Speedinvest is one of Europe's most active early-stage (pre-Seed to Seed/early Series A) venture firms, built deliberately as a scaled, sector-focused investment platform rather than a boutique. Across six sector teams (AI & Infra, Climate & Industrial, Deep Tech, Fintech & DeFi, Health & Bio, Marketplaces & Consumer) it aims to be the first institutional check and to offer founders 'more than just money' via a hands-on Portfolio Success platform. The firm prizes founders who combine deep domain passion with a 'borderline naive level of ambition,' and screens hard on traction, product, and (for network-effects businesses) defensibility.
A clearly articulated problem with the current situation, ideally backed by first-hand customer/expert research and a list of sources rather than unsupported claims. Speedinvest frames the pitch narrative as Setup → Problem → Solution.
“Act 2: The Problem → What is the problem with the current situation?” — Your Pitch Deck is Your Tinder Profile
“In order to prove your startup is solving a problem, many founders quote facts, figures and study results in their pitches. However, what is commonly left out is a list of sources.” — Alexandra Woodman
“At Speedinvest, we often speak to founders who are tackling B2B problems that most people have never heard of and would certainly not get excited by. Yet the founders of these startups tell fascinating war stories about the problems faced in their respective industries.” — Philip Specht
“Surprisingly few of the startups we speak to have conducted first-hand, in-depth market research by talking directly with customers or experts in the field.” — Alexandra Woodman
A clear solution slide showing how you solve the problem and what you've done so far, supported by real product validation (how users interact, systematic product development) rather than only MVP screenshots. Product quality and clean UX are immediate filters once traction grabs attention.
“Act 3: The Solution → How will you solve the problem, and what have you done so far?” — Your Pitch Deck is Your Tinder Profile
“Go beyond screenshots of your MVP... it's even better if you can demonstrate how users actually interact with your product and how you approach product development and testing (ideally in a systematic, user-centric way!).” — Alexandra Woodman
“The best products abstract complexity to the non-native user. Consumers don't want to think about seed phrases or smart contracts. They want money that is safe, available, and working harder.” — Varun Rekhi / Tom Filip Lesche
“After that, it's all about the product. If it has seamless onboarding with a clean UI/UX and intuitive workflows, I want to dig further into the company.” — Toyosi Ogedengbe
Bottom-up, sourced market sizing that demonstrates real understanding of market structure and fragmentation. For marketplaces/network-effects businesses, monetization potential derived from take rate and gross margin matters more than headline GMV; a gross-margin potential above ~$1bn is the rough bar.
“A healthy rule of thumb is that if the gross margin figure is above $1bn, the monetization potential will be sufficiently attractive from an early stage investor perspective.” — Acing Your Marketplace Fundraise: Pre-Seed
“While many founders focus on gross merchandise value (GMV), investors are even more interested in your monetization potential, which is derived from your take rate.” — Alexandra Woodman
“Since we first and foremost want to understand the market dynamics and how a marketplace will increase efficiency, it is helpful to explain the market structure. For example, how fragmented is the market? How many buyers and suppliers exist?” — Alexandra Woodman
“the corporate card market is a $250bn opportunity that is set to double by 2030.” — Tom Filip Lesche / Varun Rekhi
Fast growth in revenue, customers, and engagement is the single fastest way to get attention. At seed, Speedinvest wants evidence of product-market fit via cohort analysis (retention, repeat rate, AOV, revenue cohorts) on both demand and supply sides — and warns founders to beware of averages.
“Traction. If a company is able to demonstrate fast growth in terms of revenue, customers and engagement, they immediately get my attention.” — Your Pitch Deck is Your Tinder Profile
“what we as investors love to see in fundraising documents is cohort analysis. Most founders have heard of it, but only around 50% of the start-ups that pitch to us at Seed stage have them ready to show to us.” — Alexandra Woodman
“The first important message we want to convey here, when looking at retention metrics, is: beware of averages.” — Alexandra Woodman
“GMV, number of users and conversion rates are all important, but what matters more in most marketplaces is increasing product-market fit. Hence, the metrics investors are looking for are increasing repeat rates, engagement and stickiness.” — Alexandra Woodman
Founders who combine genuine domain passion with a 'borderline naive level of ambition,' show credibility by admitting unknowns, and — ideally — have shipped fast before. Rapport and how a founder interacts with investors are read as a proxy for how they'll handle customers and hires.
