I’ve seen it all. The good, the bad, and the downright delusional. Over the past five years, I’ve personally reviewed more than a thousand pitch decks from AI startups. From my time building and selling two companies, RemoteTeam and MovieLaLa, to my 200+ angel investments in companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI, my life revolves around identifying the next big thing. And let me tell you, the signal-to-noise ratio in the world of AI startups is getting worse, not better.
Everyone and their dog is slapping an ".ai" domain on their idea and claiming they’re building the future. But when you peek under the hood, most of it is just smoke and mirrors. A fancy UI wrapped around an OpenAI API call. A “proprietary” model that’s really just a fine-tuned version of an open-source project. It’s exhausting.
But every now and then, a deck lands in my inbox that makes me sit up and pay attention. A deck that cuts through the hype and presents a clear, compelling vision for a real business. These are the companies that get my money. And I’m writing this to show you how they do it.
Stop Trying to Hire More AI Engineers
Here’s a secret the VCs won’t tell you: the key to winning the AI talent war isn't hiring more people. It’s increasing the talent density of your existing team. I’d rather have a small, elite team of 3-4 absolute killers than a bloated team of 20 mediocre engineers. My first successful exit, RemoteTeam, was a team of 5. We out-executed teams ten times our size because every single person was an A-player.
When I see a pitch deck with a slide bragging about their 30-person engineering team, it’s a red flag. It tells me they’re focused on vanity metrics, not on what actually matters: output. I want to see a slide that shows me the incredible things your small team has already built. Show me the impressive open-source contributions of your founding engineers. Tell me about the time your CTO single-handedly solved a problem that a team at Google couldn’t crack.
That’s what talent density looks like. It’s not about headcount. It’s about impact.
Your “Problem” Slide is Probably a Lie
Most founders think the “Problem” slide is easy. Just state a big, obvious problem, and you’re done. Right? Wrong. The problem with most “Problem” slides is that they describe a symptom, not the root cause. Or they describe a problem that is huge, but not one that anyone is actually willing to pay to solve.
One of the most common mistakes I see is what I call the “saving the world” problem. The deck claims their AI will solve world hunger, cure cancer, and bring about world peace. It’s an instant turn-off. It shows a complete lack of focus and a misunderstanding of how businesses are built. You build a great business by solving a very specific, painful problem for a very specific group of people. Once you’ve done that, you can expand your vision.
Don’t tell me you’re going to “revolutionize the healthcare industry.” Tell me you’re going to reduce the time it takes for radiologists to read a mammogram by 50%, with 99% accuracy. That’s a real problem, with a real, measurable impact. And it’s a problem that hospitals will pay a lot of money to solve.
“We Use AI” is Not a Solution
This might be the most important point in this entire article. Having AI is not a product. It’s a feature. It’s a tool. Your solution is the thing you do for your customer. The AI is just how you do it. And frankly, I don’t care that much about the how. I care about the what.
I’ve seen hundreds of decks that spend half their time talking about their model architecture, their training data, and their MLOps pipeline. I get it. You’re proud of your tech. But your investors are not your PhD advisors. We don’t care about the technical details unless they give you a massive, sustainable competitive advantage. And even then, you need to explain it in simple terms.
Instead of a slide full of complex diagrams, show me a demo. Show me the product in action. Show me a customer whose life is better because of your product. Tell me a story. One of the best pitches I ever saw was from a company that used AI to help farmers monitor their crops. They didn’t talk about their computer vision models. They showed me a video of a farmer, sitting at his kitchen table, looking at a dashboard on his iPad. He pointed to a red spot on a map of his field and said, “This little red spot here? Your app just saved me $50,000.” That’s a solution.
Show Me the Scars (Traction)
Traction is where the rubber meets the road. It’s where you prove that you’re not just a team with an idea, but a business with customers. And yet, it’s the slide that founders get wrong most often. They either show vanity metrics, or they show no metrics at all.
Vanity metrics are things like website visits, app downloads, or free trial sign-ups. They look good on a chart that goes up and to the right, but they don’t mean anything. I want to see metrics that show me you have a real business. I want to see:
- Revenue: Are people paying you? How much? Is it growing?
- Engagement: Are people actually using your product? How often? What features are they using?
- Retention: Are your customers sticking around? Or are they churning after a month?
And don’t just show me the numbers. Tell me the story behind them. Tell me about the pivots you had to make. Tell me about the features you built that nobody used. Tell me about the time you almost ran out of money. Show me the scars. It shows me you’re resilient, and that you’ve learned from your mistakes.
Your Market Isn’t “Everyone”
Market sizing is another area where founders tend to get a little…creative. I’ve seen decks that claim their Total Addressable Market (TAM) is in the trillions of dollars. It’s a classic rookie mistake. Your market is not “everyone who owns a smartphone” or “every business in the United States.”
I want to see a bottoms-up market analysis. Start with the number of potential customers. Then, estimate how much each of those customers would be willing to pay for your solution. That’s your TAM. It’s a much more credible and realistic number than the top-down, “we’ll capture 1% of a trillion-dollar market” approach.
And be honest about the competition. Every market has competition. If you tell me you have no competitors, it either means you haven’t done your homework, or there’s no market for your product. I want to see a slide that shows you understand the competitive landscape, and that you have a clear plan to win.
The Ask: Don’t Be Shy
Finally, we get to the ask. This is where you tell me how much money you’re raising, and what you’re going to do with it. And yet, so many founders get this wrong. They’re either too timid, or they’re too greedy.
Don’t be afraid to ask for what you need. If you need $2 million to get to your next milestone, ask for $2 million. Don’t ask for $1 million because you think it’s an easier sell. It’s not. It just tells me you don’t have a clear plan. I want to see a detailed breakdown of how you’re going to spend the money. How much is going to product development? How much to sales and marketing? How much to hiring? Be specific.
And be clear about what you’re going to achieve with that money. What are the key milestones you’re going to hit? How will this funding round get you to the next level? I’m not just investing in your company. I’m investing in your plan.
It’s Not About the Deck
I’ve spent this whole article talking about pitch decks. But here’s the final secret: it’s not about the deck. The deck is just a document. It’s a conversation starter. What I’m really investing in is you. The founder. The team.
Your pitch deck is your opportunity to tell me your story. To show me your vision. To convince me that you are the person to make this happen. So don’t just fill it with buzzwords and vanity metrics. Fill it with your passion, your personality, and your unique insights.
Tell me a story that I can’t ignore. If you can do that, you’ll have a much better chance of getting my attention, and my money.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I apply this thinking to my own situation?
Start by identifying the core principle behind the opinion, not the specific example. Then ask yourself: does this principle apply to my context? If yes, test it in a small, low-risk way before going all in.
How has this view evolved over time?
My thinking on most topics has changed significantly over the years. Early in my career, I held many conventional views that experience proved wrong. I try to update my beliefs when the evidence changes.
Do all experts agree with this view?
No, and that's fine. The best ideas in business are often contrarian. I share my perspective based on my experience and data, but I encourage you to seek out opposing viewpoints and form your own conclusions.