Pitch Deck Structure for UK Startups: Slide by Slide
What each slide of a pre-seed or seed deck has to answer, based on Y Combinator's seed deck and UK advice.
What the deck is for
A first deck has one job: to get a second meeting. The British Business Bank's angel checklist asks for a clear, concise pitch deck covering team, product, technology, market, scale, business model and revenue, and says angels dislike long business plans up front. Keep that in mind when you are tempted to add a slide.
I'd aim for about ten slides that someone can read in a few minutes without you in the room. Each slide below comes with the question an investor will have in mind when they reach it.
Think of the deck as the thing a busy person forwards to a colleague when they say 'have a look at this'. It has to work without you. That is a good test for every slide you keep and every slide you cut.
Slide 1: the title
Y Combinator's seed deck template starts with the company name and a one-line description of what you do. That is the whole slide. The question it answers is 'what is this?'
Write the line so a stranger could repeat it. If you need a sentence with three commas, you do not yet have your line.
Add your contact details and the date of the deck somewhere small, so a forwarded copy can be traced back to you and nobody works from an old version. A good title slide also sets the tone. Keep the design plain, the logo clear and the line readable at a glance. Save the detail for the pages that follow.
Slides 2 and 3: problem and solution
For the problem slide, Y Combinator says to state it clearly and give particulars of how it affects real people or businesses. Name who has the problem, how often, and what it costs them in time or money. SeedLegals' UK template adds that you should say why current solutions fall short.
For the solution slide, Y Combinator asks you to explain what you do very clearly, in as few words as possible, and to describe the concrete benefits. SeedLegals suggests a product slide too, with images or a video of a prototype or demo. The question here is 'does this actually fix the problem?'
Use a single example customer to make both slides concrete. Show their day before and after your product. A short story with a number in it, such as hours saved or cost removed, does more than a list of features.
Slides 4 and 5: traction and validation
Y Combinator puts traction right after the solution, shows it as a chart, and asks you to make the numbers clear and meaningful. SeedLegals calls validation one of the most important slides in its UK template, and lists awards, traction, team expertise and recognition.
At pre-seed you may have little revenue. Show whatever is real: pilots, a waitlist, letters of intent, interviews with named roles, or usage from a prototype. The question is 'is there evidence anyone wants this?' Never dress up a plan as traction.
Put a chart on the slide and label the axes, the period and the unit. Y Combinator's advice to make numbers clear and meaningful applies to a first pilot as much as to monthly revenue. Always say what each number measures and how you counted it.
Slides 6 and 7: market and competition
Y Combinator's market slide asks whether the market is going to be big and how much money you can make from it. SeedLegals advises showing market adoption and size without going into too much detail on the total serviceable market. A simple bottom-up sum, such as number of buyers times price, is easier to defend than a top-down figure from a report.
On competition, SeedLegals suggests acknowledging competitors and using a comparison table on things like pricing, features and user experience. Investors know competitors exist. If your deck says there are none, they will assume you have not looked.
Show why now. Something has changed, such as a regulation, a technology or a buying habit, that makes this the right moment. That one point answers the question investors ask in their heads about why nobody has built this before.
Slide 8: business model
Show how you make money and what you charge. SeedLegals recommends top-line revenue streams and pricing on the slide, and keeping detailed financials for the data room. Y Combinator's note on this slide is that you probably do not know all the details yet, but you should know a lot of them.
The question is 'how does this turn into a large business?' One clear price point with a sensible customer count behind it beats a four-tier pricing grid.
If you have no revenue yet, show the pricing you are testing and the early evidence for it. Say who pays, how often and how you will reach them. Investors forgive an unproven model faster than a missing one. Add one line on how customers find you and what it costs to win one, if you know. Even a rough early figure shows you have started to think about growth as a cost, which investors like to see.
Slides 9 and 10: team and the ask
Y Combinator asks the team slide to explain what makes the founders well suited to this problem, and to keep it about the founders, leaving advisors out. At pre-seed, the team slide often decides the meeting. Say what each person has done that is relevant, in one line each.
The final slide covers the deal. SeedLegals recommends stating the amount you want and showing SEIS or EIS eligibility, which signals you understand how UK angels invest. Y Combinator adds that you should say how much you need, what it gets you and, ideally, where you expect to be within a year.
Place the team slide earlier if your background is your strongest asset. The order of the deck is yours to change. Whatever you do, keep the ask clear and put it on its own slide, so it is the last thing the reader sees.
Check the deck before it goes out
Read it as the investor would, on a phone, with two minutes. Does each slide answer its question in the title? SeedLegals' advice is to keep the deck concise, visually clear and free of heavy jargon, and I agree.
Send it to two people who do not know your market. Wherever they stumble, an investor will too. InvestorUniverse can then help you find which investors to send it to, ranked by fit with your stage and sector. This is general information, not financial advice.
Keep the data room ready behind the deck: financial forecast, cap table, customer evidence and any tax assurance letters. SeedLegals recommends saving detailed financials for that stage, so you can share them quickly when someone asks.
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- Y Combinator: Intro to the YC Seed Deck
- SeedLegals: Pitch deck template for UK startups
- British Business Bank: Angel investment checklist