Fundraising
The financial section of a pitch deck is where most founders lose the investor. Learn to structure it in 5 slides that convince.
Runway, P&L, treasury and CFO advisory in real time. No Excel. No headaches.
Create a free accountThe financial section of a pitch deck is where most founders lose the investor. Not because the numbers are wrong, but because they don't tell a story. An investor doesn't invest in a spreadsheet: they invest in a narrative backed by credible data. This guide explains what investors expect to see in your financial section.
4-5 slides at most. More is overload. Fewer is not enough. The slides you need are: current metrics, projection, unit economics, use of funds and the ask. Everything else (details, assumptions, alternative scenarios) goes in an appendix or in the data room.
Here you show what you have achieved to date. Seed/Series A investors look at three main things:
Golden rule: if your chart doesn't go up and to the right, it's not worth showing. Better to explain qualitatively why you're at an early stage than to show flat numbers.
This is where founders get it wrong the most. Two typical mistakes:
The right formula: project aggressive growth but explain exactly what has to happen to achieve it. "We go from 500 to 5,000 customers in 3 years because we double the sales team, open a partner channel and expand to Brazil." That is credible.
The slide SaaS investors look at most closely. It should include:
If you're asking for $2M, you need to explain what you're going to spend it on. The typical breakdown:
Key: connect the use of funds to milestones. "With this $2M we hire 5 engineers and 3 AEs, and reach $5M ARR in 18 months, ready for a Series A." Without clear milestones, the investor doesn't know what they're buying.
Direct and unambiguous:
Showing that part of the round is already committed creates a sense of urgency and social proof. If you don't have a lead, at least mention your advanced conversations.
In the Q&A after the pitch, investors will ask specific questions: "what's your CAC by channel?", "what's the NRR of the enterprise segment?", "how long does it take you to recover CAC?". If you don't know the answers in seconds, you come across as unsure.
Before any pitch, devote an entire session to memorizing the key numbers. You can't afford to hesitate on any of them.
The pitch deck is the tip of the iceberg. Interested investors will ask for a data room with: historical financial statements (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow), cohort analysis, unit economics detail, key contracts, cap table, and an editable financial model. Having it ready before you start pitching speeds up the process by months.
Before putting your slides together, validate your numbers with the LTV/CAC calculator and review how a startup's valuation is calculated at each stage.
Hayes Strategic gives you the exact metrics investors ask about. In real time.