5 Pitch Deck Slides Founders Get Wrong

The Investor Deck Landscape: A Monthly Review

Each month, our team reviews between 250 and 300 investor presentations. While a limited number of entrepreneurs are beginning to utilize Notion memos as alternatives to traditional pitch decks, the majority of investors continue to anticipate receiving a well-structured slide presentation.

Common Problem Areas in Pitch Decks

Certain slides consistently present challenges for founders. These difficulties typically stem from two primary issues:

A lack of definitive resolution regarding a specific facet of the business.
Insufficient comprehension on the founder’s part regarding the slide’s purpose and the information it should convey to investors.

Understanding Investor Expectations

It’s crucial for founders to recognize what investors are seeking to understand with each slide. Clarity and substance are paramount.

Addressing Fundamental Business Gaps

Frequently, a problematic slide indicates an underlying weakness within the business itself. Addressing these core issues is essential before seeking investment.

Founders must ensure they can articulate the value proposition and demonstrate a clear understanding of their market. A well-crafted deck reflects a well-developed business.

The Go-to-Market Slide in Pitch Decks

This slide addresses a crucial question for investors: How will the company achieve a tripling of revenue on a year-over-year basis?

Typically, the go-to-market slide represents the most vital component of a pitch deck, particularly for companies seeking funding with existing traction. Capital allocation is often geared towards accelerating growth, making this slide paramount.

The scope of “go-to-market” can vary depending on the company’s stage of development. It may be presented as a dedicated section, rather than a single slide. Generally, more mature companies require a more extensive and detailed examination of their go-to-market strategy.

For instance, the go-to-market section of UpKeep’s Series B pitch deck spanned seven slides.

Within a well-structured pitch deck, the go-to-market slide is usually the first detailed explanation of how funding will be utilized. A common placement is after the business model slide, but before the market size slide, allowing for a discussion of expansion after establishing revenue understanding.

A compelling example of a go-to-market slide originates from Airbnb’s 2009 pitch deck, presented during YC Demo Day:

5 critical pitch deck slides most founders get wrong

At the seed stage, Airbnb pinpointed three key go-to-market approaches:

“Targeting festivals and events” demonstrated an understanding of an audience open to trying new services.
“Partnerships with existing booking providers” represented a growth strategy still in use today.
The “dual posting feature” on Craigslist allowed automated cross-posting of Airbnb listings, including links back to the Airbnb website.

Common pitfalls observed in go-to-market slides include:

Vagueness regarding growth strategies: Founders often list several growth channels without detailing implementation or competitive differentiation.
Reliance on ubiquitous channels: Strategies like SEO, influencer marketing, and social media marketing are commonplace and don’t constitute a unique go-to-market plan.
Allocation of space to self-evident channels: A social media presence, website optimization, and user-friendly design are expected, not differentiators.

An effective go-to-market slide demonstrates a clear understanding of the drivers behind company growth and the actions needed to sustain it. It should emphasize unique tactics, strategies, and channels that competitors haven’t yet adopted.

Investors prefer to see a focused approach, rather than a broad list of potential growth areas.

Specifically, they want to understand:

The channels currently generating the majority of customers and their scalability with additional funding.
One or two emerging channels with the potential to unlock new customer sources.

If a critical marketing or growth strategy has been introduced as an overview, the next step involves supporting the hypothesis with data and key performance indicators. Metrics such as customer acquisition cost, retention rate, customer lifetime value, payback period, and average contract size are essential.

Demonstrating a firm grasp of these metrics is crucial for convincing investors of the company’s ability to effectively deploy capital and achieve substantial growth over the next 18 to 24 months. Essentially, investors need to see where customers originate and be persuaded that growth can be doubled or tripled with their investment.

Understanding Product Application Through Use Cases

Determining the optimal application of a product can be challenging without a clear, contextual illustration. Consider the slide presented in Crunchbase’s Series C pitch deck as an example.

Although this slide effectively highlights product features, it doesn't clearly demonstrate how Crunchbase’s clientele utilizes the platform. The publicly available version of the deck lacks a detailed example of platform usage within a typical client organization.

The Importance of Use Case Comprehension

Achieving product-market fit, a crucial goal for startups, fundamentally relies on a deep understanding of how customers apply your product. Ensuring consistent replication of these use cases across your customer base is paramount.

For companies in their early stages, a well-constructed case study can be instrumental in demonstrating an emerging understanding of this fit.

Conceptualize this case study as a concise narrative detailing a company’s successful implementation of your product.

Benefits of a Detailed Case Study

Presenting a case study not only grounds your product or service in reality but also showcases your grasp of the sales funnel. It demonstrates your awareness of the key decision-makers involved and the specific types of companies you target.

