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Create a Perfect Financial Slide (Tips Examples & Templates)

Learn to create engaging financial slides for startup pitch decks with insights from top examples. Discover digital tools to enhance your presentation.

Author Hadar Peretz

6 minute read

How to make a financial slide in a pitch deck

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Short answer

What is a Financial Slide in a Pitch Deck?

A financial slide in a pitch deck provides a snapshot of a startup's current financial status and future projections. It showcases key metrics like revenue, expenses, and profitability, offering investors insight into the company's monetary health and growth potential.

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How to Craft an Artful yet Scientific Financial Slide for Your Pitch Deck

Creating a financial slide for your pitch deck necessitates a blend of investor assurance and financial foresight demonstration.

Begin by constructing robust financial models, and employ clear, visually engaging elements such as bar graphs, line charts, and pie charts to depict crucial metrics including projected revenue, expenses, EBITDA, and cash flow for the upcoming 3 to 5 years.

These visual elements not only enhance comprehension but also make data digestible, ensuring investors remain engaged during the presentation.

It's imperative to clearly state the underlying assumptions behind your projections, and when feasible, juxtapose them with industry benchmarks to provide a comparative perspective.

Let’s delve into why it’s pivotal and how you can master it.

Why is the Financial Slide Crucial in a Pitch Deck?

The financial slide in a pitch deck is crucial as it offers a clear picture of a startup's financial health and future prospects.

It helps investors gauge the viability and potential return on investment, building trust and making the funding pursuit compelling and convincing.

5 benefits of having a well-constructed financial slide in your pitch deck:

  1. Investor Assurance: Gives a clear view of financial viability and revenue potential.

  2. Strategic Planning: Aids in aligning financial goals with business strategy.

  3. Performance Metrics: Showcases key financial benchmarks for growth monitoring.

  4. Risk Assessment: Helps in evaluating and mitigating financial risks.

  5. Future Funding: Lays a financial foundation for securing further investments.

What is the Importance of Portraying Financial Health?

Portraying financial health goes beyond just showing what you have in your business bank account. It's about how well you manage resources, generate revenue, and plan for future growth.

Tips:

  • Use realistic projections, backed by solid data.

  • Highlight past financial milestones, if any, to build credibility.

  • When discussing feasibility, it's about showing your understanding of the market and how you plan to maneuver your startup in the midst of financial uncertainties.

Dropbox's Pitch Deck Example: Dropbox effectively illustrated user growth alongside revenue projections, painting a compelling, credible financial narrative that enthralled potential investors.

What Constitutes the Core of a Financial Slide?

The core of a financial slide rests on simplicity, truth, and foresight.

Avoid financial jargon, be transparent with your current financial status, be realistic with projections, and showcase a well-thought-out financial strategy for the future, to craft a compelling narrative for potential investors.

6 basic components of a financial slide:

1) Balance Sheet Overview

The balance sheet is your financial snapshot, showcasing your assets, liabilities, and equity. It should be simple, clean, and easy to digest at a glance.

Tips:

  • Use visual aids like graphs or pie charts to represent the data.

  • Show a brief comparison with industry standards or competitors if possible.

2) Income Statement Summary

This section demonstrates how your company has performed over a specific period.

It clearly depicts your revenue, expenses, and net income, providing a transparent financial snapshot for potential investors to scrutinize. You can easily find these numbers in your AR automation software.

3) Financial Projections

Financial projections are where you get to shine a light on your foresight. It's where you paint a picture of financial growth and stability.

Back your projections with data, market trends, and a solid business strategy.

4) Marketing Budget Estimation

Your marketing budget is a reflection of your understanding of the market and your strategy to penetrate it.

Example: Showing how a specific percentage of your budget will be used for different marketing strategies and the expected ROI can be helpful

5) Growth Projection

Growth projections should mirror your ambitious yet achievable targets, laced with a realistic timeline.

Tip: Align growth projections with industry standards and market trends.

6) Gross Profit Margin

This metric showcases the efficiency of your business model, where a higher margin indicates better efficiency and potential profitability.

3 tips:

  1. Compare with industry averages to show your standing.

  2. Highlight any positive trend in improving this margin.

  3. Share strategies to enhance this margin in the future.

3 Expert Advice to Make Financial Slides Easily Digestible

Complex financial data can be challenging to navigate, but with the right approach, it can be made digestible, engaging, and informative.

1) Visual Representation

Charts, graphs, and infographics are excellent tools for simplifying complex financial data.

