How to Present Financials in Your Pitch Deck
Your financial slides aren’t a spreadsheet; they're a test of your operational credibility. Here’s the founder-to-founder guide on the three slides you need to convince investors.
TL;DR: Your pitch deck needs three core financial slides, presented late in your deck: Traction (past proof), Projections (future plan), and Use of Funds (the ask). Build your projections "bottoms-up" from drivers you control, not "top-down" from a market size. The goal is to prove you have a credible, milestone-driven plan to turn investor capital into a venture-scale outcome.
Key takeaways
- Always place financial slides near the end of your deck, before your Ask.
- Present financials across three distinct slides: Traction, Projections, and Use of Funds.
- Show historical traction with one "hero metric" (like ARR or GMV) and a few key health metrics.
- Build "bottoms-up" financial projections based on drivers you control, and clearly state your assumptions.
- Your "Use of Funds" must show exactly how capital buys you 18-24 months of runway to hit your next fundable milestone.
- For pre-revenue startups, focus on a hypothesis-driven forecast and the team that can execute it.
Your Financials Aren't a Math Problem—They're a Test
Most founders treat the financial section of their pitch deck as a necessary evil, a spreadsheet to get through. This is a mistake. Investors don’t just look at your financials; they scrutinize them as a proxy for your rigor, honesty, and operational competence.
Your financial slides answer a simple question: are you a credible steward of capital? They must prove two things: that the business can be massive and that you have a believable plan to make it happen. They are the narrative backbone of your company's future, translating your vision into a concrete operational plan.
Before an investor wires you millions of dollars, you need to show them the numbers. Let’s get it right.
The Narrative Arc: Financials Belong at the End
Your financial slides should appear late in the deck, typically just before your "Ask." By this stage, you must have already convinced an investor that you have identified a massive problem, built a compelling solution, figured out a go-to-market strategy, and assembled the right team. Only then can you introduce the numbers that quantify your plan.
The Three-Slide Financial Story
Never cram your financials onto a single, unreadable slide. A compelling financial narrative unfolds across three distinct slides: your past performance, your future plan, and how you'll use the capital to bridge the two.
Slide 1: Traction — Your Proof It Works
This slide is about your past performance. It’s the evidence that your model works, even at a small scale. Your goal is to show a clear, consistent, and impressive upward trend in one "hero" metric.
Visually, this should be a single, large, easy-to-read chart showing 12-24 months of history. Below the chart, list 3-5 key supporting metrics.
Choosing Your Hero Metric:
- SaaS: Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) or Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR). This is the only metric that matters for a venture-backed SaaS business.
- Marketplace: Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) or Bookings. Also, show revenue (your "take rate").
- Consumer / eCommerce: Monthly Revenue.
- Fintech: Assets Under Management (AUM) or Transaction Volume.
- Pre-Revenue / Deep Tech: A chart isn't about revenue but about progress. This could be pilot customers, waitlist size, key technical milestones, or data from a scientific study.
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