How to refine your startup pitch, according to three investors

At TechCrunch Disrupt, a major tech conference, three investors took the stage to discuss what makes and breaks a pitch deck—the presentation startups use to seek funding. The panel featured founder-turned-investor Jyoti Bansal, Medha Agarwal of the venture capital firm Defy, and Jennifer Neundorfer of the venture capital firm January Ventures. The investors shared their candid views on what works in a pitch deck and what does not. Their biggest common pet peeve is buzzword overload, particularly regarding artificial intelligence. Agarwal, an investor at Defy, noted that the more a founder says AI in a pitch, the less AI the company likely uses. According to Agarwal, “The people who are doing things that are really innovative, they’ll talk about it, and it’s built in, but it’s not the core of their pitch.”

To help founders avoid these pitfalls, Bansal, who built and sold multiple companies before becoming an investor, distilled investor expectations into three core questions. These questions serve as a litmus test for whether a startup has the potential to become a billion-dollar company:

• Market Size: Is there a large enough market to tackle, and is the problem actually worth solving? Does the idea have the potential to become a huge company?
• Founder Uniqueness: Why is this specific founder or team the right one to build this company? Bansal emphasized that there must be something unique about the founder, such as special skills or team members. He noted that if a problem is interesting, there will be 20 other companies trying to solve it, meaning founders must explain why they will win and what their opportunity is.
• Customer Validation: Investors look for customer validation, which Bansal defined as customer feedback, revenue, or other evidence of customer interest.

For AI startups, the panel offered tactical advice focused on substance over hype. Bansal emphasized that AI startups should focus on domain expertise and a clear competitive strategy. Agarwal added that founders should explain how AI technology enables their product, articulate clear go-to-market strategies, and demonstrate how their business will be more efficient than incumbents. She also stressed that founders should be honest about competitors, warning that failing to list them can damage a founder’s credibility. She noted that some founders lose credibility because they do not include competitors on their slides. Ultimately, rather than getting caught up in industry noise, Bansal advised founders to focus on building their product.

Why it matters

Founders often struggle to cut through the noise in saturated markets; this framework provides a clear, investor-backed rubric for prioritizing what actually matters in a pitch deck.