What slides do founders put in a pre-seed pitch deck?
Problem, solution, team, the ask and the market are close to universal; financials are the slide most founders leave out. That is what CEE founders raising pre-seed put in the decks they applied to BADideas with in 2026 so far.
The figures
| Slide, CEE founders raising pre-seed | 2025 | 2026 (to date) |
|---|---|---|
| Problem | 97% | 98% |
| Solution | 98% | 98% |
| Team | 94% | 92% |
| The ask | 93% | 90% |
| Market | 89% | 92% |
| Business model | 82% | 82% |
| Competition | 80% | 83% |
| Product or demo | 73% | 83% |
| Traction | 75% | 76% |
| Go-to-market | 54% | 61% |
| Use of funds | 53% | 57% |
| Roadmap | 40% | 34% |
| Why now | 34% | 34% |
| Financials | 38% | 28% |
94% of decks open with the problem, and the team usually comes near the end, about 83% of the way through. In BADideas application data, about one in six founders links to a demo or video.
What is changing
| Quarter | CEE applicants with a traction slide | Financials slide | Why now slide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 2025 | 76% | 34% | 26% |
| Q3 2025 | 67% | 33% | 27% |
| Q4 2025 | 80% | 39% | 29% |
| Q1 2026 | 73% | 30% | 20% |
| Q2 2026 | 75% | 27% | 37% |
| Q3 2026 | 79% | 26% | 36% |
What it means for you
- Cover the basics first. Problem, solution, team, market and the ask are what investors look for; a deck without one of them stands out for the wrong reason.
- Show traction if you have any. 76% of pre-seed decks have a traction slide; without one, say what you have learned instead.
- Financials are optional at pre-seed. Only 28% include them; a use-of-funds slide tells investors more.
- Open with the problem. Almost every deck does, and investors expect it. Keep the first three slides for the problem, the solution and why it matters now.
- Put the team where it helps you. Most decks leave it near the end. If your team is your strongest argument, bring it forward.
Also answers
Should a pre-seed deck include financial projections?
Most founders leave them out: 28% of CEE pre-seed decks in 2026 so far had a financials slide.
How we measured it
- Source: applications founders sent to BADideas in 2025 and 2026 to date. CEE means the company is in a Central or Eastern European country. A slide is counted by what it covers, not by its title.
- Limits: these are founders who applied to one CEE pre-seed fund, so the sample leans towards companies that see themselves as a fit for it. A single quarter can swing, so read the change between years first. A slide that covers two topics counts for both.
- Read: 26 September 2026. Updated every quarter.
BADideas.fund, "What slides do founders put in a pre-seed pitch deck?", founder application data read 26 September 2026. https://badideas.fund/answers/pre-seed-pitch-deck-slides
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, start with something small, and learn fast.
Good founders rarely fail on the idea or the product. They fail on selling it. So that is where we help: operators who grew Zendesk, Square and Scale AI work on your go-to-market.
Raising soon? Get your deck read the way our deal leads read it