My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
No pitch deck template can save a fundamentally bad business - if your charts suck, your pitch will suck regardless of how well it's structured.
The Reasoning
Investors make decisions based on evidence of business success (traction, unit economics, market size, team credibility). A good pitch deck just organizes this evidence clearly. Without strong underlying business metrics, even perfect presentation will fail.
What Needs to Be True
- Business has real traction or strong leading indicators
- Unit economics show path to profitability
- Market size justifies venture-scale returns
- Team has relevant experience or domain expertise
- Product solves real problem customers will pay for
Counterargument
Sometimes a great pitch can get you meetings and initial interest even with weak metrics, buying time to improve the business while you're fundraising.
What Would Change This View
Evidence that founders with great pitch skills but weak businesses consistently raise money and build successful companies afterward.
Implications for Builders
Focus on business fundamentals before worrying about pitch design
Use pitch deck creation as diagnostic tool to find business weaknesses
Don't start fundraising until you have compelling story to tell
Invest time in building traction rather than perfecting slides
Be honest about business stage - don't fundraise too early
Example Application
“Founder struggles to fill out traction slide with impressive metrics, realizes their user growth is stagnant. Instead of fundraising now, they spend 3 months improving product and getting to 20% month-over-month growth before pitching investors.”
Related Knowledge
The Investor Pitch Narrative Arc
A 16-slide sequence that builds investor confidence by answering their core questions in logical order: Are you credible?
Lead With Credibility Rule
When you have meaningful accomplishments, put them as slide 2 to establish that you're worth listening to before diving into your business details.
Create a problem slide that makes investors immediately understand the scale and urgency of what you're solving
Investor reads your problem slide and thinks 'wow, this affects way more people than I realized and I can see why they c
Clearly communicate your competitive advantage in a way investors immediately understand
Investor finishes reading and thinks 'ah, I see exactly how this is different and why that difference matters'
Save Good News for the End
Take 15% of your good news and hold it back until the final slides to create a positive lasting impression and additional momentum.
Anchor Your Vision to Recognized Winners
Position your company as 'we're doing what [successful company] did for [known market] but for [your bigger market]' to help investors quickly understand the opportunity size.