The first half of the deck earns interest. The second half converts interest into conviction and, eventually, a term sheet. These six slides move from how you make money to exactly what you are asking for. Keep the same discipline: one idea per slide, honest numbers, no filler.
Slide 7: Business model
Explain how you make money in plain terms: who pays, how much, how often, and why that pricing makes sense. State whether you charge a subscription, a transaction fee, a commission, or something else. If your unit economics are strong, preview them here, such as what it costs to acquire a customer versus what that customer is worth over time. Avoid burying the model in jargon. An investor should be able to repeat it back in one line.
Slide 8: Traction
Traction is the most scrutinised slide, and it gets its own lesson later in this course. In short, show evidence that the market wants what you built: revenue, active users, growth rate, retention, or signed pipeline. A clean chart that goes up and to the right, with real numbers and clear time axes, is worth more than adjectives. If you are pre-revenue, show the strongest honest signals you have and label them as such. Never dress up weak metrics as strong ones, because it destroys trust the moment it is caught.
Slide 9: Competition
Every real market has competition, including the status quo of doing nothing. Claiming you have none reads as naivety. Show the landscape honestly, then explain your genuine edge on the dimensions that matter to customers. A simple positioning grid or a comparison table works well, as long as the axes are meaningful and not chosen just to place you alone in the winning corner. Name real competitors, including incumbents and informal alternatives.
Slide 10: Team
At the seed stage, investors bet heavily on people, so this slide matters more than founders expect. Highlight the founders and any key early hires, focusing on the specific reasons this team can win this market, which is your founder-market fit. Show relevant experience, past building or shipping, and domain depth. Skip long lists of logos that do not connect to the problem. A short, sharp reason each founder is unusually suited beats a crowded slide of headshots.
Slide 11: Financials
At seed, financials are a credible forecast, not a promise of precision. Show a few years of projected revenue and its key drivers, along with your current burn and runway. The point is to demonstrate that you understand what drives your business and that you think in defensible assumptions. Wildly hockey-stick numbers with no basis hurt you. Investors are testing your judgement more than your spreadsheet.
Slide 12: The ask
End with a clear ask. State how much you are raising, roughly what you will spend it on, and what milestones that money will buy, such as reaching a revenue level, a user target, or a product launch that sets up the next round. You do not have to disclose valuation on the slide, but you must be specific about the amount and its purpose. A vague ask signals a founder who has not planned, so make this slide decisive.
Landing the close
The second half succeeds when it answers the investor's real question: if I give you this money, is this team likely to turn it into a much larger company? Business model shows you can earn, traction shows the market agrees, competition shows you see clearly, team shows you can execute, financials show judgement, and the ask shows a plan. Rehearse the handoff from one slide to the next so the pitch feels like one argument rather than six disconnected claims.