Pitch deck guide
Problem slide in a pitch deck: purpose, rubric and three fixes
Last verified: October 20, 2026
The problem slide of a pitch deck names who has a problem, what it costs them and why the options they use today fall short. It is the base of the whole argument: if an investor cannot repeat the problem in one sentence after this slide, the solution slide has nothing to answer.
What this slide is for
Investors read the problem to decide whether the pain is real before they care about the product. A named customer and one concrete example do more than a general statement about an industry.
What the rubric looks for
The getfund rubric v1 does not score slides one by one. It scores dimensions across the whole deck, and this slide supplies evidence for the ones below.
- Problem clarity, getfund rubric v1, score 3: A specific customer and pain, with one concrete example, quote or number
- Problem clarity, getfund rubric v1, score 5: As 4, and the deck shows why the current alternatives fail this customer
Three fixes
- Name one customer group and write the pain from their side, in their words if you have a quote.
- Add one measured number for the pain (time, money or frequency) with its source, or say it comes from your own customer interviews.
- Add one line on why the current alternatives fail this customer.
A template sentence
Fill the brackets with your own confirmed facts. Do not copy the sentence as written, and do not invent a figure to fill a gap.
[Customer group] loses [time, money or how often] on [task] because [why current options fail].
The check that applies
getfund rubric v1, Required sections (4 points): Problem, solution, market, business model, traction, team and ask, each found by keyword in English or Turkish: points in proportion to the sections found
The required-sections check looks for the words problem, pain or challenge (or their Turkish equivalents), so use at least one of them on the slide, even in a sentence headline.
Frequently asked questions
- How many problems should the slide show?
- One. A second problem usually means a second company, and the rubric asks for a specific customer and pain, not a list.
- Do I need a statistic?
- A sourced number helps, and the rubric also accepts your own customer research if you say so. An unsourced statistic is worse than none.
- Where do the competitors go?
- On the competition slide. Here, mention only why today's options fail the customer.
Sources
- getfund rubric v1, published on the pitch deck scorer page
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