01
Title
Company name, tagline, and a single sentence that explains what you do. The room decides in the first ten seconds whether to lean in — make this slide impossible to misread.
01
The Eight-Slide Deck
Investors see thousands of decks a year and skim most of them in under three minutes. These eight slides, in this order, carry the whole story. Everything else is an appendix.
02
Problem
Name the pain so sharply the audience feels it. Lead with a story or a hard statistic, not a definition. This is the most important slide in the deck.
03
Solution
Show the product, not a paragraph about it. A screenshot, a demo, a diagram. If it can’t fit on one slide, the idea isn’t simple enough yet.
04
Market Size
TAM, SAM, SOM — built bottom-up from credible numbers, not a slice of a trillion-dollar pie. Investors are looking for a believable path to a very large outcome.
05
Business Model
How the money is made: pricing, revenue model, unit economics. Show that you’ve thought about profitability, not just a growth curve.
06
Traction
The proof. Revenue, users, growth rate, partnerships, press. A real slope on a chart beats ten slides of promises.
07
Team
Why this team wins. Relevant scars, domain depth, prior outcomes. Investors back operators before they back ideas.
08
The Ask
The number, the use of funds, the milestones it buys. Be specific: “$2M to reach 10K users and $500K ARR over 18 months.”
Founder’s reminder
A pitch isn’t a document. It’s a conversation you earn the right to keep having.
The deck’s only job is the next meeting. Make every slide remove a reason to say no — then ask, clearly, for what you came for.
02
The Elevator Pitch
Before the deck ever opens, you have a hallway, a chairlift, a coffee line. Three versions of the same idea, ready to go.
1
30-Second Version
“We help [target customer] solve [specific problem] by [your solution]. We’ve already hit [traction metric] and we’re raising [amount] to reach [next milestone].”
2
The One-Liner
Anchor to something the listener already understands: “Uber for dog walking.” “Slack for construction teams.” A clean comparison travels further than a clever one.
3
Delivery
Rehearse until it sounds natural, never memorized. Hold eye contact. Close with a door-opening question: “Want to see a demo?” or “Can I send the deck?”
03
Where the Money Comes From
The right capital depends on the company you’re building. Match the funding to the ambition — not the other way around.
1
Venture Capital
Built for high-growth companies chasing very large markets. Expect to give up roughly 15–25% per priced round. VCs are underwriting a 10x+ outcome, so the story has to support one.
2
Angel Investors
Individuals writing $25K–$500K checks, often faster and more flexible than funds. The best ones bring operating scars and a network. Find them on AngelList and Gust.
3
Crowdfunding
Kickstarter for product pre-sales, Republic and Wefunder for equity, Indiegogo for momentum. Works best for consumer products with visual, sharable appeal.
4
Bootstrapping
Fund growth from revenue and keep 100% ownership. Slower, but every decision stays yours — and many enduring companies were built exactly this way.
04
Go Deeper
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Pitch Videos
Twenty hand-picked talks — Y Combinator, TED, Sequoia, and working founders breaking down real decks.
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Trusted Sources
Independent libraries and tools worth your time: YC, First Round, Sequoia’s pitch guide, DocSend, Slidebean.
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Resource Stack
Ranked references for research, feedback, and templates — with notes on why each one earns its place.