Tips for Building a Healthcare Pitch Deck That Wins Over Investors

Pitch decks are more than just a set of slides. They’re often used as a startup’s first attempt to get a meeting, earn investor confidence, or secure the funding needed to grow. For healthcare founders, the challenge of creating a persuasive deck is even steeper: it has to balance scientific rigor with a compelling story that resonates beyond the lab.

From slide length to investor priorities, experts agree that clarity and authenticity are just as important as the idea or solution itself. A strong deck can guide conversations, showcase projected milestones, and make it easier for investors to understand how they can best support a startup’s growth. 

Knowing how to organize slides and what information or data points to include in each can better set you up for success. Whether you're preparing for an in-person investor meeting or planning cold outreach, here are three key factors for building a healthcare pitch deck, plus tips for managing investor relations post-fundraise. 

Key Factors for Building a Healthcare Pitch Deck

1. The narrative

Creating a compelling deck as a healthcare founder is really about getting in the door. Navin Goyal, MD, co-founder of OFFOR Health and LOUD Capital, who has been both founder and investor, explains that the deck is the instrument that should help the founder lead the discussion with a clear, compelling story.

"The narrative is so important, and how it's communicated and how it draws attention from the investors is the most important thing,” Goyal says. “The deck is usually an instrument that can supplement it, and hopefully not take away from the story being told." Beyond the narrative itself, founders must effectively and concisely communicate how their product, platform, or service solves an existing problem in the market. "Investors also want to gauge why that person or team is qualified and motivated to undergo this very large lift to impact or positively impact patient care.”

2. Deck structure and length

While every healthcare pitch deck will look different, there are a few best-practices worth following. Length may feel unimportant, but a deck that's too long or too short can be distracting. As Jeremy Gurewitz, co-founder and CEO at Solace Health pointed out, investors look at hundreds of decks, so precision and ease of understanding are definite advantages.

As a general rule of thumb, Goyal suggests startups stick to 8 to 12 slides. "Investors want clarity on the problem, solution, market, traction, team, and edge," he explained. Gurewitz echoes this sentiment and recommends anywhere between 12 and 15 slides. "It should be long enough to establish credibility and detail, but short enough to retain attention" he says.

Vivian Cervantes, SVP of Healthcare for Investor Relations at CORE IR, takes a more flexible approach to pitch deck length. She says decks should quickly inform investors on "why you" and "what makes you a solid investment opportunity." 

"Ideally, this case is made in 20 to 25 slides that highlight why you are needed, your market opportunity, differentiation, catalysts, targets, and leadership execution record."

When putting together a pitch deck, it's helpful to order slides in a way that both fit the narrative and answer standard questions investors are looking to ask.

To sum it up, Goyal encouraged healthcare founders to follow the following formula:

• Problem

• Solution

• Market

• Why now

• Traction

• Business model

• Team

• Q&A

Investor Priorities

Gurewitz emphasizes the weight investors place on patient outcomes. “For our health care organization, where outcome and patient impact are everything, it’s definitely the link between complex care options and the financial case supporting them.”

He adds that health investors are looking for “evidence of how well a product is catching on.”

Goyal stresses the importance of keeping decks clear and grounded. He cautions founders not to overload slides with text or inflated projections, but instead to “show authenticity and proof points.”

Cervantes adds that decks should highlight “why you are needed, your market opportunity, differentiation, catalysts, targets, and leadership execution record.”

Tactical dos and don'ts of pitch decks  

In Gurewitz's experience, fundraising can be very effective when using simple language and visual aids to reduce confusion and effectively convey core messaging. "Not all healthcare investors are well-versed in medical jargon," he explains.  To better illustrate a startup's potential impact, he suggests featuring personal patient stories alongside the data. "HIPAA or FDA regulations can also be discussed proactively in order to build trust and reduce friction in follow-up discussions," he adds. 

Cervantes agreed and encouraged founders to separate the "trees from the forest," so to speak. "It's easy to quickly devolve into details when sharing your company's story, which is typically too much in an initial pitch meeting," she clarified.

Acing investor outreach

There are several ways to get in front of investors, including cold email outreach, entering startup competitions, and warm introductions, to name a few. 

If going the cold-outreach route, Gurewitz finds that crafting a one-page summary works best. He shared, "I tend to leave the entire deck for a scheduled meeting with the person, where we can lead them through the conversation and answer questions in the moment." 

Having the first deep dive in person, rather than over email, ultimately allowed Solace Health to land $60 million in Series B funding. "You have to build up gradually, and not drop everything at once," he adds.  Goyal agreed with the one-page summary approach. He suggested writing a short intro and attaching a one-pager or teaser. Then, if there's interest from the investor, the pitch deck is a natural next step.

Managing investor relations post-fundraising 

Regarding investor relations, Goyal explained that it's usually the ability to effectively communicate and provide a great customer experience to investors from the company. For example, sending an email like "Hey, thank you for your investments. We appreciate what you've supported, and this is the growth and the trajectory of a company you just invested in."  

In general, Goyal encouraged founders to be available to address investor questions, concerns, and comments as they arise and to be able to measure the company's performance at any given point in time. 

That said, Goyal also noted that many healthcare startups are longer-term ventures and therefore things don't always change every quarter. Even so, "it's still a great way to touch base with the investors to ensure that there's not too much time in between touch points," he added.