“Okay, your product or service is cool and solves a big problem. But how does your business make money?” That’s typically one of the first questions that comes to investors’ minds when they see a startup pitch deck, and the sooner they get the answer, the better.
Where do investors expect to find this answer? In your business model slide, of course. This is where they learn how you monetize your product, how your business earns today, and how it will earn in the future.
Investors are busy—they often won’t spend more than three minutes on your presentation. That’s why your business model slide must grab their attention and clearly answer the “money question” in just a few seconds. But this doesn’t mean that you have to treat it as just a money slide or a revenue model slide. A killer business model slide goes beyond that: it shows which model you’ve chosen, explains why your approach is efficient and scalable and gives you a competitive edge down the road.
In this guide, we’ll explain and, more importantly, show what a winning business model slide is, how to craft one, and which common mistakes to avoid along the way.
Why does a business model slide matter for your investor deck?
As a startup founder, you’ve probably run into a deficit while creating your product and trying to solve the problem of your target audience. But at the end of the day, companies are built to generate profit. Once your customer acquisition costs and unit economics improve, you’ll arrive at profitability. Hopefully.
That’s what investors expect: a sustainable and scalable business that makes money and brings strong returns on their investment.
Investors want to see a clear picture of where you stand today, how your business generates profit, and how you can grow your company over time. Words alone won’t convince them; they need proof. And that’s where a business model slide comes into play.
A sharp business model slide in a pitch deck clearly presents how your startup brings in cash, stays efficient, and can scale in the long run. Detailing revenue streams, your pricing strategy, revenue model, and competitive advantage helps you convince investors that you can build a business that will thrive.
At Waveup, we know how to present a business model in a pitch deck effectively, as we’ve dealt with many of them, including SaaS subscription models, licensing agreements, marketplace commissions, and freemium models, just to name a few. We’ve helped over 1,000 clients get funding from investors, including venture capitalists and angels.
When we work on a business model slide, we typically communicate the overall model’s mechanics, demonstrating its unique angles and strengths. Many founders struggle to move beyond simply listing their pricing tiers or potential revenue streams. But here, it’s not only about showing your model but proving how efficient and scalable it is.
Take a client of ours, for instance—a fintech app seeking advice on their growth strategy. The startup struggled to show investors how it would scale. Apart from other changes, we helped refine their business model, detailing multi-layer revenue streams, cohort analyses, and COGS & OPEX breakdowns. As a result, our client raised £3M in the late seed round.
What to include in your business model slide?
As in the case of the GTM slide, there’s no one-fits-all list of elements you need to have in your business model slide. It all depends on your industry, the type of business model you choose, the growth stage, and what investors need to see to understand how your business generates and will scale revenue.
However, let’s have a look at what your pitch deck business model slide may potentially include:
Pricing model: How you charge your customers (i.e. subscription, pay-per-use, freemium)
Pricing strategy: How you set the price for your products/services (i.e. competitive pricing, value-based pricing)
Revenue model: How you make money (i.e. ads, commissions, licensing)
Revenue streams: Where money comes from (i.e. product sales, recurring subscriptions, data sales)
Scalability: How your revenue grows without proportional costs
Profitability metrics: Helps show how your business sustains and scales profits within its model (profit margins, CAC, LTV, etc.)
Note that showing metrics on your business model slide can score you extra points from investors. But only if they are solid. Try to focus on metrics that look good—be these growth metrics or efficiency metrics. Show what stands out more.
The best way to bring a point home is to show it in practice. Below, we’ve listed some business model slide examples, explaining what makes these slides cool.
- The first group of slides is a great example of how simply and effectively you can speak about your business model via revenue streams. Instead of mentioning the cost of your products, you show which revenue streams you have and, more importantly, explain how they will perform in the future. When looking at such business model pitch deck slides, investors will get a clear understanding of how you monetize your product.
- The second group can serve as perfect business model slide templates if your revenue model goes hybrid—it combines one-time product fees (hardware fees, implementation, or licensing) with recurring revenue streams (subscriptions or ongoing payments). These business model slides speak about scalability via recurring revenue—a way to show investors that your business does not have a “buy-and-forget” model but one where revenue grows as the customer base expands or usage increases.
- The following two business model slides use a “Now and Tomorrow” approach to demonstrating a business model in a presentation. This approach shows investors where your company stands today and how and why your business model will change in the next few years. On one side, you present your current revenue streams and metrics (i.e. average order value, subscription fees). On the other, you mention future opportunities, such as new services, improved margins, better customer lifetime value, etc. If you want to convince investors that your business is profitable right now and has scalability and growth potential in the long run, you may use these business model slides as templates.
- The last group of business model slide examples is good for companies with some traction—you have been actively selling your products/services for a couple of years. If that’s your case, you must show investors how efficient your business model is—you have found your unit economics, it works well, and with their investments, you can scale your model effectively in the future. Here, it’s important to support your claims with the relevant metrics (i.e. CAC, LTV, LTV:CAC ratio, CAC payback, sales efficiency, etc.).
