Some experts say the pitch deck team slide is the most important slide in a startup presentation. Ultimately, If the startup doesn’t have the proper team to grow the business, nothing else matters.
According to studies by Docsend, investors spend an average of 3 minutes and 44 seconds reviewing a pitch deck. More importantly, they spend 15% of that time reading the Team Slide.
Creating an impactful team slide is an art. Your aim is to describe the key team members, their achievements, and why they are suitable for their roles. Unfortunately, the pitch deck team slide is one of the most challenging slides to get right.
This article will discuss various team slide designs and provide examples from successful startups that have received significant funding.
What is the Pitch Deck Team Slide?
In a startup pitch deck, a team slide is a visual representation of each member of your team. This slide introduces the founders and team members and their backgrounds. More importantly, it proves that the team has the experience and skills to drive the business to success. The slide can incorporate many elements, including headshots, job titles, role descriptions, and prior career history.
When designing your pitch deck team slide, there are three approaches you should consider. These include the Full Bio, the Combined Experience slide, and the Minimal Approach.
Team Slide Option #1: The Full Bio
The Full Bio approach is a great way to showcase the pitch deck team slide. While there are numerous ways that a startup can utilize the team slide, the full bio is the most comprehensive. Generally, these slides resemble a resume, providing a full scope of the team member’s most notable achievements.
This version of the pitch deck team slide can take many different forms.
Sometimes, founders use entire paragraphs to explain the team member’s background and career highlights. Other times, the team uses a series of bullet points to display each member’s history in a more digestible way. Some teams use a mix of paragraphs and bullet points for the slide. They leverage the length of the paragraphs to give a summary and highlight noteworthy accomplishments in the bullet points.
Pros and Cons
Those who adopt this approach will face both pros and cons. This format uses more text and length than other slide structures, explaining team members’ experiences more broadly.
However, extended team slides are detrimental when presenting your pitch deck. Instead of listening to you, investors will use their attention to read your text. If investors are reading your slides during your presentation, you’ve failed. Instead, they should browse the text quickly while intensely listening to your pitch.
When To Use This Approach
We don’t recommend using full biographies in pitch deck team slides for every occasion. More appropriate team slide options exist that you can leverage when presenting your business to investors. However, this extended version is ideal if you’re emailing the deck as an introduction to investors.
The key to leveraging this slide is ensuring each member’s bio is concise and well-structured. Avoid overwhelming the audience with details or unnecessary information. Focus on team members’ relevant backgrounds and align their expertise with your business’s specific challenges.
Full Bio – Team Slide Examples
Check out the following examples to see how these successful startups used the pitch deck team slide to raise capital from investors.
Fyre’s Team Slide
Those who have seen the Netflix or Hulu specials about Fyre already know how disastrous the venture was. However, while the event was a notable failure, the founders did a fantastic job proving a strong team.
Fyre’s team slide includes significant information about its founders. The slide gives insight into each team member’s track record and explains their role responsibilities. It shows how each founder contributes to the business and how their experiences match their team responsibilities.
Ultimately, Fyre’s startup team successfully showcased the business idea and raised over $26 million from angel investors.
Mattermark’s Team Slide
Mattermark may have misunderstood what the term pitch deck team slide meant. Typically, companies present their teams on a single slide. However, Mattermark gave each member an entire slide for their biography.
If our team at ThinkLions had created this slide, we would have made several changes. Still, it has several positive aspects that caught our attention.
The slide is visually overwhelming, and the design is confusing. Although it details the founders’ skills and experience, the design is hard to make sense of. Ultimately, the pitch deck template feels off-putting instead of inviting.
It makes the reader avoid reading it instead of making them want to engage with the information. A better design would make it easier for readers to digest the information. The slide is similar to entering a hoarder’s home. Your eyes can’t quite comprehend what’s happening and your brain immediately feels overwhelmed with information.
Despite the long text and terrible design, the slide has some redeeming factors. The use of logos and imagery adds credibility to each founder’s background. Readers instantly know that the founders have experience at massive companies like Microsoft and Twilio. Unfortunately, that may be as far as investors get before giving up on reading through the clutter.
The Airbnb Team Slide
Airbnb’s pitch deck team slide caught our eye because it balances visual design with informative details. The team bolded each founder’s name and presented their positions and responsibilities in large text. The bios are informative and short, using a maximum of three lines. They aligned the photos and text to the left, making the slide look clean and easy to read.
