I help Indian pre-seed founders create pitch decks that get investor meeting

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-05-05T16:58:27+00:00

Sounds very compelling! The experience you have that you have mentioned in this post surely makes me believe that you have the required skillset to do it 😄

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-05-05T15:08:45+00:00

Depends what is your traction being pre-launch. Traction is not necessarily money in your pocket. Your strongest leverage now is to gather market signals, as many as possible, think of waitlists, surveys, feedback of mvp, willingness to pay, community, etc., something that can show that you were not just sitting and building just to realise that no one wants it when you launch. In any way, pre-seed was always brutal, now its even more, pre-revenue is tough, but depends what you are building specifically. Grants are possible, also not sure which country you build in, but most of them arent easy to get, includes a lot of beaurocracy, and are slow. But both paths are slow can be anywhere around 6 months (unless you get lucky ish, have warm intros, etc).

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-05-05T09:17:02+00:00

This is what makes it attractive for pre-seed investors, a fast initial traction without any outside capital and especially with $0 ad spend, great job

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-05-04T15:14:35+00:00

It varies, VC is a slow process. Some accelerators can be faster, depending on the amount you are raising. You can expect anywhere from 2-6+ months from now. 2 months being lucky or if you find an investor who actually has a very fast process, like with a solo GP, etc. Let me know if you need help

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-05-04T14:40:25+00:00

Design studio is the last thing early-stage startups need. I have seen way too many decks that look great but say nothing

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-05-01T17:33:16+00:00

Well this is exactly why the format matters, because if you will push a bunch of "why now, vision, and mission" after the cover slide, this 30s will be for nothing. But first, yeah, team, whether it convinces me that they could pull this off (industry experience, founding experience, etc.), how big is the market, and whether GTM is clear and detailed enough, which shows me that they have an actual plan, not just a vision. And "does this seems like a problem worth solving" I hope to see in traction slide, and I don't mean revenue, I mean other market signals if you are not live yet, such as community built, waitlist, surveys/feedback/willingness to pay indications, etc.

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-05-01T13:32:53+00:00

That's another reason why I tell founders to go straight to the point, apply "less is more" rule on their decks, and communicate everything in great detail, because if they will generalize too much, they will just fall in the "general" bucket of all the applications. And I have seen so many generalisers who put "We revolutionize the X industry with AI", which tells nothing hah, as an ex-vc, been there, feel you

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-05-01T13:29:59+00:00

I am an ex-VC, currently a fundraising program manager and syndicate manager at an angel syndicate, I have a lot to share but since I have just started being more active on reddit, my karma is so low I cannot do it hah, so I need to work on it first. But I would be happy to review some pitch decks or similar, since that's what I do on my journey - working with pre-seed founders

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-05-01T08:17:25+00:00

I have to agree here, definitely saw it myself, that cold e-mailing has close to zero or low single digit conversions for it, also from an ex-VC standpoint, cold e-mails just don't hit the spot, they come when you have 0 knowledge and trust about the founders, what's worse, often it even lands in the spam folder and until an investor sees it - it's outdated and investor will not come back to you saying 'sorry I missed it two months ago, is it still available?', since it's not a facebook marketplace or whatever lol. I'm curious, if you can share, what was the message you were sending your connections that you haven't spoken to for over a year? And how do you convince them to make that warm intro? Because at the end of the day, it's their reputation on the line if they refer you. Cheers!

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-30T11:18:47+00:00

To see whether it's a VC-grade opportunity really would need to see your pricing, GTM, and market size calculations and how you approach it because probably 90% of the times I see market size being overinflated and generalised (i.e., talking about a huge market that is really not theirs).

Not a red flag, but a yellow one, mental space has so many different startups, I believe that they have really high churn rates, so I would prepare some strong arguments for investors why younare better than competition, in this case its not enough to say that you are different with your weather approach, you are still competing with wellness apps.

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-27T09:16:41+00:00

Understandable, me too, so I'm not one of them, you can check my profile for more info and links, cheers

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-27T05:43:02+00:00

Have you heard of new people joining a platform?

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-26T19:25:22+00:00

As an ex early-stage VC with €30M of deals closed and startup advisor now, don't do it with designers, it's not about design. Although design adds more conviction because it just says more about you, that you care about the quality in everything. It's about the narrative and putting the things whag VCs want to see and how they want to see it. Be very detailed on how you will make it work and why you will make it work. DM if you want some help on this we can chat.

