I studied 87 YC Demo Day pitches. Every great one had the same 8 lines.
The 8 elements every winning pitch contains, 10 hook patterns that actually work, and the exact order that got 67% of top YC startups funded — all from dissecting real Demo Day presentations line by l
👋 Merhaba, I’m Burak. Each week, I share lessons from 26+ years of building, investing in, and mentoring startups across emerging markets, from the early internet days to today’s AI revolution. 🧿
Startup Fundraising & Pitching · everyone
TL;DR — What This Post Covers
Here is the quick version of what you will learn:
• I studied 87 YC Demo Day pitches and found that every great pitch boils down to just 8 lines — covering what you do, the problem, why now, your solution, proof, team, and vision.
• This post breaks down the exact framework, the 3 best ways to order your pitch, 10 hook patterns that grab investor attention, and the 5 most common mistakes founders make.
• Whether you are pitching next week or next year, this is a simple, practical guide to make every word in your pitch count.
Most founders spend weeks building a pitch deck. They obsess over fonts, gradients, and the perfect stock photo for the “team slide.” Then they walk into the room — and lose the investor in the first 10 seconds.
I know this because I’ve been on the receiving end roughly 10,000 times.
Since founding Etohum in 2008, I’ve listened to pitches across 500+ events in cities from San Francisco to Dubai. At Startup Istanbul and Startup Turkey alone, we’ve processed 220,000+ applications from 170 countries. I’ve invested in hundreds of pre-seed startups. And after all that, I can tell you the single most reliable pattern I’ve seen:
The best pitches don’t feel like pitches. They feel like obvious investment opportunities explained clearly.
That sentence changed how I think about founder communication. And it came from studying something very specific — 87 YC Demo Day presentations, dissected line by line.
Here’s what I found.
The 60-Second Reality Check
YC Demo Day pitches are under 60 seconds. Most founders hear that and think: “That’s impossible. My business is too complex.”
Wrong framing.
The constraint doesn’t limit you. It reveals whether you actually understand your own business. If you can’t explain what you do, why it matters, and why you’ll win in 60 seconds — you don’t have a clarity problem. You have a thinking problem.
I learned this the hard way in 2002 when I was running e-commerce initiatives at Vestelnet. I used to explain our incubation program with a 20-minute monologue about “synergistic ecosystem partnerships.” Nobody remembered a word. Then one day a colleague stopped me and said: “Just tell me what you do in one sentence.” It took me three weeks to find that sentence.
Three weeks to find one sentence. That’s how hard clarity is.
What Investors Actually Evaluate (In the First 10 Seconds)
After watching thousands of investor reactions — my own included — I’ve noticed that three questions fire simultaneously in an investor’s brain within the first 10 seconds:
1. Traction — Is this working?
2. Market — Is this big enough?
3. Team — Can they execute?
Everything else is decoration.
This means the architecture of your pitch isn’t about telling your story chronologically. It’s about answering these three questions as fast as humanly possible. The pitch hierarchy that actually works is:
Proof → Problem → Solution → Team → Vision.
Notice what comes first. Not your vision. Not the problem. Proof.
Investors care more about what you’ve done than what you plan to do.
Lead with proof. Investors care more about what you’ve done than what you plan to do.
The 8-Line Skeleton
Here’s the core framework — 8 elements that every successful pitch contains. Master these and you can build any pitch, for any audience, at any length.
Line 1 — WHAT: Your one-sentence company description. “[Category] for [customer] that [outcome].”
Line 2 — PROBLEM: Quantify the pain. Use specific numbers, not feelings.
Line 3 — FAILURE: Why current solutions don’t work. Name the broken mechanism.
Line 4 — SOLUTION: Describe your mechanism in one sentence. Not technology. Mechanism.
Line 5 — WHY NOW: What changed to make this possible? A regulatory shift, a new technology, a behavioral change.
Line 6 — PROOF: Traction with specific metrics and timeframes.
Line 7 — TEAM: Credentials that prove founder-market fit.
Line 8 — VISION: Expansion path from wedge to bigger market.
That’s it. Eight lines. Everything else in your pitch is a variation on these eight lines arranged in different orders.
Here’s the key insight: write your 8 lines before creating any other pitch materials. Your deck, your email, your one-pager — they all derive from this skeleton.
The Compression Principle
Great pitches compress maximum information into minimum words. Every sentence should do work.
I see this mistake constantly at Startup Istanbul. A founder says: “We’re building an AI-powered platform that leverages machine learning to help companies hire better engineers through our proprietary assessment technology.”
That’s 22 words that say almost nothing.
Compare: “AI recruiter for engineering teams. $180K ARR in 4 months.”
Twelve words. You now know the category, the customer, and the traction. The investor is leaning in.
The rule is simple: if a sentence doesn’t add new information, delete it.