The Takeaway
We prefer some of these examples more than others. However, every one of these early-stage companies successfully raised investor capital. Some of these companies, like Airbnb, even had successful exits, earning the founders billions of dollars. When examining these pitch deck team slides, there are several lessons we can take away:
- Only incorporate the information that matters most. Although the team slide layout in a pitch deck commands detail, it isn’t the place to dump every detail of your professional life. Instead, highlight your relevant experience and the qualities demonstrating your ability to succeed in your startup role.
- Make it as easy as possible for the reader to digest. The issue with full bio team slides is that they are lengthy. Keep the text short to make it easy for readers to comprehend the material. Furthermore, use bullet points instead of paragraphs to highlight your career history.
- Utilize logos and graphics to improve the slide’s impact. Founders often lean on text to get their points across in a pitch deck. But in many cases, there are better options available. Graphics, like logos, can tell a story much more effectively than text while streamlining your slide design.
Team Slide Option #2: Combined Experience
Another approach to the pitch deck team slide is the Combined Experience bio. In this version, founders showcase their career experience as a team instead of describing each member separately. This shorter version shows the team working together towards one goal. The focus is on what the team can do rather than the backgrounds of each team member.
A brand can present a pitch deck team slide with a Combined Experience structure in numerous ways. Brands can show combined experience with statistics, like their total sales or capital raised. They can also highlight key achievements or essential facts about their team.
Pros and Cons
Every team slide format has strengths and flaws. While the Combined Experience variant is an excellent approach for a great team slide, it can also have drawbacks.
The advantage of this type of slide is its brevity. The condensed format is presentable and readable and can quickly display the team’s abilities. It presents the team as a formidable unit and helps investors understand the potential of all members.
This approach’s drawback is that many investors don’t want to see the team as a whole unit. They may be interested in understanding the organization of the team. These investors want to understand each team position and find proof of each person’s skills for their respective roles. Unfortunately, a Combined Experience slide will not provide this level of detail.
When To Use This Approach
Use the Combined Experience approach when presenting your pitch deck to an audience. That way, you can fill in the blanks about each team member during the presentation.
Avoid using this format when creating a pitch deck for reading instead of one for presenting. Since it provides a minimal view of each team member, it will leave readers with more questions than answers. Unanswered questions can lead to doubt, and doubt leads to objection. The last thing you want to hear from your prospective investors is an objection.
Combined Experience – Team Slide Examples
Many startups have used this approach to present the team in the pitch deck. To create a great team slide, study examples from founders who secured funding from investors and venture capitalists.
The Fyre Team Slide
While Fyre Festival is a great model for what not to do as a business, its pitch deck has many great qualities. In the slide, Fyre presents the team’s combined experiences and accomplishments.
The slide explains that the team members have worked at top companies such as Google, Nike, Helmut Lang, and Breather. The vital information is clear and readable.
The design is clean and consistent throughout Fyre’s entire pitch deck. It utilizes small and light fonts for less critical information. Furthermore, it uses bolded text with a thin orange line to separate the most important details. The content showcases the team as a unit and clarifies that there is significant experience between the team members.
Intercom’s Pitch Deck Team Slide
Intercom’s team slide showcases individual team members and their positions. However, as a Combined Experience slide, it successfully showcases the team’s highlights as a unit. It helps us see who is responsible for each role. However, it is unclear which achievement belongs to each member.
For example, we know that the team launched Qwitter and Exceptional, and participated in startup acquisitions. However, it is unclear whether the entire team launched these companies or just one of the members. Most likely, the founders kept things mysterious for a reason.
One massive benefit of this slide type is that it takes the pressure off team members with weaker backgrounds. For example, say one founder launched both mentioned companies, while the other three had no accolades. In this case, the team would seem unbalanced, and investors would question the team’s strength. However, by combining the members’ experience, each member receives equal credit for the achievements.
The Takeaway
The Combined Experience slide can either contribute to the success of your pitch deck or completely backfire. Investors will either love this approach or feel slighted. Only choose this option if your team’s combined statistics are notable enough to make a difference. When examining the previously mentioned samples, there are several lessons we can take away:
- Know when to use a Combined Experience approach. The Combined Experience slide only works in certain circumstances. For example, use it when presenting the slide and when one founder’s accomplishments may have to carry everyone else’s.
