What investors ACTUALLY want to see in your PITCH DECK.

Business-focused summary: “What investors actually want to see in your pitch deck”

The presenter recommends an 8-slide (or 7–8) minimum pitch-deck checklist focused on:

• Clarity
• Audience fit
• Investor-grade proof across market + traction + team + a credible business case
• A strong closing slide with a clear fundraising/business “ask”

---

The 8-slide / 8-bullet-point framework (with what to include)

1. Opening slide (logo + one-liner)

   • Make it immediately understandable and visually sticky (logo + brand identity).
   • Use a clear one-liner that signals the category so the right investors self-select.
   • Example: Lunacorn (“mobile media brand”) instantly clarifies the industry and filters the audience.

2. Problem slide (sell the problem, not the solution)

   • Tailor the message to the audience’s knowledge level.
   • If the audience isn’t domain-expert, explain why it matters and remove jargon.
   • Rule of thumb: pitch the problem so it’s understandable by a room of 10-year-olds (low vocabulary barrier, no buzzwords).

3. Solution slide

   • Win with clarity and the “power of yes” (why you thought of it).
   • Whether obvious or surprising, the solution should be easy to understand.
   • Live pitching guidance:
     • Use simple diagrams/graphics
     • Avoid too much text—slides support what you say; they’re not a script

4. Market opportunity slide (market size + momentum)

   • Show the market is growing so investors believe there’s momentum.
   • Use CAGR (compound annual growth rate) to communicate growth over time.
   • Example meaning: “industry grows ~25% per year” compoundingly across years.
   • “Hack” for finding numbers:
     • Use competitors’ websites and past decks / demo day materials / videos, which often already publish market-growth research.

5. Traction slide (proof of execution)

   • Traction = momentum + execution proof over time.
   • “Gold standard” traction:
     • Revenue
     • Customer growth
     • Month-over-month (MoM) / week-over-week (WoW) growth
   • If you’re early stage and have “no traction,” reframe traction as:
     • Team traction: finding the right co-founders and covering known gaps (technical/marketing)
     • Customer discovery traction: commissioning research and interviewing/asking large numbers of prospects (e.g., 2,000 / 200 / 20 people)
   • Best format: a simple timeline showing momentum toward long-term goals.

6. Business model slide (how you make money)

   • Don’t omit it—investors will ask: “How do you make money?”
   • Avoid overly complex forecasting:
     • e.g., detailed 5-year line-item models
     • discounted cash flow (DCF) presented as a single slide
     • “broken down line by line on a single slide”
   • Goal: show credible highlight figures that support a path to profitability by years 1–5 (as stated).

7. Team slide (why you can win)

   • Investors need reassurance you’re the right team to execute.
   • For solo/small teams:
     • Address known weaknesses instead of pretending you know everything.
     • Hire plans should cover “known unknowns.”
   • Persuasion tactic:
     • Demonstrate steps already taken to recruit for gaps (even if fundraising is needed to hire them).
   • Investment test (repeated as a key question):
     • If anyone is going to do this—is it the team that can pull it off?
   • Even for individual founders: show magnetism, grit, and perseverance to attract talent.

8. The ask (end with a punchline / conclusion)

   • End with a clear ask: what you want the investor to do for you.
   • Position the final slide as the narrative payoff:
     • Problem → solution → why market is growing → what you’ll capture → why the team can win
   • Closing/presence tactics:
     • Don’t just say “thank you”; connect your logo/name to a person
     • Example: branded clothing helps people find you in networking.

---

Key KPIs / metrics explicitly mentioned

• CAGR (compound annual growth rate) to show market growth momentum
• Revenue growth
• Customer growth
• Month-over-month (MoM) growth
• Week-over-week (WoW) growth
• Profitability timeframe: profitability after years 1–5
• Illustration of market momentum: ~25% per year example

---

Concrete actionable recommendations from the presenter

• Build the deck around 8 specific content requirements (minimum viable investor pitch structure).
• Use audience-aware storytelling:
  • Explain the problem in simple vocabulary; avoid jargon.
• Design slides as visual support, not a transcript:
  • Keep text light and rely on graphics/diagrams.
• For early-stage “no traction” situations:
  • Translate progress into customer discovery outputs and team formation milestones.
• For market sizing numbers:
  • Use competitor decks/websites/videos to source published growth figures.
• For finance:
  • Provide credible highlight metrics rather than detailed multi-year models or DCF on a single slide.

---

Presenters / sources

• Presenter: Unnamed speaker (venture capitalist based in London)
• Experience noted:
  • Invested in Farfetch and Vestiaire Collective
  • Runs an investor accelerator in Oslo, Norway