🚨 Startups don’t need another pitch deck. They need a painkiller.
Let me explain because this is exactly why most startups globally, not just in Kenya or India, never make it past a flashy demo day.
🧠 I’ve reviewed 100s of decks. Some were stunning animations, hockey-stick graphs, futuristic buzzwords: “AI + Web3 + ESG for Climate-Friendly Credit Scoring.”
But when I ask one simple question
“What painful problem are you solving that a real human is desperately waiting for you to fix?”
I get radio silence. 🤐
Because here’s the uncomfortable truth:
✖ Most founders are building for investors, not users.
✖ They’re chasing valuation, not validation.
✖ They know the CAC and TAM, but not the name of even 10 real customers.
💥 And that’s the problem.
A startup that can't answer “Why does the world need this today?” isn’t a startup. It’s a spreadsheet with a logo.
Now let’s look at the real ones the painkiller startups:
Zoho: Profitable, bootstrapped, and building tools that over 90 million users actually use.
OfBusiness: Solving working capital and raw material procurement for real-world SMEs.
Ninjacart: Helping farmers get fair prices with real-time logistics and market access.
None of these started with a perfect pitch deck.
They started with real pain. And refused to stop until they solved it.
They all did one thing right:
They built a painkiller for someone’s daily migraine
Not a vitamin
Not a cool app
Not a “platform” without a single paying user.
Just something that works, right now, in the dirt, with or without 4G or VC funding.
🧭 If you’re a founder, ask yourself this today:
🙂 Who are your first 20 users? Not personas. Real names.
🙂 What keeps them up at night? And how do you help them sleep?
If you stopped building tomorrow, would anyone outside your team care?
If you can’t answer that, pause the fundraising.
Talk to customers before you talk to investors.
Validate pain before you prototype.
Earn love before you chase likes.
🎯 And to my fellow investors, accelerators, mentors
Let’s stop rewarding decks that “look” like a startup. 💩
🙂 And start supporting the ones that act like one.
🙂 The ones with ugly MVPs but undeniable demand.
🙂 The ones building from a street stall, not a coworking space.
📢 I’ll end with this:
The next great startup won’t start with a pitch deck.
It will start with a single frustrated customer
A founder who couldn’t sleep until they fixed it.
💬 Let’s make this a conversation:
👉 What’s the most impressive startup you’ve seen that didn’t raise a single dollar but built something real?
👉 Or what's the most ridiculous pitch deck you’ve seen lately that solved nothing?
Tag a founder who’s building something real.
Share if you’re tired of “startup theatre.”
Let’s bring substance back into the spotlight.
