How To Perfectly Pitch Your Seed Stage Startup With Y Combinator's Michael Seibel

Discover the best ways for a seed-stage startup to pitch to investors and successfully fundraise from Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel.

Any founder you talk to likely remembers every investor who said no to them.

Those founders hold a special kind of “not hatred,” says Michael Seibel, Managing Director and Group Partner at Y Combinator, but a special kind of something for those investors and a desire to prove them wrong.

If you’re a seed-stage startup, Michael shares the best ways for you to present your company to startup investors.

Pitch

In the video “How To Perfectly Pitch Your Seed Stage Startup With Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel,” Michael Seibel, Managing Director and Group Partner at Y Combinator, offers a comprehensive set of guidelines for pitching seed-stage startups to investors. Here’s a summary of his main points:

• Be Concise and Clear: The most important aspect of a pitch is clarity and brevity. Seibel stresses that if an investor doesn’t understand what your company does, you won’t get funded. The main barrier is often the founder’s ability to explain the business simply. He recommends being able to describe what your company does in two sentences, with a specific, relatable example.

• Key Elements of a Pitch: Every pitch should include:

  • What your company does (two sentences, plus a concrete example)
  • Who is on your team (roles, accomplishments, and ideally, personal experience with the problem)
  • What traction you have (what you’ve accomplished, with clear timelines)
  • Your unique insights (non-obvious things you’ve learned)
  • Market size (how you calculate it, not just a big number)
  • What you’re asking for (how much you want to raise and what you’ll do with it)

• Order of Presentation: The order of your pitch should be flexible, but always start with what you do and end with your ask. In between, arrange the most impressive points first to keep the investor engaged.

• Team Slide Tips: When presenting your team, focus on who does what, their accomplishments, and how they’ve experienced the problem. Avoid long stories or vague titles—clarity and relevance are key.

• Traction: Traction is about momentum and progress, not just revenue or users. Show what you’ve done and how quickly you’ve done it. If you don’t have traction, don’t fake it—investors will fund the team if they believe in you.

• Unique Insights: Share what you know that others don’t, but only after you’ve clearly explained your business and team. Use specific examples, numbers, or facts to make your insights stick.

• Market Size: Investors care more about how you calculate your market size than the number itself. Show your math and explain why your pricing and customer base make sense.

• The Ask: Always explicitly ask for money. Many founders forget to do this. Explain what you’ll achieve with the funds and set clear milestones.

• Engage the Investor: Treat the pitch as a conversation, not a monologue. Watch for signs of interest and adapt your pitch accordingly. The more an investor talks, the more likely they are to invest.

• Avoid Distracting Slides: Keep slides simple and focused on your message. Visual distractions can take attention away from the founder and the key points.

In summary, Seibel’s advice is to be clear, concise, and engaging, to highlight your team’s strengths and progress, and to always ask for what you want in a straightforward way.