The internet is awash in pitch deck templates. Many are good, but their structure encourages a tick-the-box mentality. It’s like trying to find your soulmate with a ten-point list.

Here’s the thing: most bad pitch decks feel the same. The great ones feel electric. And that’s because a great pitch is not a collection of slides—it’s a journey.

When I build decks, I ignore templates and stay away from PowerPoint. its slide-based paradigm is hostile to the sweep of story. Instead, I focus on the arc.

The emotional energy of a pitch comes from the gap between Problem (the painful reality today) and Solution (the exciting future the company make possible).

That tension is the voltage that powers everything else.

Step 1: Start with Questions

My first step is to learn about the business. I ask a lot of simple questions that can be hard to answer. It’s a journalistic exercise, and subject of a separate post, but here are a few key ones:

What’s the Problem? A surprisingly thorny question. Often, a founder knows too many details to see the Problem clearly. A powerful Problem puts the tapestry of the world in a fresh light—and your Solution tugs the thread that transforms the entire weave. The best tapestry/thread combinations feel simultaneously obvious and revelatory.

Who’s the customer? This can be surprisingly messy, particularly when there are users, beneficiaries, customers, and other interested parties, like insurance companies and regulators.

Outside-in inside-out? Do you want to describe a huge world of opportunity and then drill down into the first opportunity, or do you want to pinpoint the first application, and then hit the audience with a but-wait-there’s-more slide talking about additional applications?

Step 2: Write It Out

Open a blank Google doc and write out the story like you’re explaining it to a smart friend. Why?

• It’s easier to move the pieces around

• You avoid getting locked into pretty pictures or graphics

• Slides tend to become mental icebergs that are hard to break apart

• You resist the trap of designing around a template rather than your own logic.

• You can later design slides that serve the story—not the other way around.

Don’t get stuck polishing every sentence. This isn’t the script you’ll deliver word-for-word. It’s the blueprint for the conversation you want to have.

Step 3: Shape the Structure

Now start condensing the narrative into paragraphs. Each one will become a slide, and the text will become the slide voiceover.

Here, the familiar categories will emerge—Problem, Solution, Market, Team, Business Model—but anchored in your flow, not a generic formula.

Step 4: Write Headlines That Punch

Give each paragraph a strong headline. A great headline editorializes. A weak one is a neutral statement of fact. A terrible one is when you copy the pitch deck template name to the slide (“Problem”; it’s like naming your book “Title”).

When you’re done, you should be able to read only the headlines of the pitch and still understand the story.

Step 5: Think About Visuals

Re-read your outline again, and this time start to think what visuals best capture the central point of each paragraph. Some people and companies are better suited for abstract slides with just a beautiful image and perhaps one data point in huge font. Others are denser, with bullet points and facts and graphs.

Step 6: Finally, PowerPoint

Finally you’ve reached the point of opening PowerPoint (or whatever slide program you use). Working with a great designer can be invaluable, as there are often ideas that are conceptually straightforward but require a graphic expert to capture visually.

Step 7: Iterate & Tighten

There’s always one or two slides that feel fine in text but fall flat when visualized. That’s normal.

Adjust. Rewrite. Your written story keeps you grounded while you sharpen the visual flow.

A Perfect Pitch Is Poetry

The benefits of this approach are many. Perhaps the best one is that it prepares the founders to tell a story. Remember: Investors aren’t just buying into a product or a market. They’re buying into you.

Pitch decks are like haiku, with a narrow definition of form. And it’s easy for form to become formulaic. Start with the story, and the deck will follow.