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How to Make a Deck
How to Make a Deck
Teardowns · 24 interactive slides

Weak vs. strong, slide by slide.

Every teardown shows a realistic pitch deck slide in two versions, the one a first-time founder ships, and the one that earns the meeting. Click the hotspots to see what an investor reacts to, and flip the toggle to see the fix.

Start here, guided walkthrough →or browse the 24 teardowns below
01 · 2 teardowns

Cover

narrative

The tagline that says nothing

A cover should tell a stranger what you do in one line.

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design

Logo soup instead of a positioning line

Your logo isn't your positioning. Say what you do.

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02 · 2 teardowns

Problem

narrative

Three paragraphs about a 'broken industry'

Investors buy specific pain, not abstract complaints.

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narrative

A problem slide that's really a solution slide

Describe the pain without naming your product.

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03 · 2 teardowns

Solution

narrative · design

A feature firehose instead of a wedge

Show the one thing you do that changes the customer's day.

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narrative

Explaining HOW before WHAT it does for the customer

Lead with outcome. Save architecture for the appendix.

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04 · 2 teardowns

Why now

narrative

'AI is having a moment'

Why now = the specific shift that made this impossible last year.

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narrative · data

'The time is right' with no proof

'Why now' needs an inflection you can point to, not a vibe.

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05 · 2 teardowns

Market

data

'$1.2T TAM' with no path to it

Investors distrust top-down TAMs. Show the wedge.

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data

SAM and TAM are the same number

If your SAM equals your TAM, one of them is wrong.

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06 · 2 teardowns

Business model

data

'Freemium with enterprise upsell' and no numbers

Business model without price and unit economics is a wish.

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data

20% take rate on a market that pays 3%

Your take rate has to survive the buyer's alternative.

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07 · 2 teardowns

Traction

data

Vanity metrics with no trend

One honest curve of a metric that matters.

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data · narrative

A hockey-stick projection labeled 'traction'

Traction is what happened. Projections belong on the financials slide.

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08 · 2 teardowns

Go-to-market

narrative

'Everywhere, everyone' GTM

One channel, one first customer, one repeatable motion.

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narrative

'We'll hire a VP Sales'

The founder has to prove the motion works before hiring anyone to run it.

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09 · 2 teardowns

Competition

narrative

'No direct competitors'

'No competition' means no market or no research.

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narrative

The checkmark-table nobody believes

Checkmark tables where you win every row lose every investor.

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10 · 2 teardowns

Team

narrative

'Passionate team' with generic headshots

Show why THIS team uniquely wins THIS problem.

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narrative

Solo founder with no earned advantage

If you're solo, explain the specific unfair advantage.

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11 · 2 teardowns

Financials

data

The unexplained hockey stick

Projections should be aggressive AND defensible.

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data

Big spend, no runway math

Financials without cash-out date are financials investors can't underwrite.

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12 · 2 teardowns

The ask

narrative

The buried ask

Amount, use of funds, and the milestone it buys, legible in 3 seconds.

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narrative

A number, but no use of funds

The check is only meaningful if you show what it buys.

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