DocSend recently published their findings from a research on the pitch decks of 200 companies raising funds. The companies raised a total of $360m so I believe this research could be treated as pretty representative.

Respected companies like Sequoia have long published their dream pitch deck.  Yet, DocSend has brought a bunch on insights that should be considered.

Here are the most important take aways in brief:

• Seed raise takes 3 months on average.
• Seed firms provide higher rounds with fewer meets than angels.
• More meetings does not mean more money. 20-30 meetings should be enough.
• Average time an investor spends on your deck is close to but under 4 minutes.
• The perfect deck should be 20 pages or less.
• Your deck should be mobile friendly, 1 out 8 investors views it on mobile.
• The Sequoia suggested model seems to be ubiquitous in the industry as there were almost no big deviations on the slides required and their order. Check slide 7 for more info.
• Investors spend most time on Financials, Team and Competition slides. If your financials are not ready yet, better do not include as they will be seriously scrutinized.
• Do not include your deal terms in the deck.