01
The one line
What the company does, in a sentence a stranger can repeat correctly.
Where it goes wrong. A category instead of a company.
The Pitch Floor
15 minutes, and a room that will tell you the truth.
Twice a year, 5 founders take the floor with the firms we invite in the room. You do not need a membership to ask.
- On the floor
- 15 minutes
- Founders a session
- 5
- Cost to present
- No fee, either way
- Recorded
- Never
Next floor
Founders take the floor
Thursday 22 October 2026, 6:30 PM. 1 Place Ville Marie, Montreal. 5 slots, chosen by hand. Requests close 2 weeks before the room sits.
The clock
15 minutes, spent in this order.
- 00:00
- The one line, and the problemIf the room cannot repeat it back correctly, nothing after it lands.
- 02:00
- What you builtOne screen, or one thing working. Not a feature tour.
- 06:00
- How it reaches people, and what that costsThe part the room pushes hardest on, and most decks skip.
- 10:00
- What has actually movedTraction, team, and the number you least want to show.
- 13:00
- The askHow much, what it buys, by when. One slide, 30 seconds.
- 15:00
- The room takes it apartAs long as it stays useful. This is the part you came for.
Who gets the floor
5 slots, and the filter is the respect owed to the room.
- You are the founder, and you present
- CEO or co-founder, on the floor yourself. Not an advisor, not an agency.
- Something exists
- Product, prototype, live deployment or signed pilot. Pre revenue yes, pre product no.
- AI is load bearing
- It does the work the company is paid for, rather than sitting beside it.
- Canadian, or building here
- Headquartered, incorporated, or with the team that does the work here.
- The ask fits in one sentence
- If it does not, the room finds that out at minute 13.
- You accept the teardown
- Told what is wrong with it, in front of everyone, unsoftened. That is the offer.
How to pitch us
12 slides, in this order.
3 min 44 sec
The average an investor spends on a deck, measured by Tactico. 15 minutes in a room is rare attention.
Tactico, Your Investor Deck Template02
The problem
Whose problem, how they solve it today, and what that costs them.
Where it goes wrong. A problem nobody currently pays to solve.
03
The solution
What you built, and what changes on the first day of using it.
Where it goes wrong. Describing the architecture.
04
Why now
What is true this year that was not true 2 years ago.
Where it goes wrong. Answering "because AI". The room has the same tailwind.
05
The product
One screen, at the moment the value appears.
Where it goes wrong. 11 screenshots. The room remembers one.
06
The market
Bottom up: who buys, how many exist, what each one pays.
Where it goes wrong. A trillion dollar number off an analyst chart.
07
Go to market
How the first customers were reached, and why the next 100 come the same way.
Where it goes wrong. Channels you have not run yet.
08
Competition
Real names, including the incumbent and the spreadsheet.
Where it goes wrong. Saying you have none. The buyer solves this somehow today.
09
The model
Price, margin, what a customer is worth. Inference cost included.
Where it goes wrong. A pricing page with no unit economics under it.
10
Traction
The number that moved, over time, on a real axis.
Where it goes wrong. Cumulative charts. Anything that can only go up is not evidence.
11
The team
Why you specifically, and who is missing.
Where it goes wrong. Former employer logos with no line about what you did there.
12
The ask
How much, what it buys, what it proves, and by when.
Where it goes wrong. Ending on "thank you" and an email address.
What stops a pitch
4 ways to lose the room, all of them common.
- Spending 8 of the 15 minutes on the problem. The room understood it at minute 2.
- Numbers with no denominator. 300% growth from what, over what.
- Reading the slides. Everyone here reads faster than you speak.
- Answering the first hard question with a longer version of the pitch.
Ask for the floor
Fill this in from your deck.
Every field maps onto a slide above. If a field is hard to answer, the slide is not finished.