Yc Pitch Deck

YC Pitch Deck

Core Philosophy

Lead with whatever is most impressive. Clarity beats accuracy (80% accurate, 100% clear > 100% accurate, 80% clear). Every slide supports ONE idea. Investors spend ~10 seconds per slide.

Slide Structure (7-10 slides)

1. Title

• Company name + one-liner (max 10 words)
• Must pass the "mom test": can a non-technical person understand what you do?
• Bad: "Revolutionizing the paradigm of cloud-native microservice orchestration"
• Good: "The app store for microservices"
• Include: stage, founder name, date. Nothing else.

2. Problem

• Max 3 pain points. Each must be visceral and specific, not abstract.
• Use the P.A.I.N. framework: Problem, Audience, Impact, Non-obvious insight
• Bad: "Deployment is inefficient and outdated"
• Good: "12M vibecoders build apps daily. <1% ever get deployed. Zero marketplaces exist."
• Include real data, quotes, or specific examples. No opinions.
• The insight (what everyone else missed) is the most important part.

3. Solution

• One headline benefit (max 12 words)
• Show the product, not a description. Screenshot, demo, or UI mockup.
• 2-3 bullet outcomes (what changes for the user), not features
• Bad: "Cloud-based platform with auto-scaling and CI/CD pipeline integration"
• Good: "Push code, get a live URL with payments. 45 seconds."

4. How It Works (optional but powerful)

• 3-step flow maximum. Each step: verb + outcome
• Show the actual UI/CLI/flow, not a diagram of boxes and arrows
• End with the result: "From X to Y in Z time"

5. Market + Timing

• Bottom-up TAM, not top-down. Show the math.
• Bad: "$180B cloud market, we capture 0.5%"
• Good: "12M vibecoders x $20/mo avg spend = $2.9B SAM. 50K early adopters x $20 = $12M SOM year 1"
• "Why now?" is critical: what changed that makes this possible TODAY?
• Include 2-3 comparable companies with valuations to anchor investor mental models

6. Business Model

• One sentence: how you make money
• Airbnb: "10% commission on each transaction" (that's it)
• Show pricing tiers or unit economics if they're compelling
• If marketplace: show both sides (take rate, seller earnings)

7. Traction

• ALWAYS include timeframes. "500 users" means nothing. "500 users in 3 weeks, 40% WoW growth" is compelling.
• Pre-launch: waitlist size, LOIs, design partners, pilot commitments
• Post-launch: MRR, growth rate, retention, engagement
• Use one clean chart if you have time-series data. Bold the key number.

8. Team

• Max 3 people on the slide. Appendix for the rest.
• Name, role, ONE proof of relevant skill (not a resume)
• "Jane, CEO, ex-Google PM, shipped products to 10M users"
• Why THIS team for THIS problem? Domain expertise > pedigree.

9. The Ask

• State the exact amount and what it buys
• "$500K pre-seed. 18 months runway. Milestones: MVP, 1K services, $10K MRR."
• Break down use of funds (product, hiring, marketing)
• Include 3-4 milestones with timelines (Q3 '26, Q4 '26, etc.)
• End with clear CTA: email, phone, "Let's talk"

Content Rules

• Max 30 words per slide (excluding data labels)
• No jargon. No buzzwords. No "leveraging synergies."
• Every number needs context: compared to what? Over what timeframe?
• One insight per slide. If you need sub-bullets, you have too many ideas.
• The deck tells a story: Pain exists -> We solve it -> Market is huge -> We're the team -> Give us money

Anti-Patterns

See references/anti-patterns.md for common mistakes that kill decks.

Comparable Decks

See references/examples.md for breakdowns of Airbnb, Dropbox, and other successful decks.