Founders obsess over financials at the pre-seed stage. They build complex discounted cash flow models and five-year revenue projections for products that do not even have a prototype yet. This is a mistake.

At the pre-seed stage, you are not selling metrics. You are selling a vision, an urgent problem, and the specific team capable of executing the solution. Your pre-seed pitch deck shouldn't be a data dump—it must be a focused, narrative-driven 10 to 12-slide story.

Most founders waste 40+ hours aligning boxes in Figma instead of refining this story. This guide breaks down exactly what slides to include in a pre-seed pitch deck, how to weave them into a compelling narrative, and why you should focus on building your startup while experts handle the design.

Quick Takeaways

• Focus on the narrative, not just numbers: Pre-seed investors invest in the founders and the problem space, not five-year hypothetical Excel models.

• Structure is standardized: Stick to the proven 10–12 slide framework. Investors expect a specific sequence.

• Show the "magic": A product demo or mockup is vastly more effective than paragraphs of text explaining a feature.

• Traction wins early: Even a waitlist of 500 engaged users or two signed pilot agreements can validate your concept.

• Design communicates competence: A cluttered, poorly formatted deck signals a cluttered, poorly organized thinker.

The Core Goal of a Pre-Seed Pitch Deck

A pre-seed founder is typically building something from scratch. You might be working a side job or living off savings while testing a hypothesis. Revenue is zero or near zero.

Because tangibles are scarce, the goal of your deck is singular: convince the investor that you are the exact right team to solve this specific, massive problem right now.

Investors know the product will change. They know the go-to-market strategy will pivot. What they are evaluating is your clarity of thought, your understanding of the customer pain point, and your ambition. Your slides are just the visual scaffolding for that conversation.

The 12 Essential Pre-Seed Pitch Deck Slides

If you only include one thing in your deck, make it this sequence. This structure answers the exact questions going through an investor's head in the order they naturally arise.

What slides should be in a pre-seed pitch deck?

• 1. Cover: Company name and one-sentence elevator pitch.

• 2. Problem: The specific, urgent pain point you are addressing.

• 3. Solution: How your product uniquely solves that problem.

• 4. Market Size: The total addressable opportunity (TAM/SAM/SOM).

• 5. Product Demo: Mockups or screenshots of the core "magic."

• 6. Traction: Early validation via waitlists, pilots, or engagement.

• 7. Team: Why your specific group is uniquely qualified.

• 8. Business Model: How the company will generate sustainable revenue.

• 9. Competition: Your unfair advantage against incumbents.

• 10. Go-to-Market: How you will acquire your very first customers.

• 11. Roadmap: What you have built and what you will build next.

• 12. The Ask: How much money you need and exactly what it unlocks.

Let's break down how to execute each of these slides to maximize impact.

1. Cover / Vision Slide (The Hook)

Right from the outset, you want to set the tone for your startup. This slide needs three things: your logo, your company name, and your value proposition—a single sentence that explains what you do and who you do it for.

Pro Tip: Avoid buzzword-stuffed tech jargon like "synergistic AI blockchain platform." Say: "We automate payroll for independent contractors."

2. The Problem Slide (The Urgent Pain)

At the very front of the pitch deck sits its beating heart. If the investor doesn't believe the problem is real, urgent, and painful, they won't care about your solution.

Use specific data or a relatable anecdote. Don't say "hiring is hard." Say "mid-market agencies spend an average of 45 days and $12,000 replacing a single designer." Make the pain visceral.

3. The Solution / Value Prop Slide (The Magic)

Immediately following the problem, explain what your startup does to address it. The key here is clarity, not comprehensiveness.

What is the fundamental shift you are introducing? Explain the "magic" of your approach. The solution must connect directly to the pain points raised in the previous slide. If you pitched three problems, your solution slide needs to explicitly solve those three problems.

4. Market Size (TAM/SAM/SOM) (The Opportunity)

Here is where you establish the financial opportunity. Investors need to know that if you succeed, the business will be large enough to generate venture-scale returns.

Break it down logically:

• TAM (Total Addressable Market): The entire global market for this solution.

• SAM (Serviceable Available Market): The segment of the TAM targeted by your specific product and geography.

• SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market): The realistic portion of the SAM you can capture in the next 3–5 years.

Show your math. A massive TAM without a credible bottoms-up calculation of how you arrive at the numbers looks amateurish.

5. Product Demo / Mockup (Show, Don't Tell)

At the pre-seed stage, you often don't have a finished product. That's fine. What you can do is have a senior designer mock up a high-fidelity design flow.

Show screenshots, GIFs, or a link to a clickable prototype. The founders of Tinder didn't need a fully coded app to convey the brilliance of the "swipe left/right" mechanic—they just needed the visual. Give the investor something tangible to react to.

6. Traction & Early Validation (The Proof)

Traction is the ultimate risk mitigator. Even if your product isn’t built, you can prove demand.

Include anything that demonstrates momentum:

• Active users on a beta or MVP

• Signed Letters of Intent (LOIs) from B2B clients

• A rapidly growing email waitlist

• High engagement rates in a private community

If you have users, highlight your month-over-month growth rate. Growth is the easiest way to get a VC's attention.

7. The Team (Why You)

For pre-seed startups, this is arguably the most critical slide. You are asking investors to back you, not just the idea.

Highlight relevant domain expertise. Have you worked in this specific industry for a decade? Have you successfully scaled a startup before? Do you have technical co-founders who can actually build the product without outsourcing it?

Include logos of past companies or universities to build immediate credibility.

8. Business Model (How You Make Money)

Explain how the company will generate sustainable revenue. Are you a SaaS platform charging $99/month? Do you take a 2% transaction fee on a marketplace? Are you using an enterprise licensing model?

