The David Sacks Fundraising Narrative: 10 Slides Your Seed Deck Must Nail (With Examples)

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David Sacks fundraising advice often leaves founders asking the same question. How do I turn my idea into a tight investor narrative that gets a yes at seed. I’ve sat on both sides of the table, and I’ve seen how a clean story beats a bloated slide count every time. In this guide, I show you the 10 slides your seed deck must nail, plus examples, pro tips, and the exact story arc that investors remember.

This article is practical, fast, and no-nonsense. You’ll get a startup pitch template you can copy. You’ll get examples that translate complex ideas into simple, investor-friendly language. You’ll see how to position your venture capital ask and avoid the mistakes that sink most seed deck slides. You’ll also find links to related resources and a 10-question FAQ at the end.

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The David Sacks Fundraising Narrative: 10 Slides Your Seed Deck Must Nail (With Examples)

What Is the David Sacks Fundraising Narrative?

The David Sacks fundraising narrative is a simple, structured story that shows why your startup wins now. It’s not about showing everything. It’s about sequencing the right things so the answer becomes obvious. The logic flows like a screenplay. You set the stakes. You introduce the hero. You show the plan. You prove momentum. Then you ask for the next chapter to get funded.

Here’s the core idea in one line. The deck’s job is to make your seed round feel inevitable because of timing, insight, and execution proof. Every slide either raises inevitability or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, cut it. That’s the ethos behind this investor narrative.

Simple beats clever. Investors read dozens of decks a week.
One idea per slide. If you need two, split them.
Numbers over adjectives. Replace “fast” with “14-day sales cycle.”

Slide 1: Title — The One-Line Why You Win

Your title slide is not just a logo. It’s your one-line strategy. Make it obvious who you serve, what you do, and why you’re the one to do it. Use a concrete “X for Y” if it’s crisp, or a power positioning statement.

Examples you can adapt. “The revenue OS for industrial maintenance teams.” “AI-native co-pilot that eliminates 80% of insurance claim handling.” “Payments network for healthcare vendors with instant reconciliation.” Each one signals customer, product, and value in a breath.

Include: Logo, product name, one-liner, your name and contact.
Avoid: Vague mission statements and buzzword soup.

Pro tip. Read your one-liner to a non-technical friend. If they can repeat it in 10 seconds, you’re golden.

Slide 2: Problem — The Burning Pain You Name

Seed investors buy into pain more than features. Describe the current state in the customer’s words. Make it quantifiable. Show how they cope today. Anchor with a cost, a delay, or a risk.

Example. “Claims teams waste 12 hours per claim switching between 5 systems. That causes 18% leakage and 17-day payouts. Churn rises 6% per quarter.” That’s tangible. That sets stakes.

Use customer quotes or anonymized screenshots of workflows.
Show the workaround to prove urgency.
One bold number that frames the scale of pain.

Analogy that lands. If your problem slide makes an investor say, “I didn’t know it was that bad,” you’re winning.

Slide 3: Solution — Your Unique Approach

State your solution as a capability shift, not just a feature set. Say what becomes possible now that wasn’t before. Keep it simple. Tie back to each pain you just named.

Example structure. “We unify intake, adjudication, and payouts in one AI-native flow. That removes 4 tools, cuts leakage by 70%, and pays claims in 48 hours. The ROI is 8x in year one.” Clear. Direct. Testable.

Three bullets max on how your approach is different.
Avoid jargon that forces the reader to think too hard.
Show change versus status quo, not a laundry list.

Slide 4: Product — Show, Don’t Tell (Demo)

This is where many seed deck slides go wrong. They show UI chrome instead of outcomes. Your job is to show the shortest path from input to magical result. Three annotated screenshots beat a 20-minute demo.

How I do it. I create a “before and after” strip. Panel 1. The messy process today. Panel 2. Your product’s single-screen flow. Panel 3. The metric that moved because of that flow.

Use captions that finish the sentence “So what.”
Show a real customer use case if you have one.
Include a 60–90 second video link for follow-up.

Example caption. “Upload a claim PDF. Our model extracts entities with 98.4% accuracy in 2.3 seconds. Adjuster approves with one click.” That’s the kind of detail venture capital partners will reference in partner meeting.

Slide 5: Why Now — Timing and Inflection

Investors fund timing as much as teams. Your why-now must cite specific catalysts. Think cost curves, regulation, distribution shifts, or platform breakthroughs.

Cost curve: “GPU cost per token down 62% in 18 months.”
Regulation: “New CMS rule mandates electronic payments by 2026.”
Platform: “EHR vendors opened APIs to claims data in Q1.”