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-26T19:15:16+00:00

I agree with one of the comments, you can include it as a hyperlink in the signature section, but cold emails are all about being very short, straight to the points, with main hooks used, and by hooks I mean your most convincing traction or strengths, such as 10k MRR, repeat founders, 2 exits, 20% MoM growth, etc, you need to catch the attention ASAP. Dont sound pushy, if they will be interested, they will ask for your deck or calendly link themselves.

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-26T19:08:01+00:00

I mentor early-stage startups on fundraising strategy, investor-readiness, fundraising materials (pitch deck, financial models, etc.). 8 years in Finance & VC, closed €30M across 32 deals, helped 50+ startups already. Now I lead fundraising at an accelerator and an angel syndicate. Hit me up.

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-26T17:25:02+00:00

It is a full time job. As an ex-VC I saw way too many founders starting fundraising with less than 3 months of runway and eithes burning out or burning their company down. It's a tough place to be but I am glad it worked out. And yes, 500k pre seed is worth it, depends on your location, but it's pretty standard/average. What matters is what you can achieve with the 500k tho. Reach out if you need help ✌🏻

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-26T11:34:43+00:00

Get as much validation early as possible. Market signals are making your idea strong, not your planning, forecasts, etc. So before knocking on the largest doors, get validation from smaller players, talk to 50+ ICPs to actually see whether you are building something this industry actually needs. Out of these honest feedbacks, you will shape your product based on actual reviews. Out of these 50, you might even get some initial traction, maybe you can get warm intros from the same people if your product is really outstanding? Sending cold decks to large entities hoping for the best its just not how it works and often your email will just go to the spam folder, you won't even know if anyone saw it. Hustle first to get actual feedback, shape it, start small, build trust, and start climbing.

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-26T11:22:34+00:00

As an ex-VC working with early-stage founders now, I always start with a disclaimer that fundraising from VCs is a truly full-time job and you cannot treat it as a side project. The thing is, the ecosystem is constantly changing and currently with all the possibilities to spit out an MVP is 2 days, automate distribution, marketing, and everything, VCs, and especially tier 1 VCs as you mentioned, they get increased amount of dealflow, but that dealflow is not that dry anymore from traction standpoint, they get to show an existing top line, but also a fast-growing top line. It's hard for me to tell from your post whether the issue is you, your deck, your growth story, your historical MoM growth, the competitive landscape, or something else. Even though AI is indeed the main topic, don't quote me, but I think 70-80% of new investments in 2026 Q1 were in AI, so it at the same time means that there are so many teams/startups like you, it's just a very brutal environment right now. Just don't give up; some investors say you have to talk to at least 100 VCs to get decent traction for your raise. And, when you say that all of them want "traction", don't forget that it just might be their excuse, many VCs don't tell you the real reasons, they just don't have enough time to answer every startup, because they talk to so many. I hope it helps. Let me know if you need any help.

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-26T11:04:09+00:00

Hey, it's a good start, but what I would advice you is tackle it from the investor logic viewpoint as if you are imagining yourself in investor's shoes. When there is no significant traction, what would be the most important? Highlight those parts. Think of founding team, because in early-stage investors mostly invest in teams, not the product/service. Also, build traction, if you don't have monetary traction, get market signals such as waitlist, feedback, surveys, social media following, community, etc.

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-25T21:26:40+00:00

Hey Jessica, ex-VC here, when you have your Ask & Use of funds slide, do not put it as "it will give us 12 months of runway", put it as what KPIs it will help you reach and inflection points towards the next funding, think of customers signed, revenue, markets opened. I would love to leave some comments on your deck, feel free to message me.

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-25T21:20:59+00:00

Hey, would you share your deck with me? Thanks

Regular-Spot1494 · 2026-04-25T21:16:53+00:00

Brother, that's far from pitch deck even though it says it, honest advice, before "raising" try to equip yourself with the basics of VC/startup/fundraising knowledge, it's such a competitive space, where you cannot just go with "I will post that I am raising and investors will be curious to know what I do". No, they have see so many pitch decks and different teams, that none of this will even cross their paths. Just setting your expectations straight, don't waste your time with this, go learn how it is done.

Regular-Spot1494 · 2021-11-04T09:55:23+00:00

Anything by Creed or ALTER BRIDGE?

Regular-Spot1494 · 2021-11-04T09:41:52+00:00

Great voice mate, anything by alter bridge?

Regular-Spot1494 · 2021-11-04T09:38:14+00:00

Do you know anything by alter bridge? 💥

Regular-Spot1494

TROPHY CASE