- Focus on the highlights that matter most. Refrain from overloading your slide with every possible detail. Be intentional with every highlight and only display the experiences that best align with the startup’s needs.
- Consider adding names and team roles. Use this version when showcasing the highlights of the team as a unit. However, you should still consider adding each member’s name, image, and team role.
Team Slide Option #3: The Minimal Slide
Some brands give detailed background information about each member, while others use a simpler approach in their pitch decks.
This approach is precisely what it sounds like – minimal. Usually, it only includes the member’s headshot, name, and job role. Sometimes, it may consist of a small blurb about their career accomplishments.
This version is relatively obscure and leaves many questions unanswered. On the other hand, this approach is clean, streamlined, and straightforward.
Pros and Cons
The Minimal pitch deck team slide is the opposite of the Full Bio version, with reversed strengths and weaknesses.
Unlike the Full Bio team slide, a Minimal approach has a much cleaner design. Pitch deck writers and designers don’t have many elements to work with. Therefore, keeping the slide aligned with the design theme is easier.
Full Bio slides have lots of text and elements, so designers have to squeeze them in to fit. Those slides can become cluttered and overwhelming.
While a minimal design is an advantage, it has its drawbacks, too. It doesn’t provide investors with enough information for them to assess and understand the team’s capabilities.
When To Use This Approach
This approach makes sense only when someone is presenting the material. Other approaches are better if you use your deck to provide detailed team information.
When presenting the deck, the presenter can fill in the gaps the slide may have missed. You can verbally explain each team member’s background while displaying a clean, easy-to-read slide.
However, sending the pitch deck to an investor for self-review will leave more questions than answers. Unanswered questions lead to doubts, which turn into objections.
The Minimal Approach – Pitch Deck Team Slide Examples
For presentations, the minimal approach is the most popular. When presenting a deck, we recommend this version over others. See the examples below to learn about creating a practical but minimal pitch deck team slide.
SEMRush’s Team Slide
SEMRush’s team slide includes components of the minimal and full bio approaches. While the information seems scarce, readers are clear about each member’s role and background.
Each team member’s bio follows a consistent format. The first line displays their names. The second line indicates their role. The third line highlights their experience.
The slide is minimal but still effective.
The Buzzfeed Team Slide
While BuzzFeed’s team slide is brief, it still provides significant information. This example shows the team role in bold, with the names of the individuals filling the role listed below. Some listed team members have parentheses beside their names, mentioning companies they previously worked for.
Buzzfeed uses a unique but impactful design theme for its pitch deck team slide. Since creating this slide, the BuzzFeed team has raised more than $696.3 million in investor and VC funding.
Ooomf’s Pitch Deck Team Slide
Ooomf did an exceptional job presenting its pitch deck team slide. This slide combines the minimal approach with the full bio and combined experience versions. At the top of the slide, the team lists a combined experience statistic. Instead of only showing each member’s name and position, Ooomf listed several summarized highlights to display their credibility.
In this version, the team maintained simplicity while still explaining each team member’s accomplishments. Even though Ooomf’s team slide uses sentence fragments, it offers more information than some Full Bio examples.
The Takeaway
Experts always suggest minimizing the amount of text on a pitch deck slide. However, it is possible to over-minimize the team slide in your pitch deck. The best slides were minimal but still presented the type of information an investor would want to know. These slides can teach you several lessons, including:
- Minimize the text, but not too much. The problem with minimal slides is that they can become too bare. You want to reduce the load on your pitch deck team slide. However, don’t minimize it to the point that it no longer includes the information investors want to know.
- Minimize text, not impact. Ultimately, you should reduce the number of words on the page, but not at the expense of quality. To capture investors’ attention, you want to build memorable slides. If you eliminate the fluff, the highlights will stand out.
Pitch Deck Team Slide – A Final Word
Creating the best pitch deck may seem easy, but I assure you it is not. Success means thinking like an investor, examining each slide, and presenting only the important information without any unnecessary details.
The best way to learn how to create a compelling pitch deck team slide is to assess decks from successful companies. Find patterns in their slides, and replicate them to create your team slide.
At ThinkLions, our writers help startups raise money by creating investor packages, business plans, and pitch decks. Contact us, share your goals, and let us help you turn your startup idea into a successful business.
