How to build a startup pitch deck investors can follow

A pitch deck is a short slide presentation that tells investors what your company does, why it matters now and why your team will win. Its job is to earn the next conversation, not to answer every question.

Y Combinator's seed deck template, written by Aaron Harris, puts it plainly: founders should strive for clarity and concision, and most seed-stage companies do not have much meaningful detail to explore. When founders pretend otherwise, the story gets muddled and investors get lost.

A seed deck usually follows the order an investor thinks in: what is this, why does it matter, is it working, and who is building it. YC's template follows this order:

• Title: the company name and a one-line description of what you do.
• Problem: who has it and how it affects real people or businesses.
• Solution: what you do, in as few words as possible, with the concrete benefit.
• Traction: clear, meaningful numbers if you have them.
• Insight: what makes you special and why your approach works.
• Business model: how you make money, as far as you know it today.
• Market: how big the opportunity can become.
• Team: why the founders are suited to this problem.
• The ask: how much you are raising and what it gets you.

Sequoia Capital's "Writing a business plan" guidance covers similar ground and adds two sections that many founders skip: why now, and vision. Its list is company purpose, problem, solution, why now, market potential, competition and alternatives, business model, team, financials and vision.

Why now asks what has changed, in technology, regulation or behavior, that makes this the right moment. Competition and alternatives should include what customers do today, not only direct competitors. Vision asks what you will have built in five years if everything goes well.

Present traction as a few clear, defined numbers over time, and present the ask as an amount linked to the milestones it will fund. These two slides are where investors check whether the story is real.

For traction, name the metric, define it and show the period: for example, paying customers by month, or active users by week. If you have no revenue yet, show the strongest evidence you do have, such as signed pilots, letters of intent or usage by a design partner. YC's template notes that revenue is better, but other metrics are acceptable when revenue does not exist yet.

For the ask, say how much you are raising and what it gets you. YC suggests laying out where the company will be within a year, at a point that should make it ready for the next round. Avoid listing percentages for "use of funds" without milestones attached.

Use as few slides as the story needs. YC suggests treating each topic as a set of slides, ideally one, and in a seed deck probably never more than three per topic. There is no official number, and what matters more is whether each slide makes one point clearly.

Keep a separate appendix for detail investors may ask for later, such as the financial model, pipeline, technical architecture or regulatory plan.

Design should make the ideas easier to read, not decorate them. YC's design piece by Kevin Hale sums it up: investors invest in teams, not slides, and your slides should make your ideas more clear.

• One message per slide, stated in the title.
• Large, legible text and few words.
• Charts with labeled axes and units.
• Real product screenshots instead of mockups where possible.
• Consistent fonts and colors, and no animations that hide content.

Most weak decks fail on clarity, not on design. Watch for these:

• Starting with features instead of the problem.
• A market size slide built top-down from a huge number, with no path to your share of it.
• Traction numbers without a time frame or definition.
• A team slide that leans on advisors instead of the founders.
• An ask without a clear link to the milestones the money will fund.
• Claims you cannot back up in the follow-up meeting.

Yes, usually one or two. Investors in medical devices and other regulated fields want to see the intended use, the regulatory path and the clinical plan, because they decide how much money and time the company needs. Our guides /en/guides/medtech-startup-israel and /en/guides/fda-510k-israeli-startups explain those paths.

WeCcelerate is a Venture Builder in Israel since 2018, active in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and recognized by the Israel Innovation Authority. We work with founders on the investment story, the deck, the supporting financial model and practice for investor meetings. MedTech founders can also join our track with Leumit Health Services, which offers clinical expertise, regulatory guidance, data access and pilot opportunities.