By Michael Tefula
VC firms receive thousands of pitch decks a year and a typical investor will spend no more than two to three minutes assessing each one, according to data from DocSend. Ultimately, only 5%-10% of decks turn into meetings while the rest fade into a rejection pile.
As a pre-seed investor, I’ve screened thousands of decks and also automated part of the process with an AI tool founders can use to get rapid feedback. In that time, and after dozens of conversations with other investors and founders, I’ve come to appreciate that there are proverbial pitch deck sins all founders, especially those at seed and pre-seed, should avoid.
Commit any of these errors, and you risk losing an investor’s interest within a few slides. But if you craft a deck that weaves a compelling and credible narrative — one that captures the investor’s imagination and ambition — you’ll boost your chances of a VC meeting rather than the quiet shuffle into the “no, thanks” rejection bin.
What are these errors? Here are the top seven:
1. Bury the team
Ideas and business models change often at the earliest stages of a startup. Burbn became Instagram. Confinity became PayPal. Snowdevil became Shopify.
But what rarely changes are the founders. At pre-seed, a great team with a good idea will out-execute a weak team with a great one.
So why bury the team slide, which establishes credibility, at the very end of the deck?
2. Obscure the product
Lots of pitch decks “tell,” yet to “show” is far more effective. Dense text and verbose explanations increase cognitive load and make pitch decks harder to digest. Moreover, investors are generalists relative to founders. This means that if a deck can’t show or describe a product simply, it’s more likely to end up in the rejection pile.
3. Skimp on design
It might feel superficial, but polish will always matter because first impressions are hard to undo. A cluttered deck with inconsistent fonts and clashing colors can bias VCs to think that the same lack of care for the deck extends to your product and business. But it doesn’t take much to do better.
A simple design won’t win any awards, but it removes distractions and keeps the focus where it belongs: on your vision.
4. Gloss over the market size
All market sizing exercises are wrong. In 2014 a credible NYU Stern professor underestimated Uber’s market size by focusing on the legacy taxi market. Meanwhile, a renowned VC overestimated Uber’s expansion potential. But no matter the case, they both had a view and assumptions you could test.
Founders lose credibility when they skip this step or throw out numbers without a clear rationale.
5. Make tepid claims or hyperbolic forecasts
In a similar vein, veering too hard in either direction when it comes to forecasts (if you have any) erodes confidence. If a deck shows that a company will go from zero to $100 million in ARR in 12 months it raises eyebrows. Likewise, cautious projections suggest a lack of courage to back yourself, suggesting this might not really be a “VC backable” business.
6. Use boilerplate competitor analysis
All too often, pitch decks use feature comparison checklists or Gartner-style quadrants that lack substance. This is a missed opportunity when it comes to the competition slide. As one founder put it, differentiation alone isn’t enough — investors care about why those points of differentiation matter in a specific domain and how you’ll stay ahead in the long term. Anything less risks being a forgettable, cookie-cutter slide.
7. All facts, no story
Remember, at the earliest stage of a startup, VCs are buying into you and the vision you have for your company. There’s no meaningful traction, no established business model, and often barely a product.
So when a pitch deck leans too heavily on hypothetical customer acquisition costs, lifetime values and other embryonic metrics, it loses its audience before it has a chance to persuade. In contrast, pitch decks that bring a narrative to life — perhaps through lived experience or customer interviews — don’t just inform and explain. They persuade and inspire.
Avoid these “deadly sins” as you craft your deck and you’ll find that making it past the first hurdle to a meeting is much more likely.
Michael Tefula is principal and head of product at Ada Ventures, a pre-seed inclusive venture capital firm. Ada Ventures finds and funds extraordinary talent building breakthrough ideas. Tefula’s investment focus area is economic empowerment; focusing on startups that inclusively transform money, work and skills. In his dual role as head of product, he builds both internal and external technology products and proof of concepts across the founder and VC value chain.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the
Crunchbase Daily.
