Founders · 6 min read
What to put in your pitch deck – and what investors check first
The slides an early-stage pitch deck needs, what investors look at first, common mistakes, and how to share your deck without losing control of it.
Neev ·
A pitch deck doesn't raise money on its own. Its job is to earn the next conversation. That means it has to be clear to someone reading it alone, in a few minutes, between other decks.
What a deck is for
Most investors first read your deck without you in the room. Write it so it stands on its own: short sentences, real numbers, one idea per slide. Keep the version you present live separate if you like to talk over sparse slides.
The slides
- Problem – who has it, how painful it is, how they solve it today.
- Solution – what you built and why it is better, ideally shown, not described.
- Why now – what changed (technology, regulation, behaviour) that makes this possible today.
- Market – who your customers are and how many of them exist. Bottom-up (customers × price) is more convincing than a large top-down number.
- Traction – revenue, growth, retention, pilots, waitlists. Whatever is real and most impressive, with dates.
- Business model – how you make money and what each customer is worth.
- Competition – the honest landscape, and why you win.
- Team – why you are the people to build this.
- The round – how much you are raising, on what instrument, and what the money gets you to (the milestones, not just the spend).
What investors check first
Before reading closely, most investors scan for three things: does this fit our thesis (sector, stage, cheque size), is there evidence that it is working (traction), and is this a team that can pull it off. Make those three impossible to miss.
Common mistakes
- Thirty slides when twelve would do.
- A market size with no path from it to your customers.
- Vanity metrics (downloads, sign-ups) without retention or revenue.
- No clear ask – the investor has to guess how much and for what.
- Dense text that only makes sense with you talking over it.
Sharing your deck safely
A deck emailed as an attachment can be forwarded anywhere, forever. Prefer sharing a link you control: one that only works for the investor you gave it to, that expires, and that tells you when it was opened. Who opens your deck, and how soon, is a useful signal of real interest.