Slide-by-slide pitch deck guide covering problem, solution, market size, business model, traction, team, financials, and ask — with investor-ready structure and common red flags to avoid.
Gather the following from the user:
If the user wants to start with the solution slide, push back: "Investors fund problems, not solutions. Start with a problem so painful that the audience is already nodding before you show what you built."
A standard investor pitch deck is 10-14 slides. Every slide has one job. Below is the recommended order and content for each.
[Company Name] — [what you do in 10 words or fewer]
[Presenter name, title] | Raising $X at [stage]
- Who has this problem (specific persona, not "everyone")
- How they solve it today (status quo)
- Why the status quo is painful (quantify: time, cost, error rate)
- Include one data point: "X% of [audience] report [problem]"
- What your product does (one paragraph, no jargon)
- How it solves the problem differently from the status quo
- One screenshot or diagram — show outcome, not feature list
TAM: Total Addressable Market — everyone who could theoretically buy
SAM: Serviceable Addressable Market — segment you can reach with current model
SOM: Serviceable Obtainable Market — realistic capture in 3-5 years
Present as: TAM $XB → SAM $YB → SOM $ZM
Cite sources for each number. "We estimated" is not a source.
- How you make money (subscription, usage, marketplace, licensing)
- Pricing: what the customer pays and how (per seat, per transaction, tiered)
- Unit economics: CAC, LTV, LTV:CAC ratio, gross margin
- If pre-revenue: planned pricing model with comparable benchmarks
Show a chart. Investors scan for slope, not absolute numbers.
- Revenue or MRR over time (best)
- User growth over time (acceptable at pre-seed/seed)
- Key milestones: launch date, notable customers, partnerships
Include 2-3 specific numbers:
"$X MRR, growing Y% month-over-month"
"Z paying customers including [notable name]"
- How you acquire customers today (channel, cost)
- Top 2-3 channels you will scale
- Sales motion: self-serve, inside sales, enterprise sales, PLG
- Current CAC and target CAC at scale
Use a 2x2 matrix or comparison table. Position yourself in the best quadrant.
- Choose axes that highlight your differentiation
- Include direct competitors and the status quo
- One sentence on why your position is defensible
Never say "we have no competitors."
- 2-4 founders/key hires with one-line bios
- Relevant experience: what in their background makes them the right team for THIS problem
- Notable: prior exits, domain expertise, technical depth
- Advisory board (if notable names)
Skip generic bios. "10 years of experience" means nothing. "Built the payments system at Stripe" means everything.
- 3-year projection: revenue, expenses, headcount
- Key assumptions stated explicitly (growth rate, conversion rate, churn)
- Current burn rate and runway
- Amount raising: $X
- Use of funds breakdown (product, hiring, GTM — percentages)
- Milestones this capital will achieve
Example: "Raising $3M seed to reach $1M ARR in 18 months"
"60% product, 30% GTM, 10% ops"
Backup slides for Q&A: detailed financial model, product roadmap, customer testimonials, technical architecture.
Before delivering the deck, verify: