---
title: "The 7 Questions A Startup Should Answer in their Fund Raising Pitch"
description: "Learn the 7 essential questions startups must answer in their fundraising pitch to VCs, from team \u0026 value prop to revenue model \u0026 unit economics. Key insights for founders."
categories: ["fundraising"]
keywords: ["Theory Ventures","Tomasz Tunguz","venture capital","startup fundraising","pitch deck","investment analysis","revenue model","unit economics","go-to-market strategy"]
ai_summary: "Discover the 7 key questions startups must address in their fundraising pitch to attract venture capital investment."
date: 2013-03-29
lastmod: 2026-07-31
canonical_url: https://www.tomtunguz.com/pitch-deck/
author: "Tomasz Tunguz"
---

<p>Some of our companies started financing processes in earlier this quarter. At a strategy session with one of our companies, the team and I crafted the outline of the pitch deck. They asked me what questions a venture investor might ask in the initial meeting.</p>

<p>Distilling the investment analysis into a small number of general questions is challenging because of the diversity of businesses we see but, I gave it a try and came up with the following questions I might ask a startup to answer in an initial meeting.
</p>
<ol style="line-height: 19px; padding-top: 25px;">
<li>[Value prop] What is the problem and is it worth solving? Why is now the right time to solve it?</li>
    <li>[Team] Does the team have the vision and the wherewithal to build this company?</li>
    <li>[Go to market] What is the competitive angle (competitive barrier to entry and/or go-to-market) that will enable this company to succeed where others have tried and failed?</li>
    <li>[Sales effectiveness &amp; product validation] Who does the startup sell to? Which customers have used the product and how have they received it? How much is each customer worth?</li>
    <li>[Product distribution] How does the company acquire customers cost effectively?  What are the unit economics (customer acquisition cost, contribution revenue, and churn rates)?</li>
    <li>[Revenue model] Does the company have the revenue model to build a big (&gt;$100M annual revenue) business with good margins (gross ~ 50 to 60% / net ~15 to 25%) under reasonable assumptions?</li>
    <li>[Market size] Can the market enable or bear a $100M revenue Alternatively, is this product in a quickly growing market or riding a disruptive wave?</li>
</ol>
<p><a href="http://tomtunguz.com/the-11-risks-vcs-evaluate">Other risks including legal risks, technology development risks, value chain implications and so on may also be important</a>. But when building a generic fund-raising deck, answering these questions in your pitch deck will serve as a solid starting point.</p>

<p>It’s important to unite these points with a single theme or story to sell the dream.</p>