As you see, there are many ways to present a business model in a pitch deck. You just need to find the one that best fits your business stage, business model, industry, and target audience.
What mistakes you can make while crafting your business model slide, and how to fix them
Despite the variety of approaches to building a winning business model slide, there are some common mistakes we often see in our clients’ decks. To help you avoid them—or fix them if you’ve already made some—we’ve prepared a list of issues and tips on how to solve them.
You treat your business model as a money slide
When you overemphasise your pricing tiers without clearly explaining what these prices mean for your business, it’s not the best way to build your business model slide. Why? Because investors only see numbers without understanding how this pricing will generate revenue or scale. You don’t show any connection between your pricing structure and the overall business strategy. For example, are higher-tier customers more profitable? Does the pricing drive upselling? Without the proper narrative, your business model slide will look like a flat list of numbers.
How to fix it: Don’t list prices; try to explain how your pricing structure works along with your revenue growth. You may say: “We charge per seat, so as companies grow, our revenue grows as well.” Also, add details about pricing drivers, like features or usage levels, to show how your model can scale with customers.
You overload your business model slide with revenue streams
“The more, the better” approach doesn’t work with a pitch deck business model slide. If you list too many revenue streams without a clear focus on the core ones, it may make investors feel that you lack a clear strategy and you aren’t confident in your main revenue drivers. Remember, investors are allergic to uncertainty. They want to have a clear vision of your business, how you monetize your product/service, and how you’ll earn money in the future. Period.
How to fix it: In your business model slide, try to stick to 1-3 revenue streams that generate or will generate the most revenue. You may say: “We make money primarily through subscriptions and transaction fees”, and if you plan to use new streams later add “In the future, we will explore ad revenue.” This will help investors stay focused on your core revenue streams while showing that your business model is flexible and adaptable as you scale.
You miss competitive advantage
If you don’t explain in a pitch deck what makes your business model better or different from the competition, it may be hard for investors to see why you stand out. For example, you may show you have a SaaS business with subscription pricing but don’t demonstrate why your pricing model or operations are unique. Simply stating that you’re profitable or scalable isn’t enough—investors want to know how.
How to fix it: It’s good if your business model slide can communicate to investors what makes your model different and stronger than competitors’. For example, “Our low-cost model lets us keep prices competitive and still earn high margins.”
Your slide doesn’t have unit economics or metrics
Not including metrics (if they are solid, of course) may leave investors without an opportunity to check the financial health of your business model and its potential for scalability. If you simply state “we’re profitable”, but don’t show it, your business model slide may feel incomplete or unconvincing. For example, you might talk about how you make money but not explain how much it costs to get customers or how much money they bring over time.
How to fix it: Add the most important metrics, such as CAC, LTV, CAC payback, etc. If you don’t have hard numbers yet, include assumptions based on early tests or similar businesses. But remember, your goal is to create a business model slide, not a financial slide in your pitch deck. Use metrics and numbers sparingly; you will have space later in the deck to show your financial projections.
Your business model slide has a poor design and structure
How you present your business model in a pitch deck also matters. If you overcrowd your slide with too much text or data, use a cluttered layout, or give information in a way that’s hard to follow, your business model slide may be doomed. Investors typically spend seconds on each slide, and if they don’t understand something, they may simply skip it. Even if your business model is great and scalable, investors might not even see it if you don’t present it well.
How to fix it: Try to keep your business model slide simple—short, clear sentences or even bullet points, charts, visuals, and icons. In this way, you’ll make the slide easier to digest for investors. Also pay attention to font style and the quality of images.
Note that these mistakes aren’t 100% applicable to every business model slide. Each business is unique and may require a different approach to showing its business model. Treat this list as a general guide, and if you need tailored assistance, feel free to contact our Waveup team—we’ll gladly help you build a pitch deck that will raise money.
Wrap-up: Show how you earn and scale
The major task of a business model slide is quite straightforward—to show how your business generates profit today and will continue to do so in the future.
But because there are many business models and ways to present them, founders may get lost in elements, metrics, and investor expectations. Some may mistakenly treat their business model slide as a simple money slide, speaking only about product prices there. Others try to cram in every possible revenue stream they have or plan to have. That’s not what investors expect from your business model slide. They want to get a clear vision of how you monetize your product today, if you have any potential to scale it in the future, and what sets your approach apart from competitors. Why do they need it? Because investors would like to know that their money will be used efficiently to develop your business and bring them good returns.
Having a killer business model slide is great, but it’s just a tiny piece of the larger fundraising puzzle. You must have a pitch deck and a clear understanding of other investor documents, effective investor outreach, a strong product-market fit, and a clear growth strategy, just to name a few. Remember, fundraising is tough, so get prepared well for it.