Most founders waste their best pitch on the wrong problem.
I’ve seen hundreds of decks over the years. Built Su-Kam from scratch into a ₹2,000 crore company. Navigated bankruptcy. Rebuilt with Su-vastika. Now, with Kunwwer.ai, I’m deep in the next chapter. And across all of it—the raising, the mentoring, the investing—I’ve noticed one thing that kills more deals than bad products or weak teams.
Founders pitch the solution before they’ve proven the problem.
The Slide That Kills Most Pitches
It’s usually slide 3 or 4. The “Problem” slide.
Here’s what I see constantly: a vague market description dressed up as a pain point. “Small businesses struggle with cash flow.” “Enterprises face digital transformation challenges.” These aren’t problems—they’re categories.
A real problem statement — as Paul Graham has long argued — answers three things precisely: Who is experiencing this, exactly? What are they doing today to solve it (and why is that painful)? And what does it cost them—in time, money, or opportunity—to live with this pain?
If your problem slide can’t answer all three in under 60 seconds, your solution doesn’t matter yet.
What I Actually Look For
When I sit across from a founder, I’m not evaluating the idea first. I’m evaluating whether this person has spent real time with real customers experiencing real pain.
At Su-Kam, I didn’t build inverters because I thought they were a good business. I built them because power cuts were destroying small businesses and homes across India, and nobody was solving it for the mass market. I lived in that problem. I understood the frustration, the workarounds, the economics of it.
That lived understanding—that obsession with the problem—is what I look for in founders.
The second thing I look for is self-awareness about what they don’t know. The founders who scare me are the ones with a perfect answer for every question. The founders who excite me are the ones who say: “Here’s what I know, here’s what I’m still figuring out, and here’s how I’m testing it.”
The Mentorship Gap
Most founders don’t need more advice. They need someone who will ask better questions.
“What would have to be true for this to work?” is worth more than ten hours of strategy sessions. “Who is your customer, specifically—not as a segment, but as a person?” unlocks more insight than any market sizing exercise.
I mentor a handful of founders at any given time — you can read some of their stories in the people who built Su-Kam series. The pattern I see most often is this: founders who stall out are usually optimizing the wrong thing. They’re building features when they should be talking to customers. They’re perfecting a deck when they should be closing a first client.
The fix is almost always the same: get back to the problem. Get uncomfortable. Go sit with your potential customers for a week and just watch what they do.
One Action for Today
Pull up your problem slide. Read it out loud. Then ask yourself: does this describe a specific person’s specific pain with specific evidence? If not, that’s your job this week.
And if you want a second pair of eyes—send me your problem and solution slides. I’ll tell you what I see. No charge, no pitch, just honest feedback.
DM me or reach me through the site.
#Mentorship #Entrepreneurship
DISCLAIMER
I, Kunwer Sachdev, wish to clarify that I have had no involvement, affiliation, or relationship of any kind with Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd. since 2019. As per official IBBI records, my directorship and all associated capacities ceased upon the initiation of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) ordered by the Hon’ble NCLT, after which a court-appointed Resolution Professional assumed full control of the company. I do not represent, endorse, or speak for Su-Kam in any capacity. Readers and consumers are advised to be aware of this before purchasing Su-Kam products or entering into any dealings with the company, as I hold no responsibility for any actions, commitments, or representations made by Su-Kam or its current management. Source: IBBI Official Record — Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd.
