Do's and Don’ts with a slide deck

In biotech, your slide deck isn’t just a formality – it’s your first business case.

At Liberi Group, we’ve reviewed and refined hundreds of decks over the years, across investor pitches, pharma partnering, and BD outreach. The patterns are clear: strong materials open doors, weak ones close them. These do’s and don’ts draw on real-world experience to help you present your story clearly, credibly, and strategically.

Don’t	Do
Send a 30-page deck to an investor.	Keep it to 10-15 slides for investors, ~20 for pharma.
Claim your addressable market is “$5B” without context.	Define your market realistically – targeted and defensible wins trust.
Use outdated or cluttered designs.	Your slides reflect your company. Keep visuals clean and modern.
Say your strategy is “to develop a drug.”	Clearly define your roadmap: mechanism, milestones, and market.
Forget the narrative flow.	Make sure your deck tells a coherent, investor-ready story.
Hide your pipeline on slide 14.	Put the pipeline up top – that’s what your audience looks for first.
Bury your USPs or use generic claims.	Make your differentiation obvious by slide 3: Why are you unique?
Copy-paste “no cure exists” as justification.	Show how your solution is better than current development efforts.

Tips on making your slide deck stronger:

Tailor to your audience. Investors care about ROI, exits, and runway. Pharma cares about science, fit, and unmet needs. Your deck should speak their language.

Respect others’ time. If you can’t tell your story in 15 minutes, you’re not ready. That includes science, pipeline, strategy, and traction.

Modern decks build trust. A deck from 2005 says more about your company than your science does. Don’t lose credibility on design.

Don’t abuse inboxes. Daily follow-ups don’t build relationships. Value and timing do. A strategic follow-up beats spam every time.

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At Liberi Group, we help biotech teams sharpen their story, align with the right partners, and build materials that actually get read. Whether you’re preparing for your first investor pitch or refining your narrative for pharma, we work with you to turn complexity into clarity and momentum.