Yes, absolutely. Every company irrespective of the round of funding must have a pitchbook. The depth and the detailing will definitely differ on the basis of the round. However, having a pitchbook is a must have in seeking out investors.

Typically valuation and estimated returns are not included in the pitchbook. The financial elements included in the pitchbook are - a snapshot of your P&L, funding requirement and the allocation of funds across business critical functions of your company. Your finance model that accompanies the pitchbook will allow your investor to get an understanding of the profitability and scalability of your company.

There is no standard number of slides that one must have in a pitchbook. The idea is to ensure that your potential investor understands your business effectively. Make sure to talk about the team, value proposition, monetization model, proof of concept, impact your business has created and present your business as the best possibly investment opportunity.

It depends on how you are pitching. If you are in a face to face meeting with your prospective investor then your pitchbook can only have highlights of points you are discussing. However, normally one has to reach out to investors via mails. In this case, it is recommended that you send across a detailed pitchbook that effective creates the portrait of your business for the investor.

The sequence entirely depends on how you want to present the story of your business. However there are some standard slides which you can include in a given sequence. One must always have executive summary at the beginning of the pitchbook and the investment summary at the end. The slide on the founding team usually follows the executive summary. A sample pitchbook along with a template framework is included in the FundEnable Toolkit.

This decision is your prerogative. Usually for bigger deal sizes, founders usually engage a consultant to work on the pitchbook since it might need constant revisions. If you decide to engage a consultant, make sure to do a check on the consultant's clientele and confirm credibility beforehand.

You can identify relevant investors for your business from FundEnable Venture Capital Fund Matrix ( https://iavc.thinkific.com/courses/startup-financing-pathways). If you are an early stage business and looking for seed fund investments, you can find a Department of Science & Technology Incubator or Atal Innovation Center in the FundEnable Incubator Repository (https://iavc.thinkific.com/courses/leveraging-incubators-for-business-growth). Another very popular way of finding prospective investors is through Linkedin.

Though the gist of the pitchbook remains the same, there are a few differences between the pitchbook for incubators and the one for venture capitalists. One of the major differences is that the VC pitchbook will have a detailed section on fund requirement, allocation and utilization while the incubator pitchbook will have a section on why the business needs incubation and how incubation will impact business growth. You can find the pitchbook templates in the FundEnable Toolkit - VC (https://iavc.thinkific.com/courses/crafting-an-effective-pitch-book) and Incubator (https://iavc.thinkific.com/courses/leveraging-incubators-for-business-growth).