Hundreds of pitch trainings, and the same ten mistakes every season. Not similar mistakes: the same ones, so reliably that we can usually name two or three before a founder shares their screen. The full list is public below, so check yourself against it. The detail behind each mistake, how it sounds in the room, why it kills the pitch and how to fix it, is part of the free member layer: your email gets you in.
All ten, at a glance
Every mistake on this list shows up in multiple coaching sessions every year, across genres, countries and funding stages. Experience does not immunize: teams with prior funding blow their timing exactly as often as first-timers. If your deck avoids all ten, it is already better than most decks we see in a season.
The ten mistakes
| # | The mistake | How it sounds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The wrong deck for the audience | "Let me walk you through the gameplay features," said to an investor who wants to buy a share of the company. |
| 2 | The problem never lands | "Our product is unique," but nobody in the room can say what gap it fills. |
| 3 | Text walls and the template look | Slides that look like a consulting report, read like one, and get skimmed like one. |
| 4 | The missing business model slide | Deep into the pitch, an investor still has to ask: "how do you actually make money?" |
| 5 | The missing or buried team slide | A big vision with no proof anyone on stage can build it. |
| 6 | Blown timing | A "three-minute pitch" crossing minute four with five slides to go. |
| 7 | The checkmark competition table | Green ticks for you, red crosses for everyone else. The room stops believing. |
| 8 | The life-story opening | The pitch starts in your childhood, and the clock does not care. |
| 9 | The overloaded ask | Four numbers on one slide, and the investor is not sure which one you are asking for. |
| 10 | History instead of future | Years of development timeline, and the listener hears "everyone else already said no." |
Below, each mistake gets the full treatment: how it sounds in the room, why it kills the pitch, the fix, and one question to hold your own deck against. Reading on without a deck open? Chapter 5 builds one slide by slide, and chapter 7 covers the delivery mistakes that survive even a perfect deck.