Example. “Auto-adjudication was impossible at scale until last year. Two breakthroughs in domain-tuned LLMs and vector search made it viable. That is the window we are exploiting.” Tie it back to the product proof.

Slide 6: Market — TAM, SAM, SOM That Matter

Skip inflated total addressable market charts. Show reachable revenue. Then show expansion paths.

TAM (credible): Bottom-up math from pricing x accounts.
SAM (near-term): Your first ICP segment only.
SOM (12–24 months): The pipeline you can realistically close.

Example. “3,200 US P&C carriers and TPAs handle 1.4B claims per year. Starting ICP is mid-market auto claims teams managing 10k–100k claims annually. Bottom-up SAM is $1.1B based on $2 per claim pricing.” That’s grounded.

For a deeper dive on bottoms-up sizing and pricing packaging, see our blog post: How to Build a Bottom-Up TAM That Investors Trust.

Slide 7: Competition — The Positioning Map

Investors don’t fear competition. They fear fuzzy positioning. Show the landscape and your wedge. Use a 2x2 that captures the trade-offs customers care about. Or use a “DIY vs legacy vs us” comparison.

Legacy vendors: Stable but slow. Expensive integration.
Point tools: Great at one slice. Poor at end-to-end outcomes.
DIY: Control at high maintenance and talent cost.

Example claim. “We are the only AI-native vendor that controls intake through payout, so we can guarantee time-to-cash.” If you can say “only,” defend it with evidence.

Slide 8: Business Model — Unit Economics That Scale

At seed, you don’t need perfect efficiency. You need a model that gets better with scale. Show pricing logic, gross margin path, and the early CAC/LTV shape if available.

Pricing: Usage-based or per-seat plus platform fee.
Gross margin: Path to 70–80% as automation increases.
Unit economics: Target LTV/CAC > 3 within 12–18 months.

Example. “$2 per claim + $2k platform fee per month. Gross margin 55% today, 78% at scale as model inference cost per claim falls from $0.12 to $0.03.” That’s an investor-grade sentence.

For more on pricing strategy experiments and expansion revenue, see our blog post: The Seed-Stage Pricing Playbook.

Slide 9: Go-To-Market — The Repeatable Motion

Show a clear path to repeatability. Name the ICP with precision. Then list the plays you run and the proof they work. If you’re pre-revenue, show design partner pipeline and signed LOIs.

ICP: “US mid-market auto carriers with 50–300 adjusters.”
Motion: Founder-led sales, content + webinars, channel pilots.
Proof: 14 active pilots, 5 paid, average deal size $120k ARR.

Keep it visual. A funnel with real counts by stage does more than a paragraph. Include cycle time and conversion.

Slide 10: Team — Earned Secrets and Unfair Advantage

List the earned secrets and repeatable patterns you bring. Titles matter less than proximity to the problem and prior wins. Investors back founders who have seen the movie before.

Earned secrets: “Built claims automation at TopCarrier. Learned where legacy fails.”
Unfair advantage: “Exclusive data partnership with two TPAs.”
Prior wins: “Previous startup acquired by X. Scaled to $20M ARR.”

Example format. Name, one-line superpower, one metric that proves it. That’s all you need at seed.

Bonus Slide: Traction — Momentum in One Frame

Traction gets you a term sheet even if other slides are average. Use one frame to show steepness of the curve. Make it impossible to ignore.

Revenue: MRR by month with labels on step-ups.
Engagement: Weekly active users, cohort retention.
Sales: Pipeline by stage and win rate.

Pre-revenue example. “12 design partners. 3 paid pilots. 86% weekly active among pilot users. NPS 62. 40% reduction in handling time.” That’s investable motion.

For more on structuring pilot success and case studies, see our blog post: From Pilot to Paid: Turning Design Partners into Revenue.

Bonus Slide: Financials and Use of Funds — Runway to Milestones

Seed investors fund milestones, not spreadsheets. State burn, runway, and the 3–5 concrete things you will achieve with the round. Tie each use of funds to a metric shift.

Round size: “Raising $2.8M SAFE at $18M cap.”
Runway: “18 months at $150k burn, 14 months at $200k.”
Milestones: “$1M ARR, 10 logos, 75% gross margin on core flow.”

Example mapping. “Hire 2 ML engineers to cut inference cost 60%. Hire 2 AEs to hit $1M ARR. Invest $120k in security certification to unlock enterprise.” Every line item earns its keep.

Bonus Slide: Roadmap — From Seed to Series A

Investors want to see a credible bridge to the next round. Show feature gates, revenue gates, and proof gates. Keep it on one timeline.

Feature gates: “Self-serve intake. EDI integrations. Audit trail.”
Revenue gates: “$250k, $750k, $1.5M ARR checkpoints.”
Proof gates: “SOC 2 Type II. < 2% error rate. 3 public case studies.”

