🦁 Founder-led story. Begin with your narrative. Investors want to know why you started your startup. Tell your story to demonstrate founder-market fit and highlight the problem’s importance. Your direct experience is your currency. That is, you’ve experienced the problem, and you know how to solve it.

🗣 Compelling storytelling. Dump the dry problem-solution format. Create impactful titles that tell a story. Make each slide jump off the page. Write your pitch like a good story – not a textbook. 

🦾 Highlight impressive achievements early. Don’t hide your traction or killer metrics on slide 10. Get all your stats and major milestones up front in the beginning. Hook them early on. If you have any cool, sexy stuff, put it at the forefront.

🙅🏻 Skip detailed financials. Skip the granular projections. Detailed forecasts will eliminate you from consideration if they don’t precisely match investor expectations. Your pitch deck should be used as a teaser – just enough to get you to the next step. Think of it as your dating profile: you don’t need a CV, only an intriguing profile that stands out.

👑 Quantify your value proposition. When you can, append them with numbers. Investors pick up on early metrics. They sense you’re data-driven and therefore informed. Numbers not only speak louder than words, they scream.

👁 Start with the vision. It’s all about why you’re doing this – creating a sense of purpose. Put a stake in the ground that you will be a category leader. This will set the tone for the rest of the pitch. 

👾 Demonstrate momentum. Prove that the market is hot and now is the time to invest. Point to wins with big customers or other market dynamics. Demonstrate that your startup is hot. Investors want to feel the urgency.