“If you combine the passion for your business with a high level of ambition, you have a key ingredient for business success, as well as fundraising success. Often, founders with a borderline naive level of ambition are the ones who are changing the world. So this is definitely a trait that VCs are looking for.” — How To Nail Your Pitch With the STAR Pitching Principle
“Deblock's founders have shipped at this tempo before. Jean and Mario sold their previous startup to Revolut; Aaron and Adriana served as Head of Payments and COO of Revolut Bank, respectively.” — Varun Rekhi / Tom Filip Lesche
“the way a founder interacts with investors is typically a proxy of how other business relationships are approached, such as relationships with potential customers and hires.” — Philip Specht
“Investors don't expect you to be able to predict every element of your business three years ahead. If you don't have the answer to a question, say so.” — Philip Specht
A defensible, monetizable model with a credible 12–18 month budget showing you understand your key drivers and levers. For network-effects businesses, defensibility must come from articulated network effects; for fintech, durable margin advantage from owning the stack.
“While it's great to be ambitious, it's more useful to provide a detailed budget plan for the next 12 to 18 months. This demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the key drivers and levers of your business, such as the ramp-up of demand and supply, monetization and planned hires.” — Acing Your Marketplace Fundraise: Pre-Seed
“The magic of marketplaces is their ability to generate a high degree of defensibility through network effects. So, it's interesting to see how many founders leave network effects out of their pitch.” — Alexandra Woodman
“Deblock's infrastructure is built in-house, from proprietary ramp rails to real-time settlement and compliance automation.” — Varun Rekhi / Tom Filip Lesche
“Pliant built a modular, API-first platform that doesn't just plug into workflows, it becomes the workflow. The result? A single platform that offers card issuance, processing, FX, white-labeled UI, real-time APIs, spend management, and embedded credit lines.” — Tom Filip Lesche / Varun Rekhi
A comprehensive, multi-criteria competitive analysis — not just a two-axis 2x2 — comparing users, geography, funding and supply/demand characteristics, with clear USPs and why you'll win.
“We tend to see a lot of charts presenting how a startup differentiates itself along two axes or criteria. While this is a nice way to structure a competitive landscape, it is not a comprehensive competitive analysis.” — Acing Your Marketplace Fundraise: Pre-Seed
“Ideally, founders create a DD document that compares their startup to others using multiple criteria, including number of users, geography, total funding and supply- and demand-side characteristics. Furthermore, it's always great to include your key USPs, why your approach is superior and why you will beat the competition.” — Alexandra Woodman
“If on top of being a good pitcher, you pass key due diligence points (traction, market size, competitive positioning, etc.), then investors will prioritize your deal above all others.” — Philip Specht
A convincing reason the opportunity exists now — a convergence of technology, regulation and consumer behavior, or a macro shift that makes a previously nice-to-have a must-have.
“Speed matters when technology, regulation, and consumer behavior converge.” — The New Era of DeFi Banking: Why We Invested in Deblock
“Across these sectors, three things are true: speed, flexibility, and control over cash flow are no longer nice-to-haves; they're must-haves.” — Tom Filip Lesche / Varun Rekhi
“Suppose that the first generation of fintech digitized existing systems, and the second made them mobile and user-friendly. The third generation is about something far bigger: rebuilding finance from the ground up.” — Varun Rekhi / Tom Filip Lesche
A concise 10–15 slide deck (talk through it in ~20 minutes) that impresses without telling the whole story — the goal of the deck is the next meeting, not the term sheet. Use action-titled slides, manage time in the conversation, and leverage scarcity/FOMO rather than time pressure.
“Your deck should not be a 40-page fact book. It should be a concise 10 - 15 slide deck that helps you tell a convincing story. You should be able to talk through your entire deck within 20 minutes.” — How To Nail Your Pitch With the STAR Pitching Principle
“While it's easy to get wrapped up in showing your company's worth with all the nitty, gritty details and amazing wins, you should focus only on what matters and what will get you to that first step - a call with the investor.” — Jon Butterfield
“Make sure those messages are prominently expressed in the deck, for example, by using slide titles that are not descriptive (e.g. “market”), but convey a statement. Strategy consulting firms like to call those titles “action titles.”” — Philip Specht
“You need to have a balance between creating something that is aesthetically pleasing and delivering the right information at the right time. Each slide should focus on delivering no more than two key points of information.” — David Katic
“Traditionally, Europe has primarily been home to early-stage VCs with very few partners who invest in a handful of local startups. At Speedinvest, we now have roughly 100 full-time professionals across five offices and two joint ventures.”
“If you get a question that takes you out of the structure of your pitch, try to cover the question on a high level in one sentence and tell the investor that you will address the point in detail in a later part of the deck.”
“Never put (time) pressure on the potential investor. It will have the opposite effect to what's intended. The perception of scarcity and FOMO is much more effective in getting a VCs attention and speeding up their decision making!”
“The perfect pitch deck is probably 10-15 slides. Anything shorter and you most likely didn't cover something important. Anything longer and you start to lose people's attention, so you need to make it count. Include high-quality design, good graphics, and get to the point.”
“Traction. If a company is able to demonstrate fast growth in terms of revenue, customers and engagement, they immediately get my attention. After that, it's all about the product. If it has seamless onboarding with a clean UI/UX and intuitive workflows, I want to dig further into the company.”