Slide Database
A deck is the same argument every time, so the useful unit is the slide. Cut apart, a problem slide sits beside hundreds of other problem slides from companies that went on to raise, and the convention becomes visible. So does where breaking it worked.
Cover1,771 slides, in 100% of decksProblem893 slides, in 35% of decksSolution791 slides, in 31% of decksVision548 slides, in 24% of decksMarket2,083 slides, in 62% of decksProduct1,897 slides, in 52% of decksGo to market448 slides, in 19% of decksValidation979 slides, in 36% of decks
The playbook
Pick a slide. Written once per kind and adjusted in the app for the size and sector of the company: a problem slide at $300K raised is judged differently from one at $30M.
Cover slide
Say what the company does before anyone has to ask.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
A tagline that sounds like a brand and explains nothing. If the reader has to reach slide three to learn what you sell, the cover has failed.
Problem slide
Establish that something is broken, and that it is worth money to fix.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
Describing an inconvenience rather than a cost. A problem nobody pays to avoid is a feature request, not a business.
Solution slide
Show that your answer fits the problem you just described.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
Describing the product's mechanics instead of its effect. The reader wants to know what changes for the customer, not how the pipeline works.
Vision slide
Show where this goes if it works.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
Vision in place of evidence. It belongs after the traction slide, not instead of it.
Financials slide
Show the numbers hold together and that you know which are assumptions.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
A five-year hockey stick with no stated assumptions. The forecast matters far less than whether you can defend the inputs.
Market slide
Show the opportunity is large enough to matter, and that you understand its shape.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
A three-circle TAM diagram with a trillion-dollar outer ring. Every reader has seen a thousand of these and discounts them entirely; a credible small number is worth more than an incredible large one.
Product slide
Make the thing feel real.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
Six screenshots at thumbnail size. One screen, large, with a caption saying what to notice, beats a gallery nobody can read.
Go to market slide
Show you know how customers are actually reached, and what that costs.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
A list of every possible channel. Naming five is a way of saying none has worked yet.
Validation slide
Let somebody else make the claim for you.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
A wall of logos where most are pilots or trials. A reader will ask which are paying, so it is better to say so first.
Traction slide
Show the thing is working, with numbers that cannot be reframed.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
A cumulative chart, which only ever goes up and therefore says nothing. Show the monthly figure; a reader who has to convert your chart in their head will assume the worst.
Competition slide
Show you know who else is in the room and why you win.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
The two-by-two where you occupy the top-right corner alone. Naming a strong competitor honestly buys more credibility than a grid that flatters you.
Business model slide
Explain how money arrives, and whether it keeps arriving.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
Pricing with no unit economics beside it. A price is not a model until the cost of delivering it is on the same slide.
The ask slide
Say what you are raising and what it buys.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
An amount with no milestone. The question a reader is answering is not 'can they use this money' but 'what will be true when it is gone'.
Team slide
Answer why this group, rather than any other, gets to solve this.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
Logos of past employers with no claim attached. Working at a well-known company is not experience of the problem.
Roadmap slide
Show you have thought past this round.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
A timeline of features. A roadmap of outputs tells a reader nothing about whether the business works.
Contact slide
Make the next step obvious.
What a reader looks for
The usual mistake
Ending on 'Thank you' with no ask and no contact details.
The gaps
Of the 1,708 decks we could read, the share that never include these. Each is a question an investor will ask anyway.
Say what you are raising and what it buys.
Show the thing is working, with numbers that cannot be reframed.
Explain how money arrives, and whether it keeps arriving.
Every deck is split into its pages, one image per slide.
Nearly all decks are pictures, so the words are read off each image.
Each slide is labelled by what it argues. Where the reading comes back as noise, it stays unlabelled rather than guessed: 9,674 slides so far.
Each kind carries its playbook, adjusted for the size and sector of the company that made it.
The slides belong to the companies that made them, so reading one needs an account, and any company can have its deck removed by asking.
Every problem slide from fintech companies that went on to raise, in one screen. Filter 24,182 slides by what they argue, sector and size.