Genially is an all-in-one tool for creating interactive and animated pitch decks, presentations, infographics, and more. With thousands of templates and the option to embed your creations on web platforms, it’s a leading choice for the creation of interactive decks. Its sister platform, the Genially Academy, offers free courses on topics such as Graphic Design, Instruction, and more.
In a world that is increasingly global, the possibilities for instant communication with a worldwide audience have contributed to a rapid increase in the number and variety of products and ideas on the market. Now that everyone can pitch their ideas to a public audience, it’s harder than ever to make sure your great idea stands out. If you’re doing the hard work and are ready to start the search for investors, this article is for you.
Now let’s take a look at why you need an interactive deck and how to build one.
Why You Need An Interactive Pitch Deck
In his book “The Art of Startup Fundraising”, entrepreneur and Forbes contributor Alejandro Cremades highlights the importance of having two versions of a pitch deck. While the first version should be text and information heavy as it’s meant to be sent out and shared through email, the second version is the one you’ll use for presenting your idea live to investors. The more visual and interactive this startup pitch deck is, the more likely you are to catch and hold the attention of the investors in attendance.
Explore the interactive slide above from Genially to get an idea of what interactivity can add to your deck. The information on the left is the same as what’s on the right. The difference is its presentation.
Because there are a plethora of articles and resources available for those looking to improve the textual content and structure of their pitch deck, this article will briefly cover content advice before primarily focusing on the interactive and visual elements of a successful deck.
Here Are 5 Easy Steps For Creating A Powerful Interactive Pitch Deck
1. Start with an outline of your text. This is the part we’re sure you’ve run through before, but just in case, pull up a Google or Word document and type out a brief summary of the following key considerations.
Explore the interactive bulletin board below to learn more about what to include for each slide:
Here’s the list:
- The problem your product addresses that makes it necessary in the first place
- How your product solves this problem
- The market you’ll be entering
- The details of what your product does and includes
- Traction
- The team that you’ve put together to develop and bring it to the marketplace
- Your competition
- Your current financials
- The amount you’re aiming to raise
Each point should take up at least one slide in your deck that should have a total of 11 to 19 pages.
2. Choose a digital platform for creating an interactive pitch deck: Genially has templates for you to choose from as well as the option to start from scratch. A tool that is versatile and geared towards interactivity will make it easier to quickly achieve results that make your idea stand out from the rest. Remember: more visual and interactive means more attention from investors.
Consider this pitch deck template for an elevator pitch that gets its point across.
3. Pull your information into the template you’ve chosen. Before you do so, do a quick Google search for some pitch deck examples that you like and whose elements you might want to bring into your own. If you have a rough pitch deck in another format like Powerpoint, keep this in mind early on as some content creation tools allow you to upload your deck from Powerpoint into the new tool.
4. Make your deck interactive. While your main points should be visible at all times on your slides, you may want to add details hidden in windows that contain video, text, images, graphs and more. This will allow you to keep each slide looking clean without leaving out important information. When presenting statistics, tags and tooltips can be a nice way to add in more information and context for your numbers.
5. Animate tastefully. Keep your ideas wilder and more creative than your animations. A bit of movement can help draw the eye towards interactive elements. This is especially important for the version of your deck that you’ll be emailing out. Adding a subtle continuous animation effect to an element in your slide will alert the viewer and let them know that they should interact with that element. Consider taking a free 20-minute course from Genially to up your animation game.
Be Bold And Get Support
If you get stuck, remember that Harvard has tons of support for its young entrepreneurs, from Harvard Ventures (HV) to the Harvard Innovation Labs. Show up with your ideas and unique perspective.
From Genially, we wish you the best and look forward to seeing your idea on the market!
The Crimson's news and opinion teams—including writers, editors, photographers, and designers—were not involved in the production of this article.