Building Your Pitch Deck
A pitch deck is your visual story—slides that support your verbal pitch. Whether you're presenting to investors, demo days, or competition judges, a great deck makes your ideas clear and memorable.
How to Pitch to Investors
Michael Seibel • Y Combinator
Why watch this: Michael Seibel, CEO of Y Combinator, has seen thousands of pitches. Learn exactly what investors want to hear and how to structure a pitch that gets attention.
Deck Length
A typical pitch deck should have approximately how many slides?
The 10-Slide Pitch Deck
Design Principles
One idea per slide: If you need more, add a slide
Minimal text: Bullets, not paragraphs. You're the narrator.
Visual hierarchy: Most important info should pop
Consistent design: Same fonts, colors, style throughout
Match the Slides
Match each slide type to what it should convey:
Common Pitch Deck Mistakes
- ❌ Too much text—slides aren't documents
- ❌ Vague problem that doesn't feel urgent
- ❌ No traction or evidence of progress
- ❌ Claiming "no competition" (shows lack of research)
- ❌ Ask that doesn't specify what you need
Fix This Slide
What's wrong with this slide?
🌟 Exactly Right!
This slide has way too much text. Better: "First-gen students apply to 3x more jobs but get half the interviews." One punchy stat with a visual. YOU tell the story, the slide supports it.
💡 The Opposite, Actually
More statistics would make it worse! The problem is too much information. Simplify to one killer stat that makes the audience feel the problem.
💡 Missing the Point
Design matters, but the core issue is content overload. Even with a perfect font, no one will read a wall of text.
Draft Your Key Slides
CreationWrite the content for your most important slides:
Example Slides
TITLE: MentorMatch | "Your network, unlocked" | Founded by Alex Chen
PROBLEM: "First-gen students apply to 3x more jobs but get half the interviews. The difference? Connections."
SOLUTION: MentorMatch connects first-gen students with alumni mentors at top companies. • Match in 48 hours • Monthly check-ins • Warm introductions to opportunities
TRACTION: 200 students signed up | 50 mentor meetings completed | 8.5/10 satisfaction | 3 students got internships
ASK: $25K to reach 1,000 students across 10 campuses by fall. We'll use it for: marketing partnerships with first-gen orgs, platform development, mentor incentives.
🎯 Key Takeaways
- 10-15 slides is the sweet spot
- One idea per slide, minimal text
- Problem slide should make them FEEL the pain
- Traction proves you're not just ideas—you execute
- Your Ask should be specific: what you need and why