Naruto's Guide to a Good Pre-Seed Deck
Explain what you're building and be mindful of the flow.
There’s a lot of advice on pre-seed decks out there, but this is what I’ve recently seen work well with a few founder friends who have raised $3M+ in the past four months. I’ve shared this structure in many 1:1 chats with prospective founders, so I’m putting it here for everyone.
Three key things:
Flow: The emphasis in this framework is flow and storytelling: each section flows onto the other naturally. This makes the pitch memorable in an ocean of a million pitches.
Clarity: This framework makes the sections you must include clear. You would be surprised how many 25+ slide pitches I hear and still can’t tell what the product is or how it will make money.
All Startup Advice is Bad: the Principles of Survivorship and Availability Bias apply to this advice— as to all startup advice.
The Structure
Slide 1: Opening: “Hey everyone, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, and today I’ll be pitching the Shinobi Network as a Service (SNAS)!”
Keep it simple, direct, and move on. If you're nervous (which you will be), there's a tendency to keep talking and waste precious time on slide 1. Avoid this by preparing a short, focused starter.
Slide 2: Intro/ Why you: “I have served as a ninja in Konoha for over 15 years, mastered hundreds of jutsu, and led teams to complete 32 successful S-rank missions.”
This slide should include 3-4 impressive facts relevant to you as an operator (who can get sh*t done) and as the founder of the specific idea you're pitching. Avoid unrelated information.
Slide 3: The Problem: “One thing I’ve learned over the years is that our ninja villages struggle to work together. Miscommunication leads to frequent conflicts, preventing us from achieving peace.”
Introducing the problem with a personal anecdote makes the narrative flow smoother and helps the audience visualize the issue you're addressing. Describe the problem in vivid detail.
Slide 4: The Size of the Problem: “…I thought this was just an issue for us in Konoha, but the Five Kages Report from 2024 showed that ninja villages across the continent lose $897M in collaborative opportunities due to mistrust.”
Now extrapolate from your anecdote to show this is a massive problem; quantify the total addressable market (TAM) by putting a dollar value on it.
Slide 5: Your Solution (preferably Demo) & Unique Insight: “To improve relations between villages, last quarter we launched the Shinobi Network program. Here’s a demo. This increased successful cross-village missions by 125%, leading to the Shinobi Network as a Service (SNAS), which we shared with other ninja villages.”
Live demos are King👑 and speak louder than any nice graphics. In addition to the demo, share some earned insights. If your insight is something an averagely smart McKinsey-Shinbobi consultant could’ve thought of, it’s not unique. Teach your audience something new.
Slide 6: Execution & Early Traction: “…our first village partners loved SNAS. They saw an immediate spike in successful missions involving other villages, averaging an 85% increase. This boosted collaboration by 239%, and 95% signed up for our annual subscription. Here’s some social proof.”
Execution is evaluated in two parts: 1) does your team have the ability to build and ship product fast (quality of your CTO + technical team) and 2) does your team have the ability to sell (quality of CEO + biz dev).
Most other sections of the deck can be adorned with nice words, this part can’t: there either is a product or there isn’t; there either is some revenue or there isn’t. LOIs, waitlists, etc.
If a team can answer these two questions well, investors are willing to overlook an incomplete product idea in favor of a lean team that can iterate, build, and sell.
Slide 7: The Potential: “In the next 30 years, old grudges will persist. It’s crucial for the $100B ninja industry to foster cross-village cooperation, which is why top shinobi are signing up for SNAS. We aim to expand to new demographics like civilians and students.”
Why now? Describe how your solution will ride on market forces and trends. Be specific. How will the world look in 5-10 years if your solution is adopted by everyone who fits your ideal customer profile (ICP)? In addition, how can your solution evolve in the future?
Slide 8: Competitors: “Unlike our competitors, SNAS is built on 15 years of experience and strong relationships that give us a distribution advantage.”
One of the biggest red flags in a pitch is a shallow explanation of why you are better than your competitors. Explaining your advantage (founder/ product fit; distribution; pricing) succinctly is confidence; saying things like “their product sucks and they don’t know what they’re doing” is naiveté and arrogance.
Personally, before you tell me where your competitors are falling short, I’d like to hear what they’re doing right and what you will emulate from their strategy.
Slide 9: GTM/ Growth Strategy: “We will first target villages with structures similar to Konoha's, where we’ll find our power users. Then, we’ll expand to other hidden villages before approaching samurai regions.”
Like most other sections, this is a chance to prove that you’ve thought deeper than an average Shinobi consultant about your market and GTM strategy. In other words, you need to share some deep insights on how you will find your first power users.
Slide 10: Need & Use of Funds: “We’re going to hire two ninja engineers and a marketing expert, aiming for $34M ARR in 12-16 months.”
At pre-seed, VCs usually don't expect a full financial model, but you should have a clear vision of your funding needs.
Appendix: Material for Q&A
The function of the appendix is to assist you in your Q&A. Think about what are some of the questions you will be asked, and prepare visual aids for your answers.
Misc:
Tools:
www.canva.com’s deck-making tool is pretty good!
General advice:
You should be very confident in everything you are saying; confidence comes from knowing as much as you can about your space, idea, and startup.
It’s ok to not have all the answers, but you should have a strong opinion/ thesis about the space. Investors want to make opinionated bets; they don’t want to invest in your reflections. “Action produces information.”
Have questions, thoughts, feedback? Or want to share your favorite Naruto episode? Reply to this email and let me know. If you’re a founder, always happy to chat.
This is 🔥
never knew anime could help understand vc lmao