What NextView Ventures looks for in a pitch deck

Problem

A real problem faced by everyday people or businesses in daily life — not a luxury, niche, or 'siloed Silicon Valley' issue. The best opportunities redesign how people live in trillion-dollar everyday categories rather than incrementally improving an existing solution.

“real problems faced by all consumers and businesses across industries and classes, not luxury, siloed Silicon Valley issues.” — Investing In the Everyday Economy

“are the founders looking to redesign or just improve a current solution?” — Lee Hower

“In the end, we look for companies dramatically improving people's everyday lives first, and then search for startups that design the business model around that transformation.” — David Beisel

Solution

Crystal clarity on what you actually do, stated in 1-2 sentences with visual cues, early in the conversation. Don't over-explain market context first and don't downplay the initial product to dwell on vision — say exactly what the company does, then dialog about why it's interesting.

“You probably want a 1-2 sentence statement about what you are doing, along with some visual cues that help illustrate the point or lend credibility to your business.” — Pitch Deck Month: "What Do You Do?" Slide

“My biggest pet peeve in a pitch is when we are 15 minutes into a pitch and I still have no idea what the company does.” — Rob Go

“Don't be worried about spelling things out too simplistically. For me personally, I'd rather know exactly what a company does and then dialog about why it's interesting.” — Rob Go

Market size

A genuinely large, honestly-scoped addressable market — billions of dollars, capable of supporting hundreds of millions in gross profit. NextView is market-first: it backs large market opportunities and is wary of inflated, generic TAM claims. A narrow wedge that you dominate before expanding is credible.

“Venture investors need to be convinced that a business has the potential to generate hundreds of millions of dollars of gross profit, which usually means an addressable market worth billions of dollars.” — Pitch Deck Month: The "Why Does It Matter?" Slide

“Try to be intellectually honest about what the true addressable market is, vs. using something broad and meaningless like 'The total online advertising market' or 'The total ecommerce market'.” — Rob Go

“We don't have a technology hammer that's looking for an opportunity nail.” — David Beisel

“Usually, startups tend to start with a more narrow wedge that they dominate, and then move into the broader industry over time. Illustrating this visually can be helpful.” — Rob Go

Traction

The most insightful proof points that 'it's working' for your specific company, since there's no universal seed metric. They use very early traction to infer a long-term future, so show repeatable, sustainable patterns: for consumer, acquisition/engagement/retention; for revenue businesses, unit economics like AOV or ACV; pre-product, customer-development data and surveys/interviews.

“There's no one chart or proof point that is relevant for every company, so you should think about what are the best ways to show 'it's working' for your company and go with that.” — Pitch Deck Month: The "Is It Working?" (Traction) Slide

“Early stage VCs are neither betting on a snapshot of the present or a look at the trend of the recent past… we're betting on a very long term future which we try to infer from super early traction.” — Lee Hower

“For consumer companies this is usually around user acquisition, engagement, and retention.” — Lee Hower

“Pre-launch customer development data is another way, sometimes in the form of user surveys for consumer companies or interviews with potential beta customers for B2B businesses.” — Lee Hower

Team

Fast, credible proof that this specific team is right for this specific problem — relevant domain and functional expertise, complementary roles, and clear delegation. Show only the prior accomplishments and logos that matter to the endeavor and leave everything else out. NextView especially loves founders who combine entrepreneurial vigor with deep, unique insight into their slice of the Everyday Economy.

“The purpose of the team slide is to quickly establish strong credibility. That's it, then move on.” — Pitch Deck Month: The Team Slide

“the key to the Team slide is to focus on what really matters as background for the startup and leave everything else out.” — David Beisel

“We love founders that combine entrepreneurial vigor with deep and unique insight into areas of the Everyday Economy.” — Rob Go

“Caleb's authenticity as both a former educator and EdTech leader” — Stephanie Palmeri

Business model

Evidence the business can be best-in-world economically: strong unit economics and signs of increasing returns to scale. They want to understand metrics like AOV for commerce/brands or ACV for SaaS, and they value business models designed around a genuine everyday-life transformation rather than a clever monetization in search of a problem.

“They'll want to understand unit economics like AOV for brands and commerce companies or ACV for SaaS startups.” — Pitch Deck Month: The "Is It Working?" (Traction) Slide

“The best companies become more and more dominant as they grow, driven by things like network effects, data advantages, brand, culture, or other increasing returns to scale.” — Rob Go

“In the end, we look for companies dramatically improving people's everyday lives first, and then search for startups that design the business model around that transformation.” — David Beisel

Competition

Less a competitor grid (save that for the appendix) and more a case for what makes you extra special and increasingly dominant: customers loving the product (quotes, NPS, engagement, negative churn, referrals) and durable moats. The goal is to move the investor from 'this is pretty interesting' to 'I really don't want to miss this.'

“A true competitor slide is best saved for an appendix, and the emphasis here should be on the things that make your company extra special.” — Pitch Deck Month: The "Can You Be The Best?" Slide

“Double down on how much customers are loving your product. This can take the form of customer quotes, NPS scores, usage and engagement metrics, negative churn, and referral metrics.” — Rob Go

“You want to get the investor from a mindset of 'this is pretty interesting' to 'I really don't want to miss this!'” — Rob Go

Why now

A specific, credible reason this is the right moment — what changed in the market that makes now (not five years ago, not five years from now) the time to go after this. NextView increasingly sees AI as the prime enabling shift for everyday-economy redesigns, but it weighs the market timing, not the technology for its own sake.

“The question is what is different about the market today that makes this the right time to go after this opportunity, not 5 years ago and not 5 years from now.” — Pitch Deck Month: The "Why Does It Matter?" Slide

“We deeply believe that AI will be a prime driver of a large majority of the opportunities that we pursue.” — Rob Go

“The 'why now' for AI's potential to impact student learning was too significant to ignore.” — Stephanie Palmeri

The ask

An up-front, direct statement of how much you want to raise (a range like $1.5M-$2M shows flexibility), how the capital will be allocated, and the headline milestones it will 'buy' — proof points like product launches, user targets, or revenue goals. Do not put valuation expectations on the slide; that's a face-to-face conversation.

“It's to a Founder's advantage to be up front & directly state how much capital you'd like to ideally raise” — Pitch Deck Month: The "Ask" Slide

“that you've given critical thought about the amount of capital which you're raising, what you're planning on doing with it, and what you will have to show for it.” — David Beisel

“VC's tend to think about milestones that create a step-function increase in value” — Melody Koh

“My biggest pet peeve in a pitch is when we are 15 minutes into a pitch and I still have no idea what the company does.”

“We don't have a technology hammer that's looking for an opportunity nail.”

“are the founders looking to redesign or just improve a current solution?”

“we can flex our check size from $400K to $4M to invest anywhere along the pre-traction to post-revenue spectrum”