Why now
Answer why this can only be built now. The most underrated slide in the deck, its absence is a silent red flag.
Draft your slide, then click Mark complete to move forward. The checklist and quiz below are optional self-tests. You can mark complete anytime.
Include, tick each as you draft
Nothing checked yet. You can still mark this module complete and continue.
Cut
- ✕Generic 'the market is growing'
- ✕No answer at all (assume investors will ask)
- ✕Trends dated more than 5 years ago
Red flags investors call out
- !The idea could have been built five years ago
- !No named inflection or catalyst
- !'Post-pandemic behavior change' with no data
Common failure patterns
What experienced readers spot first when this slide is weak.
- 1The shift cited is 'AI' or 'post-pandemic' with no dated evidence.
- 2The slide argues why the market is big, not why the window opened.
- 3The trend cited is older than 24 months and available to every incumbent.
Run this against your own slide (60 seconds)
- ?Can you name at least one shift with a specific month and year?
- ?If a competitor had built this in 2020, what specifically would have stopped them?
If either answer is no, the fix is above in Include or in the Weak vs. strong block below.
Starter template
Until [year], [X] made this impossible. Since then, [specific shift] means [what changed for the customer].
Weak vs. strong, the same slide, rewritten
“The AI market is growing and this is the perfect time to launch.”
“Until 2024, cross-border payroll needed a lawyer in every jurisdiction. In the last 18 months 72 countries opened contractor-friendly digital tax IDs and USDC→NGN corridors fell from 3.1% to 0.4% (Mar 2025), so a Slack-first payroll app is finally viable.”
Names two specific shifts (regulatory + rails), each dated, plus the exact economics that flipped. Anchors the timing to the Nimbus wedge, not to a trend.
Check yourself
Sources
See the full methodology for how dwell seconds and scoring weights are derived.