I've now interviewed 150+ founders and talked to 600+ investors about what they're looking for in early-stage companies.
Five patterns keep coming up. If you're raising in the next 6-9 months, these are worth paying attention to:
1. Stop burying your traction in slide 8
Investors told me they decide within the first 3 slides whether to keep reading. If you have any traction (revenue, users, partnerships, LOIs), it needs to be on slide 2 or 3.
One investor said: "If I get to slide 5 and haven't seen proof this is working, I'm already out."
2. Tell me why NOW
Almost every investor mentioned this. Why is this the right time for your company to exist? What changed in the market, technology, or regulation that makes this possible now but wasn't 2-3 years ago?
Most decks skip this entirely. The ones that nail it get 2x more follow-up meetings.
3. Your competitive landscape slide makes me think you don't know your market
If your competitive slide is a 2x2 matrix with you in the top-right corner and everyone else in the bottom-left, investors assume you haven't done your homework.
Better approach: "Here are our 3 real competitors. Here's specifically what they do well. Here's the one thing we do that they can't."
4. Show me you can do basic math
Investors want to see unit economics, CAC payback, and gross margins. Even if you're pre-revenue, show the model. They're not expecting perfection—they're checking if you understand the business fundamentals.
One angel told me: "I passed on a company with great traction because their unit economics slide had an error that showed they didn't understand their own margins."
5. Your deck should answer: "What do you need me for?"
Why does this investor specifically make sense for your round? Is it their expertise, their network, their portfolio companies?
Generic decks get generic responses. Personalized context gets meetings.
I'm codifying these insights (and about 20 others) into something more structured in January. I'll share details in the new year.
For now: if your deck doesn't address these 5 things, that's your holiday homework.
🎙️ Chris
P.S. - If you're raising in Q1 and want a 15-min deck review before you start outreach, just reply. I have a few slots open before year-end.