How to Present to Investors

paulgraham.com

Startups

12 min read → 55 sec

Advice for early-stage startup founders on presenting to investors in a short pitch. It focuses on explaining the product quickly, showing user demand, using clear slides, and projecting confidence without pretending maturity.

A strong investor pitch does two things fast. It explains what you built and why users want it.

Clarity beats preamble. Candor beats corporate polish.

Say what the startup does in the first sentence.

Investors get frustrated by preambles.

Start with a narrow, concrete description.

Then expand by successive approximations.

Spend most of a short pitch on the product and problem.

Do competitors, resumes, and business models later.

A demo explains the product better than words.

Set up the problem briefly first.

Show demo features in problem-solving order.

Do not give a catalog or screen tour.

Use one main speaker, or at most two.

A founder can add brief technical input.

Talk slowly and clearly to the audience.

If it feels too slow, it is about right.

Confidence should be implicit.

Do not say "we're passionate" or "our product is great."

Do not pretend to be more mature than you are.

Investors detect bullshit better than founders produce it.

Keep slides under 20 words if possible.

Never read them aloud.

Use no more than four or five specific numbers.

Numbers like 12 page views stick in memory.

Tell stories about real user needs.

Your own need can stand in for demand.

Use a memorable phrase near the beginning.

A concrete analogy helps investors remember you.

Put competitors and resumes at the end.

List the top 3 competitors in one sentence each.

Discuss monetization briefly.

Early business models are usually wrong, so focus on the important problem.