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Articles for investors
Signals to look for in pitch decks, danger signs, what’s investable vs not, due diligence, and how to evaluate deals — written for investors building and protecting their pipeline.
The 30-Minute Founder Call: What to Ask, What to Listen For
The 30-minute founder call is where most seed investments actually get decided. Four segments, eight due diligence questions, and what to listen for underneath the answers.
What a Demo Day Judge Is Actually Doing
When investors sit on a demo day judging panel, they're not evaluating the presentation. They're trying to determine whether there's a real business underneath it. The distinction matters enormously for founders preparing to pitch.
How PitchVault Pre-Screens Deal Flow — And Why It Changes What You See First
Most deal flow is noise. PitchVault gives investors a ranked, scored, filterable view of founders who have already stress-tested their own decks — so you spend time on signal, not sorting.
The Early-Stage Due Diligence Playbook: A Risk-Weighted Framework for Seed Investors
A structured, risk-weighted due diligence framework for pre-seed and seed investors — covering team, market, product, competition, financials, cap table, and legal, with the specific questions and failure modes that protect you before you wire.
Customer Concentration and Other Structural Deal Killers
Why a few big customers can sink an otherwise strong deal — and how to spot concentration, single points of failure, and other structural risks before you commit.
Danger Signs: When to Walk Away from a Pitch
Some red flags are fixable; others are structural. How to tell the difference and when to pass quickly so you can focus on deals that deserve your time.
Investable vs Not: A Simple Framework for Early-Stage Deals
A practical framework to separate investable opportunities from the rest — team, market, product, traction, and terms — so you can triage faster and focus on what fits.
Seed-Stage Valuation in 2026: How to Avoid Overpaying When There's Almost No Data
Pre-seed and seed valuations are set with almost no fundamental data — and founders know it. Here's how experienced investors benchmark, negotiate, and structure terms that protect their returns even when the price feels high.
Signals That Make a Pitch Deck Investable
The positive signals that separate strong early-stage deals from the rest — clarity on problem and solution, evidence of demand, team credibility, and a plausible path to scale.
What Founders Leave Out of Pitch Decks — And Why It Matters
The gaps in pitch decks often matter as much as what’s on the slide. How to read between the lines and ask the questions that surface real risk and opportunity.
9 Pitch Deck Red Flags That Predict Startup Failure — And How to Protect Yourself
9 pitch deck red flags that predict startup failure: solo cap tables, top-down TAM, declining margins, founder-only CAC, hockey-stick models, and 4 more — with exact due diligence moves for each.
Browse founders who have run their deck
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