PitchCraft
Builders x AI
Season
2
/
Episode
4
A Founder’s Guide to the Ultimate Pitch Memo
In this special episode of PitchCraft, Pratik Agarwal, Partner at Accel, steps away from any single startup story to tackle a question most founders struggle with: what actually makes a pitch work today.
Indian startups are no longer building by copying global playbooks. The old references have run out. Markets have matured, founders are inventing from first principles, and investors are comparing radically different ideas side by side. Pratik lays out why this shift demands a new way of pitching and introduces what he calls a universal pitch memo.
He breaks this down into CORE: Change, Opportunity, Resilience, and Edge. What has fundamentally changed in the world? Why does that change create a real opportunity now? What makes the business durable as it scales? And what gives this founding team the right to win? Together, these become a shared language between founders and investors.
The episode goes deep into how founders should communicate conviction in an era where evangelising the idea matters as much as executing it. Pratik also walks through a real Series A deck that applied these principles end to end, showing how clarity, not polish, is what earns attention.
If you’re building in India, pitching unfamiliar ideas, or wondering how to make investors truly understand your business, this episode is a masterclass in how to think before you design the slides.
We’re looking for the next generation of successful Indian marketplaces. If you’re an early-stage marketplace founder, apply now here or learn more about the #DecodingMarketplaces Startup Hunt.
We’d love to hear about your experiences with marketplaces. Let us share our learnings and build a better and stronger ecosystem. Write to us at [email protected] to be a part of the Accel family.
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We’re building Passionfroot 1, an operating system for creators to manage their business.
We’re based in Europe and raised our $ 3.4m pre-seed round from Creandum and US angels such as Vlad (Webflow) and creators like Ali Abdaal.As we’re creating a new category and as the creator economy is global and mostly online, we’re building from Day 1 a global company and product that helps creators monetize around the world.
This brings a lot of complexities especially in terms of payments and taxes as our early users are based both in Europe and the US and deal with cross-border transactions.What are Do’s and Dont’s for European startups who have a global ambition and build products for a global customer base from Day 1. Anything you would do differently?
Thanks @pjbouten! Love how you’ve thought about incrementally shaping a category with a focus on product and service, and only then thinking about getting the message out there vs the other way around.
And totally agree on the distinctions and overlaps both self-serve and enterprise motions share.
Thanks, PJ, for taking the time to address questions from the great vantage of shaping Showpad into a global, enterprise SaaS brand!