Title: Nailing Your Pitch, with Startmate’s Emma Grife
Session context
- Format: Comprehensive masterclass + live Q&A with slide examples
- Speaker: Emma Grife, Accelerator Lead at Startmate; ex-VC (2000+ pitch decks reviewed annually)
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmagrife/
- Goal: Master both pitch deck creation and investor meeting dynamics
Why pitch decks matter
The investor reality
- Volume: VCs see 1000+ pitch decks per year, invest in only a few
- Purpose: Get investors interested enough to want a second conversation
- Not comprehensive: Don’t need to answer every question in the deck
- First impression: Bare minimum to get in the door
What makes investors excited (3 pillars)
- Desirable: Evidence customers really want what you’ve built
- Feasible: Realistic to build and bring to market
- Viable: Big enough opportunity for unicorn-scale business
The storytelling test
Why it matters: Best storytellers get:
- Better investors (can communicate vision compellingly)
- Better customers (empathize with pain points)
- Better team members (inspire through clear communication)
Balance required: Logic + emotion (data + excitement)
The 10-slide pitch deck framework
Essential slides (in suggested order)
- Title slide: Logo, contact, one-liner
- Vision: Ambitious future state
- Team: Why you’re the right people
- Problem: Customer pain point
- Validation: Evidence problem is real
- Solution: How you solve it
- Traction: Progress to date
- Market size: Opportunity scale
- Go-to-market: How you’ll reach customers
- Competition: Competitive landscape
Flexibility: Order can change based on your story flow
Slide-by-slide breakdown
Slide 1: Title
Must include:
- Company logo
- Contact information (email, phone)
- One-liner: Clear sentence explaining what you do
Why critical: Investors should understand your business from slide 1 Avoid: Non-informative first slides that leave investors guessing
Slide 2: Vision
Purpose: Show ambitious long-term thinking Include: How you see the future differently; 5-10 year impact vision VC perspective: “Can my 10-20% ownership return my entire fund?” Key: Must show commitment to venture-scale outcome
Slide 3: Team
Most important at early stage: When you lack customers/revenue, you ARE the product Focus on: Achievements relevant to this specific problem Include: Domain expertise, lived experience, ability to attract talent VC question: “Do I want to spend time with this person? Will they run through walls?”
Example: FMCG automation founder with 10 years managing $60M trade spend at Nestle
Slide 4: Problem
Approach: Use customer stories or process examples Quantify: Time wasted, money lost, inefficiencies created VC lens: “Is this a hair-on-fire problem?” (extremely acute and painful) Format: Before state that’s clearly broken/frustrating
Slide 5: Validation
Evidence types: Customer interviews, waitlist signups, early pilots, quotes Purpose: Prove this problem needs solving urgently Quality over quantity: Deep insights matter more than interview count Include: Specific learnings that shaped your solution
Slide 6: Solution
Structure: Paint before/after picture Include: ROI numbers when possible (time saved, money saved, efficiency gained) VC question: “Does this actually solve the customer problem? Is it 10x better?” Focus: Outcome benefits, not feature lists
Slide 7: Traction
Critical: Always include numbers, even if small No numbers = assumption of no progress Must include: Timeframe context
- “20 customer interviews in 2 years” = not impressive
- “20 customer interviews last week” = impressive
Types: Product milestones, revenue, partnerships, pre-sales, user metrics VC focus: “Is this company growing fast? How much progress?”
Pitch deck best practices
What NOT to do
- Legal disclaimers (unnecessary)
- NDAs (slows process, not needed)
- Too many adjectives (sounds like exaggeration)
- More than 20 words per slide
- Complicated infographics
- Spelling mistakes (surprisingly common)
What TO do
- Get professional design help if needed
- Keep to ~10 slides maximum
- Use headings that tell the story
- Make slides readable in 30 seconds
- Include concrete data over opinions
- Focus on customer value creation
Advanced technique: Story-telling headings
Instead of: “Problem” Use: “FMCG industry wastes $2B annually on inefficient trade promotions”
Investor meeting structure (30 minutes)
Time breakdown
- 5 minutes: Introductions
- 5 minutes: Your overview (“Tell me about what you’ve built”)
- 20 minutes: Q&A (most important part)
Meeting preparation
Research: Know the VC firm, their portfolio, investment thesis Tailor: Adjust technical depth based on their background Focus: Value creation, not tiny details Avoid: Marching through deck slide-by-slide
During the meeting
Use deck as reference: Pull up slides when helpful for explanation Track questions: Write down what they ask (reveals pitch gaps) Be concise: Quantify everything, avoid adjectives Stay high-level: Don’t get lost in implementation details
Presentation vs. reading decks
Presentation deck (3-minute pitch)
- Mostly visuals
- Minimal words
- You tell the story
- Focus on key slides: problem, validation, solution, traction
Reading deck (investor sharing)
- Still max 20 words per slide
- Slightly more context than presentation version
- Can be sent before/after meetings
- Used for warm introductions
Special considerations
Early-stage founders (validation phase)
Focus majority on: What you’ve learned from customer conversations Combine slides: Vision + product roadmap, market + validation Emphasize: Speed of learning, customer insights, iteration ability
Crowded markets
Shift focus: Less time on problem (already established) Emphasize: Unique insight, differentiated approach, why you’ll win Address: What others have missed, your unfair advantage
Forecasting (avoid at early stage)
Why bad: No credibility, especially 5-year projections Alternative: Show pipeline (“2 paying customers, 20 in pipeline”) Focus: Concrete progress over speculative projections
Key success patterns
Top 3 consistent winners
- Unique customer insight: What you know that others don’t
- Team authority: Why you’re best person to solve this
- Speed/traction: Quantified progress with timeframes
The “top 10 expert” test
Goal: Become top 10 expert in the world on your customer Not academic expertise: Deep understanding of customer problems/behavior Evidence: Quality of customer conversations, insights gained, iteration speed
Common Q&A insights
Feasibility for AI startups
- Less critical than hardware/deep tech
- Assume AI solutions are feasible
- Focus on why/what, not technical how
B2C vs. B2B traction
- No universal “right” number of interviews
- Quality of insights > quantity of conversations
- Case-by-case based on industry and problem complexity
Two-sided marketplaces
- Understand both sides deeply
- Focus on who’s paying you
- Address pain points for both user types
Immediate action items
- Create your one-liner: Clear sentence explaining what you do
- Identify your spike: Which of the 3 success patterns (insight/team/traction) is strongest?
- Quantify everything: Replace adjectives with numbers and timeframes
- Practice the 30-second test: Can someone understand each slide in 30 seconds?
- Prepare for investor roulette: Use as practice for pitch night feedback
Upcoming opportunities
- Investor Roulette: 15-minute slots with investors for feedback
- Pitch Night: 3-minute presentations to founder community
- Accelerator Info Session: Tomorrow 5pm for application details
Bottom line: Great pitch decks are clear, concise stories that prove you understand your customer better than anyone else and can execute faster than competitors. Focus on evidence over adjectives, progress over perfection.