The Pitch Deck Playbook · Post 5 of 6
Nine out of ten pitch decks I review don’t include an operating plan. It’s the slide that bridges “I’m interested in this science” and “I’m writing a cheque.” Skip it, and you leave investors to fill the gap with their doubts.
There’s a slide that most founders don’t include in their pitch deck. And the ones who do usually get it wrong.
The slide is the operating plan.
I know. “Operating plan” sounds like something from a filing cabinet in an accounting firm. It sounds boring. And that’s exactly why most founders skip it. They assume it’s too detailed, too spreadsheet-y, too far into the weeds for a 15-minute pitch.
They’re wrong.
What the operating plan actually is
It’s not a spreadsheet. It’s not a P&L forecast. It’s not a 47-row financial model with assumptions buried in footnotes.
It’s a simple, visual answer to one question: what happens between the day you get this money and the day you need more?
Where does the capital go, what milestones does it unlock, and how does the company look at the end of the runway? An investor who writes you a cheque needs to believe you have a credible plan for turning their capital into progress. The operating plan is where you prove it.
In biotech, this is your clinical development roadmap. It’s not “40% R&D, 30% G&A, 20% clinical, 10% ops.” That’s a pie chart, not a plan. It’s like telling someone you’re going on a road trip and showing them how much gas you’ll buy without mentioning the destination.
A pie chart of your use of funds is like showing someone how much gas you’ll buy without mentioning the destination.
What biotech investors actually want to see
Put yourself in the investor’s shoes. You’ve seen a compelling unmet need. A promising mechanism of action. Encouraging preclinical data. A credible team. You’re interested. And then the founder says, “We’re raising $15 million.”
The immediate next question: $15 million to do what, exactly?
What investors want to see is milestones. Not “40% R&D” but “Complete IND-enabling studies by Q3 and file the IND by Q4.” Not “20% clinical” but “Initiate the Phase 1 dose-escalation trial with first patient dosed by month 14.” Specific. Measurable. Tied to a timeline. Connected to the next inflection point.
For a biotech company, the operating plan is a clinical development timeline with capital allocation mapped to each phase. It shows the investor the path from today’s cheque to the next value-creating milestone: the IND filing, the first clinical data readout, the end-of-Phase-2 meeting, the partnership trigger.
This is also where you demonstrate that you understand your burn rate, your runway, and what happens if the timeline slips. Investors in biotech know that timelines slip. Showing that you’ve thought about this builds more confidence than pretending it won’t happen.
Where design becomes your superpower
This is where most founders, and most pitch deck designers, drop the ball. The operating plan is inherently data-heavy. The instinct is to build a table. Or worse, a screenshot of a Gantt chart.
An operating plan doesn’t need to be a table. It can be a timeline. A roadmap. A visual journey that shows the company’s trajectory from today to 18 months from now, with key milestones marked and capital tied to each phase.
When I design operating plan slides, I think of it as a map. The investor is at point A. The destination is point B, the next fundable milestone. The operating plan is the route, with clear waypoints and realistic timing. Enough detail to feel credible. Not so much that it feels overwhelming.
The best ones I’ve designed use colour to distinguish between phases (preclinical, IND-enabling, clinical), clean iconography for milestone types, and progressive disclosure: the high-level journey on the main slide with a detailed appendix for investors who want to dig deeper.
The “use of funds” trap
The use of funds slide answers: how will you spend the money? The operating plan answers: what will the money accomplish?
Both matter. But the operating plan builds confidence because it shows outcomes, not inputs. An investor doesn’t care that you’re spending $4 million on CMC. They care that $4 million in CMC produces GMP-grade material in time for the Phase 1 start.
Lead with the operating plan. Let the use of funds be supporting detail underneath or in the appendix. Milestones first. Budget second. Always.
Milestones first. Budget second. Always.
Build yours
If you don’t have an operating plan in your deck, here’s the fastest way to build one.
Write down the three to five most important milestones before your next raise. Be specific: “Complete IND-enabling tox studies by Q2.” “File IND by Q4.” “First patient dosed in Phase 1 by month 14.” “Interim data readout by month 22.”
Map those milestones onto a timeline. Today on the left, next inflection point on the right. Plot the waypoints in between.
Assign capital to each phase. Not percentages. Specific dollars tied to specific actions.
Then get it designed properly. The difference between a founder-built timeline in Google Slides and a professionally designed clinical roadmap is the difference between “this person has a spreadsheet” and “this person has a plan.”
The operating plan is the bridge between excitement and confidence. Skip it, and you leave the investor to fill in the blanks with their imagination, which usually means their doubts. Include it, and you close the gap that turns a polite “let’s stay in touch” into a term sheet.
If you want help turning your development plan into a visual roadmap that builds investor confidence, that’s what the One Hour Deck Review is for.
Next up in this series: I’ve saved the hardest lesson for last. It’s not about the deck at all. It’s about the person holding the clicker. After 20 years, here’s the one thing I wish someone had told me at the start.
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