What Investors Actually Want in a Pitch

What Investors Actually Want in a Pitch | BOLD

Most pitch decks spend three quarters of the slides on the problem and the solution. That’s the wrong half. Four Victorian VCs walk through what to put in front of an investor (market size, team, traction, competition, the ask) and what to leave off (pitching competition wins, advisors who never agreed to be there, hardware that loses more money as it scales).

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Key Takeaways

•Tell your story. Past pre-seed, lead with what you’ve built, not the problem and solution slides.
•“This is the traction we’ve had… and we’re just getting started.” Investors want to see velocity and headroom in the same breath.
•Don’t list pitching competition wins. Unless it’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year, it doesn’t move the needle.
•Investors will check every advisor and logo on the deck. Always get explicit consent.
•Unit economics will be checked. If you scale by losing more money per unit, the deck-versus-model gap kills the deal.
•A pitch deck has to give the investor enough to decide whether the next 15-to-30-minute call is worth it.

Founders are so incredibly talented at reducing friction on the customer side and on the product side. Anything you can do to make it easier for an investor and make it a faster decision is better.

— Justine Carzino, Investment Principal, OneVentures

Featured Investors

Rachael Neumann – Founding Partner at Flying Fox Ventures. Flying Fox is one of Australia’s most active early-stage venture capital firms. Former Amazon executive with deep operator experience. Rachael backs founders at eye-wateringly early stages, invests off-balance sheet to build conviction, and champions Victoria’s tight-knit startup ecosystem. Portfolio includes 70+ companies.

Justine Carzino – Investment Principal at OneVentures. Justine focuses on Series A to Series B investments and helps companies build go-to-market strategies for international expansion. She brings a sharp lens on founder-investor alignment and long-term partnership over the 10-year fund lifecycle. OneVentures is one of Australia’s leading venture capital and growth equity firms.

Timothy Hui – Partner at Mandalay Venture Partners. Mandalay is a thematically focused fund investing in agri-food technology across Australia and Southeast Asia. Engineering background with a first-principles approach to startup evaluation. Timothy takes board seats selectively and brings deep commercial networks and governance expertise to early-stage portfolio companies.

Rohan Workman – Co-Founder & CEO at Skalata Ventures. Skalata invests at the pre-seed and seed stage across a portfolio of 80+ companies. Former accelerator leader with a practical, founder-first approach to early-stage support. Rohan is known for direct advice, strong co-investor relationships, and building the infrastructure that helps founders move from chaos to structure.

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