yc-pitch-deck

name	yc-pitch-deck
description	Create investor pitch decks optimized for YC and seed-stage fundraising. Use when creating pitch decks, investor presentations, fundraising materials, or when user mentions "pitch deck", "YC deck", "investor deck", "fundraise", or "seed round". Covers slide structure, content strategy, storytelling arc, and what investors actually look for. Works with any output format (HTML slides, PPTX, PDF).

YC Pitch Deck

Core Philosophy

Lead with whatever is most impressive. Clarity beats accuracy (80% accurate, 100% clear > 100% accurate, 80% clear). Every slide supports ONE idea. Investors spend ~10 seconds per slide.

Slide Structure (7-10 slides)

1. Title

• Company name + one-liner (max 10 words)
• Must pass the "mom test": can a non-technical person understand what you do?
• Bad: "Revolutionizing the paradigm of cloud-native microservice orchestration"
• Good: "The app store for microservices"
• Include: stage, founder name, date. Nothing else.

2. Problem

• Max 3 pain points. Each must be visceral and specific, not abstract.
• Use the P.A.I.N. framework: Problem, Audience, Impact, Non-obvious insight
• Bad: "Deployment is inefficient and outdated"
• Good: "12M vibecoders build apps daily. <1% ever get deployed. Zero marketplaces exist."
• Include real data, quotes, or specific examples. No opinions.
• The insight (what everyone else missed) is the most important part.

3. Solution

• One headline benefit (max 12 words)
• Show the product, not a description. Screenshot, demo, or UI mockup.
• 2-3 bullet outcomes (what changes for the user), not features
• Bad: "Cloud-based platform with auto-scaling and CI/CD pipeline integration"
• Good: "Push code, get a live URL with payments. 45 seconds."

4. How It Works (optional but powerful)

• 3-step flow maximum. Each step: verb + outcome
• Show the actual UI/CLI/flow, not a diagram of boxes and arrows
• End with the result: "From X to Y in Z time"

5. Market + Timing

• Bottom-up TAM, not top-down. Show the math.
• Bad: "$180B cloud market, we capture 0.5%"
• Good: "12M vibecoders x $20/mo avg spend = $2.9B SAM. 50K early adopters x $20 = $12M SOM year 1"
• "Why now?" is critical: what changed that makes this possible TODAY?
• Include 2-3 comparable companies with valuations to anchor investor mental models

6. Business Model

• One sentence: how you make money
• Airbnb: "10% commission on each transaction" (that's it)
• Show pricing tiers or unit economics if they're compelling
• If marketplace: show both sides (take rate, seller earnings)

7. Traction

• ALWAYS include timeframes. "500 users" means nothing. "500 users in 3 weeks, 40% WoW growth" is compelling.
• Pre-launch: waitlist size, LOIs, design partners, pilot commitments
• Post-launch: MRR, growth rate, retention, engagement
• Use one clean chart if you have time-series data. Bold the key number.

8. Team

• Max 3 people on the slide. Appendix for the rest.
• Name, role, ONE proof of relevant skill (not a resume)
• "Jane, CEO, ex-Google PM, shipped products to 10M users"
• Why THIS team for THIS problem? Domain expertise > pedigree.

9. The Ask

• State the exact amount and what it buys
• "$500K pre-seed. 18 months runway. Milestones: MVP, 1K services, $10K MRR."
• Break down use of funds (product, hiring, marketing)
• Include 3-4 milestones with timelines (Q3 '26, Q4 '26, etc.)
• End with clear CTA: email, phone, "Let's talk"

Content Rules

• Max 30 words per slide (excluding data labels)
• No jargon. No buzzwords. No "leveraging synergies."
• Every number needs context: compared to what? Over what timeframe?
• One insight per slide. If you need sub-bullets, you have too many ideas.
• The deck tells a story: Pain exists -> We solve it -> Market is huge -> We're the team -> Give us money

Anti-Patterns

See references/anti-patterns.md for common mistakes that kill decks.

Comparable Decks

See references/examples.md for breakdowns of Airbnb, Dropbox, and other successful decks.