Incorporating interactive tools is essential as they engage investors better, allowing them to explore data at their own pace, and providing a deeper understanding of your financial narrative.

2) Simplification of Financial Terms

Avoid jargon and use simple terms to explain your financial position and projections. If a term needs to be used, explain it briefly.

In case a term like "EBITDA" must be used, briefly explain it as, "a measure of a company's operational performance, excluding costs of capital investments and tax implications.

Tip: A glossary slide at the end can be useful for investors to refer to.

3) Consistent Formatting

Maintain a consistent format for presenting financial data to help the audience follow along without getting lost in varying styles or formats.

Your pitch deck is a gateway to endless possibilities, and the financial slide is its cornerstone.

Getting it right means you're a step closer to making your startup dream a reality.

2 Exemplary Financial Slides from Renowned Pitch Decks

Observing and learning from the success stories in the startup ecosystem can significantly aid in honing your pitch deck.

Several renowned startups have excelled in portraying their financial narratives creatively and effectively.

Key insights:

  • Benchmarking Success: Examining successful pitch decks can provide a benchmark for creating an engaging financial slide.

  • Storytelling through Numbers: How numbers are not merely figures but narrators of a company's journey and potential.

For enhanced storytelling in content design, merge text, images, and multimedia into engaging "scenes." Segment your content, add multimedia, and let readers control pacing for optimal experience.

Here are 2 examples of effectively showcasing revenue growth:

1) Dissecting Dropbox's Revenue Projection

Dropbox’s pitch deck was a masterpiece in displaying a clear revenue projection alongside user growth, making their financial narrative compelling.

The correlation between user growth and revenue growth in Dropbox's pitch deck reflects a realistic and promising financial trajectory.

2) Airbnb's Historical Revenue Growth

Airbnb showcased its revenue growth effectively, portraying a success story that investors could buy into.

When Airbnb highlighted its historical financial growth, it provided a strong base for illustrating future financial projections.

Dissecting the Blue Guy Kawasaki Financial Pitch Deck Template

The Guy Kawasaki pitch deck template is revered in the startup ecosystem for its simplicity and effectiveness.

Here's a dive into its financial slide structure and content.

Structure and Content Analysis

The template emphasizes a 10/20/30 rule - 10 slides, 20 minutes, and a 30-point font.

The financial slide adheres to these principles, ensuring clarity and brevity.

Sticking to a simplistic structure while ensuring all vital financial data is presented comprehensively.

Highlighting Key Metrics

Focusing on key metrics rather than bombarding them with numerous financial data can help in keeping the investors engaged.

Showcasing the cost of customer acquisition, lifetime value, and burn rate in a clear, understandable manner.

How Can Digital Tools like Storydoc Aid in Creating an Engaging Financial Slide?

Creating an engaging financial slide involves a blend of storytelling, data analysis, and aesthetic presentation. Digital tools like Storydoc can be invaluable assets in this endeavor.

Streamlining Branding Across the Pitch Deck

Starting with a template, tailor it to echo your financial narrative, ensuring cohesiveness. Customize colors, graphs, and data points to mirror your brand's identity.

Leverage Storydoc's interactive charts and real-time collaboration to enrich your financial slide.

Consistent brand representation across the pitch deck fosters a professional, trustworthy image for potential investors.

Utilizing interactive charts lets them delve into the data at their pace.

Here’s an example of a financial slide:

Browse financials slides
Financials slide example

Exploring Storydoc’s Financial Templates

Storydoc offers a variety of templates that can help in crafting a financial slide that's not only informative but visually appealing.

Choosing a template that aligns with your brand and the story you wish to tell.

Here are examples of financial slide templates:

Create story
from scratch
Financial strategy slide
Financial strategy slide
Use template
Financial report
Financial report slide
Use template
Product financial plan
Product financial plan slide
Use template
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Hadar Peretz

I am a Marketing Specialist at Storydoc, I research, analyze and write on our core topics of business presentations, sales, and fundraising. I love talking to clients about their successes and failures so I can get a rounded understanding of their world.

Table of contents
What is a financial slide in a pitch deck? Why is the financial slide crucial in a pitch deck? What constitutes the core of a financial slide? Expert advice to make financial slides easily digestible Exemplary financial slides from renowned pitch decks Dissecting the blue guy kawasaki financial pitch deck template How can tools like Storydoc aid in creating financial slides? Financial slide templates
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