I've reviewed 250+ pitch decks this year. The problem slide is consistently the weakest.

Here's what most founders do:

❌ What doesn't work: "Small businesses struggle with accounting. Current solutions are expensive and complicated. This creates inefficiency and lost revenue."

Generic. Forgettable. Doesn't make the investor FEEL the pain.

✅ What works: "Meet Sarah. She owns a bakery in Portland. Last month, she spent 14 hours doing bookkeeping instead of baking. She paid her accountant $800 for tax prep, but still got surprised by a $3,200 tax bill she didn't plan for. She's not alone—2.4 million small business owners face this exact problem every quarter."

Now the investor sees Sarah. They feel the 14 hours. They wince at the $3,200 surprise.

1. Start with a Person (20% of your slide) "Meet [specific person with specific role]"

Make them real. Give them a name, a city, a context.

2. Show the Pain Moment (40% of your slide) "[Specific pain point with specific numbers/time/money]"

Not "it's hard to..." but "they spend 14 hours..." or "they waste $800..."

3. Quantify the Broader Impact (20% of your slide) "[Number] of [target customers] face this [frequency]"

This is where market size starts to emerge naturally.

4. Show Why It Hasn't Been Solved (20% of your slide) "Current solutions [specific failure mode]"

Be specific: "Current solutions require 6 hours of training" not "Current solutions are complicated"

Example 1 (B2B SaaS): "Meet Marcus, VP of Sales at a 50-person SaaS company. His team uses 7 different tools to manage their pipeline. Every Monday, he spends 3 hours copying data between Salesforce, Gong, Outreach, and spreadsheets just to prep for his forecast call. His CEO makes decisions on data that's already 4 days old. 47,000 sales leaders face this exact problem every week. Current solutions require changing your entire tech stack—Marcus tried and gave up after 6 months."

Example 2 (Consumer): "Meet Jennifer, a working mom with two kids under 5. She spends $800/month on groceries but throws away $200 worth of food because she can't plan meals around what's expiring. Last Tuesday, she made 3 separate trips to the store because she forgot ingredients. She's tried meal planning apps but they don't integrate with her grocery delivery service. 12 million households waste $2,400 annually on the same problem."

Mistake 1: Leading with statistics Don't start with "The market is $50B." Start with a person's pain.

Mistake 2: Generic pain "It's hard to manage projects" ← too vague "Project managers spend 12 hours/week in status meetings that produce nothing actionable" ← specific

Mistake 3: Focusing on your solution The problem slide is about THEM, not YOU. Save your solution for the next slide.

Mistake 4: Multiple problems Pick ONE core problem. If you're solving 5 problems, investors think you haven't found product-market fit yet.

Open your pitch deck. Rewrite your problem slide using this formula:

Time investment: 30 minutes Impact: Investors will remember your problem slide

P.S. Want feedback on your deck before you pitch investors? Next Round features founders with strong decks to our network of 100+ active seed investors. Submit your company here.