In a fundraising environment where inboxes are flooded and “AI-powered” is on seemingly every slide, the startups that break through tend to do a few fundamentals exceptionally well. A strong pitch deck doesn’t just explain what you’re building; it makes a clear case for why the problem matters, why you’re the team to solve it, and why the company can win.
Why pitch decks fail: Too many buzzwords, not enough substance
One of the fastest ways to lose an investor’s attention is to lean on trendy language instead of clear, concrete explanation. Onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt, Medha Agarwal of Defy singled out a common pattern: the more times a founder repeats “AI” in a pitch, the less likely the product meaningfully uses it.
Her point wasn’t that AI is unimportant. It was that truly innovative teams usually don’t need to oversell the technology. When AI is genuinely embedded in the product, founders can describe what the system enables, how it works at a high level, and why that approach creates value—without turning the deck into a buzzword bingo card.
In other words, investors aren’t allergic to AI. They’re allergic to vague claims that can’t be tied to a defensible product, a believable plan, and real customer demand.
The three questions investors use to evaluate a startup
Jyoti Bansal, a founder-turned-investor who has built and sold multiple companies, reduced investor expectations to three core questions. These questions are simple on the surface, but together they create a rigorous framework for what a pitch deck must prove.
1) Is the market big enough—and is the problem worth solving?
The first test is about scope and significance. Bansal starts by asking whether the startup is going after a large enough market to support a major outcome. Investors want to know if the idea has the potential to become a huge company, and whether the problem is truly worth solving.
This is where many decks get stuck in product details too early. If you can’t explain why the pain is acute, persistent, and widely felt, then feature lists and architecture diagrams won’t matter much. The pitch needs to establish, quickly, that the category is real and the opportunity is meaningful.
2) Why is this founder the one who should win?
The second question is about the team’s edge. Bansal told the audience there needs to be something unique about the founder—this can include special skills, relevant experience, or special members on the founding team.
His reasoning is straightforward: if the problem is interesting, many startups will pursue it. In a crowded field, investors want to know what makes your team uniquely capable of winning. The deck should make that case explicitly rather than implying it through job titles or generic statements like “world-class team.”
“Why would you win?” is not an abstract question—it’s a request for your competitive strategy. Are you faster because you’ve lived the problem? Do you have rare distribution advantages? Do you have deep domain expertise that changes the quality of the product? The strongest pitches connect founder-background “why us” to “why now” and “why this approach.”
3) What validation do you have so far?
The third question is about proof. According to Bansal, investors want to see some form of validation—traction with customers, initial customer feedback, revenue, or another credible signal that the startup is solving a real need.
Validation doesn’t have to mean massive revenue, especially early on. But it does need to show that people outside the founding team care. Customer conversations, early pilots, paid usage, retention, repeat engagement, or even clear qualitative feedback can all demonstrate momentum—so long as the startup presents the evidence clearly and honestly.
The ultimate test: Could this be a billion-dollar company?
Bansal noted that the three questions above effectively roll up into one big investor filter: whether the startup has a realistic path to becoming a billion-dollar company.
This doesn’t mean every investor only funds moonshots, or that every company must pursue venture scale. But for venture capital in particular, the pitch deck is evaluated through the lens of potential outcomes. Market size, founder advantage, and early validation are the building blocks investors use to decide whether a startup can reach the scale that matches the risk they’re taking.
How AI startups can differentiate as the market gets crowded
The panel also addressed a practical challenge for founders building with AI: the space is increasingly saturated, and differentiation is getting harder. General claims like “we use AI” no longer stand out; in some categories, they barely qualify as table stakes.
Domain expertise and a clear competitive strategy
Bansal emphasized domain expertise and a well-defined competitive strategy. In a noisy market, investors look for startups that understand the real-world workflow, constraints, and stakeholders in the industry they’re targeting—plus a credible plan for how the product will beat incumbents and withstand fast followers.
For AI companies, this often means explaining not only the model layer, but also the product layer: how the system fits into day-to-day work, how it delivers outcomes users care about, and why it can be deployed and adopted in practice.
Enable new behaviors, not just incremental improvements
Jennifer Neundorfer of January Ventures offered a sharper lens for what catches her attention. She said she looks for companies that unlock new behaviors instead of delivering only incremental improvements to an existing process.
The implication for a pitch deck is important: if your product mainly makes a current workflow slightly faster, you need to show why that improvement is meaningful enough to drive adoption. If your product enables customers to do something they couldn’t do before—or changes what becomes possible at a practical level—that can be a more compelling story.
Practical pitch-deck guidance: Explain the tech, the go-to-market, and the efficiency gains
Agarwal offered tactical advice that founders can directly apply to their decks.
- Show how AI enables the product: Don’t just label the company “AI.” Explain what the technology makes possible inside the product and how it translates into user value.
- Articulate a clear go-to-market strategy: Investors want to understand how the company will acquire customers and grow—who the buyer is, how you reach them, and what makes the motion work.
- Demonstrate why you’ll be more efficient than incumbents: A strong business case includes why your approach creates structural advantages, not just a new feature set.
This kind of specificity does two things at once: it reduces skepticism and it helps investors quickly map the startup to a realistic growth plan.
Don’t hide the competition—acknowledge it
Another recurring pitch mistake is pretending competitors don’t exist. Agarwal emphasized that founders should be transparent about who else is in the market. She warned the audience that some founders lose credibility when they omit competition from their slides.
A competitive slide isn’t only a checklist item; it’s a signal of judgment. Investors know smart markets attract multiple teams, and they expect founders to have a clear-eyed view of alternatives—whether those alternatives are other startups, incumbents, or internal “do nothing” solutions.
A more credible approach is to name relevant competitors and clearly define your differentiation. That differentiation can be product-focused, distribution-focused, or based on domain expertise—but it needs to be stated plainly and defended with logic or evidence.
How founders can keep up in a fast-changing landscape
The panel closed with guidance for navigating a landscape that changes quickly, particularly for AI-focused startups.
Agarwal urged founders to stay current with industry developments, which can shape customer expectations, competitive dynamics, and product possibilities. Neundorfer recommended staying connected to founder networks as a way to share tools and insights—an approach that can help teams learn faster and make better decisions without operating in isolation.
Bansal’s advice was notably direct: “Focus on building your product.” In a market filled with hype cycles, shifting narratives, and constant new releases, shipping a product that customers want can be the most durable strategy.
Conclusion
Across different investment styles and perspectives, the message was consistent: the best pitch decks cut through noise with clarity. They avoid buzzword overload, define a market-sized problem worth solving, explain why the team can win, and show real validation—while being honest about competition and concrete about go-to-market.
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Based on reporting originally published by TechCrunch. See the sources section below.
