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💸 How YC teaches founders to build pitch decks

💸 How YC teaches founders to build pitch decks

The do's and don'ts of how to make a kick ass seed round pitch deck

Joel Hansen
March 08, 2024

Hey, this is Napkin Notes: the Booster Juice of startup newsletters — but instead of serving you a Tropi-Kale, we just mix together a cup of memes, a Tablespoon of tech and a dash of frameworks🥤

Today’s deep dive is allllllll about making the perfect pitch deck for your seed round.

And it comes at the perfect time because we’re still accepting pitches for the Sam Parr and Ryan Holmes event.

So if you’ve never learned how to make a proper pitch deck, you’re in luck. today’s the day to do it.

You see, Steph Curry’s coach wouldn’t let him shoot 3-pointers if he couldn’t score a lay-up.

So we’re not gonna let you even think about build a unicorn company until you prove you can build a kick-ass pitch deck blindfolded. Ya, you heard us.

Sound fair?

Then let’s get to it.

📰 Latest News:

We’re hosting an AMA with Maven Co-founder Wes Kao March 15th. Sign up here.

She’s raised $25M+,
cofounded startups with Seth Godin
and grown her personal newsletter to 250K+ subs.

You can either learn from her or keep your boring meeting schedule that day. It’s your call.

In Other News: Binance launched a perfume. Musk and Vinod Khosla are duking it out on Twitter. a16z is weeks away from closing $7B. The Apple-Epic saga took a turn. Gold prices hit a record high. PwC stripped some partners of leadership. Seeing SXSW LinkedIn posts is giving you FOMO. And Spring break is around the corner.

Now let’s get down to business 🥁

💸 How to build the perfect pitch deck

YC has some OG content on Seed decks.

Instead of making things long and wordy, they dumb it down to the basics, which we love.

Here’s the 7 points they swear by:

Title Page: state your company name and provide a brief one-line description of what you do. Keep it concise and impactful.
Problem Statement: articulate the problem you're solving and highlight its real-world impact on people or businesses.
Solution: explain your solution in as few words as possible, focusing on the concrete benefits you provide.
Traction: showcase any traction you've achieved with clear and meaningful numbers, providing context if necessary.
Unique Insights and Team: share what makes your approach special and why your team is well-suited to tackle the problem. Emphasize the founders' expertise rather than advisors.
Business Model and Market Opportunity: Lay out your business model and the size of the market opportunity, convincing investors of the potential for significant returns.
Funding Needs and Milestones: state how much funding you need and what it will be used for. Outline milestones that will make you Series A-ready within a year.