Post Written by Vasily Alekseenko

London’s Largest Demo Day is just one month away, and we’re about to announce the top 100 founders selected to pitch. Over the last few days, I manually reviewed 300+ applications to make sure no hidden gems were overlooked. I went through videos, pitch decks, LinkedIn profiles, websites—you name it.

And I saw a lot of mistakes that instantly kill investor interest. These are the biggest red flags that stop founders from getting meetings with investors:

1. Bad Design

In 2024, with AI and Canva at your fingertips, there is zero excuse for a poorly designed pitch deck. Investors see hundreds of decks regularly, so they have a certain level of expectation. If your deck looks sloppy—especially if it’s literally just a Word document saved as a PDF—investors will assume the same about your business. First impressions matter. If a deck doesn’t come through a strong referral, a bad design means it’ll likely get ignored or deleted.

2. Problem-Solution Mismatch

One of the most common mistakes I saw: the problem founders describe doesn’t match the solution they propose. This tells investors either:

The founder can’t communicate clearly—which is a problem in itself.The founder doesn’t understand what they are actually solving.

Both are huge red flags that kill investor interest immediately.

3. No Clear Explanation of the Solution

It’s shocking how many decks just say “We solve X by doing Y”—without actually explaining how it works. Investors don’t want vague statements; they need to understand how your solution works in real life. If you can’t explain it in a deck, you won’t explain it well in a meeting either.

4. Too Much Text

Less is more. Pitch decks are not novels. Yet, time and time again, I saw decks that looked like someone tried to fit War and Peace into 10 slides. Your deck is there to get a meeting, not tell your entire story. Investors don’t have time to read paragraphs of text in tiny, unreadable fonts. If they open a deck and see a wall of text, they will not read it. It will go straight to the trash.

5. Weak Team Slide

Investors invest in people. Your team slide should show why you are the right team to solve this specific problem. Just putting a photo and name is not enough—unless you’re Elon Musk, no one will recognize you. Highlight relevant experience.

If you worked at major companies, include logos—but only if they are relevant and recognizable. Otherwise, it’s just noise. No one is going to hire a detective to figure out your background. Make it clear and compelling.

6. No Real Traction

We all hear the same advice: traction is everything. Yet, so many founders either don’t include traction or add meaningless stats like “50% user growth”—without context. Growing from 2 users to 3 is also 50% growth, but no investor will be impressed.

If you have no traction worth shouting about, you shouldn’t be raising money yet. Founders who claim they need money to build traction are lying to themselves. You don’t need funding to prove demand. Real founders find ways to make things happen with limited resources.

7. No Business Model

Too many decks don’t explain how they make money—or how they plan to. Investors are not a charity. They look for businesses that can generate returns. Saying “We are B2B” without details is a wasted opportunity. Saying “Our business model is freemium” without further explanation is a deleted deck.

Again, investors are not philanthropists. If they can’t see how your business makes money, they won’t waste time trying to figure it out.

8. Unrealistic Funding Ask

The number of idea-stage decks I saw where founders claimed they were raising £2M+ with no validation or credentials is shocking.

This is a clear sign of a delusional founder. If you haven’t built anything, proven demand, or validated your concept, why would investors throw millions at you?

Don’t embarrass yourself. Talk to other founders, understand the market, and set a realistic ask. Throwing out a random number with no justification can instantly disqualify you.

Final Thoughts

If you’re fundraising, make sure your deck doesn’t raise any of these red flags. Investors don’t owe you their time. If your design, communication, business model, or traction isn’t up to standard, your deck won’t just get ignored—it will never even get opened again.

Fix these issues before you pitch, and you’ll have a much better shot at getting meetings and raising investment.

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