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What we look for in a seed pitch

The ten slides that matter, the questions we ask in the first meeting, and the mistakes that end a conversation early.

The partners, CK Grow LLP. 6-minute read.

Most seed pitches we see are longer than they need to be and answer the wrong questions. At this stage we are not underwriting a spreadsheet. We are deciding whether a specific team understands a specific customer well enough to build something that customer will keep paying for.

The ten slides that matter

You can say everything we need in ten slides. Put them in roughly this order:

  1. The customer and the problem. Who exactly has this problem, how they solve it today, and what that costs them. Name a real customer type, not “SMEs” or “farmers”.
  2. Your solution. What you built, shown as a screenshot, a photo or a short flow. Not a list of features.
  3. Why now. What changed — a regulation, a cost curve, a distribution channel — that makes this possible today.
  4. Traction. Paying customers, repeat purchase, revenue, pilots. Show the trend, not one number.
  5. Unit economics. What one customer costs to acquire and serve, and what they are worth. Rough numbers are fine; missing numbers are not.
  6. Market. The customers you can actually reach in the next three years, counted from the bottom up.
  7. Competition. Who else your customer could choose, including doing nothing, and why they pick you.
  8. Team. Why this team, for this problem. Relevant experience beats impressive logos.
  9. The ask. How much you are raising, what it buys, and the milestones it gets you to.
  10. Cap table. Who owns what today. Surprises here slow everything down later.

What we ask in the first meeting

Expect these questions. Founders who have thought about them before we ask tend to move quickly through our process.

  • Tell us about the last three customers you lost, and why.
  • What would have to be true for this to be a ten-times-larger business?
  • What is the one thing you are most worried about?
  • If we said no today, what would you do next month?

Mistakes that end a conversation early

  • Top-down market sizing. “One per cent of a ₹10 lakh crore market” tells us nothing about who will buy from you.
  • Numbers that don’t reconcile. If revenue on slide four differs from the financial model, we will notice.
  • No clear use of funds. “Growth and hiring” is not a plan. Tell us which hires and which milestones.
  • Treating us as the only option. We would rather back founders who have choices and pick us for a reason.

Format

Send a PDF under 8 MB, or a link that opens without a login. A one-line description of what you do is the most important sentence in your pitch — write it before you write anything else.