Pre-Seed Pitch Deck: How to Pitch Without Traction
No revenue yet? A pre-seed deck is judged on the problem, the team and the earliest proof you can show.
Score my pre-seed deckAt pre-seed, nobody expects a revenue chart. What investors want to see is that you understand a painful problem better than anyone, that you are the team to solve it, and that real people have already shown, in some measurable way, that they want the solution. A pre-seed deck that tries to look like a seed deck, with inflated projections and a giant market number, usually scores worse than an honest one.
The Pitch Deck Analyzer uses pre-seed weights when you choose the Pre-seed stage, so a deck with no revenue is not punished for it. You get a 0–100 score, the 3 biggest problems and the first question an investor will ask, free with an account.
What replaces traction at pre-seed
Traction still counts at pre-seed (10 of 100), it just looks different. From weakest to strongest evidence:
Customer interviews
A specific number and a pattern: "38 interviews with clinic managers, 29 named scheduling as their top weekly problem."
Waitlist or sign-ups
Stronger when there is a step that costs effort, such as answering questions or booking a call.
Prototype usage
People using a rough version without being pushed, ideally more than once.
Pilots and letters of intent
Named organisations committing time, data or a future budget.
Pre-orders or first revenue
The strongest signal: someone paid before the product was finished.
Founder-market fit
Years inside the problem, a network of buyers, or a previous result in the same market.
How pre-seed decks are weighted
The weights shift points from traction and financials to the problem and the team. Each column adds up to 100:
| Criterion | Idea | Pre-seed | Seed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem | 18 | 14 | 10 |
| Team | 16 | 13 | 10 |
| Market | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Solution, business model, competition | 10 each | 10 each | 10 each |
| Traction | 5 | 10 | 15 |
| Go-to-market | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Ask & use of funds | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Financials | 4 | 6 | 8 |
The full table for all four stages is on how the pitch deck score works.
Common pre-seed deck mistakes
- A market slide built on one big number. "$200B healthcare market" says nothing about who buys first. Count the first segment you can reach and what each customer would pay.
- A detailed five-year projection. At pre-seed it reads as guesswork. Show burn, runway and the milestones the round reaches instead.
- Advisors instead of founders. The team slide should explain why the founders win this market; a wall of advisor logos does not.
- "No competition". The alternative is often a spreadsheet, an agency or doing nothing. Name it and say why customers will switch.
- An ask without a plan. "Raising a pre-seed round" needs an amount, what it pays for and what you will have proven when the money runs out.
- Hiding the lack of traction. Say plainly where you are and show the best evidence you have. Investors notice what is missing anyway.
A scored example
A fictional pre-seed health-tech company: a scheduling tool for small clinics, a working prototype, 38 customer interviews, 2 pilot clinics, raising $400k.
| Criterion | Score | Pre-seed weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem | 8 | 14 | 112 |
| Solution & product | 7 | 10 | 70 |
| Market | 6 | 12 | 72 |
| Business model | 6 | 10 | 60 |
| Traction | 4 | 10 | 40 |
| Competition & moat | 5 | 10 | 50 |
| Team | 8 | 13 | 104 |
| Go-to-market | 5 | 8 | 40 |
| Financials | 5 | 6 | 30 |
| Ask & use of funds | 6 | 7 | 42 |
| Total | 620 ÷ 10 = 62 |
Result: 62 — Needs work. Scored with seed weights, the same deck gets 59, because traction and financials count for more there. The quickest win here is traction: turning the 2 pilots into a slide with dates, usage and a quote from each clinic could lift traction from 4 to 6, which adds 20 points and moves the score to 64.
Fictional company and scores, for illustration. Your report is based on the text of your own deck.
Analyze → Practice → Price
Frequently asked questions
Can I raise a pre-seed round with no revenue?
Many pre-seed rounds are raised before revenue. Investors then look harder at the problem, the team and any early evidence: customer interviews, a waitlist, pilots, letters of intent or a prototype people use.
How is a pre-seed deck scored differently from a seed deck?
At pre-seed the problem weighs 14 and the team 13 out of 100, while traction weighs 10 and financials 6. At seed, traction rises to 15 and financials to 8, and the problem and team drop to 10 each.
Should I include financial projections at pre-seed?
A short, honest view is enough: what you will spend the round on, monthly burn and how many months of runway it buys. A detailed five-year model is rarely read at this stage and invites questions you cannot answer yet.
What counts as traction before launch?
Anything that shows real people want this and will act: a waitlist with a conversion step, interviews with a specific count and a pattern, pilots, letters of intent, pre-orders, or usage of a prototype. Give numbers and dates.
Should I choose idea stage or pre-seed in the analyzer?
Choose idea if you have no product and no users yet; the problem and team weigh even more there, and traction only 5. Choose pre-seed if you have a prototype or first users and are raising a first round.
Raising a first round? Score your pre-seed deck.
The All Innovativ Pitch Deck Analyzer scores pre-seed pitch decks with pre-seed weights, where the problem (14 of 100) and the team (13) count more and traction (10) and financials (6) count less than at seed.
At pre-seed, evidence such as customer interviews with counts, waitlists, prototype usage, pilots, letters of intent and pre-orders stands in for revenue. The analyzer returns a 0–100 score, readiness level, deck quality, the 3 biggest problems, missing standard slides, automatic checks and the first investor question, free with an account for 1 analysis a day; the full PRO report is included in every paid plan on allinnovativ.dev and uses 2 AI prompts per analysis. An idea stage is also available, with problem 18, team 16 and traction 5.