Investors spend an average of 3 minutes and 44 seconds on a pitch deck. That means every slide has roughly 15-20 seconds to make its point. Your deck needs to be visually clean, narratively compelling, and data-driven. Here is the slide-by-slide breakdown.
Slide 1: Cover
Company name, one-line description, and your contact information. The one-liner should be immediately understandable: 'Stripe for healthcare payments' or 'The AI-powered CRM for real estate.' If someone cannot understand what you do from this slide alone, rewrite it.
Slide 2-3: Problem
Make the problem visceral. Use specific numbers: 'Enterprise sales teams spend 4.5 hours per day on data entry instead of selling.' Include a short quote from a customer interview if it illustrates the pain. Avoid abstract problem statements.
Slide 4: Solution
Show your product, not just describe it. Use a screenshot, a demo video link, or an animated gif. Explain in one sentence how you solve the problem described in the previous slides.
Slide 5: Traction
This is the most important slide. Show a graph going up and to the right: MRR growth, user growth, or engagement metrics. Include specific numbers and time periods. If you are pre-revenue, show strong engagement metrics or waitlist growth.
Slide 6: Market Size
Present TAM, SAM, and SOM with bottoms-up analysis. Top-down market sizing (the global market for X is $50B) is less convincing than bottoms-up (there are 500,000 target companies, each spending $10K/year on this problem = $5B SAM).
Slide 7-8: Business Model and Product
Show how you make money and what the product experience looks like. Include pricing tiers if applicable. For the product slide, use real screenshots, not mockups.
Slide 9-10: Team and Competition
For team: highlight relevant experience, domain expertise, and previous exits. For competition: use a matrix that shows your unique positioning, not a logo slide. Be honest about competitors -- investors know the landscape.
Slide 11-12: Go-to-Market and Financials
Show your customer acquisition strategy with specific channels and metrics. For financials: 18-month projection showing path to key milestones. Be realistic.
Slide 13: The Ask
State the amount you are raising, key use of funds, and what milestones the capital will help you achieve. Be specific: '$2M seed round to reach $500K ARR and 50 enterprise customers in 18 months.'
