuals to enhance audience engagement.

• Datawrapper 

Datawrapper focuses on simplicity. It’s the best choice for presenting complex financial data in an easy-to-understand manner. Being a web-based tool, it enables easy sharing and embedding of visuals.

Avoiding Clutter & Ensuring Readability

When presenting financial data, clarity is paramount. Arrange your financial slide neatly and don't put too much writing on it. Use clear fonts and sizes so people can read it easily. You can use a few different fonts to organize the text, but don't use more than three.

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As to the font size, stick to Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule. The 30 in the rule refers exactly to the font size for any type of presentation. Your headings and labels should be even larger. 

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The financials slide in a pitch deck is all about making things simple. That's why it's best to use a sans serif font – it helps keep things easy to read and understand.

Mistakes to Avoid

We’ve just provided the list of Do’s, and now we move to the list of Don’ts. Avoid these common mistakes to make your pitch deck fundraising slides stand out and captivate:

1. Overloading with too much data

Focus on key metrics and don’t overcrowd your slide with excessive data to ensure clarity and impact.

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2. Using confusing or misleading visuals

Use pictures and charts to help people understand, not to make things confusing. Pick visuals that are accurate and easy to get so they can back up your financial story.

3. Not aligning financials with the overall business narrative

Ensure your financials connect with the overall business storyline and provide investors with a clear and smooth story of your company’s past, present, and future.

Conclusion

The financials slide of your pitch deck is super important for winning over investors. It's not just about showing numbers; it's like telling a story about your financial situation and future plans. Spend some extra time making this slide look good and sharing all the details. That way, you can make investors feel confident and trust you. The effort you put into your pitch deck financial slide can turn into actual investments to help your business grow.

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Need expert help?
Whitepage's professional presentation design services will help you ace your pitch deck in no time!

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