Pro tip. Label the “Series A readiness” state so investors know exactly what their dollars produce.

Story Arc: Stitching the 10 Slides into One Narrative

Most decks die because they read like a brochure, not a story. I craft the arc with a simple rhythm. Pain, aha, proof, scale. Then I rehearse a five-minute walkthrough and cut anything I can’t say in a sentence.

Open strong: Title one-liner and problem punch.
Earn trust fast: Demo proof within 2 minutes.
Make it inevitable: Why now, market, competition.
Show the machine: Model, GTM, traction.
Close with confidence: Team, milestones, ask.

Think of it like a movie trailer. The investor should feel compelled to see the full film, which is your live meeting.

AI Startup Twist: How to Pitch Foundation vs Application

AI founders face a special scrutiny. Are you building a foundation model, an infrastructure layer, or an application with defensibility. Your seed deck slides must answer that head-on.

Foundation: Show a real data advantage and capital plan.
Infra: Show platform lock-in and developer adoption.
App: Show domain data, workflow depth, and expansion.

Examples that land. “We ingest proprietary claims notes unavailable to general models.” “We sit in the adjudication loop, so we control the workflow and the data exhaust.” “We own the payout step, which creates a network effect with vendors.” That’s how you establish staying power.

Metrics That Matter at Seed: What to Show If Pre-Revenue

Don’t apologize for being early. Replace revenue with proxies that predict revenue. Investors will lean in if your proxies are strong and trending.

Time to value: Days from pilot start to first outcome.
Usage intensity: Weekly active users, task completion.
Efficiency: Cost per action, model accuracy, cycle time.
Demand: Qualified pipeline, LOIs, design partners.

Example. “Median pilot hits 30% time savings by week two. 72% weekly active among users. 8 design partners in regulated envs. 3 LOIs drafted.” Those numbers speak louder than adjectives.

For a deeper checklist on KPIs by stage, see our blog post: Seed Metrics That Predict a Strong Series A.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in a Seed Deck

I see the same errors kill great ideas. They all reduce clarity. Avoid them and your odds go up fast.

Too many words: If I can’t skim it in five minutes, it’s too long.
Premature scaling: Slide about enterprise partnerships with no proof.
Hand-wavy TAM: Top-down numbers without bottoms-up sanity.
Feature salad: Ten features, zero outcomes.
Missing ask: No round size, no use of funds, no milestones.

Quick fix. One hard number per slide. One idea per slide. One ask at the end.

The 5-Minute Verbal Pitch That Matches the Deck

Your verbal pitch should be a compressed version of the deck, not a different story. I practice a 5-minute script that hits every slide in one sentence each. Then I leave 20 minutes for questions.

Minute 1: Title, problem, why now.
Minute 2: Solution, product demo highlights.
Minute 3: Market, competition.
Minute 4: Business model, GTM.
Minute 5: Team, traction, ask.

Pro tip. Pre-answer the top three objections you always hear. You’ll feel the room relax.

The Data Room: What Investors Expect After the Deck

When the deck works, diligence starts. Be ready with a lean data room. Don’t drown investors. Give them what they need to say yes.

Company: Cap table, SAFE terms, board notes if any.
Product: Demo video, architecture overview, security posture.
Customers: Case studies, LOIs, pilot results, references.
Financial: Forecast, burn, runway, hiring plan.
Metrics: Cohorts, pipeline, accuracy, uptime.

For a simple checklist you can copy, see our blog post: The Seed Data Room Checklist.

Examples: Sample Lines You Can Paste Into Your Slides

I like giving founders copy they can paste, edit, and ship. Here are examples for each slide.

Title: “ClearClaim — AI-native adjudication for P&C carriers.”
Problem: “Adjusters juggle 5 tools, adding 12 hours per claim and 18% leakage.”
Solution: “One flow from intake to payout with 70% fewer errors.”
Product: “Upload PDF → 2.3s extraction → one-click approve.”
Why Now: “Domain-tuned LLMs + new EDI APIs shifted feasibility in 2024.”
Market: “Bottom-up SAM of $1.1B from $2/claim across 550 ICP accounts.”
Competition: “Only vendor with end-to-end AI control of the adjudication loop.”
Business Model: “$2/claim + $2k platform fee, 78% GM at scale.”
GTM: “Founder-led sales, 14 pilots, 5 paid, $120k average deal.”
Team: “Ex-TopCarrier ML lead and ex-Guidewire PM with exclusive data partner.”
Traction: “NPS 62, 40% faster handling, 86% WAU in pilots.”
Use of Funds: “$2.8M for AI accuracy, SOC 2, and 2 AEs to cross $1M ARR.”

