Your Solution + Business Model: Where the Scrutiny Ramps Up

Hey friends,

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend with loved ones. For the founders out there, I know how hard it is to truly unplug, but a little rest and recharge go a long way.

Now that we’re easing back into things, it’s time to continue with the Core 10 Pitch Framework.

This week, we’re covering two sections that naturally go hand-in-hand: your Solution and your Business Model. Investors don’t just want to know what problem you’re solving - they want to know how you’re solving it and how you (and they) will make money from it.

For the rest of us, this is often where investor scrutiny ramps up. Below is a preview these two critical steps, which I cover in more detail in the book.

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Let’s get into it!

Your Solution: Your clear, workable answer to a painful problem.

Now that you’ve made a clear case for the problem, it’s time to show us how you solve it. This section should tie directly – and I mean directly – to the problem you just laid out. Don’t make investors do the work of stitching your story together, because they won’t give you the time or attention. You just showed them the pain, now show them the painkiller.

This section is usually two to three slides, and it needs to answer a few key questions:

• Is it crystal clear what we’re building?

• Can a non-expert understand how it works?

• Does it directly solve the problem we defined?

• Can someone see how a customer would use it?

If the answer to any of these is “not really,” go back and simplify. You want your solution to feel obvious and inevitable, not complex and aspirational.

How It’s Different for the Rest of Us

This is the part of your pitch where you’re often doubted, not because your solution isn’t good, but because the people listening may not personally understand the problem you’re solving. That means your solution might not feel “obvious” to them, even if it’s painfully clear to your audience or community. If your product or approach is culturally grounded, addresses a systemic gap, or rethinks a traditional model, it might not fit their mental blueprint for what a “startup” looks like. That’s not your failure – it’s a reflection of narrow investor exposure.

Here's how to take control of the narrative:

• Make the link between the problem and the solution unmissable. If you’re solving a problem they’ve never experienced, you can’t afford a storytelling gap.

• Use real-world visuals and examples that anchor your solution in the lives of real people, especially those who aren’t typically visible in pitch rooms or case studies.

• Avoid assumptions about what your audience values. Investors might not see the immediate financial upside in solving equity-driven problems unless you show how it maps to return on investment. Translate social relevance into market opportunity.

Business Model: The Who, What, and How of Growing Your Company

Now that an investor understands why you’re building your company and what your solution is, they need to know how you’re going to make money with it. This is where your business model comes in. It doesn’t need to be overly complex, but it does need to show that you’ve thought through:

• Who is paying you.

• What they’re paying you for.

• How that revenue could grow over time.

If You’re Pre-Revenue, That’s OK, But Be Clear

Even if you haven’t started monetizing yet, you still need to communicate your planned business model and show that you know who your paying customer is. Be especially careful to distinguish between your end user and your paying customer, as they are not always the same. If you’re early, say so, but show that you’ve done the work to validate your assumptions. You can even break this into a “now” and “later” approach:

“Right now we’re testing freemium onboarding, but longer-term we plan to monetize through tiered subscriptions based on user volume.”

That’s honest, it’s grounded, and it shows you’re thinking ahead. Many investors will assume that if you don’t proactively bring up how you’ll generate revenue, it’s because you haven’t thought it through. If you’re from a group that isn’t typically seen as a “business type,” this kind of omission may get interpreted unfairly. Even a single sentence can flip that perception.

“What About Financial Projections?”

This is a question I get in nearly every workshop or pitch review. Should I include financial projections in my pitch deck?

Here’s my honest answer: you don’t need to include financial projections in your core deck. You do need to have them in your appendix, ready to bring up in Q&A or later-stage discussions. The goal of your pitch deck is to convince someone you’re worth spending more time with. That’s it. You are not closing the deal in your deck. If someone is interested, they’ll go deeper. That’s when your projections matter.

How It’s Different for the Rest of Us

This advice is especially important for women and founders of color because the data shows a clear pattern: you are more likely to be scrutinized on specifics, while others are funded based on potential. According to DocSend’s 2024 Funding Divide report, all-female team business model sections received 41% more investor attention than all-male sections. 

If you include them too early, they can be used as a reason to pass. Even if your projections are more realistic than the next founder’s hockey stick, they may be judged more harshly. That’s the double standard, and that’s why I advise against leading with them.

So, yes, build your model, absolutely, but use it strategically and don’t let it become a premature filter. Your narrative should carry the meeting, not your spreadsheet. Especially if you’re someone who doesn’t look like what the investor expects a “CEO” to be.

That’s it for now. Thank you, as always, for reading. If you want to go deeper and join a thoughtful community of smart, compassionate builders and funders, apply to be a beta reader.

See you next week!

Allison