Here is my strong opinion: most pitch decks I see lead with the solution. That is backwards—and it kills deals before the conversation even begins.
I have sat on both sides of the table. As the founder of Su-Kam Power Systems, I spent years pitching to investors, banks, and channel partners. Then bankruptcy stripped everything away and rebuilt my perspective from scratch. Now, as I build Su-vastika and Kunwwer.ai, and as I mentor founders across India and beyond, I see the same mistake repeated in almost every deck I review.
Founders lead with what they built, not why it matters.
The problem slide comes after the product slide. Or worse—there is no clear problem slide at all.
What I Actually Look For in a Founder
Before I even read slide two, I am asking one question: Does this person understand the pain they are solving at a visceral level? Not market research. Not TAM/SAM/SOM numbers. Visceral, lived, real.
When I built inverters and UPS systems at Su-Kam in the 1990s, power cuts were destroying small businesses across India. I knew that pain personally—my own operations shut down because of it. That is why the product worked. Not because I was technically brilliant. Because I understood the customer’s desperation better than the customer did.
That is what I look for in founders: evidence that they have lived inside the problem. Authentic proximity to pain is a signal money cannot manufacture.
The Slide That Reveals Everything
If you want to know what a founder truly understands, look at their “Why Now” slide. Most founders skip it entirely or treat it as an afterthought squeezed between market size and product screenshots.
The “Why Now” slide is where strategic thinking either shows up or it does not. It forces the founder to explain what has changed in the world—in technology, regulation, behavior, or infrastructure—that makes this moment the right time to build this company.
A weak “Why Now” slide says: “The market is growing and AI is everywhere.”
A strong one says: “Three years ago, this required hardware that cost ₹40 lakhs. Today it costs ₹80,000. That cost collapse is the unlock.”
Specificity equals credibility. Vagueness signals that the founder has not done the real thinking yet.
What Founders Get Wrong About Investors
Here is the uncomfortable truth: investors are not evaluating your idea as much as they are evaluating your ability to navigate uncertainty.
I mentor founders who obsess over product features and neglect the question of distribution. I see pitch decks with twelve slides on technology and one vague slide on go-to-market. That tells me the founder has spent 90% of their time building and 10% thinking about how the world will actually adopt what they have built.
After Su-Kam, I understand this more clearly than ever. The product was never the problem. Distribution, credit, and channel relationships determined survival. The same truth applies to every startup I have seen succeed or fail since.
Investors back founders who can sell—to customers, to partners, to their own team in the darkest moments. Show me you can do that, and the deck becomes a formality.
Send Me Your Problem Slide
If you are raising right now and you are willing to be challenged—send me your Problem slide. Just that one slide. I will give you honest feedback within 48 hours.
Not a pitch meeting. Not a commitment. Just one slide and one perspective from someone who has built through chaos and come out the other side.
DM me on LinkedIn or email me directly. Put “Problem Slide” in the subject line.
Strong founders do not wait for permission to get better. They seek friction.
#StartupIndia #FounderMindset