There are two primary approaches to structuring this slide:

Develop a Customer Persona: Detail characteristics like age, gender, income, location, job title, and interests. Explain the rationale behind their need for your service. Ideally, extensive interaction with numerous such personas should precede investor meetings.
Present an Ideal Platform Use Case: Clearly identify the decision-maker, the primary internal user, and the quantifiable results achieved following product adoption.

A case study rooted in a genuine customer experience lends credibility to your business, product, and the team’s sales capabilities.

Total Addressable Market (TAM)

Determining the total addressable market, or TAM, often presents challenges for founders, leading to inconsistencies in pitch decks. This slide aims to clearly define the potential scale of the company.

The core question this section must address is simple: what is the ultimate size your business can achieve?

A common, yet flawed, strategy involves searching for industry statistics and assuming that capturing just 1% of the market will result in a $1 billion valuation. This is generally an inaccurate method.

A startup’s TAM isn’t accurately calculated using a top-down approach – such as claiming 1% of a broader market or industry. Nor is it defined solely by the magnitude of the problem your solution addresses.

Instead, TAM is best calculated by multiplying the annual revenue generated per customer by the total number of potential customers.

Identifying the “total potential customers available” is often a significant undertaking. It necessitates a thorough understanding of the ideal customer persona, or the typical company size you are targeting.

This requires identifying the number of individuals or organizations that fit this profile and are likely to become paying customers for your product.

Establishing annual revenue per customer also demands careful consideration. You must possess confidence in your business model and realistically assess future customer spending. (Your business model should be well-defined prior to reaching the TAM slide.)

Furthermore, a realistic assessment of the competitive landscape is crucial. Consider existing competitors, their current market share, and the portion of that share you realistically expect to capture.

Key Considerations for TAM Calculation

Focus on Realistic Market Share: Avoid overly optimistic projections.
Define Your Ideal Customer: A precise target persona is essential.
Revenue Per Customer: Base this on solid business model assumptions.
Avoid Top-Down Estimates: These are often inaccurate and misleading.

Accurately portraying your TAM demonstrates a clear understanding of your market and potential for growth.

Potential Business Outcomes

This slide format initially came to my attention within Uber's investor presentation. The original slide is depicted below:

The core concept presented involves outlining three potential future scenarios for the business. Considering Uber’s current performance, it has arguably surpassed even its most optimistic projections from that earlier stage.

Aligning Expectations

A slide dedicated to “Possible Outcomes” isn’t a standard inclusion in many pitch decks. However, it can be a highly valuable tool. It facilitates a clear alignment of perspectives between the founding team and potential investors.

Uber, for example, demonstrated significant ambition by forecasting revenue exceeding $1 billion. Simultaneously, their grounded, realistic assessment remained pragmatic and achievable.

The Value of Transparency

Presenting a range of potential outcomes—from conservative to aggressive—demonstrates a thoughtful and balanced approach to business planning.

It showcases an understanding of the inherent risks and uncertainties involved.
It builds trust with investors by avoiding overly optimistic or unrealistic projections.
Transparency regarding potential scenarios fosters more productive discussions.

Ultimately, this slide encourages a shared understanding of what success looks like, and the pathways to achieving it.

The Core Team

This section of your pitch deck shouldn't list every employee or advisor. Instead, it should focus on the individuals pivotal to the success of the venture – the founders, and potentially a select few essential personnel.

A successful founding team must possess a comprehensive skillset necessary for launching the company effectively.

Hardware Startups

For a hardware startup, “getting off the ground” typically means creating a working prototype. Consequently, your team slide should showcase engineers, industrial designers, and individuals with expertise in scaled manufacturing. A sales representative is also crucial.

Software Companies

In the software realm, “off the ground” signifies product development, launch, and initial customer acquisition. This necessitates engineers, UX designers, and, again, someone dedicated to sales or marketing.

While you can onboard individuals to assist with these tasks initially, they will likely be in more junior roles. Securing an experienced CTO or growth hacker as a non-founding employee is exceptionally challenging.

A seed round of $1 million doesn’t automatically resolve the difficulty of attracting a CTO or other key senior hires. Such professionals can often find more stable, higher-paying positions.

These vital employees must be motivated by a genuine belief in the company’s vision. They should be prepared to accept a reduced salary for an extended period, driven by the potential for long-term growth and equity ownership.

The team slide serves to demonstrate that all the necessary skills to initiate and develop the business are already in place.

Periodically, it’s beneficial to review your slides and ensure they effectively convey this message. We utilize a standardized pitch deck structure with our clients.