Pitch decks have always been the key to getting a meeting with an investor. The secret is in networking — conferences, meetups, and happy hours have

Why the “Why Now” slide is more important than ever

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2021-07-21 20:30:07

Pitch decks have always been the key to getting a meeting with an investor. The secret is in networking — conferences, meetups, and happy hours have all been ways to get warm intros to VCs. In the current crisis, all of those in-person opportunities are gone. This means the onus is fully on your pitch deck to make your business stand out to investors. As part of the 2020 DocSend Startup Index, we recently released research on what makes a great pitch deck (and will be releasing more findings in the Index in the coming months). One of the key findings from that research was the importance of the “Why Now” slide.

In fact, we found that the “Why Now” slide showed up nearly 54% of the time in successful decks versus 38% of the time in unsuccessful decks. In the decks that did include the “Why Now” slide, investors spent 36% more time on this section for decks that ultimately received funding. It’s certainly a slide that investors want to see, and they will be more likely to fund a deck that has a compelling “Why Now” slide.

This is all true in any scenario, but it’s especially true during the COVID-19 crisis. According to the investors we’ve spoken with, they are putting a lot more thought into their investment decisions right now. While VCs are actively investing (more on that here), they’re framing every investment decision within the context of the current state of the economy. Your job is to convince them why your company is a good bet right now  — and the vehicle for doing that is the “Why Now” slide.

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