Edit to fit your reality. Keep the rhythm. Keep the numbers.

How to Pre-Empt Investor Objections Inside the Deck

Don’t wait for Q&A to address obvious concerns. Bake answers into the slides. Use footers or side callouts to keep the main flow clean.

Accuracy: “Human-in-the-loop on edge cases. Error rate 1.8% with audit.”
Security: “SOC 2 Type I completed. Type II in progress. No PII stored.”
Data rights: “Customer-retained. Training on anonymized aggregates only.”
Distribution risk: “Channel pilot with EHR vendor in Q3.”

Doing this signals you’ve thought deeply and reduces diligence cycles.

Design Principles: Make Your Deck Skimmable in 5 Minutes

Investors skim before they read. Design for skimming. If your key points don’t pop in five minutes, you lose half the room.

12-word rule: No line of text longer than 12 words.
One bold stat per slide: The eye should land on it instantly.
Dark on light: High contrast. No thin gray fonts.
Real logos only: No “coming soon” logo gardens.

Pro tip. Print the deck in black and white. If it still works, your design is solid.

Fundraising Strategy: Process, Targets, and Timeline

A great deck without a process still fails. I run a tight, time-boxed process with clear targets. That improves momentum and reduces ghosting.

Week 0: Prep references, data room, and warm intros list.
Weeks 1–2: 25–40 first meetings in a tight window.
Weeks 3–4: Second meetings, partner pitches, references.
Week 5: Term sheet selection and close planning.

Target fit over logo chasing. Make a list of partners who have led in your category. Stagger outreach so signals compound.

For more on running a tight process, see our blog post: How to Run a Two-Week Seed Raise.

Legal and Terms: SAFE, Valuation, and Allocation

Keep terms simple at seed. Use a standard SAFE or priced round only if needed. Set a cap that aligns with milestones you can hit in 12–18 months.

SAFE: Post-money SAFE, valuation cap, optional discount.
Pro rata: Offer pro rata to key angels and strategic investors.
Allocation: Reserve 10–20% for angels who unlock distribution.

Example disclosure slide. “Raising $2.8M on post-money SAFE at $18M cap. $1.2M soft-circled. Closing in 30 days.” That sets expectations clearly.

Investor Updates: How to Keep Momentum After First Meetings

Most yes decisions follow a sequence of strong updates. Send short, periodic notes that show progress against the story you pitched. Keep it monthly during the raise.

Wins: New pilots, hires, features shipped.
Numbers: Pipeline, accuracy, usage trends.
Asks: Intros, design partners, specific expertise.

Use a consistent format so investors can scan quickly. Momentum is your friend.

FAQs

Q1. How long should a seed deck be?
12–15 slides is the sweet spot. If you need more, move details to the appendix or data room.

Q2. Do I need revenue to raise a seed round?
No. You need proof of momentum. That can be pilots, LOIs, usage, or a compelling why-now plus a killer team.

Q3. What file format should I use?
PDF for sending. A short Loom or YouTube unlisted demo link for product. Keep file size small.

Q4. Should I include financial projections?
Yes, but keep them simple. Show 18–24 months of hiring, burn, and milestones. Save the model tabs for diligence.

Q5. How do I choose my valuation cap?
Anchor to milestones you can hit with this round and comps in your category. Don’t price yourself out of a follow-on.

Q6. What if competitors copy my idea?
Ideas spread fast. Execution moats matter. Show workflow depth, data advantage, and distribution that compounds.

Q7. Should I include a customer list?
Yes, if they are real and referenceable. Otherwise show anonymized logos or descriptors and offer references in diligence.

Q8. How much detail on AI should I include?
Enough to prove feasibility and defensibility. Show model choices, accuracy, and cost trajectory. Keep research-level details for technical diligence.

Q9. Do I need a board at seed?
No. Advisory structure is fine. Focus on shipping and customer wins. Align on lightweight governance with your lead.

Q10. What’s the best way to open a pitch?
With the one-line title and a punchy problem. Then show the product within two minutes. Don’t start with your origin story.

Conclusion

Great seed decks don’t try to impress with volume. They convince with clarity. The David Sacks fundraising narrative boils down to crisp slides that make your win feel inevitable. Nail the 10 core slides, add traction and milestones, and keep the story tight. If you do that, your seed deck slides will carry you into strong partner meetings, clean diligence, and a faster close.

If you want a template to start today, take the examples above and plug in your specifics. Keep the numbers front and center. Keep the lines short. Keep the story moving. That’s how you convert interest into a term sheet the smart way with david sacks fundraising principles.

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