--- name: pitch-deck-builder description: Draft, rewrite or review a startup pitch deck with the MrAdib 12-slide framework by John Adib. Use when building an investor deck, tightening one slide, or preparing a seed or pre-seed raise. --- # Pitch Deck Builder (the MrAdib framework) You help a founder build a pitch deck that answers the twelve questions investors ask, one per slide. Follow the framework below. ## Workflow 1. Ask for the facts: company, product, customers, market, competition, traction, business model, team, and the amount being raised. Never invent any of them. 2. Draft one slide at a time, in order: the slide title, one headline sentence, at most four bullets, and speaker notes. 3. Check every slide against its pass test and rewrite until it passes. 4. Apply a reorder rule only when its condition is true. 5. Finish with the weakest slides and the evidence that would strengthen each. ## Slides ### 01. Cover Question: What is this company? What it is: The first thing an investor reads. Within seconds they should know the company name and what it does, in words a stranger would use. Put on it: - Company name and logo - One plain sentence: what you do, and for whom - A product visual, if you have one - Founder name and contact details Leave off: - A slogan that fits any company - An agenda slide - A wall of logos or a paragraph of text Pass test: A stranger reads only this slide and can tell a friend what you do. ### 02. Vision Question: What does this become if it works? What it is: The ambition one level above the first product. It tells an investor the opportunity is bigger than what ships this year. Sequoia opens its outline the same way: the company in one declarative sentence. Put on it: - One strong vision sentence - The future state you want to create - One image or line that makes that future tangible Leave off: - A list of features - Three vision statements - Buzzwords with no picture behind them Pass test: Bigger than the solution on slide 5, and still believable. ### 03. Problem Question: What painful problem exists today? What it is: The pain you are solving, on its own, before any product appears. If the investor does not feel the problem, nothing after this slide lands. Put on it: - The core problem in one sentence - How severe it is, and how often it happens - How people cope today, and where that breaks - Evidence: data, quotes, or what you saw yourself Leave off: - Introducing the product early - A problem nobody pays to solve - Ten problems on one slide. Pick one. Pass test: The investor nods before they see a single screen. ### 04. Customers Question: Who has this problem? What it is: Exactly who you serve, and who pays. Marketplaces and B2B2C products have more than one group, so name each one before the solution appears. Put on it: - The primary customer, described so you could find them tomorrow - Other groups: the buyer and the user, both sides of a marketplace - Who pays and who uses, when they differ - The one need that matters most to each group Leave off: - “Everyone” or “SMEs” - Demographics with no job to be done - Mixing the first customer with the long-term market Pass test: You can name ten real people or companies that match the description. ### 05. Solution and why now Question: What are we building, and why now? What it is: How the product removes the pain from slide 3, and the change in the world that makes it possible today. Why now lives here, so the solution and its timing are one story. Put on it: - The solution in one sentence - How it works, in three steps at most - What becomes dramatically easier, cheaper, faster or better - A screenshot or mockup - Why now: the technology, behaviour, regulation or market shift that makes this possible today. For AI-native companies, the capability that did not exist before. Leave off: - A feature list - The technology before the outcome - A why now that was just as true five years ago Pass test: Maps line by line to the problem, and the why now names a specific change. Reorder rule: Timing is the story, whether a new capability, a rule change, or a shift in behaviour. Split why now out of Solution into its own slide, directly after it. ### 06. Market Question: How big can this get? What it is: Proof that solving the problem supports a large business. Build the number from the bottom up: customers times what they pay. Put on it: - TAM, SAM, and the beachhead you start in - A bottom-up calculation: number of customers times price per year - Growth, and the trends driving it - Where you expand once the beachhead is won Leave off: - One giant number from an industry report - “1% of a $50B market” - A market that is big but out of your reach Pass test: The bottom-up number and the top-down number roughly agree. ### 07. Competition Question: Who else solves this, and why do we win? What it is: The alternatives a customer has today, including doing nothing, and the two or three dimensions where you are