Once you’ve convinced your would-be investor that the problem you’re tackling is worth solving, the obvious next step is how you’re going to solve that problem.

In this book, I handle “the solution” and “the produc” in different chapters. They are very closely related, and many founders can safely combine both into either a “product” or a “solution” slide. Conceptually, however, I think they are a little different.

When you are pitching your company to an investor, you are telling two stories in parallel. One version is the ultimate vision you have for your company. To use Uber as an example, they started off wanting to disrupt the taxi market, with town cars that come to your house, summoned by an app. That was a big vision, of course, but at some point, they shifted toward wanting to be the hub for all gig-economy transport needs. They launched Uber Eats for food delivery, Uber Freight for substantial transportation needs, and Uber Business to make it easy for businesses to transport their staff and customers around. The “solution,” in the context of the pitch deck, is the full vision for your company.

When talking about the solution, you have some wiggle room to talk about the broader problem and how it fits into the context of the customers and how you envision a suite of products that can help customers. Airbnb started as “Airbed and Breakfast,” but it is now a vast marketplace economy offering lodging, experiences, and more. The broader vision of Airbnb stemmed from starting the lodging business and then discovering that there were many other pain points in the travel industry. If you were pitching Airbnb today, you could envision it as a one-stop travel planning website. Plan your trip, the things you do, the places you eat, and more.

When thinking about the solution you are presenting, think about the big, 10-year vision for your company. In your big-picture plan, you have an opportunity to show off how deeply you understand the market you are entering and the challenges your customers are facing. You can hint at a suite of products, several services, or a platform that becomes the go-to place for your customers to solve more and more problems in your space. By painting the solutions in broad strokes, you have a chance to put some meat on the dream you’re selling. The investor wants to know that you have an expansive idea and that your company won’t be a one-trick pony. Ultimately, there has to be a path for your enterprise to become a multibillion-dollar company, showing that you have the knowledge and ambition to get there which is of great help.

Apple started with the Apple I, a computer for hobbyists. Sony’s first product was a (mostly unsuccessful) rice cooker. Amazon started as an online bookstore. Google’s parent company Alphabet started as just a search engine. All of these companies came from humble beginnings, and most of them weren’t even the first company of its kind. But the founders were visionaries who realized that there were vast industries worth conquering. The trick to describing the “solution” part of your deck, then, is to put some meat behind your vision. How are you going to change the world?

A word of warning. Your investors will want to see that you have a vision for how to move the universe, of course, but they also want to be reassured that you know how to stay focused. As seen in Figure 6-1, make sure you have a clearly articulated vision for what your solution covers.

A crucial piece of painting the “big picture” is to reassure your audience that you won’t be trying to take it all on at once. Once you’ve explained your long-term vision, outline where you’re going to start; what is the first piece you’ll bite off? If you are using a single slide for the “solution,” make sure you include where you are focusing your attention at first. If you’re doing a solution and a product slide separately, make sure you highlight that the long-term vision is viable only once you’ve gotten a foothold on the market. Then explain what that foothold is going to be.