🎯 Pitch Deck Template

The 12-slide framework used by top YC companies. What investors actually want to see.

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1
Title
2
Problem
3
Solution
4
Demo
5
Traction
6
Market
7
Competition
8
Business Model
9
Team
10
Financials
11
The Ask
12
Closing
1

Title Slide

First impression — make them want to hear more

✅ Include

  • Company name and logo
  • One-line description (what you do)
  • Your name and title
  • Contact info or website

❌ Avoid

  • Mission statements or vision
  • Multiple taglines
  • Cluttered design

Example One-Liner:

"Stripe for healthcare payments" or "We help SMBs reduce churn by 40%"

2

Problem

Make them feel the pain your customers have

✅ Include

  • Specific, relatable problem statement
  • Who has this problem (your target customer)
  • How big/painful is it (quantify if possible)
  • Current alternatives and why they fail

❌ Avoid

  • Vague or abstract problems
  • Problems only you have
  • Too many problems at once
  • Leading with stats, not stories

Pro Tip:

Start with a customer quote or real example. "Last month, Sarah spent 40 hours manually reconciling invoices..."

3

Solution

Your product as the hero that solves the problem

✅ Include

  • What you built (simple terms)
  • How it solves the problem
  • Key differentiator (your secret sauce)
  • Product screenshot or visual

❌ Avoid

  • Feature lists or jargon
  • Technical architecture
  • "AI-powered" without explaining how
  • Multiple products at once
4

Product Demo

Show, don't tell — let them see it work

✅ Include

  • Live demo or video walkthrough
  • Key user flow (2-3 screens max)
  • Before/after comparison
  • "Magic moment" — the aha experience

❌ Avoid

  • Showing every feature
  • Complicated edge cases
  • Broken demos (test beforehand!)
  • More than 2 minutes
5

Traction

Proof that this is working — the most important slide

✅ Include

  • Revenue or MRR growth chart
  • User/customer growth
  • Key metrics (retention, NPS, LTV)
  • Notable customers or logos
  • Growth rate (MoM or YoY)

❌ Avoid

  • Vanity metrics (downloads, signups)
  • Hiding the Y-axis scale
  • Cumulative charts that hide churn
  • Old or cherry-picked data

No Traction Yet?

Show waitlist size, LOIs, pilot commitments, or customer interviews that validate demand.

6

Market Size

Show this can be a big outcome

✅ Include

  • TAM, SAM, SOM (bottom-up preferred)
  • How you calculated it
  • Market trends in your favor
  • Why now (timing)

❌ Avoid

  • Top-down "% of trillion dollar market"
  • Gartner reports without analysis
  • Claiming you'll capture 10%
  • Markets smaller than $1B

Bottom-Up Example:

"5M US SMBs × $200/mo average spend × 12 months = $12B SAM"

7

Competition

Show you understand the landscape

✅ Include

  • 2x2 matrix or comparison table
  • Direct and indirect competitors
  • Your unfair advantage
  • Why you win (defensibility)

❌ Avoid

  • "We have no competition"
  • Dismissing real competitors
  • Saying you're better at everything
  • Logos without analysis
8

Business Model

How you make money

✅ Include

  • Pricing model (subscription, usage, etc.)
  • Unit economics (LTV, CAC, payback)
  • Revenue streams
  • Path to profitability

❌ Avoid

  • "We'll figure it out later"
  • Overly complex models
  • Unrealistic LTV/CAC ratios
  • No clear monetization
9

Team

Why YOU are the ones to build this

✅ Include

  • Founder photos and names
  • Relevant experience (logos help)
  • Why this team for this problem
  • Key hires or advisors

❌ Avoid

  • Full bios or paragraphs
  • Every team member
  • Irrelevant credentials
  • Stock photos
10

Financials

Show you can build a real business

✅ Include

  • 3-year projections (high level)
  • Key assumptions clearly stated
  • Path to key milestones
  • Current burn rate and runway

❌ Avoid

  • Hockey stick with no logic
  • 5-year detailed projections
  • Hiding assumptions
  • Projecting to $100M without explaining how
11

The Ask

What you need and what you'll do with it

✅ Include

  • Amount raising
  • Use of funds (3-4 buckets)
  • Key milestones this enables
  • Timeline for next raise

❌ Avoid

  • Vague use of funds
  • Valuation in the pitch (negotiate later)
  • Asking for too wide a range
  • No clear milestones

Good Use of Funds:

"$2M: 50% engineering (5 hires), 30% sales (3 AEs), 20% marketing (demand gen)"

12

Closing Slide

Leave them with one thing to remember

✅ Include

  • One memorable takeaway
  • Contact info
  • Thank you
  • Appendix reference if needed

❌ Avoid

  • Q&A slide (just end)
  • Repeating the ask
  • New information

💡 Pro Tips

Keep it to 12-15 slides

If you can't explain it briefly, you don't understand it well enough.

One idea per slide

Investors should grasp each slide in 3 seconds.

Prepare an appendix

Deep-dive slides for Q&A (competition details, financials, tech).

Design matters

Clean, consistent, readable. No clip art or WordArt.

📥 Download the Template

Get the Google Slides / PowerPoint template with example slides