different and hard to copy. Put on it: - Direct competitors - Indirect alternatives: a spreadsheet, an agency, doing nothing - Two or three dimensions where you differ - Your structural advantage or defensibility Leave off: - “We have no competitors” - A 2x2 where you sit alone in the top right - Trashing the competition Pass test: You can say what a customer does today without you, and why they would switch. ### 08. Go-to-market Question: How will we reach customers? What it is: How you get the first customers, then scale distribution. At an early stage this is a credible hypothesis, not a proven engine. Put on it: - The first channel, and why it fits this customer - The launch plan - Partnerships, the sales motion if B2B, community and referrals - The rollout by segment or geography, and how it evolves as you grow Leave off: - Every channel on one slide - “Viral growth” as the plan - Hiding the cost of acquisition when you know it Pass test: The first 10 customers by name, the next 100 by channel. ### 09. Traction Question: What proof do we have that this works? What it is: The strongest evidence you actually have. At pre-seed, traction does not have to mean revenue. Pilots, a waitlist, customer interviews and shipped product all count. Put on it: - Users, revenue or growth, when you have them - Waitlist, pilots, letters of intent, partnerships - Retention and engagement - Customer interviews, MVP progress, experiments and their results - One chart or three numbers, each with a date Leave off: - Vanity metrics: sign-ups with no usage - Weak metrics manufactured to fill the slide - Cumulative charts that hide flat growth Pass test: Every number has a date and a definition. Reorder rule: Your numbers are the strongest card you hold. Put Traction right after Solution, so the evidence lands before the market maths. ### 10. Business model Question: How does the company make money? What it is: The economic engine, simply: who pays, what they pay for, and how it repeats. Early on, parts of this are hypotheses. Say which. Put on it: - Who pays - What they pay for - Pricing, and the model: subscription, commission, transaction - The recurring revenue you expect - Unit economics, when they are real and meaningful Leave off: - Three revenue models at once - Projections with no assumptions behind them - Hiding that the pricing is still a hypothesis Pass test: An investor can work out the revenue from one customer using this slide alone. ### 11. Team Question: Why is this the team to build it? What it is: Founder-market fit and the ability to execute. Not a CV for each person, but why this particular group has an edge on this particular problem. Put on it: - Founders and key people, with the experience that matters here - Domain expertise: what you know or have done that others have not - Technical, product and commercial strengths, and who covers each - Achievements directly relevant to this company - Advisors who are genuinely involved Leave off: - Full CVs - Logos with no link to the problem - Advisors who took one call Pass test: Each founder's line answers: why this person, for this problem. Reorder rule: There is no product yet and the bet is on the founders. Put Team right after Solution. At pre-seed, investors back people first. ### 12. The Ask Question: How much are we raising, and what does it achieve? What it is: The amount, and what it buys. The number matters less than the milestones it reaches before the next round. Put on it: - The amount you are raising - Broad use of funds - Expected runway, usually 12 to 18 months - The milestones this round is meant to reach - Where the company stands before the next financing Leave off: - A range instead of a number - A pie chart of percentages with no milestone attached - An ask that stops short of the next fundable milestone Pass test: The investor can see exactly what their money buys. Example: Raising £750K. 18 months of runway. Launch, first 10,000 customers, £X ARR, then a second market. ## When to change the order - Traction moves up. When: Your numbers are the strongest card you hold. Move: Put Traction right after Solution, so the evidence lands before the market maths. - Team moves up. When: There is no product yet and the bet is on the founders. Move: Put Team right after Solution. At pre-seed, investors back people first. - Why now gets its own slide. When: Timing is the story, whether a new capability, a rule change, or a shift in behaviour. Move: Split why now out of Solution into its own slide, directly after it. ## Optional slides - Product demo: The product is visual and one screen says more than a paragraph. - Why now: Timing is the story. See the reorder rules. - Financial plan: You have revenue and a model an investor can check. - Roadmap: The next 18 months have clear, dated milestones. - Appendix: Detail an investor may ask for: unit economics, pipeline, architecture. Source and full guide: https://mradib.com/pitch-deck