If you are taking an innovative approach to pricing, explain why it works better for your customers than the traditional model.

9. Competition (The Unfair Advantage)

Never say "we have no competition." If there is a massive problem and money to be made, someone is trying to solve it. Acknowledging competitors shows you understand the landscape.

Use a feature grid or a 2x2 positioning matrix. Highlight your competitors' strengths, their glaring weaknesses, and most importantly, where your specific point of difference lies. What is your moat?

10. Go-to-Market Strategy (The Acquisition Plan)

A brilliant product fails without distribution. How will you acquire your very first customers without spending millions on paid ads?

Outline your strategy. Will you leverage an existing audience? Are you doing founder-led outbound sales? Do you have a channel partnership strategy? Show the investor that you have thought deeply about distribution.

11. Roadmap & Milestones (What's Next)

Show where the company will be in 12 to 18 months. Detail when the alpha launches, when you expect to hit $10k MRR, and when you plan to raise a Seed round.

Be realistic. Promising to build an enterprise AI platform and secure Coca-Cola as a client within four weeks damages your credibility.

12. The Ask / Use of Funds (The Catalyst)

Conclude with exactly what you are asking for. State the dollar amount of the raise (e.g., "$750,000 on a SAFE").

Crucially, tie that money to specific business milestones. Explain that this capital will allow you to make three specific engineering hires, finalize the core product, and reach $15k MRR, putting you in a position to easily raise a Series A.

Optional Slides Every Founder Should Prepare

While the 12 slides above form the core, context matters. Depending on your industry and the specific conversation, you may need a few extras in the appendix to pull up during Q&A.

Why Now? Timing is everything. Why is this exact moment the right time to build this company? Have regulatory changes opened a new market? Has a recent technology (like LLMs) made your solution possible for the first time? 92% of successful decks include a dedicated Problem slide, and 54% include a specific "Why Now" argument. Use this if your market is transitioning rapidly.

Financial Projections While less common (and less reliable) at the pre-seed stage, some conservative investors still want to see your thinking on unit economics. Keep this simple: projected burn rate, expected runway, and high-level revenue targets for the next 18 months.

Pitch Deck Storytelling: How to Connect the Slides

A list of slides will not win you a round. The difference between a "meh" deck and a killer deck comes down to how you tell the story. A pitch deck must flow like a narrative arc.

Start by grounding the investor in reality. Paint a vivid picture of a day in the life of your target customer struggling with the problem. Make them feel the frustration.

Then, introduce your solution as the inevitable, obvious answer to that frustration. The middle slides (Market, Product, Business Model) validate that this solution is not just a nice idea, but a massive, viable business.

Finally, the concluding slides (Team, Ask) position you as the hero of the story, extending an invitation to the investor to join the journey right before extreme growth begins.

Pro Tip: Apply the 10/20/30 rule pioneered by Guy Kawasaki. While pre-seed decks often stretch to 12 slides, the principles hold: 10 slides, 20 minutes to pitch, and no font smaller than 30 points. If an investor can't read a slide in three seconds, it's too complicated.

Why You Shouldn't Design Your Own Pitch Deck

Building a startup is hard. You are interviewing early hires, talking to angry beta users, and managing a rapidly dwindling bank account.

The very worst thing you can do with your limited time is spend dozens of hours wrestling with Figma components, tweaking typography, and trying to make bullet points align perfectly on your problem slide.

Your job is to define the vision. Your job is to talk to investors. Design is critical—investors absolutely judge your competence based on the visual polish of your deck—but being the one executing that design is a massive misallocation of your time.

This is where outsourcing design services becomes a fundamental operational advantage. A dedicated design partner takes your rough ideas and content and turns them into a high-conversion, VC-grade asset while you focus on building the business.

Zyner provides an unlimited design subscription tailored specifically for startups. With a flat monthly rate, you get access to a dedicated project manager and senior designers who understand startup velocity. We’ve built brands and pitch decks for 320+ startups, including multiple YC-backed companies.

Stop agonizing over margins and hex codes. Drop the task in Slack, and let experts handle the creative execution.

Frequently Asked Questions

What order should a pitch deck be in?

A pitch deck should follow a logical narrative: Hook, Problem, Solution, Market, Product, Traction, Team, Business Model, Competition, Go-to-Market, Roadmap, and finally, The Ask. This sequence ensures you establish the pain point immediately before explaining the mechanics of your business.

What is the 10 20 30 rule for pitch decks?

Coined by Guy Kawasaki, the 10/20/30 rule states that a presentation should have 10 slides, last no longer than 20 minutes, and contain no font smaller than 30 points. It forces founders to distill their message into the absolute most critical points, removing fluff and preventing "death by bullet points."

What is the sequence of the pitch deck?

The standard sequence flows from the macro to the micro. You introduce the broad market problem, narrow down to your specific solution, validate it with early traction, outline the financial model, introduce the team executing the vision, and end with the funding request.

What should a pre-seed pitch deck include?

A pre-seed pitch deck must include 10 to 12 slides focusing on the problem, solution, market size, product vision, traction, team, and the ask. Because pre-seed companies lack mature financial data, the deck leans heavily on validating the market opportunity and proving the founders' capability to execute.

How to structure a pitch deck?

Structure your deck so it is "skimmable." Investors spend an average of 3 minutes per deck. Use a bold, 100-pt font for clear slide headings. Put the single most important takeaway of the slide as the headline, and use visuals, charts, and diagrams to communicate complex ideas rather than blocks of text. Ensure every slide cleanly transitions into the next.