Pitch decks6 min read

Pitch Deck Business Model Slide: How to Show How You Make Money

The pitch deck business model slide has one job: show who pays you, for what, and how much. That's it. If an investor can't answer those three questions after a glance, the slide has failed, however nice it looks.

Most guides tell you to fill in a Business Model Canvas first and then summarise it on the slide. The canvas is a decent thinking exercise. It's a terrible slide. Nine boxes of small text is exactly what an investor skimming on a phone will skip.

Below is how I approach this slide as a presentation designer: what belongs on it, what to show for each common model type, and the mistakes that make investors stop trusting the numbers.

What a pitch deck business model slide needs to show

Strip it back and the slide answers three things: who the paying customer is, what the unit of sale is (a seat, a transaction, a gigabyte, a box), and the price of that unit. Everything else is supporting detail.

Airbnb's early deck is the classic example. As Slidebean's breakdown of the deck points out, the business model came down to one line: a 10% commission on each transaction. One number, one mechanism. You understand the whole company's revenue engine before you've finished reading.

That's the bar. Not every business is that simple, but the slide should get as close as you can.

  • A headline that states the model in plain words, e.g. "We charge clinics a monthly fee per practitioner"
  • The paying customer, named specifically (not "SMBs")
  • The price or take rate, as a real number
  • One proof point if you have it: average contract value, gross margin or payback

What investors said about real business model slides

The most useful source I've found on this is a pitch deck teardown published by HubSpot for Startups with DocSend, where a panel reviewed four real startups' business model slides side by side.

The slide the panel liked most, from a company called Ulama, had the fewest words of the four. It showed three clearly labelled tiers and was obviously aimed at businesses. Interestingly, the panel was fine with it leaving pricing off.

The slides that struggled had the opposite problem. Map Hunter's model was too complex to follow and tried to serve several customer types at once; the panel noted that showing both B2B and B2C go-to-market can signal that founders don't know their customer. Soap Health mixed business model and go-to-market on one slide, and the advice was to split them and state plainly how the company makes money, including pricing.

The panel's summary was blunt: keep it simple. I'd add one thing from the design side. Simple doesn't mean empty. It means one idea, shown big, with nothing competing for attention.

How to design a pitch deck business model slide by model type

The layout should follow how money actually moves in your business. Here's what I reach for with the most common models.

  • SaaS or subscription: a pricing tier strip, two to four columns, with the tier most customers buy visually highlighted. Show the price per seat or per account and what changes between tiers. If one tier drives most revenue, say so in the headline.
  • Marketplace: a simple left-to-right flow with buyer on one side, seller on the other and your take rate sitting on the arrow between them. Label the take rate as a percentage and keep GMV and revenue visibly separate.
  • Usage-based: one line that defines the billable unit (per API call, per transaction, per GB), the price per unit and a typical customer's monthly bill. Investors need the unit before the maths means anything.
  • Hardware plus software: two stacked bars or two cards, one for the upfront hardware sale and one for recurring software revenue, with margin labelled on each. The recurring line is usually the story, so give it more visual weight.
  • Multiple revenue streams: lead with the one that drives the business and put the rest in a smaller row underneath. If you can't say which one matters most, that's a strategy question before it's a design one.

The GMV trap on marketplace business model slides

This one deserves its own section because it damages credibility fast. In their piece on marketplace metrics, Andreessen Horowitz partners put it simply: GMV does not equal revenue. Revenue is the slice of GMV the marketplace keeps in fees.

In a separate a16z list of startup metrics they flag marketplace GMV being called revenue as something that "can overstate the size of the business meaningfully." An investor who spots it on your business model slide will wonder what else in the deck is dressed up.

On the slide, I label both explicitly. GMV can sit on the flow diagram as the size of the market you're running; revenue sits next to the take rate. Two different colours, two different labels, no ambiguity.

Should unit economics go on the business model slide?

If you have them and they're good, yes, but as one supporting line, not a table. A single figure like gross margin or average contract value under the main visual adds proof without crowding the slide.

Gross margin is worth showing if you're a software business and it's strong. The same a16z metrics piece notes that software companies should have gross margins in the 80% to 90% range, so a number in that band reassures and a number well below it invites questions you'll want to answer in the room.

Pre-revenue? Show the intended price and who's agreed to pay it. A signed letter of intent at a stated price is more convincing than a projected revenue chart. Keep the full growth curve for your traction slide and the market maths for your market size slide.

Business model slide mistakes I fix most often

These come up again and again when I rebuild decks, and none of them are about colour or fonts.

  • Pasting the full Business Model Canvas onto the slide. Use it to think, then throw it away.
  • Listing every possible revenue stream, including ones you haven't launched. It reads as unfocused.
  • Mixing business model with go-to-market. How you make money and how you acquire customers are two slides.
  • Vague pricing like "competitive pricing" or "flexible plans". Put a number on it or explain why you can't.
  • Decorative icons and stock imagery that add nothing. The HubSpot panel called out a decorative image on the Alps AI slide for exactly this reason.

Where the business model slide sits in the deck

In most decks I build it comes straight after the solution or product slide. The investor has just seen what you make, so the natural next question is who pays for it and how. Put it too late and they've already guessed (often wrongly). For the full running order, see my guide to pitch deck structure.

If your model really needs explaining, because it's two-sided, regulated or priced in an unusual way, this is one of the slides where a designer earns their fee. Turning a messy revenue model into one clear diagram is most of the job. If you'd like a hand with it, here's how I work and what it costs.

Frequently asked

What should a business model slide include?

Who your paying customer is, what they pay for, and how much. A clear headline, the price or take rate as a real number, and one supporting metric such as gross margin or average contract value is usually enough.

Is the business model slide the same as the revenue model?

Not quite. The business model covers how you create and deliver value as well as how you earn money, while the revenue model is just the pricing and monetisation part. On a pitch deck slide, the revenue model is what investors look for first.

What if my startup is pre-revenue?

Show your intended pricing, who it is aimed at, and any evidence customers will pay it, such as pilots, letters of intent or pre-orders at a stated price. Avoid filling the gap with a long revenue projection on this slide.

Want this done for your deck?

I design pitch decks, sales decks and board reports for founders and executives.

Start a project
← All articles