Three Ways to Order Your Pitch
The same 8 lines can be arranged in different orders. After analyzing the data, three dominant patterns emerged:
1. Numbers-First (67% of successful pitches)
Lead with your strongest proof. This is the most common and most effective approach.
Order: Proof → What → Problem → Solution → Team → Vision
Use this if you have revenue, contracts, or strong user growth. Two-thirds of the best YC pitches open with a number, not a story.
2. Insight-First (24%)
Lead with a surprising insight or observation. Works when you’ve discovered something others missed.
Order: Why Now → What → Problem → Solution → Proof → Vision
This is the “we noticed something nobody else noticed” approach. Powerful when you have a genuine technical or market insight.
3. Magic-First (9%)
Lead with a demo or visual proof. Only use if you have a genuinely impressive demo that can be shown in under 15 seconds.
Order: Demo → What → Problem → Proof → Team → Vision
This is rare for a reason. Most demos aren’t as impressive as founders think they are.
My rule of thumb: If you have traction, use Numbers-First. If you have a genuine insight, use Insight-First. If you’re not sure, use Numbers-First. Default to proof.
10 Hook Patterns That Actually Work
Your hook is your opening line — the first thing investors hear. Here are the patterns I’ve seen work repeatedly:
1. X-for-Y — Reference a known success in a new market. “Stripe for healthcare payments.” Only use if the comparison is genuinely accurate.
2. Role Replacement — “AI [role] for [industry].” Clear and immediate.
3. First [Category] — “The first instant background check for gig workers.” Works when you genuinely have a category-creating product.
4. Operating System — “The operating system for clinical trials.” Implies comprehensive control of a domain.
5. [X] Without [Y] — “Enterprise security without the complexity.” The “without” does heavy lifting.
6. Big Company Killer — “We’re replacing Salesforce for startups.” Bold. Make sure you can back it up.
7. $[X]B Market, [Y]% Broken — “$400B hiring market. 80% still uses manual screening.” Numbers + broken = opportunity.
8. We Made [X] Do [Y] — “We made AI pass the bar exam.” Technical achievement as hook.
9. Surprising Fact — “Most hiring failures happen in the first 90 days. We predict them before they happen.” Counterintuitive claim + solution.
10. Origin Story — “When I was an ER doctor, I watched patients die waiting for test results. Now we deliver diagnostics in 15 minutes.” Personal stake = credibility.
I’ve evaluated thousands of hooks at Startup Istanbul and Startup Turkey. The founders who open with a crisp, specific hook get 3x more follow-up meetings than those who open with “We’re excited to share our vision.”
Nobody cares about your excitement. They care about your evidence.
The Proof Hierarchy
Not all proof is equal. Here’s the ranking from strongest to weakest:
1. Revenue — Paying customers prove product-market fit
2. Growth Rate — Week-over-week or month-over-month
3. Engagement — Daily active users, time spent, retention
4. Customers — Number and quality of customers
5. Pipeline — Signed LOIs, pilots, waitlists
6. Technical — Working product, key breakthrough
If you have revenue, lead with revenue. If you don’t have revenue, lead with the strongest proof you do have. Never apologize for where you are. Just present your best evidence first.
The proof patterns I see work best:
→ The Revenue Statement: “$180K ARR in 4 months.” Simple. Devastating.
→ The Growth Stack: “$180K ARR. 50 customers. Growing 35% week-over-week.” Layer your metrics.
→ The Logo Drop: “Customers include Stripe, Notion, and Figma.” Social proof through association.
→ The Retention Flex: “100% retention. 80% of customers expand within 3 months.” Stickiness beats acquisition.
→ The Waitlist: “500 companies on waitlist. 20 signed LOIs.” Pipeline as proof when you’re pre-revenue.
→ The Efficiency Metric: “$200 CAC. 8x LTV/CAC. 2 month payback.” Unit economics as evidence of a real business.
The Team Slide Mistake Everyone Makes
Here’s what most founders say about their team: “We have a great team with relevant experience.”
That tells me nothing.
Your team slide must answer one question: Why will YOU win? Not “are you smart?” but “what specifically have you done that makes you the right people to build this specific company?”
The patterns that work:
→ The Builder: “Built Stripe’s fraud detection system. $2B in transactions protected.”
→ The Domain Expert: “20 years in pharmaceutical supply chain. Former VP at Pfizer.”
→ The Operator: “Managed $500M P&L at Target. Rebuilt their inventory system.”
→ The Repeat Founder: “Third startup. Previous exit to Salesforce for $50M.”
→ The Insider: “Former FDA reviewer. Know exactly what gets approved.”
→ The Customer: “Spent $2M on recruiting last year. Built this to solve my own problem.”
