Most seed decks run ten to fifteen slides, following the shape popularised by Sequoia Capital and echoed by Y Combinator. This lesson walks through the first six, the half that takes an investor from "who are you" to "how big could this be." Aim for one idea per slide, and let each slide set up the next.
Slide 1: Title
The title slide carries your logo, your one-line description, and little else that competes for attention. This is where the one-liner from the previous lesson lives. A partner should read this slide and already know, in plain language, what you do. Add your name and contact details so the deck stands on its own when it is forwarded.
Slide 2: Problem
State the problem from the customer's point of view, concretely enough that the investor pictures a real person stuck. Do not describe your product here. Describe the pain, who feels it, and what they do today as a poor workaround. One sharp problem beats three vague ones. If you can attach an honest, cited number to the problem's scale, do so.
Slide 3: Solution
Now show how you remove the pain, in one sentence and one image if possible. The solution slide answers the problem slide directly, using the same words. Resist listing every feature. The goal is for the investor to feel the moment where your approach seems obviously right, given the problem you just described.
Slide 4: Product
The product slide makes the solution tangible. Use a real screenshot, a short flow of two or three screens, or a simple diagram of how it works. Show the actual thing, not a mock full of placeholder text. If you have a live product, one well-chosen image of the core action beats a wall of features. Investors are checking whether the thing exists and whether it is usable.
Slide 5: Why now
The why now slide, covered in the narrative lesson, explains the inflection point that makes this the right moment. Point to a real shift: a technology becoming cheap or capable, a regulation opening a market, or a change in customer behaviour. In India this might be digital payments reaching small merchants, cheaper devices and data expanding the online population, or new public digital infrastructure. The test is simple. If this could have been built easily ten years ago, your why now is weak.
Slide 6: Market
The market slide sizes the opportunity honestly. Many founders reach for a giant top-down number, such as the entire industry's value, which investors distrust. A stronger approach is bottom up: the number of realistic customers multiplied by what each can pay, built from assumptions you can defend. Show your total market, but also the reachable segment you will serve first, which connects back to your wedge.
Be careful with Indian market numbers specifically. India is now the world's third-largest startup ecosystem, with more than 2.4 lakh startups recognised by the government's DPIIT, but a large ecosystem is not the same as a large paying market for your product. A population of over a billion does not equal a billion paying customers, and sophisticated investors will discount decks that confuse the two. Define who genuinely has the problem, the money, and the willingness to pay, then size that.
How the six connect
Read in sequence, these slides form a chain: here is a real problem, here is our solution, here is the working product, here is why this moment is the right one, and here is how large the opportunity is. Each slide should make the next feel inevitable. Before you polish visuals, read the six titles alone, top to bottom, and check that they already tell a coherent story. If the skeleton reads well, the meat will too.