The best tools to help you make a killer startup pitch deck

Ready to put together your pitch deck, but not sure which free and paid tools you should be using? Pitch Hive is here to help. Our quick guide below will give you a brief overview of the best new and established tools available to help you put together a killer pitch deck or explainer video in no time.

Short of Time? Our top picks depending on your needs.

Best for:

• Pitch deck templates: Slidebean
• Design tools and immersive content: Canva
• ‘Open canvas’ presentations and explainer videos: Prezi
• Totally free functionality and online collaboration: Google Slides

Now let’s dig deeper to see what tools we love and recommend at Pitch Hive.

Software to create your pitch deck slides

Google Slides

Best totally free tool and for online collaboration

The established tools and software might seem ‘outdated’ but they shouldn’t totally be overlooked. Powerpoint and Keynote don’t warrant discussion as anyone reading this will already know about them, but Google Slides is a powerful tool full of functionality that is worth commenting on.

We Like:

• ‘Familiar’ layout for those used to working with Powerpoint
• Extensive Functionality
• Collaborate and share documents with ease in the cloud
• Totally free for personal use

Improvement needed:

• A limited number of templates focused on startups or pitch decks
• Given the amount of functionality, it can be difficult to find what you are looking for
• Lacks more advanced design tools to customize templates, enhance data and charts and create logos

Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is a presentation creation tool with an emphasis on simplicity.

We Like:

• Minimalist approach with a focus on images and limited text to help convey one key point per slide
• Large image library
• A PowerPoint plug-in is available

Improvement needed:

• Content looks less professional and outdated compared to competitors
• Website runs slowly and is not that intuitive to navigate
• Focused on presentations with limited other design tools, this means it provides less value for money compared to some of their competitors

Canva

Best for design tools and immersive content

Canva is an online design tool that goes well beyond just presentations. It has a fantastic array of resources and it is our ‘go-to’ platform at Pitch Hive for all things design. If you have not already, check it out.

We Like:

• Large selection of tools for all types of design
• Simple and intuitive to use — it is hard to make something look bad if you use Canva
• Great selection of templates
• Cloud based-access anywhere, easy to create a ‘team’ and collaborate
• The free version has great functionality
• The paid version is good value for money, there is no need for a designer when using this tool…

Improvement needed:

• Enhanced charting and data functionality
• Would be great to have a few more dedicated startup presentation templates

Slidebean

Best for those just looking for a startup pitch deck template

Slidebean is a fantastic tool aimed at entrepreneurs. Offering a large template library focused on the needs of startups and loads of useful educational content to help you pitch better.

We Like:

• Quick and easy to use
• Large template library
• Example decks used by ‘unicorns’ like airbnb
• Training resources and additional help designing your pitch deck and financial models
• Free version has lots of functionality

Improvement needed:

• Enhanced tools for online collaboration
• Even more great template examples with enhanced data and charting functionality
• Design tools to help create beautiful graphics and enhance content

Prezi

Best for ‘open canvas’ presentations and explainer videos

Prezi takes a totally different approach to the ‘traditional’ slide deck and we love it. It uses an ‘open canvas’ approach to presenting with rich graphics and animation to help capture the audience and tell a clear story.

We like:

• ‘Open canvas’ approach to presentations is novel and engaging
• Great for stand alone explainer videos as well
• Useful analytics tools to see what content people find the most engaging

Improvement needed:

• Animated and graphical nature can be time consuming to create
• Requires practice to real perfect the flow and placing of your presentation topics
• Large number of templates and data integration tools would be nice

Visme

Visme is an online design tool to help users create engaging presentations, infographics and other visuals.

We Like:

• Intuitive and quick to use
• Rich visual content to help engage your audience (animated graphics, stats etc.)
• Tools to help keep all content ‘on-brand’ and consistent
• Powerful tools enable full integration with other tools and data
• Infographics and other features are great if you are looking to design other content, such as, a website or newsletter
• Inbuilt analytics systems to keep track of usage stats

Improvement needed:

• Limited free functionality
• Premium content and templates are of ‘varying’ quality
• Pricing might be too expensive for infrequent users

Pitcherific

Pitcherific is a platform to really help you structure and practice your presentation. At Pitch Hive we know that practice makes perfect when presenting. With so much ‘digital-only’ pitching now going on practising over Zoom live with us, or recording yourself can be immensely helpful.

We Like:

• Focuses on the structure and key messages of your presentation
• Only practice portal where you can record yourself and help refine your text with an teleprompter

Improvement needed:

• Actual slide creations tools and templates
• Enhanced realism when practising to try and replicate real-live pitch anxiety many feel
• Stand-alone teleprompter for presenting live over Zoom

SlideCamp

SlideCamp is a corporate presentation and collaboration tool that has a strong emphasis on brand consistency.

We Like:

• Easy and scalable tools for presentation creation whilst staying ‘on-brand’ across an organisation
• Create your slide library to act as a hub for others to access and create content

Improvement needed:

• Expensive for a startup or individual
• The tool may not be that useful for a very small organisation just starting up

Powtoon

Powtoon is a video and animated presentation tool. With explainer videos now critical for many brands and websites Powtoon can offer an easy and affordable solution to get that professional look. There are other alternatives like VideoScribe, but be careful about using the ‘whiteboard’ style explainer videos, as we think they look outdated now.

We Like:

• Powerful visual content that presents itself
• Makes explainer videos more accessible and easy to create
• Intuitive and easy to create and edit
• Great collaboration tools

Improvement needed:

• Time-consuming to create rich content
• The basic option provides limited functionality
• One-off purchase may be more appropriate for users who are only looking to create this type of content infrequently

Conclusion

There are lots of fantastic free and paid tools depending on your needs. When you know what framework to follow to make your pitch deck, then the first point of call should be Slidebean if you just want to get going with your slides and need a template ready to go. Those looking to spend a bit more time customising and designing should head over to Canva. If you are looking for a novel or more engaging way to present and create explainer videos then try Prezi. Just looking for a powerful and collaborative tool as your base then Google Slides is very popular and solid starting point.

Love another tool not included here? Leave a comment below and we will check it out.

Pitch Smarter. Raise Money Faster.

Originally featured: https://pitchhive.com/best-ways-to-make-a-startup-presentation-pitch-deck/