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- ♞ Common Problems: Problem Slide
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What is the most common problem with the problem slide?
Your problem slide is arguably the most important in your deck. The reality is that no matter how great a product or solution is, if you aren’t solving a real problem and there isn’t a real need or demand for the product, then investors won’t care.
As an aside, this is why Marvel movies did so great in the Infinity Saga compared to post-Infinity Saga or DC. Early Marvel movies did a great job of building villains that people genuinely connected to and cared about. Most Marvel fans cared about Thanos or Loki in a way that few other movie franchises have succeeded. This is a great lesson to learn when pitching. If you can get people to connect to and care about the problem, then they will automatically care about the solution.
If you are scared of a problem, then you will want to see it fixed.
What are the most common mistakes I see on the problem slide?
Presenting the wrong number of problems - Your problem slide should either have a single big problem or a big problem with three subproblems. For 99% of founders, there is no third option. The data is clear that when you go with more than 3 problems, there is a significant negative impact on your chances of raising. People just don’t believe (i) that there can be so many important problems, (ii) that you could solve 4+ problems at once. So never present more than three problems.
No relation to the problem - Many startups solve specific issues for specific markets. If you want investors to care, you need to be able to tie the problem back to something that investors can understand and grasp onto. If you just say that you are making insurance offices 10% more efficient, most investors won’t care. But if you say, Have you ever had to wait hours to get a report back from a co-worker? With our new system, you can generate those reports instantly. We can summarize insurance reports in under 60 seconds… Even if they don’t work in insurance, they will understand the core problem.
When building your deck, make sure to avoid these common problems!
Does your deck feature any of these common problems? |
Are you looking to grow your business? Here is how I can help:
📱 Book a Strategy Call to get 1:1 feedback on your pitch, pitch deck and/or fundraising strategy. (If you need general startup advice, then reply to this email, and I’ll let you know if/how I can help.)
Onwards and Upwards,
