Remove that ‘exit strategy’ slide from your pitch deck

Remove that ‘exit strategy’ slide from your pitch deck

2 years ago
Anonymous $dy9SWuvIkX

https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/04/ixnay-on-the-exit-strategy/

A lot of pitch decks I review have a slide that really shouldn’t be there: the exit strategy slide. Your slide deck should only have an exit strategy slide if you’re running a very late-stage company that’s about to IPO, and even then, you probably wouldn’t have it as a slide on a funding deck but as a whole, separate IPO plan. As an early-stage startup, it’s downright nonsensical, and it shouldn’t be part of your pitch deck at all.

To a lot of founders, an exit — or a “liquidation event,” as the legal buffs tend to refer to it — is the big pot of gold at the end of a very long and arduous journey. The same goes for investors; when there’s an acquisition or a public listing, that’s how everyone gets paid. Moreover, some of the old pitch deck templates that are floating around on the internet have an exit strategy slide on them, so it makes sense that people are still making this mistake.