My $5 Billion Pitch Deck Story Template

When you don’t know what to put in your pitch deck, what do you do?

You want a shortcut to what works, so you use a template.

You go download the AirBnB deck. Nope, that’s bad.

Then you check out LinkedIn’s old deck. Yikes.

Then you come to Sequoia’s template.

Everyone says it’s the best… isn’t it?

If you follow the Sequoia template, your pitch will be mid (at best).

The Sequoia deck is “good-ish”, but know this:

I’ve helped multiple founders get multimillion$ checks from Sequoia, and I…

1. NEVER ONCE used the Sequoia template.
2. INTENTIONALLY SKIPPED multiple “super-important!” bullet points in the template
3. Don’t know ANYONE who Sequoia invested in, that used their template.

Because here’s the thing:

Most VCs are terrible at telling you exactly what to say in your pitch, that will result in them writing you a check.

The templates VCs provide are NOT actually a path to a story that works.

Stated preferences vs. revealed preferences

Stated preference = Use this template & we’ll invest (maybe)

Revealed preference = If you want $, we actually want to see something different

Here’s what they’ve either told you should be in your deck (or the superstars’ decks most founders are guilty of skimming):

They’re all saying the same, right?

I’ll tear them apart one by one across a few articles, but know that not a single one of them hits the exact points you need.

Example:

• Only YC and AirBnB mention the size of the fundraise… How are you gonna raise if investors don’t know how much you’re raising?
• But YC includes Competition in the core deck… Why are we talking about other companies, when we should be talking about YOURS? Competition page goes in the Addendum - not the core narrative
• And AirBnB totally skips traction… If you skip it, the first thing I think is “You don’t have any traction, do you??”

When building your pitch, here’s what you’re gonna do instead:

Step 1: Use your brain

You can’t underestimate how many people just blindly follow a template without questioning its value.

Instead, do what makes sense & tell a logical, awesome story.

Steal my go-to baseline narrative if you need:

1. Problem: There’s a problem that hurts
2. Twist the Knife: It hurts REALLY bad
3. Market: The problem is big enough to grow a large company around
4. Solution: You have a scalable solution to problem
5. Traction: You’ve already made enormous strides
6. Customer, Distribution & Marketing: You have a clear path to customers
7. Business Model: Solid core economics, scalable model
8. Roadmap: Built off a smart, achievable plan with a few critical-path milestones…
9. Team: …You have a team of proven superstars with a track record of execution ready to go…
10. KPIs & Forecast: …and deliver a big value inflection point
11. Ask & Uses of Funds: You’re raising a self-aware investment amount that will lead to growth

But too many founders can’t follow the outline, and the deck grows.

Massive.

Step 2: When in doubt, take it out

Pitch deck bloat is a huge problem.

You wanted to make your pitch 12 pages long - and it ends up closer to 30.

You feel like “it’s all valuable!”

Congrats - you’ve probably made 65% of your Information Memorandum.

But friendly reminder: your pitch’s #1 job…

Get the meeting!

A 30-page monster goes in the 🗑️

If you need to salvage it, then you’re allowed to keep the Slide Titles ONLY, matching the headings above.

There’s only a few more pages allowed, but…

Step 3: Only add more where it adds value

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There’s very little allowed that will keep your pitch tight while highlighting the “must-know.”

Here’s the list:

• Pipeline - if it’s a monster / you have a huge contracted revenue backlog to deliver on / you have multiples of your current revenue on a waitlist
• Traction - If you’re Series A or later. Because by now you better be putting #s up on the board
• Channel Partnerships - if new partnerships will multiply your current revenue
• Customer Case Study - big customer result with compelling KPIs & quote
• IP Pipeline - where you have granted / provisional / pending patents. Trademarks are NOT IP in this case
• Press Mentions - Targeted supplement of market relevance & size
• Comparables - If you are realistically within 3 years of an exit

If I missed anything, email me back. Seriously.

Summary

Don’t get me wrong, templates can be good if you have literally no idea what to write…

But if you want to play at the big kids’ table, you gotta know when to break the rules.

Be intentional with your story - don’t ever follow blindly.