The 10 Slides That Actually Work
(What We See at Powertrain)
At Powertrain, we review pitches every week. The startups that raise capital don’t have prettier decks. They have clearer ideas.
The fundraising market in 2026 is tough. Pre-seed capital in LatAm is down 40%. Less money, tougher screening. The bottleneck isn’t just capital. It’s a qualified pipeline.
Here’s what we look for.
1. Purpose
One sentence. One verb. One differentiator.
“An insurance marketplace that sells policies in 5 minutes, not 3 months.”
“Payroll software for companies without an accountant.”
“Conversational AI for Spanish-speaking contact centers.”
If your value proposition isn’t clear from the cover slide, the rest doesn’t matter.
A 65-year-old lawyer or a teenager should be able to understand it.
2. Problem
Macro trend + individual story, backed by data.
Don’t just say, “The market needs this.”
Say:
“In LatAm, 3 out of 4 VC funds only invest at Series C. A founder reaches out to 47 funds in Chile. 45 never respond. The other 2 say, ‘That’s not our check size.’ That’s painful. The problem is real.”
Or:
“A contact center in Monterrey has 3 agents handling 200 customers. Its NPS is 3.2. It loses $4K per month to employee turnover. Conversational intelligence could reduce that cost by 70%.”
The data matters. But the story is what makes it believable.
3. Solution & Product
Show it. Don’t just describe it.
A product screenshot. A 30-second video. A wireframe. Even a paper prototype.
Just show something.
The decks that raise capital put the product in front of investors before talking about the team or the vision.
Because the product is the vision.
4. Why Now?
What has changed to make your solution possible today?
Technology. Regulation. Market conditions.
“GPT-4o makes Spanish-language conversational AI commercially viable.”
“The funding slowdown in LatAm creates an opportunity for platforms that connect founders with relevant investors.”
“Changes in Mexico’s tax environment are accelerating demand for digital payroll solutions.”
If you can’t answer “Why now?”, your answer is essentially “Because I like my idea.”
That’s not an investment thesis.
5. Market
Bottom-up. No inflated numbers.
“The LatAm fintech market is worth $500B” tells me very little.
This does:
“There are approximately 120K SMEs in Mexico without a formal payroll system. Each could pay $50–100 per month for software that reduces accounting costs. TAM = 120K × $75 × 12 = $108M/year.”
It’s a modest number. It’s credible. I can verify it.
At pre-seed, if your TAM is below $10–15M, raising $500K+ will be challenging.
6. Business Model
How do you make money?
Keep it simple. Keep it realistic.
B2B SaaS: Price × Customers × ARR.
Marketplace: Commission × Transaction Volume.
Services: Fee × Retention × Margin.
Don’t say, “We’ll generate $5M in Year 1 through AI-powered dynamic pricing.”
Say, “Our goal is to reach 50 customers paying $5K per month in Year 1, then scale from there.”
Be honest.
Investors will adjust your numbers anyway. But honesty builds credibility.
7. Traction
Revenue. Growth. Unit economics.
No vanity metrics.
“50K users” means nothing if they’re inactive.
Here’s what we want to see:
How much someone actually paid for your product this month.
Month-over-month growth. Are you growing 15% MoM?
LTV. How long does a customer stay compared to what it costs to acquire them?
Real customer feedback.
If you’re at the earliest pre-seed stage without traction, that’s okay.
But be transparent:
“We don’t have paying customers yet. Our MVP is in beta with 15 users. We expect to build meaningful traction over the next 6 months because [your thesis].”
8. Competition
Never say, “We have no competitors.”
Competition always exists.
You’re competing against SAP, Google, or simply hiring someone to do the job internally.
What matters is what makes you different.
From funding rounds we identified in the market during 2026:
Pitz (Mexico) develops specialized conversational software for catalogs with over 1M SKUs. Its advantage is accuracy at scale. It competes against expensive in-house development and less precise generic tools.
Leracom (Monterrey) builds conversational agents for contact centers. Its advantage: 70% lower cost per call and an understanding of regional Spanish. It competes against generic AI solutions like OpenAI and international agents without local context.
A 2D positioning map works well:
X-axis: Specialized vs. Generalist
Y-axis: Price vs. Features
A feature comparison table usually works less effectively because it introduces too much detail.
9. Team
Investors spent 40% more time on this slide in 2024.
Investors back people.
But “great communicator, serial entrepreneur, passionate founder” tells me nothing.
I want to know:
“I spent 5 years as VP of Sales at a fintech company. Then I shut down a startup. Now I’m building payroll software.”
Or:
“I previously shut down 2 startups. This time, I’m looking for a CTO and a sales lead.”
In LatAm, your network is part of your team.
Who’s backing you? Do you have mentors with relevant industry experience?
10. The Ask
How much are you raising? What will you use it for? What milestones will you achieve?
Don’t just say, “We’re raising $1M.”
Say:
“$1.2M USD, allocated as follows:”
45% for 3 engineers + 1 product manager (16 months of runway)
30% for sales and operations (2 SDRs + 1 operations hire)
15% for technology and infrastructure
10% for contingency
“Over the next 18 months, we’ll reach:”
Month 6: 25 paying customers, $100K ARR
Month 12: 75 customers, $400K ARR, expansion into a second market
Month 18: Ready for a Series A round
If the numbers don’t add up, don’t present them.
What We See Working
Real historical data. Actual ARR, not projections. Real active users, not just registered accounts.
Founders with relevant experience. They’ve raised capital, built companies, or know their industry inside out.
A clear understanding of competition. They name 3–4 real alternatives and explain why they win.
The ability to say “I don’t know.” Saying “We don’t have data on that yet” is better than guessing.
Consistent follow-up. After pitching, they send monthly updates. That demonstrates commitment and professionalism.
Extreme projections. “By Year 3, we’ll generate $50M with a team of 2.”
“We have no competition.” Instant credibility killer.
25-slide decks filled with “vision,” “impact,” and “company values.” Nobody reads them. Or they skim them in 3 seconds.
Generic team slides. Just names, titles, and LinkedIn profiles, without context about what those people have actually accomplished.
An unclear ask. “We’re raising $X to grow.” Grow how? Where? With whom?
Format
One idea per slide.
Two versions. One to send (self-explanatory). One to present (with speaker notes, additional context, and stories).
10 slides, 20 minutes, minimum 30-point font. The Kawasaki rule.
Why This Matters Now
The market is tough.
Less capital means less room for a beautiful pitch with a vague idea.
The investors still deploying capital are disciplined. They get straight to the point.
Your pitch deck isn’t a marketing document. It’s a tool that forces you to think clearly before asking others to believe in your vision.
The founders raising capital in 2026 don’t have prettier decks.
They have clearer thinking. Numbers that add up. Teams that know what they’re doing. And the honesty to admit what they don’t know.
If your idea can’t withstand that level of scrutiny, maybe it’s not ready yet.
And that’s okay.
At Powertrain, we help founders take their ideas from point A to point B.
Getting ready to raise your next round?
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