Every dealbreaker in the library
Slide-level flaws serious enough to close the deck. Ship your pitch past these first.
An investor reads this and still has no idea what you sell, to whom, or in what category.
The investor knows your name and nothing else. If they close the deck here (they might), you've told them zero.
Every deck says this. It signals the founder hasn't found a wedge specific enough to attack.
'There's no AI-native CRM' is the absence of your product, not a customer pain. Investors see through this.
A feature list tells the investor you don't know which one matters. They can't pick your wedge for you.
A 'why now' that could be pasted into any deck in the room is not a why now.
'The time is right' is what founders say when they can't name the shift. Investors read it as a red flag.
Every category has a trillion-dollar top line. It tells the investor you haven't done the work to find your wedge.
If TAM = SAM = SOM you're saying you can sell to every customer on earth day one. Nobody believes that.
'Freemium with upsell' is a strategy label, not a business model. Investors need to see cash flow into the company.
Investors know marketplace take rates trend to the cost of the buyer's alternative. A 20% headline take rate signals you haven't tested it.
Page views, subs, downloads: none of them tell the investor whether people are getting enough value to pay.
Anything past today is a projection. Labeling it 'traction' erodes the founder's credibility for the rest of the deck.
At pre-seed/seed you cannot fund five acquisition motions. Investors read this as 'we don't know what works'.
'Hire a VP Sales' is what founders write when they haven't sold. Investors know the first 10–20 customers must be founder-closed.
Every investor has heard 'no competitors' and knows it means either the market isn't real or the founder hasn't looked.
A checkmark table where you win everything says you haven't actually looked at the competition. Investors know this.
'Full-stack engineer' and 'loves building' describe every founder ever. The investor can't tell why you'll beat 20 other teams attacking this.
Solo + generic = investor wonders why nobody else joined you. That's the read you have to break.
Calling a 600× jump 'conservative' costs you credibility for the entire rest of the meeting.
'Aggressive hiring' + 'profitable at scale' with no burn schedule tells the investor you haven't modeled runway. That kills the round.
'Thank you' is a slide, not an ask. The investor can't picture what their check buys.
That phrase tells the investor you don't have a plan for the money. It's the single most common ask-slide mistake.