--- url: 'https://qubit.capital/blog/pitch-deck-financial-slides' title: 'Pitch Deck Financials: What to Put on the Slide, With Examples' author: name: Mayur Toshniwal url: 'https://qubit.capital/blog/author/mayur' date: '2025-12-23T19:16:00+05:30' modified: '2026-10-05T17:23:12+05:30' type: post categories: - Financial Modeling image: 'https://qubit.capital/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/pitch-deck-financial-slides.webp' published: true --- # Pitch Deck Financials: What to Put on the Slide, With Examples Table of Contents - [Key Takeaways](#key-takeaways) - [What Goes on a Pitch Deck Financial Slide](#what-goes-on-a-pitch-deck-financial-slide) - [A Pitch Deck Financials Example](#a-pitch-deck-financials-example) - [How Far Financial Projections in a Pitch Deck Should Look](#how-far-financial-projections-in-a-pitch-deck-should-look) - [Which Numbers Matter at Your Stage](#which-numbers-matter-at-your-stage) - [Mistakes Investors Spot First](#mistakes-investors-spot-first) - [Before You Send the Deck](#before-you-send-the-deck) ## Key Takeaways - A financial slide holds a three-year summary: revenue, gross margin, operating costs, EBITDA and headcount. - The few assumptions that drive those numbers go directly under the table. - The slide ends with your ask: what the money buys and how long it lasts. - Before revenue, project users, pilots or signed letters instead of invented sales. Pitch deck financials fit on one or two slides: a three-year summary of revenue and costs, its assumptions, and your ask. Investors read it as a test of how you think, not as a forecast they expect you to hit. This page shows what goes on the slide, a filled-in example, and the mistakes that cost founders credibility. ## What Goes on a Pitch Deck Financial Slide The slide summarises your financial model; it is not the model. Years run across as columns, and the rows stay few: - Revenue, or the driver behind it, such as customers or bookings. - Gross margin: what each sale leaves after the direct cost of delivering it. - Operating expenses, split into sales and marketing, product, and admin. - EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation), so the path to profit is visible. - Headcount, because hiring is usually the largest cost a startup plans. Under the table go the assumptions, your monthly burn (cash lost each month), your runway (months the cash lasts) and the ask. Investors reach this slide after traction and the business model, so its numbers must agree with [the slides that come before it](https://qubit.capital/blog/pitch-deck-elements). ![Infographic: What Goes on a Pitch Deck Financial Slide. Revenue or Driver; Gross Margin; Operating Expenses; EBITDA.](https://qubit.capital/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/pitch-deck-financials-what-to-put-on-the-slide-with-an-example-1-what-goes-on-a.webp) ## A Pitch Deck Financials Example Here is a financial slide for a made-up business software company raising a $3 million seed round. The figures are illustrative, not data from a real startup. | | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Customers (year end) | 60 | 180 | 420 | | Revenue | $0.4M | $1.5M | $4.1M | | Gross margin | 75% | 78% | 80% | | Operating expenses | $1.4M | $2.6M | $3.9M | | EBITDA | -$1.1M | -$1.4M | -$0.6M | | Headcount | 9 | 18 | 30 | Below the table, the slide lists what drives it: - Annual contract value rises from $12,000 to $14,000 as larger customers sign. - New customers grow from 5 a month in year 1 to 20 a month in year 3, net of cancellations. - Gross margin climbs as hosting and support costs spread over more customers. - The ask: $3M to reach $2.3M in annual recurring revenue by the end of year 2, ready for a Series A. Every number traces back to those four lines. An investor can now argue about 20 new customers a month instead of doubting the whole table. The two years of losses total $2.5M, so the round leaves about $0.5M of cushion. Producing these rows month by month is the job of a [startup financial projections template](https://qubit.capital/blog/startup-financial-projections-template). ## How Far Financial Projections in a Pitch Deck Should Look Three years of annual figures suit a seed deck. For Series A and later rounds, investors expect [three to five years](https://www.openvc.app/blog/financials-slide) of projections. Build the numbers bottom-up, from what you control: ad spend, sales hires and conversion rates. A claimed share of a huge market tells investors you have no plan to win customers. Keep the monthly detail in the model, ready for [financial due diligence](https://qubit.capital/blog/prepare-financial-due-diligence). Pre-revenue founders face a different rule. Alejandro Cremades puts it bluntly in his [guide to seed-stage financial slides](https://alejandrocremades.com/how-to-show-financials-in-a-pitch-deck/): > “Do not project revenue. You will be wrong, and it undermines your credibility.” Project the number that leads to revenue instead: active users, signed pilots or letters of intent. Then show which milestone each one unlocks before the next raise. ## Which Numbers Matter at Your Stage Early-stage investors weigh unit economics and burn more than the year you turn a profit. Unit economics means what one customer brings in against what it costs to win and serve. [How investors judge unit economics](https://qubit.capital/blog/unit-economics-investors-evaluate) decides which ratios earn a place on the slide. The right metric also depends on your industry. [Lindsay Randall](https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/business-planning/creating-an-investor-pitch-deck-for-your-startup), vice president for Startup Banking at J.P. Morgan, gives the consumer case: > “For example, if you’re in the direct-to-consumer space, investors want to know the lifetime value of your customer in relation to the customer acquisition cost.” For business software, she points to monthly or annual recurring revenue instead. Pick the two or three metrics investors in your sector check first, and set them in bold above the table. Show runway on the slide as well. LTSE suggests having at least [6 months of runway](https://ltse.com/insights/the-metrics-that-should-be-in-your-pitch-deck) left when you start raising, since a round can take longer than planned. Work it out from [the cash you hold and your monthly burn](https://qubit.capital/blog/calculate-startup-runway) before you write the ask. ## Mistakes Investors Spot First - **A hockey stick with no cause.** Growth that jumps without new hires, channels or money behind it reads as a guess. - **Revenue without matching costs.** A plan to reach 100,000 customers needs a marketing budget able to win them. - **Hidden assumptions.** A table with no drivers under it leaves the investor nothing to discuss but doubt. - **An accounting dump.** A full profit and loss statement pasted from your books belongs in the appendix. Benchmarks help when your numbers beat your peers. Put a margin or growth rate next to an industry figure only when you can name where that figure comes from. ![Infographic: Mistakes Investors Spot First. Unexplained Hockey Stick; Revenue Without Costs; Hidden Assumptions; Accounting Dump.](https://qubit.capital/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/pitch-deck-financials-what-to-put-on-the-slide-with-an-example-2-mistakes-invest.webp) ## Before You Send the Deck Check that every number on the financial slide matches your traction slide and your model. Rehearse answers on gross margin, burn and runway until you can give them without notes. Investors forgive a forecast that misses; they do not forgive one nobody can explain. Qubit Capital’s [Financial Model Creation](https://qubit.capital/startup-services/financial-model-creation) service builds the model your financial slide summarises. Keep refining your pitch while our team builds and stress-tests the numbers.