The difference between a weak team slide and a strong one is the difference between adjectives and evidence. Don’t tell me you’re experienced. Show me what you built.
The 5 Mistakes I See Every Week
After 26 years of this, the patterns of failure are as predictable as the patterns of success:
Mistake 1: Starting with the problem. Most founders open with “The problem is…” Lead with proof instead. Always.
Mistake 2: Vague hook. “We’re building an AI platform for enterprises.” That could be anything. Be specific about the customer, the category, and the outcome.
Mistake 3: No numbers. “Hiring takes too long” vs. “15 hours/week screening. 90% unqualified.” Numbers make pain real.
Mistake 4: Buzzword solution. “AI-powered machine learning platform” vs. “Analyze code samples, predict performance in 30 seconds.” Describe the mechanism, not the technology stack.
Mistake 5: Generic team. “Experienced team from top companies” vs. “Hired 200 engineers at Google. ML lead from DeepMind.” Specificity is credibility.
What This Sounds Like: A Complete 60-Second Script
Theory is useful. But nothing replaces seeing the framework in action. Here’s a complete 60-second pitch script using the Numbers-First order — the structure used by 67% of the most successful YC pitches.
$180K ARR in 4 months, growing 35% week-over-week.
We’re ETalentAI — an AI recruiter for engineering teams.
Engineering managers spend 15 hours per week screening resumes. 90% of candidates are unqualified. Job boards optimize for volume, not quality. Agencies charge $30K per hire.
We analyze code samples and predict job performance in 30 seconds. Companies hire 3x faster with half the effort.
Open-source repos provide training data. LLMs enable real-time analysis.
I was engineering director at a major tech company where I built the team that hired 200 engineers. My co-founder led ML systems at a top AI research lab.
Starting with engineering, then all technical roles, then all hiring. $400B market.
Raising $2M to scale sales and hit $1M ARR by year end.
That’s 8 lines. 60 seconds. Every line does work:
Line 1 = PROOF (lead with your biggest number)
Line 2 = WHAT (one-sentence company description)
Lines 3-4 = PROBLEM + FAILURE (quantified pain + why alternatives fail)
Line 5 = SOLUTION (specific mechanism, not buzzwords)
Line 6 = WHY NOW (the shift that makes this possible)
Line 7 = TEAM (credentials that prove founder-market fit)
Line 8 = VISION (wedge to bigger market)
The Monday Morning Version
If you’re pitching this week, here’s what to do right now:
→ Write your 8 lines. One sentence each. No more. If you can’t fit an element into one sentence, you don’t understand it yet.
→ Pick your order. Have traction? Numbers-First. Have an insight? Insight-First. Not sure? Numbers-First.
→ Choose your hook. Pick from the 10 patterns. Test it on someone outside your industry. If they don’t immediately get it, try another pattern.
→ Read it out loud. Time it. Every vague phrase should become a specific number, name, or mechanism.
→ Cut everything that doesn’t survive the compression test. If a sentence doesn’t add new information, it’s dead weight.
The entire framework fits on a single page. That’s the point. Pitching isn’t about being comprehensive. It’s about being clear.
One Last Thing
I’ve spent 26+ years watching founders pitch. The ones who succeed aren’t necessarily the ones with the best ideas. They’re the ones who can explain their best ideas in the fewest words, with the most evidence, in the least time.
Clarity is a competitive advantage. Most people underestimate how rare it is.
The best pitch isn’t the longest one. It’s the one where every single word earns its place.
Build your 8 lines first. Everything else follows.
Your pitch is a compression algorithm for conviction. Make every byte count.
Key Takeaways
• Every great pitch fits into 8 lines: What, Problem, Failure, Solution, Why Now, Proof, Team, and Vision. Write these 8 lines before you build any deck or one-pager.
• Lead with proof, not your story. Investors decide in the first 10 seconds. If you have revenue or traction, open with that.
• Compress everything. If a sentence does not add new information, cut it. Twelve specific words beat twenty-two vague ones.
• Use the Numbers-First order if you have traction (67% of winning YC pitches do this). Lead with your strongest metric.
• Your hook matters more than you think. Pick one of the 10 proven patterns (X-for-Y, Role Replacement, Surprising Fact, etc.) and test it on someone outside your industry.
• Show evidence, not adjectives. On your team slide, replace "experienced team" with specific accomplishments and numbers.
• Avoid the 5 common mistakes: starting with the problem, vague hooks, no numbers, buzzword solutions, and generic team descriptions.
• Clarity is a competitive advantage. The best pitch is not the longest one — it is the one where every word earns its place.
Download the Free Ebook
Want the complete framework with all templates, examples, and step-by-step guides? Get “The Complete YC Framework for Startup Pitches” — a free 37-page ebook with 10+ proven templates to help you craft a pitch that convinces investors in 60 seconds.