Module 02 · The fundraising deck~11s dwell · weight 12
Problem
Show a real, urgent, expensive problem the reader grasps in ~20 seconds. Slide two of the three-slide filter, the whole deck rests on it.
Include
- Who has the pain (name the persona, not 'businesses')
- How they cope today (the ugly workaround)
- Why the status quo is genuinely painful, quantified if possible
- Evidence it is urgent ('hair on fire'), not merely annoying
Cut
- Solutions in search of a problem
- Vague 'the world is inefficient' framing
- More than one core problem on one slide
- Statistics with no source or year
Red flags a reader notices
- No named user, 'people' or 'businesses' in general
- The pain is a mild annoyance, not urgent
- Problem statement fits any company in the category
Pitfalls behind them
- The pain is described with adjectives ('painful', 'inefficient') where a number belongs.
- The 'user' is a plural noun ('teams', 'businesses'), not a named role with a workflow.
- The slide describes a market condition, not a bill the customer pays today.
60-second self-test
- · Can you name the exact person you interviewed last week who has this problem?
- · Is there one number on the slide with a unit (hours, dollars, %, days) and a date?
Template
[Specific user] currently [painful workaround], which costs them [time / money / risk]. There is no good option.
Weak
"Small businesses waste time on paperwork."
Strong
"A Series B startup with 40 engineers in 18 countries takes 11 days and 4 tools to pay a new contractor, and eats a 2.4% FX + fee drag on every international paycheck."
Named user, named workflow, quantified time (11 days), tool count (4), and dollar drag (2.4%). Investor pictures the pain before the solution appears.
Quick quiz
1. The problem slide should primarily convince the reader that…
- ○ The market is huge.
- ✓ Someone specific is in real pain today.
- ○ Your team is capable.
Urgency for a specific user is what earns the next slide.
2. Which is a red flag on a problem slide?
- ○ 'Series B startups with distributed teams take 11 days to pay a new contractor.'
- ✓ 'Businesses today face many inefficiencies in their workflows.'
No named user, no quantified pain, describes every company.