Entrepreneurship Capstone: How to Build a Pitch Deck and Crush Investor Q&A

Most startup founders think their idea is the hardest part. It’s not. The real challenge? Getting someone to believe in it enough to give you money. That’s where your pitch deck and investor Q&A come in. A great idea with a weak pitch dies. A solid pitch for a good idea? That gets funded.

What a Pitch Deck Actually Needs

A pitch deck isn’t a business plan. It’s not a 40-slide PowerPoint full of text. It’s a visual story that answers one question: Why should I invest $500,000 in you right now?

Top investors see 50+ decks a week. Yours has 7 seconds to grab attention. Here’s what actually works:

• Problem - Not ‘there’s a market,’ but ‘57% of small businesses lose $12,000 a year because they can’t track inventory.’ Be specific. Use real data.
• Solution - Show your product. Not a mockup. A live demo video or screenshot of your app working. If you don’t have one, show a prototype with real user feedback.
• Market Size - TAM, SAM, SOM. Don’t say ‘$10 billion market.’ Say ‘$1.2 billion in North America for restaurants that still use paper logs.’
• Business Model - How do you make money? Subscription? Transaction fee? Show your pricing page. Show your conversion rate. Show your CAC and LTV.
• Traction - Revenue? Users? Partnerships? Even if it’s $3,000 in sales last month, show it. Investors care about momentum, not just potential.
• Team - Not ‘we’re passionate.’ Show who you are. ‘Sarah ran logistics for 3 years at Shopify. Mark built the AI engine behind a $20M SaaS tool.’
• Ask - Be clear. ‘We’re raising $750,000 for 10% equity. $500K for product, $200K for sales, $50K for legal.’

Keep it to 10-12 slides. No more. If you need 15, you’re over-explaining. Cut the fluff. Every slide must move the needle.

The Investor Q&A: It’s Not an Interview. It’s a Stress Test.

After your pitch, the real work begins. Investors don’t ask questions to learn. They ask to find your weak spots. They want to know if you’ve thought about the hard stuff.

Here are the 5 questions they always ask - and how to answer them without sounding scripted:

1. ‘What’s your biggest risk?’ - Don’t say ‘competition.’ Say ‘our biggest risk is customer acquisition cost rising faster than we projected. We’ve tested three channels. Paid ads gave us a 2.3x ROI. Referrals gave us 5.1x. We’re shifting 70% of budget to referrals.’ Show you’ve tested it.
2. ‘Why now?’ - ‘Because the old way is broken. In 2023, 80% of small businesses still used Excel for payroll. Now, with new tax laws and real-time reporting rules, they’re forced to upgrade. We’re the only tool built for this exact moment.’
3. ‘Who’s your worst competitor?’ - Don’t trash them. Say ‘We compete with QuickBooks for small businesses. But they’re a generalist. We’re built for one thing: inventory tracking for food trucks. We’re 3x faster, and our customers churn 80% less.’
4. ‘What if you don’t hit your numbers?’ - ‘We’ve modeled three scenarios. If we hit 60% of revenue targets, we can extend runway by cutting non-essential dev work and focusing on high-LTV customers. We’ve already identified 12 clients who’d pay upfront for early access.’
5. ‘Why us?’ - This is your moment. ‘Because we’ve lived this problem. I spent two years working in a restaurant that lost $8,000 a month to spoilage. We built this tool with 17 food truck owners. They’re our first 10 customers. They’re paying $299/month. And they won’t switch.’

Practice these answers out loud. Record yourself. Watch it back. If you sound rehearsed, you’re not ready. Investors want authenticity, not perfection.

What No One Tells You About Investor Meetings

Most founders think the meeting ends when they say ‘thank you.’ It doesn’t. The real decision happens after.

Investors talk. They compare. They remember how you handled the hard questions. Here’s what separates the funded from the forgotten:

• Don’t over-promise. If you say ‘we’ll be in 500 stores by Q3,’ and you’ve only got 3, you lose credibility. Say ‘we’re in 3 stores and have LOIs from 12 more.’
• Own your gaps. ‘We don’t have a CMO yet’ is fine. ‘We don’t have a CMO, but we’ve hired a fractional one from Y Combinator’s network and will bring on a full-time person at $150K once we close this round.’
• Know your numbers cold. If they ask ‘what’s your burn rate?’ and you have to think for 5 seconds, you’ve already lost. Know your monthly expenses, runway, and unit economics down to the dollar.
• Bring a co-founder. One person can’t answer every question. If you’re the CEO, bring your CTO or head of product. Investors want to see a team, not a solo act.

Common Pitch Deck Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)

Here’s what kills deals before they start:

• Too much text. If you have more than 20 words per slide, cut it. Use images, icons, charts. Investors read fast.
• Generic metrics. ‘We’re growing 30% MoM’ - without context, that means nothing. Say ‘We grew from 120 to 156 users in 30 days - all from organic Instagram posts.’
• No clear ask. If you don’t say how much you want and what you’ll do with it, they assume you don’t know.
• Ignoring unit economics. If your CAC is $120 and your LTV is $130, you’re not a business. You’re a charity. Show the math.
• Not having a follow-up plan. After the meeting, send a 1-sentence email: ‘Thanks for your time. Here’s the deck again. We’re targeting a close by Nov 15. Let me know if you’d like to meet again.’

Real Example: What a Winning Deck Looked Like

A food tech startup from Austin raised $1.2M with a 9-slide deck:

1. Problem: ‘Food trucks lose 22% of inventory to spoilage. No affordable tool tracks this.’
2. Solution: Video of their app scanning QR codes on produce, auto-calculating waste.
3. Market: ‘200,000 food trucks in the U.S. 60% use paper logs.’
4. Product: Screenshot of dashboard showing real-time waste alerts.
5. Traction: ‘17 paying customers. $5,100 MRR. 94% retention after 90 days.’
6. Business Model: $299/month per truck. 3-month minimum contract.
7. Team: ‘Founder ran logistics for a regional grocery chain. CTO built a similar system for Walmart.’
8. Ask: ‘$1.2M for 12%. $800K for product, $300K for sales, $100K for compliance.’
9. Next Steps: ‘Closing in 30 days. We’ve got term sheets from 2 other funds.’

They didn’t have a fancy logo. No animations. Just facts, clarity, and confidence.

What Comes After the Pitch

Getting the meeting is half the battle. Closing the round is the other half.

After your pitch:

• Send the deck within 24 hours.
• Follow up in 5 days if you haven’t heard back. Not ‘just checking in.’ Say ‘We’ve added 3 new customers since we met. Here’s the updated traction slide.’
• If they say no, ask why. Not ‘can you give feedback?’ Ask ‘What’s the one thing that would make you say yes?’
• Keep your network warm. Even if they don’t invest now, they might refer you to someone who does.

The best founders don’t just pitch. They build relationships. They stay in touch. They update investors with wins - even small ones. That’s how you turn a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’ six months later.

Final Thought: It’s Not About the Deck. It’s About the Mindset.

Your pitch deck is a mirror. It shows whether you’ve thought deeply about your business - or just memorized a template.

Investors don’t fund ideas. They fund people who’ve done the work. Who’ve talked to customers. Who’ve tested assumptions. Who’ve failed and adjusted.

If your deck feels like a sales pitch, rewrite it. If it feels like a story of a problem you’ve lived, solved, and proven - you’re ready.