Pitch deck template & structure
Y Combinator pitch deck template the demo-day format.
Short, legible, and fact-dense — the compressed format YC partners recommend, where the growth graph carries the deck. Preview the structure below, then have us design it around your traction.
Sample slides
The structure, in our house style.
This is the slide sequence and design language we build a y combinator pitch deck template on — framed to your vertical and your numbers. Every deck we ship is original and bespoke.
The outline
The slides, in order.
A proven narrative sequence. Reorder to lead with your strongest argument.
- 01
Cover
Company name and a one-line description.
- 02
What we do
“We are X for Y” — simple enough to repeat.
- 03
Problem
One slide. Every word earns its place.
- 04
Solution
The product as the obvious answer.
- 05
Traction
The growth graph is the deck — read the slope.
- 06
Unique insight
The earned secret others don't have.
- 07
Market
Bottom-up, defensible sizing.
- 08
Business model
Who pays, how often, and how it grows.
- 09
Team
What you shipped, and how fast.
- 10
The ask
Instrument, amount, and what it proves.
N° 01The YC way
Clarity beats cleverness.
01
Legible from the back of the room
Big type, one idea per slide, no jargon to decode. If the audience is decoding, they're not listening — so we design for a two-second read.
02
The growth graph is the pitch
Weekly growth, sustained. Partners read slope, not absolute size. We make the traction slide the centre of gravity.
03
The earned secret
Your unique insight is something learned from doing the work, not from an analyst report. We help you sharpen it until no competitor could claim it too.
N° 02Applying to YC
Speed shows
YC weighs how fast a team moves. We design the team slide to show what you shipped and how quickly — not a wall of logos.
Working through this structure is also a forcing function for the application: if you can't state what you do in one line, the written form will feel the same strain.
Questions
The answers we give most often.
- What is the Y Combinator pitch deck structure?
- A compressed sequence: what you do, problem, solution, traction, unique insight, market, business model, team, and the ask. It surfaces traction earlier than the Sequoia structure and keeps every slide short.
- How many slides is a YC-style deck?
- About ten, and deliberately sparse — one idea per slide, legible from across a room. This structure is ten slides.
- What makes a YC deck different?
- Extreme clarity and a heavy emphasis on the growth graph. Partners read the slope of your traction line; the rest of the deck supports that one chart.
- Can you design our YC deck?
- Yes — we design this structure around your company as a fixed-price, done-for-you package, built to be read in seconds. Start your deck to begin.
- Should we use this for the YC application?
- It's aimed at the demo-day and investor conversation, but working through it sharpens the written application too — especially the one-line “what we do.”
Done for you
Have us design your deck.
Fixed price, fixed scope — send us your raise and inputs and we'll design this deck around your brand and numbers.