My Best Financial Projections for Startups Pitch Deck Slide

Grab my free pitch deck and financial model templates at rocketproforma.com/resources
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#startups #financials #impressinvestors #pitchdecks
0:00 - What do good financial projections look like?
0:30 - How normal people react to financial projections (panic!)
0:52 - It starts with the Income Statement
2:37 - Add your key metrics
3:08 - Add the headcount
3:58 - The Income Statement lies about cash
5:31 - Putting it all Together
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Find free pitch deck and financial model resources at
rocketproforma.com/resources
Want to quickly create your startup financial projections and confidently present to investors?
Check out RocketProForma.com
Want to raise money for your startup? Today I’m going to give you my killer financial projections slide for your pitch deck. It’s exactly what investors want to see. Grab my free slide template at RocketProForma.com/Resources.
Even if you’re not raising money, it’s important to get in the habit of creating and sticking to a budget for your company. Wait, you say you’re working on your product for the next few months? It’s important to start thinking about cash management now. You’ll thank yourself later for being prepared before things start moving more quickly.
The first time I sat down to write out my business plan (yes I’m that old lol) I didn’t know how to do the “Pro Forma Financial Projections” so I just left it out. I didn’t even know what “Pro Forma” meant.
Since then I’ve helped raise millions of dollars for both my own and other founders’ startups. I’ve put together a ton of pitch decks-and I’ve reviewed thousands more. In this article I’ll make it easy for you to create killer financial projections by sharing what I’ve learned.
Finance Is the Language of Business
Some of the entrepreneurs I talk to are great with numbers. This is always refreshing, and it gives me confidence in their ability to execute.
Other entrepreneurs either don’t how to create a financial model or they don’t know how to present their projections in the pitch deck.
It’s crucial for founders to either understand their numbers or find a co-founder who does (and even then you’ll want to learn what’s going on).
We’re going to tackle both issues:
How Do I Make Money and How Much Does It Cost Me?
These are the two main questions in every investors mind, and this slide tells them exactly what to expect.
I find that financial projections work best when constructed as an income statement (also called a profit and loss statement) with a little bit of extra info at the top (number of units sold) and bottom (cash flow).
Investors are looking to sanity-check what the entrepreneur is telling them, so we’ll give them enough info to do this at a glance. It’s best for both your startup and your investors if you err on the conservative side, so that any surprised happen on the up-side rather than the down-side. Like when you underestimate your revenue and overestimate your expenses.
The Anatomy of an Income Statement
The basic formula is Total Revenue minus Cost of Sales (COGS) equals Gross Profit. From here, Gross Margin % equals Gross Profit divided by Total Revenue.
Subtract Operating Expenses (Sales & Marketing plus Research & Development plus General & Administrative) from Gross Profit to arrive at EBITDA (you may also hear some startups call this EBIT, although technically EBITDA is different than EBIT).
The Key Ingredients of Your Financial Projections
Here’s what investors want to see in your financial projections:
- of Units / Subscriptions Sold
- Revenue
- Cost of Sales (Cost of Goods Sold)
- Gross Profit
- Operating Expenses
- EBITDA
- Headcount
- Cash Position
Mike Lingle is obsessed with helping founders grow their businesses. I'm a serial entrepreneur, mentor, and executive in residence at Babson College. Check out my Rocket Pro Forma if you want to quickly create your financial projections.

[@toksta535]

Thank you Mike, love your content - exactly what I was looking for.

[@priscillapiano7]

Great video, thanks for this very helpful video and slide template!

[@doographicsindia]

Great! its very helpful for me.

[@jonathanlobe509]

Thank you very much Sir !

[@charismagoudreau9044]

So clear and helpful - thank you!

[@georgezorbas9036]

I own you . If everything goes well I should give you back for giving us free so important templates, not even many knowledgeable people where I leave can't do! How to make a financial model for a pre seed, when having so little info!

[@AshleyxAdamson]

Thanks Mike for making this A LOT less overwhelming and very easy to get started. I really appreciate your help and also I love your voice! :)

[@MikeLingle]

Glad to help!

[@gkanuoct]

This is excellent Mike!

[@MikeLingle]

Glad you like it! I've spent a lot of time and experimentation figuring out the most effective way for startups to pitch investors.

[@barrybonner8048]

Great overview Mike, thank you.

[@MikeLingle]

Glad it was helpful!

[@lorefort]

Brilliant! Exactly what I was looking for, thank you.

[@lorefort]

Just wanted to repeat, this explanation/example is really good, far better than others out there. One could even colour code mark the projections and/or assumptions for the years ahead.

[@MikeLingle]

@@lorefort I'm glad to hear that my explanation made sense to you. I love the idea of color coding the financial projections for the years ahead!

[@kitbot2318]

I have the same HELP poster in my room :) And I love building integrated financial models.

[@MikeLingle]

#beatlemania!

[@mokabo67]

...and thanks soo much to you

[@elixirforlife4771]

This is accurately to the point Mr Mike but what should be added to financials if the business is totally new born,and we ask for seed investment?

[@thuanpham5978]

Hi, I want to ask how you calculate the ARR and "Cash (At end of period)". Thank you!

[@Imtreygordon]

Amazing! Thank you so much! This has really opened my eyes and made everything less scary. Is it possible that we could connect somehow, as I feel I may need a little guidance

[@MikeLingle]

Awesome! My goal is definitely to make things less scary. You can grab time with me on my website-or join one of my webinars. RocketProForma.com

[@Imtreygordon]

@@MikeLingle Thank you so much buddy!

[@rayhyltonjr]

The only guy in the game I understand.

[@MikeLingle]

Haha I'm glad to hear it!

[@oavivo]

Clear and simple. Notice that the rebrandly links are broken :(

[@MikeLingle]

Thanks for letting me know! Here's the correct link for the live Q&A with me: ttps://rebrand.ly/QARocketProFormaWeb

[@ProjectAryawarta]

The email which I got as template does not contains the actual excel sheet. It is not a calculator. You must have to fill all data to the fields one by one.

[@MikeLingle]

The spreadsheet is the paid version. I offer a bunch of free templates as well at RocketProForma.com/blog

[@ProjectAryawarta]

@@MikeLingle thanks, I end up creating my own version.