The pitch deck investors expect, slide by slide

Why slide order and stage both matter

This is the standard the ShunyaSe pitch deck reviewer scores every deck against: 16 slides in a fixed order, each with a short list of what it must show and the mistakes that fail it. Use it as a template for a new deck or a checklist for the one you have.

Want only the outline to copy? Use our free pitch deck template. For every slide in one table, see what investors look for in a pitch deck.

Order matters because a reader builds your argument as they go: problem before solution, traction before the ask. Our reviewer checks that slides appear roughly where a reader expects them, not only that they exist.

Stage matters even more. A pre-seed deck should not lose marks for missing a three-year P&L, and a Series A deck is judged far more on traction than on the founding story. So every slide carries one of four labels at each stage:

• Required: the deck is incomplete without it.
• Expected: include it unless you have a clear reason not to.
• Optional: include it if it strengthens your case.
• Leave out: at this stage the slide costs you more than it earns. A multi-year P&L at pre-seed is the clearest case.

At a glance: the 16 slides by stage

Read down your stage’s column. The idea stage and Series B and later are covered further down.

Slide by slide

1. Title

One sentence saying what you do, for whom, and what they get, written so a smart generalist outside your sector understands it at once. From pre-seed, add founder name, email and website. From seed, add the month and year. What fails: a tagline built from buzzwords, such as "AI-powered synergistic platform", with no plain meaning.

2. Problem

Name who has the problem, specifically, and put a number on what it costs them: hours lost, rupees leaked, a share of revenue. Say how they cope today: that workaround is your real competitor. From pre-seed, back it with evidence: how many customers you spoke to, or one real quote. What fails: a problem said to affect everyone, such as "every business".

3. Why Now

Name the change outside your company that makes this possible now: a regulation, a cost falling sharply, a shift in behaviour, an infrastructure rollout. "We finally built it" is a milestone, not a why-now. From seed, put the year on the change and say why the window closes if nobody moves. What fails: "because AI" as the whole answer, with no specific capability or cost threshold named.

4. Solution

Answer the problem slide point for point, in the same terms and the same unit. Explain the mechanism: what the product actually does, step by step, to produce the result. End with the before and after for the customer. What fails: a bulleted list of features or modules.

5. Product

Show the real thing: a screenshot or photograph of the working product, large enough to read. One full-width screenshot beats four thumbnails. At pre-seed a prototype screenshot is fine if it is labelled as one. From seed, add two callouts that point at the part that matters. What fails: a mockup or stock illustration presented as the product.

6. Market size

Build the number bottom-up: [reachable customers] times [price] times [how often they buy]. From pre-seed, show three figures, not one: everyone who could buy (TAM), everyone you can reach (SAM) and what you can realistically win in three years (SOM), with a source and year under each. Name the first segment you will win. What fails: "1% of a huge market" sizing, and a TAM inflated with adjacent markets you do not serve.

7. Business model

Put an actual price on the slide: "subscription-based" is not a business model, a price per unit is. Name who pays, especially if the payer is not the user, and define the unit of sale: per seat, per transaction, per month. From seed, add gross margin. At Series A, add CAC, LTV and payback. What fails: a revenue model with no price in it.

8. Traction

Show absolute numbers on a time axis. Put the base next to every percentage, chart the metric by month, and label both axes with units. From seed, add a retention or repeat-purchase number. At Series A, state MRR or ARR plainly. What fails: growth shown only as a percentage, and vanity metrics (downloads, sign-ups, page views) with no activation, retention or revenue figure beside them.

9. Go to market

Name one specific channel: who already reaches your customer, and how many of them there are. From seed, attach a cost per lead, demo or closed account, and say how many current customers came through it. What fails: generic categories such as "SEO, social media, partnerships".

10. Competition

Name real competitors, and include the status quo: the spreadsheet, the manual process, or doing nothing. Concede at least one thing a competitor does better. What fails: a feature matrix where only your column has ticks, and the line "we have no competition". Our reviewer treats both as critical.

11. Moat

Describe a mechanism that makes you harder to copy over time: data that accumulates, switching costs, network effects, a regulatory position, locked distribution. From seed, say why it gets stronger as you grow. At Series A, attach a number that shows it working, such as retention or an exclusive agreement. What fails: adjectives like "proprietary" and "cutting-edge" in place of a mechanism, or first-mover advantage offered as the moat.

12. Team

Say why this team wins this problem, in a sentence that connects your own history to it. Describe what you did at previous companies, with a number, not only where you worked. From pre-seed, name the gaps and the first hire that fills them, and mark who is full-time. What fails: a wall of advisor and university logos in place of operating history.

13. Financials

Leave this out at idea and pre-seed. At seed, show an 18-month plan with burn, runway and the assumptions behind it; at Series A, a three-year model with a gross margin path and cohort economics. Put the drivers on the slide (price, conversion, headcount, churn) and state monthly burn and months of runway. What fails: a hockey stick with no assumptions behind it, and a multi-year P&L at pre-seed.

14. The ask

State the amount, split the use of funds three or four ways with percentages, and name the milestone the money buys, as a number the next investor will care about. From seed, name the instrument: equity, SAFE, CCPS, iSAFE or a convertible note. What fails: an ask justified only by months of runway. Runway is an input; the milestone is what you are asking someone to fund.

15. Vision

One sentence at the end on what the company becomes if it works. From seed, connect it to today: the wedge you start with and the larger thing it grows into. What fails: a vision slide that repeats the market size.

16. Appendix

Optional at every stage. Use it to keep the main deck short without losing the answers. At Series A this is where cohort tables, pipeline and the detailed model belong.

What changes from idea stage to Series A

• Idea stage: Title, Problem, Solution, Market size and Team are required. Why Now, Business model, Competition and Vision are expected. Product, Traction, Go to market, Moat and the Ask are optional, and Financials are left out.
• Pre-seed: the Ask and Business model become required, and Product, Traction, Go to market and Moat become expected. Financials are still left out, and Vision drops to optional.
• Seed: Why Now, Product, Traction and Competition become required, and Financials come in as expected.
• Series A: every slide is required except Vision (expected) and the Appendix (optional).
• Series B and later: as Series A, except that Why Now is expected rather than required.

The checks inside each slide move too. A dated deck, gross margin, retention and a channel cost are checked from seed. Revenue, CAC and payback, and proof that the moat works, are checked at Series A.

So does the weighting. Out of 100 points, our reviewer gives team and problem-and-solution 22 each at pre-seed, and traction 10. At Series A, traction carries 30 and team 10. In other words, a pre-seed deck is judged mostly on the founders and the problem, and a Series A deck mostly on evidence that the business works.

Checklist before you send

• The title slide says what you do in one plain sentence, with your name, email, website, and the month and year.
• The problem names a specific group and puts a number on what it costs them.
• The market is built bottom-up, with a source and year under each figure.
• The business model slide has an actual price on it.
• Every percentage has its base beside it, and at least one metric is charted over time.
• The competition slide includes the status quo and concedes something.
• The ask states the amount, the split of funds and the milestone it buys.
• The main deck runs 12 to 16 slides, no slide carries more than 60 words, and the detail sits in an appendix.
• The deck carries at least a dozen distinct figures, and at least two number slides are charts.

Sending the deck

Find the investors who fund your sector and stage in investors in India, then send the deck with a short, specific note: our guide to writing a cold email to investors covers what to put in it, and the investor follow-up email guide covers what to send when you hear nothing.

Applying to an accelerator first? See accelerators and incubators in India.