50 founders pitched me. Only one did it right.

Can you pitch me? Can you pitch? Can you pitch? Can you pitch your company in 30 seconds?  When I went to one of the largest startup events in Valencia,  I asked 50 founders to pitch me their startup, and only one came close.  The 49 others did the same exact mistake.  And this is a big problem, because nobody raised a VC round without a strong elevator pitch.
And yet so many founders don't have a clue on how to sell the ideas to investors. So if you're struggling to raise today, it's probably because you can't convincingly pitch  your startup. I'm Ben, the founder of pitchdeckcreators.com and I've helped raise over  160 million dollars in venture capital and helped more than 300 founders create their deck and pitch  their ideas. After all those decks, we came up with a framework for the perfect pitch.
And I call it the pitch stack.  So in this video, I'll show you the mistakes that those 49 founders did and  the four layers of the pitch stack.  With example from one of the founders who actually came super close from  making a perfect pitch, a guy who raised $5 million with over a million dollars  in ARR, but even he missed the very last layer,  the one layer that brings credibility to everything else.
So at the end, I'll re-pitch his startup  in the best possible way.  So let me show you how most founders started their pitch.  We're trying to expand 3D additive technologies.  It's one platform where you can find all the  delivery services that you want to increase your sales. Basically we're  bringing the 80% of unknown places, the authentic local locations to people by  using AI. See the pattern? They all told me what their startup does.
They described  their product but none of them told me why it matters. They  assume it was obvious. But it's not. Investors don't know your world. They don't know why  your solution is needed. So if you jump straight to the what, without the why, you lost them  before you even started.
So what those founders should have said instead? That's the pitch  stack. The four layers in order. Let me start with the first one. The market  is the first layer of the pitch stack, the foundation. This is the first thing an investor  wants to know. Is this big enough to be worth my time and my money? The market has three pillars.  The first pillar is who is your customer? You need to be precise with this.
So when a founder says this,  And what kind of company needs that?  Every company. Any company with a customer?  No, that's not a customer. That's everyone. If your answer is every company, you haven't  thought about it enough. You need an ideal customer profile, an ICP.
Who are you serving exactly? Not generalities, because VCO wants to understand  that you get the exact pain of your customer. The second pillar? How many of them, of your  ICP, are there? This is where our IT founder got it right.  We saw that in Europe there are 24 million companies, between 10 and 500 employees, the  SMBs. The second pillar, he nailed it. He told me who and how many. But there's a third pillar.
The third pillar is how much do they spend? This is the dollar amount. And this is the one  he also missed. If he said each of this company currently spend X thousand euros per month  on Artois IT, which created a €200 billion market.  Well, now I'm seeing the dollar sign.  So the market is who, how many and how much?  Give the investor all those three and they'll know how big the price is.
But knowing the market is big is not enough.  The investor next question is what's broken?  And that's layer two, the problem.  An unsolved problem creates a gap.  On one side, where people are.  And on the other, where they want to be.  Their dream outcome.  In the distance between them, that's the gap.  And that gap is the opportunity.
The bigger the gap, the bigger the opportunity for an investor.  No problem, no gap, no investment. So one founder says this. Basically, we're bringing the 80% of unknown places, the authentic local locations  to people by using AI and helping discovering the local locations. His idea isn't bad,  but why should I care? Who is suffering and how?  What are the stakes?  He told me what he does, but it didn't give me a reason to care about it.
Without the problem, the solution is just a feature looking for a home.  And this is where our IT founder saved the day again.  We saw that in Europe there are 24 million companies between 10 and 500 employees, the  SMBs, and 93% of them doesn't have an IT department.  He started with the problem. 93% of SMBs have no IT department.
Now I understand why this company needs to exist. Now I care.  But if you really want to convince VCs, you have to go a step deeper.  A great problem statement should answer two questions.  First, why does this problem exist?  Those companies don't have an IT department?  Maybe because finding the right talent is really hard.
Second, how much does it hurt?  So for example, it might be because finding the talent costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time.  And when they don't have it, system breaks, productivity drops, and thousands of euros are lost.  That's the gap the investor needs to fill.  Now I know this can feel hard to implement on your own.
So before we go further, I wanted to let you know that I've created a free pitch stack  AI worksheet.  The link is in the description.  Basically it will help you do the pitch by your own with AI.  And now for founders who want to go further, we actually help founder with fundraising.  We sit down with you, you build your deck, we'll walk you through the entire fundraising journey.
We only work with founder where we can guarantee that they will raise. And the only way we can  make that kind of promise is that we only work with a selected amount of company that we are  super confident in. We help them build traction, get more customers, and create the best possible  fundraising momentum. We're only accepting 3 startups per quarter.
