Pitch deck structure: slides, order, length
The decks that went on to our investment committee were more likely to show traction and the team. They were not more likely to show financials. That is what about a thousand pitch decks show, sent to BADideas by founders in Central and Eastern Europe in 2025 and 2026 so far. We do not publish anyone's deck; the figures below compare them.
Which slides the decks that went further had
| Slide | All decks | Decks that reached our committee | Decks that did not |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem | 95% | 97% | 93% |
| Solution | 96% | 98% | 95% |
| Team | 92% | 97% | 87% |
| Market | 86% | 91% | 83% |
| The ask | 77% | 83% | 73% |
| Product or demo | 77% | 80% | 74% |
| Competition | 76% | 80% | 73% |
| Business model | 74% | 75% | 73% |
| Traction | 73% | 84% | 63% |
| Go-to-market | 51% | 54% | 49% |
| Use of funds | 46% | 51% | 42% |
| Roadmap | 36% | 37% | 36% |
| Financials | 31% | 32% | 31% |
| Why now | 27% | 29% | 25% |
The biggest gap is traction: 84% against 63%. Team (97% against 87%), the ask and the market follow. Financials, roadmap and business model slides are as common in the decks that went further as in the ones that did not. A slide does not get a deck to the committee; a company with traction has a traction slide to show. Read it as what the decks that went further had, not as a recipe.
What each slide is for: What is a pitch deck?. How the share of each slide has changed by quarter and country: What slides should a pitch deck have?
In what order
Most decks follow the same opening. The most common order of the first six slides:
- Cover
- Problem
- Solution
- Product or demo
- Market
- Business model, then competition or traction
Most decks open with the problem straight after the cover. Decks that went to the committee use the same order; what differs is what is on the slides, not where they sit.
How long
| Length | All decks | Decks that reached our committee |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 10 pages | 18% | 14% |
| 11–15 pages | 47% | 47% |
| 16–20 pages | 23% | 26% |
| 21 pages or more | 13% | 13% |
The median deck is 14 pages with about 80 words a page. Length and text per slide: How many slides should a pitch deck have?
The slides that need the most thought
- Competitors: how many to name and how. How many competitors should a deck name?
- Market size: what founders claim and how they size it. How big a market do founders claim?
- Regulation: which rules founders name. Which regulations do decks name?
- The tool: Google Slides, Canva or PowerPoint. Pitch deck template
Check your own deck
The deck review reads a deck the way our investment committee does, scores nine areas and lists the questions an investor will ask. It takes about 40 seconds, and nothing reaches our investment team unless you send it. Drafting the deck with a chatbot first: Creating a pitch deck with AI chatbots.
How we measured it
- Updated: 9 November 2026.
BADideas.fund, "Pitch deck structure: slides, order, length", updated 9 November 2026. https://badideas.fund/answers/pitch-deck-structure
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Who we are
We are a pre-seed and seed fund for founders in Central and Eastern Europe. We have built and sold companies ourselves, and since 2022 we have backed more than 40.
We back founders who see something about their market that others do not see yet. They want to change how a whole industry works, and they start small.
Good founders rarely fail on the idea or the product. They fail on selling it. We give your company hands-on help from go-to-market operators who grew Zendesk, Square and Scale AI.