The Great Pitch Deck Review: Send Me Your Pitch Deck
Founders: Send me your pitch deck and I'll provide feedback for free.
I’m a big fan of pitch decks.
I’ve seen the posts on LinkedIn and other social platforms—founders that have raised millions without a pitch deck. Good on ‘em. For the rest of us, we need a pitch deck.
A pitch deck is the best tool I’ve found for consolidating thinking into a simple format; there’s very little room for extraneous nonsense. It’s a forcing function that encourages founders to focus on what matters, demonstrate clarity of thought and put their best foot forward.
The greatest pitch deck in the world still doesn’t guarantee you raise capital, but it certainly won’t hurt.
Unfortunately, most founders do a mediocre job at best.
8 Common Mistakes in Pitch Decks
At the pre-seed/seed stage (where I focus), I see a lot of common mistakes in pitch decks (and frankly in company building too—since the pitch deck is simply a reflection of what you’re doing in your startup):
Nailing the problem: Too few startups really nail the problem with a clear user, need and deeper need. Often the problem is too high-level—“data entry sucks” or “enterprises can’t find knowledge in their systems” or “people want better healthcare”. Yawn. Tell me something I don’t know. Show me that you’ve dug in deeply, understand the user better than anyone else and have actually identified a non-universal, non-obvious problem.
Poorly designed pitch decks: Most of us aren’t designers, but if you can’t put a bit of polish into things it falls flat. BTW, some people argue that skipping the pitch deck entirely (and using a long form document/memo) is better than having to “waste time” investing in design. I get it, but I still want to see a clean, nicely designed deck. Also, typos suck. If you can’t spend the time checking for spelling/grammar errors, why should an investor spend time reading the deck? 🤷♀️
No use cases: A pitch deck sucks when it doesn’t clearly articulate how the solution works on behalf of a customer (i.e. how a customer uses it to get value). Often, founders go very technical (which I wouldn’t recommend). Articulating use cases shows that you actually understand how a user/customer gets value. And value is the key.
Unclear assumptions: I lose interest when your pitch deck looks like it has all the “perfect” answers but no underlying clarity around the assumptions. At the early stage (pre-seed or seed), everything is built on assumptions. When those shine through it shows that you’ve done your homework, recognize where there’s risk and hopefully, have a strategy for mitigating or removing the risk.
Nonsensical market sizing: I hate the “Market Size” slide with TAM, SAM, SOM. Sigh. Most founders get this terribly wrong, in part because they’re pulled in two directions. Some investors say, “market size at an early stage isn’t important,” whereas others say, “you need a very clear market size slide and the market better be BIG!” Founders often put the biggest market size possible, which is typically 100% irrelevant, because it’s too vague.
Lying: Don’t lie. Founder culture is ingrained with “fake it till you make it” but that’s not the same as lying. Embellishing or selling the dream is common practice. Confidence (without being a maniac) is a necessity. Lying is a no-no. Classic example: putting customer logos into the deck that aren’t customers. I’ve seen this numerous times and it’s not hard to figure out. Once, I was watching a major accelerator’s Demo Day and a founder highlighted my company as a customer in their presentation. We weren’t a customer. 😝
No clarity on “why now?”: Why is now the perfect time to build your startup? What is happening in the world that suggests you’ve got the timing right? A lot of pitch decks have a “Why Now?” slide, but it usually says something pretty basic and disinteresting.
Lacking real insight: What do you know that no one else does? What advantage do you have building the startup you’re pitching? Is it domain expertise? Secret distribution channels that no one else has access to? Genuine tech IP that’s so interesting to customers (I don’t care about patents) you’ll be able to sign them up more easily than competitors? An insanely deep understanding of users’ needs? You need something that suggests you’re the right person/team for the job.
Review enough pitch decks and the sea of sameness is overwhelming. It’s a blessing and a curse. If you stand out, answer the key questions investors have properly, and tell a clear, compelling story, investors will listen. If you don’t, they’ll ignore you.
Pitching = Storytelling
I wish people understood this better and took it seriously. A pitch is a story. You need to bring people along for the ride and get them emotionally invested. That’s why I like the “Hearts, Minds, Wallets” structure:
💗 Hearts: Capture readers/listeners at an emotional level. Articulate the pain, make it visceral and signal to the audience that you’re the best person/team to solve the problem. If people don’t care (about the story and the heroes, victims or villains in it), they’ll move on.
🧠 Minds: Appeal to the audience’s logical side. Where’s your data? What work have you actually done? Demonstrate that you’re doing things systematically and clearly, so the audience thinks, “These people know what they’re doing.”
💰 Wallets: Make the ask. Show the numbers. But don’t end there. Go back to the beginning and re-articulate the “why”—remind the audience of how they felt at the beginning of the pitch deck. Share the mission/vision. Get people pumped to engage with you.
For more information, check this out:
Pitch deck structure matters (i.e. there’s a fairly logical flow to most pitch decks) but there are no absolutes. Tell your story the way you want to tell it, but make sure you capture people’s attention, explain things clearly and end strong.
Here’s a breakdown of a pitch deck I put together with my team at Highline Beta for a startup we were validating:
It’s not perfect, but you can check out the full pitch deck with an explanation of each slide and how we built the deck. It should be particularly helpful for very early stage founders.
I Want to Help: Send Me Your Pitch Deck
I’ve gone through thousands of pitch decks and worked with hundreds of founders. I enjoy helping founders when I can, and particularly enjoy storytelling. Your startup won’t automatically win because you have a great pitch, but it can’t hurt!
With that in mind, I’m kicking off the “Great Pitch Deck Review”—fill out the form below (click the link), send me your pitch deck, and I’ll do my best to send you feedback.
👉 Submit your pitch deck for review
A few key points:
I can’t sign NDAs, so don’t ask me
I’m not looking for deal flow, I’m just looking to help
I won’t judge the startups themselves as much as I’ll focus on the pitch deck (story, flow, content, design, etc.)
I may not respond (if there are too many, or your pitch requires too much work)
It may take me days to a month+ to respond (I can’t rush the process)
I will review every single deck and provide personalized feedback (it’s not AI, although maybe AI is better than me at this!)
It’s free of charge
I look forward to reviewing your pitch deck!
I don't have a pitch deck *yet* but will in the near future and have starred this for the future. This is truly such a gift you're providing to people. Thank you so much for this. It's giving me ideas on how I could help others with their marketing efforts for free, so thank you.