How to Pitch Your Startup (When You Don’t Have a Fancy Deck or Big Metrics Yet)
What matters is being able to tell a clear, compelling story about what you’re building and why it matters, even if you’re still at an early stage.
Most early-stage pitches don’t happen on a big stage or in some polished boardroom. They happen in WhatsApp chats, Twitter DMs, or over a two-minute Zoom call where you're trying to sound confident while your internet lags.
You’ve got no deck. No user traction worth bragging about. Maybe a Figma prototype or a working MVP. Still, you’re expected to convince someone, usually a stranger, that your unfinished idea is worth backing.
If that sounds unfair, it kind of is. But it’s also how some of the best startup journeys begin.
Founders who’ve gone through Techstars, YC, and local programs like GreenHouse and Orange Corners all said the same thing: when you’re early, investors aren’t looking for flash. They’re looking for clarity, obsession, and signal, any signal, that shows you’re the right person solving the right problem at the right time.
Here’s how to pitch like that with no vanity metrics required.
More articles in this series
- How to Find Your First 100 Users as a Startup Founder (When No One Knows Who You Are)
- How to Build a Startup Team When You Can’t Afford to Hire Yet
- How to Go from Idea to MVP as a First-Time Founder
What investors actually want to hear at this stage
Forget about monthly active users (MAUs), customer acquisition cost (CAC), or fancy funnel diagrams. At this point, the smartest investors want answers to four basic questions:
- Are you solving a real, urgent problem?
- Why now? What changed to make this problem worth solving today?
- Why are you the right person to solve it?
- What evidence do you have that people want this, even a little?
That evidence could be 50 waitlist signups, 3 paying users, screenshots of user DMs, or results from a no-code MVP you built in a weekend. It just has to feel real, not theoretical.
One investor told a founder, “I’m not funding your business. I’m funding your clarity.” That’s what you should be pitching.
How to build a compelling narrative for your startup
Here’s the structure many early-stage founders swear by:
- The problem: Lead with the frustration. Make it relatable and specific.
- Why now: Show the trend, shift, or moment that makes this the right time to solve it.
- Who you are: Talk about your obsession. Your lived experience. Your insight.
- What you’ve built: Show the solution, just enough to spark belief.
- Signal: Any data, user feedback, or test that shows people care.
- Why you’ll win: End with your edge. Distribution, team, speed, insight, just something that separates you.
Keep it tight. This shouldn't be a lecture, but rather a short, high-intent story that leaves room for curiosity.
Kelechi Edeh
How to build a pitch deck (even with zero design skills)
You don’t need a “beautiful” pitch deck. You need a clear one.
Here are five slides that matter:
- Problem – What’s broken?
- Story – Your founder journey and why this matters to you
- Product/Demo – Screenshots, prototypes, or live links
- Early traction – Even if it’s just 10 user quotes or pilot results
- Roadmap – Where you’re going next and what you need
Tools like Canva, Pitch, or even Notion can help. Just don’t overcomplicate it—one idea per slide, max 10 slides, and keep the file size small.
The art of pitching without a deck
Sometimes, you won’t have time to “share your screen.” That’s okay. Some of the strongest early pitches happen in:
- Twitter DMs
- WhatsApp groups
- AngelList comments
- Startup events and cold email intros
When that happens, you need a tight verbal pitch and a good follow-up message.
Here’s a basic structure for cold outreach:
“Hey [Name], I’m [Your Name], a [location]-based founder building a tool that helps [user] solve [pain point]. We’ve seen [early traction], and I’d love to get your quick feedback or hear your take. Can I send over a 1-pager?”
And yes, include a simple 1-pager or Notion doc if they say yes.
Pre-revenue pitches that worked
You don’t have to fake scale.
Nigerian founders like those behind Pivo and Chowdeck got into YC while still pre-revenue. Many more got early angel checks based on clarity of vision, insight into user behaviour, and hustle.
The common thread is that their pitches weren’t about what they already built. They were about what they were learning, testing, and seeing from the trenches, and what they were going to do next.
Conclusion
Your early-stage pitch isn’t about numbers. It’s about belief. It’s about helping someone see the thing you can’t stop thinking about and showing just enough signal to make them believe it too.
So, don’t worry about impressing people. Focus on being clear, specific, and real. Because if the story is sharp, the metrics will come.