So if you're currently  raising, click the link in the description to apply and we'll review your application  and set up a call.  At this point, we created the gap in the investor mind. They can see where people are and where  they want to be. They understand how much it costs people to stay where they are.  And now they're asking, so what's the answer? And that's the layer three, the solution.
Remember all the founders from the beginning? They all started here. Layer three first. No market,  no problem, no context. Because now we've built the context first. Your solution isn't just a  product description anymore. It's the answer to a question the investor is already asking.  So when you get to the solution, how do you actually explain it?  Rule number one, simple words, simple sentence structure, no jargon.
Rule two, name who you serve and what you do for them.  We are a CRM focused on event promoters, festivals and nightclubs.  One sentence, crystal clear.  He named his ICP, Event Promoter Festival and Nightclub, and what he does for them.  No jargon.  But you can do even better.  Instead of telling me what you do, you can show it.
Just like that.  So here's how it works.  Just put it right there.  And done.  So I just paid myself 5 cents.  Wow.  In two seconds, I get it.  So whenever it's possible, show your solution in action.  Now, this next layer is the one even our IT founder,  the guy who raised over 5 million, didn't include in this pitch.
And it's the most important one.  The final layer of the pitch stack is traction.  This is the layer that brings credibility to everything else you've said.  It's the single most persuasive part of any pitch.  Our IT founder traction was incredible.  150% year-over-year growth with over a million dollars in ARR  in three founding rounds.
But there's a twist. Can you give me a sense of where you are right now with your company? How big? What's the  current traction? Yeah, I mean, we are growing around 150% year over year. We are right now  around three years in the market. We can say that we are like over way over the one million ARR.  That is like the first step in the startups.
He actually said it, but I had to ask for it. It wasn't in the pitch. I had to pull it out of him with a question. Same thing happened here.  Can you give me a sense of how big you guys are? Like how many  rings are there in circulation or where are we at?  Sure. So in the year 2025, we are at 700,000 euro revenue.
And we are aiming at 2 million for next year.  This is mostly coming from B2B projects and distributors in Europe.  700k in revenue? Not in the pitch. I had to ask for it.  You cannot afford to wait for an investor to ask you about your traction.  Because they might not ask it at all.  Traction is your strongest card.
And you need to use it without being prompted.  Can you pitch me your startup in 30 seconds?  We have developed an IoT platform  that allows companies to adopt IoT  in a faster, simpler way.  We have already a huge project in the city of Buenos Aires  with 130,000 luminaires connected to the platform.  See the difference?  He put Traction inside the pitch.
He didn't wait for me to ask.  And that's what you need to do.  Traction is the proof that everything you've said is real.  Without it, you pitch a story.  With it, it's an investment opportunity.  And that's the complete pitch stack.  Market, problem, solution, traction.  The four layers, and in that order.
And not one founder at the event  stacked all four.  So let me show you what the perfect pitch  sounds like. Our IT founder  came the closest. So let me  take his pitch and stack all four  layers in 30 seconds.  We saw that in Europe there are 24 million companies  between 10 and 500 employees, the SMBs.  93% of them doesn't have an IT department.
The IT guy, the support, the laptops, you know?  So we basically, we do a platform to manage  the whole IT in a platform.  So we take care of the whole life cycle of the device,  since the acquisition through leasing plans or purchasing,  the inventory management, and also the IT support, all AI-powered, of course.
Very close. The closest of anyone.  Now, watch what happens when we complete the pitch stack.  In Europe, there's 24 million SMEs with 10 to 500 employees.  About 90% of them don't have an IT department, because hiring the right talent is expensive and time-consuming.  have an IT department, because hiring the right talent is expensive and time-consuming.
As a result, together, they spend $200 billion per year on a mix of fragmented and inefficient  outsourced providers and SaaS tools.  We've built an AI-powered platform that manages the entire IT lifecycle.  We're now in the third year, growing 150% year-over-year, with well over a million dollars  in IRR.  The same company, the same business.  Now it's a pitch, not just a description.  The complete pitch stack, four layers in the right order.
So if you're a founder about to pitch anyone,  your 30 seconds need the complete pitch stack.  So now go ahead, because no matter what,  you need to have that 30 second pitch.  In the elevator, when you pitch a friend,  everybody needs to be able to understand  what you do in 30 seconds.  So to make it easy for you,  I've created an AI worksheet  that you can use right now for free.
You can just click the link below and access it.  And now, if you're actually fundraising right now  and you want to put all the chance on your side,  you can also apply down below to join our program.