Where to get a pitch deck template, and which one to use
You can get a free pitch deck template from Google Slides, PowerPoint, Canva, or Slidesgo, or borrow the slide order from Sequoia's, Y Combinator's, or Guy Kawasaki's frameworks. Every good template follows the same 12-slide order, from problem to ask. The difference is how much work sits between the template and a deck you would actually send.
I have built a lot of pitch decks, and almost every one started with someone typing "pitch deck template" and facing a wall of results that are not the same kind of thing. Some are designed files, some are investor outlines, one is a tool that builds the slides. Here is how they compare.
#Where to get a pitch deck template
| Source | What you get | On-brand out of the box? | Work to a finished deck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Slides | Browser file, easy to share and co-edit | No, default theme | Medium: fill 12 slides, restyle |
| PowerPoint | Native PPTX, finest control | No, generic theme | Medium: restyle, then fill |
| Canva or Slidesgo | Nicer designed themes | Partly, once you set brand colors | Medium: still a manual fill |
| Sequoia, YC, Kawasaki | An outline or a rule, not a design | No | High: you design every slide |
| heydecks | A branded, editable deck built by your AI agent | Yes, via the Brand Kernel | Low: you bring the story and numbers |
A static template is a fine start if you have an afternoon. The agent route is for when the story is ready and you do not want to spend that afternoon recoloring charts.
#Google Slides pitch deck templates
Google Slides is the default for a lot of seed rounds because the deck is a link: investors open it without an install, and co-founders can edit the night before a meeting. Its own template gallery is thin, so most people start from Slidesgo or Canva designs that open in Slides. You can also import any PPTX with File, then Import slides.
The trade-off is styling. Slides decks look like the default theme unless you set fonts and colors on the master (Slide, then Edit theme) before you fill anything in. Do that first, or you will restyle twelve slides one by one.
#PowerPoint pitch deck templates
PowerPoint wins on typographic control and on the file investors download to mark up. Microsoft's template library (File, then New, search "pitch deck") has several free starting points. Set your brand in Slide Master before you type, and keep a PPTX source even if you send a PDF.
Which tool? Investors do not grade the software. I have seen rounds close on a plain Google Slides deck. Pick the one you will finish in.
#What slides should a pitch deck template include?
Every template worth using follows roughly this order:
- Cover: company name, logo, one line on what you do.
- Problem: the specific pain and who feels it.
- Solution: how you fix it, and why now.
- Market: TAM, SAM, SOM, sized bottom-up.
- Product: how it works in a few screens.
- Traction: revenue, users, pilots, growth.
- Business model: how you make money.
- Competition: the alternatives and your edge.
- Go-to-market: how you reach customers.
- Team: who is building it and why you.
- Financials: the projection and its assumptions.
- The ask: amount, milestone, use of funds.
For what goes on each, see what goes in a pitch deck; for the market slide math, the TAM SAM SOM slide guide. Here is a SaaS pitch deck template built to that order, on a sample brand. Click through it, or open the SaaS pitch deck template to edit it.
#Are the Sequoia, YC, and Kawasaki templates worth using?
Yes, as frameworks. Sequoia's published outline runs company purpose, problem, solution, why now, market potential, competition and alternatives, business model, team, financials, and vision. Y Combinator's guidance is leaner and puts clarity first: legible, simple, obvious slides and one plain sentence on what you do. Kawasaki's 10/20/30 is a constraint: ten slides, twenty minutes, no font under thirty points. None of them gives you a designed slide, so the workflow is two steps: borrow the order, then build it in Slides or PowerPoint.
#Can an AI agent build the deck from a template?
A chat model on its own returns text you still paste into a template. heydecks closes that gap. It is the AI slide creator for AI agents: your agent writes the slides over the MCP server or the REST API, and heydecks renders them into 95 hand-designed slide templates on your brand, returning a live link, a PDF, and an editable PPTX that opens in PowerPoint or imports into Google Slides. If you already work in Cursor or Claude, you can ask for the deck from there. It renders what the agent writes, so your traction stays yours to supply.
Not every raise opens with the full deck. Sometimes a one-pager gets the meeting first. Here is an investor one-pager template built the same way. For decks worth studying before you fill a template, see these pitch deck examples.
To fill the 12-slide order with your own numbers instead of placeholders, use the pitch deck generator.
#Frequently asked questions
#Is there a free Google Slides pitch deck template?
Yes. Slidesgo and Canva publish free pitch deck themes that open in Google Slides, and any PPTX template can be imported. Set your theme colors and fonts before filling in content.
#What is the best pitch deck template for a startup?
The standard 12-slide order (problem, solution, market, product, traction, model, competition, go-to-market, team, financials, ask) in whatever tool you will finish in. Investors read for the structure, not the source.
#Can I use a PowerPoint pitch deck template in Google Slides?
Yes. Import the PPTX in Google Slides and it converts, though custom fonts may fall back to defaults. Check every slide after import.
#How many slides should a pitch deck template have?
Ten to fifteen. Kawasaki's rule targets ten, and Sequoia's outline has ten sections; most decks I review add a slide or two for traction and the ask.
#Is the Sequoia pitch deck template free?
Yes. Sequoia publishes the outline openly. It is a list of sections, not a designed file, so you still build the slides yourself.
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