The Pitch
Behind
the Deal

HLS.IL Webinar • Presented by Simon Cohen

Simon Cohen
Marketing Design Specialist

Simon Cohen

20+ years building design systems for go-to market campaigns. I help founders own their visual identity;
pitch decks, brand kits, and design systems that scale.

simoncreates.me hello@simoncreates.me

Design Clarity
Compounds benefits

When your deck has coherence, you present with confidence. When you present with confidence, investors pay attention. That chain starts with design.

I take what you already have — even just a logo — and turn it into a visual language that works across every slide, every touchpoint, every room you walk into.

What We'll
Cover Today

  • 01 Visuals speak before you do
  • 02 Why this matters more than you think
  • 03 What tools can you use
  • 04 Quick wins you can apply today
  • 05 Design checklist for every slide

your slides will speak

before you get a chance

0:00 Average time on your entire deck

That\'s not a read — it\'s a scan. Your deck gets less time than a YouTube short.

Source: DocSend Startup Index

Team
22.8s
Financials
15.6s
Product
12.7s
Business
10.8s
Market
8.3s
Traction
6.1s

Seconds per deck section

You have seconds.

Not minutes.

why this matters
more than you think

Investors Predicted
Winning Decks Even
Without Audio

Silent video of pitches — no audio — predicted which founders won funding better than the full presentation. Across 12 studies and 1,855 participants.

Source: Academy of Management Discoveries

Academy of Management Discoveries — Visuals Dominate Investor Decisions
95 % Found to be unfundable

Not because of the business — because of the presentation.

Source: SaaStr — 700+ decks reviewed

SaaStr — What We've Learned From Our First 700+ VC Pitch Decks

93% Had Design
Working Against
The Founder

Your deck is either helping you or hurting you. There is no neutral.

Source: Focused Chaos — I Reviewed 50 Startup Pitch Decks

Focused Chaos — I Reviewed 50 Startup Pitch Decks

increase your chances

before you speak

Your Tools Change
How You Perform
By 50%

People wearing a lab coat labelled "doctor's coat" made half as many errors as those told it was a "painter's coat." Same coat. The meaning we assign to objects changes how we actually think — and perform.

Source: Adam & Galinsky, Northwestern — Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2012

The Numbers
Confirm It

39% Higher neural engagement from passionate, confident delivery Shane et al. 2020, J. Business Venturing
26% Increase in investor interest from confident presentation Shane et al. 2020, J. Business Venturing
$3.4M More funding raised by founders perceived as trustworthy Scientific Reports, 2025
1.47x Higher funding odds when founders present with confidence Scientific Reports, 2025

what tools
can i use?

New age Presentation builders are widely available

Gamma, Canva, Beautiful.ai — tools make it easy to look good. But everyone looks the same. No brand DNA.

Source: Beautiful.ai — Presentation Templates

Beautiful.ai — Presentation Templates

The Most Popular
Choice – is also
Everyone's Choice

Canva has the best collaboration features and the widest template library. But that's exactly the problem — your investors have seen these layouts hundreds of times.

Source: Canva — Presentation Templates

Canva — Presentation Templates

AI-Generated
Decks All Look
The Same

Gamma generates entire decks from a prompt. Fast, impressive — and immediately recognisable. The AI aesthetic is becoming the new "default template."

Source: Mary Beth Hazeldine — Winning Presentations (35 years, £250M+ raised)

Gamma — AI Presentation Generator

Quick wins
you can apply today

Q3 Revenue Growth, Market Expansion Strategy & Team Updates for Stakeholder Review
Our Q3 results show significant traction across all key metrics. Revenue grew 47% QoQ driven by enterprise expansion in EMEA and APAC regions. We also launched three new product lines including the analytics dashboard, the mobile SDK, and the integration marketplace.
Additionally, our CAC decreased by 23% while LTV increased by 31%, resulting in a significantly improved unit economics profile that positions us well for Series B discussions in Q1 2027.
On the product side, we shipped 14 features across three sprints, reduced average page load time from 3.2s to 1.1s, and grew our developer community to over 2,400 active contributors. The API now handles 12M requests per day with 99.97% uptime.
Looking ahead, our pipeline is strong with $4.2M in qualified opportunities for Q4. We're exploring strategic partnerships in Southeast Asia and finalizing our SOC 2 Type II certification, which will unlock several enterprise accounts currently in legal review.
Hard to read Too much. Too dense. No hierarchy.
73% less view time for clutter
Slides with more than 50 words add noise and get 73% less viewing time.
Source: DocSend Q3 Pitch Deck Analysis
Clear messaging One idea. One number. Let it sit with the audience.
Quarterly Revenue by Region
$4M $3M $2M $1M Q1 Q2 Q3
Screenshot charts Default Excel colours. No brand identity.
Quarterly Revenue by Region
Q1 Q2 Q3
Stlyized charts Same data. Brand tokens. Intentional.
Product Dashboard
Dashboard screenshot
Fig. 1 — Dashboard overview showing key metrics (Source: Internal)
Low resolution mockups Flat screenshot. No context. No depth.
Last 7 days
Users
2.7M
↑ 12.4%
Sessions
479K
↑ 8.1%
Bounce
40.6%
↓ 2.3%
Duration
17m
↑ 5.7%
Load Time vs Bounce Rate
30K 20K 10K 100% 50% 0% Median: 1.02s 0 1 2 3 4
Sessions by Source
Dir Org Ref Soc Paid Mail
Traffic by Page
Dashboard Pricing Features
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Device Split
60% Desktop
on brand mockups Same data. Brand palette. It belongs.
Dashboard
Welcome back, Sarah
Revenue
$24.8K
+12.4%
Users
1,847
+8.1%
Weekly Activity
Recent Activity
New subscription
+$49
Payment received
+$120
Team invite sent
Pending
Mobile App — Home Screen v2.3
Floating panel Flat screenshot. No depth. No device.
9:41
Dashboard
Welcome back, Sarah
Revenue
$24.8K
+12.4%
Users
1,847
+8.1%
Weekly Activity
Recent Activity
New subscription
2 min ago
+$49
Payment received
15 min ago
+$120
Team invite sent
1 hr ago
Pending
Home
Search
Activity
Profile
in situe Same image. Phone mockup. It feels real.
Our Value Proposition
We provide an end-to-end platform that enables startups and scale-ups to create professional-grade pitch decks, marketing collateral, and brand materials without the need for expensive design agencies or in-house design teams. Our proprietary design system approach ensures brand consistency across all touchpoints while reducing production time by up to 80%.
Our modular architecture supports token-based theming, allowing customers to rebrand their entire deck library in minutes rather than weeks. The component library includes 33 slide templates, each tested across 4:3, 16:9, and widescreen aspect ratios with responsive typography scaling and automatic layout adjustments for different content densities.
weak positioning Wall of text. No one reads this.
Build once
and Own it
forever
own your value Six words. The rest is what you say.

Clairty Checklist
for any slide

  • One idea per slide — let each point land
  • Style your charts to match your brand
  • Everything must earn its place, don't clutter
  • Lock in one font pair and one grid
  • Use your brand colors intentionally

5–6 core slide templates

that's all you need

Cover slide Cover
Statement slide Statement
Data slide Data
Image and text slide Image + Text
Mockup slide Mockup
Section break slide Section Break

thank you for your time

questions?