Many early-stage startups with a one-person team or solo founder get hung upon the question:
What should a one-person startup’s team slide include?
If you are a solo founder who hasn’t hire anybody yet, your pitch deck’s Team slide should be framed as an “About the Founder” page.
You can list out the early hires you have planned, but there’s no need to dedicate a block for each person unless you have a specific prospect slated for that role. The Mattermark pitch deck is a good example of how to do this:
A few tips for how to create the most effective Team slide as a solo founder:
- Definitely do not just list out positions like COO, CFO, CTO, CMO in your hiring plan (I was honestly surprised to see a few of the other responses here recommending this) — that’s one surefire way to make investors think you have not adequately prepared or planned your business.
Make sure to specify carefully-chosen roles (not just generic C-Suite titles) such as “Head of BD” or “3 new sales reps” instead of “CMO” or “AI/ML expert & front-end developer” instead of “CTO”
- Use logos of any notable companies you’ve worked at / with in the past — since the entire slide is about you, it might even make sense to include a timeline of your experience (like Mattermark did above).
- Correlate your hiring plan to the milestones you aim to achieve; don’t just name roles to fill out a standard org chart. For example, if you plan to go-to-market in new geographies, your staffing plan should probably include SDRs for each region.
- As a solo founder, you’ll want to emphasize the advisors and partners you have brought on board to de-risk your startup’s success. If you’re working with any notable consultants, agencies or other outsourced service providers, it may make sense to include their logos here. Make sure to highlight your advisory board’s experience specific to your startup and industry.
If you have questions about what to include in your pitch deck, check out this comprehensive guide with tutorials and tips for every slide that an effective investor presentation should include. Although there is no one perfect recipe for every pitch deck, following the right guidelines and best practices can help elevate your pitch to the next level!