Welcome to the latest edition of Into the Ring - my biweekly newsletter on how to successfully plan & execute on your startup fundraise. As a reminder, I’m Jorian Hoover, and I’m a Startup Fundraising Sparring Partner. I guide Pre-Seed thru Series A founders through their fundraising process, and you can check out how to work with me here. If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can subscribe here.

There’s no shortage of frameworks for building a pitch deck. But few of them address the core issue: how to actually stand out.

In this edition of Into the Ring, I spoke with my friend Yorán Meijers, GM of Europe at Deck Doctors, a boutique consultancy that helps founders craft winning pitch decks with both story and visual polish. In my opinion, Deck Doctors is one of the top pitch deck firms in the U.S., with 335 beautiful & clear pitch decks created as of April 2025. Deck Doctors recently expanded to Europe, hiring Yorán to draw on his VC investor and founder experience to level up how European startups pitch themselves. In our interview, Yorán explored the origin and structure of their bold, contrarian “Anti Pitch Deck Framework.”

If you're preparing your deck—or helping someone who is—this one’s for you.

Below, you’ll find my interview with Yorán. If you’re interested in learning more about Deck Doctors, you can reach out to him at [email protected]. 

My interview with Yorán Meijers

1) JH: Let’s start at the beginning: where did the idea for the Anti Pitch Deck Framework come from?

YM: When you're trying to create a pitch deck, the internet gives you all sorts of must-dos, templates, and frameworks. Some are decent. Most are overly rigid. But the core issue is this: they rarely help you do the one thing your deck must accomplish—make you stand out.

That’s the reason we built the Anti Pitch Deck Framework. It's not about being different for the sake of it. It's about being different because that's the only way to catch the attention of someone who sees hundreds of decks a month. VCs are trained to spot patterns, and if your deck blends in with the crowd, it's game over before it begins.

2) JH: The framework starts with a bold prompt: What’s your billion-dollar logical gap? What does that mean, and why does it matter?

YM: If you're raising from VCs, this is a question you have to answer. What inefficiency or unmet need have you spotted that others haven’t solved yet? Why does it still exist? And why is your company the one that can finally close that gap?

We call it the “logical gap” because it's the bridge you’re building—between the way the world works now, and the way it could (and should) work in the future. If the gap is real, and you can make a credible case for it being a billion-dollar opportunity, then you’ve got investors leaning in.

3) JH: You say sounding like everyone else is “not the goal.” What are some of the common pitch deck traps you see?

YM: There are a lot. Some are structural—like decks that follow a generic slide order and fail to grab attention early. Others are in the content: slide titles that say nothing specific, traction slides that show projections just to fill space, problem/solution slides that are so vague they could apply to half the market.

Buzzwords, jargon, safe phrasing—these are all symptoms of a founder trying to check boxes instead of tell a compelling story. The result is a deck that doesn’t actually explain why this company is uniquely positioned to win.

4) JH: What advice would you give a founder starting from scratch with the Anti Pitch Deck Framework?

YM: Start with your story. What makes your company unique? Why are you approaching this gap the way you are? Build from there.

Make sure your company is the hero of the story—and that it shows up early in the deck. Think about moments when you’ve pitched your company and someone lit up, nodded along, or started asking excited questions. Those are your hooks. Use them.

Great storytelling doesn’t mean ignoring structure. If you follow this approach, you’ll still check all the traditional pitch deck boxes—you’ll just do it in a way that actually gets remembered.

5) JH: You’ve worked with founders across geographies. Are there any patterns specific to European founders?

YM: Yes—one that comes up often is hesitancy around sharing big visions or bold numbers. European founders tend to worry that they’ll sound unrealistic or untrustworthy.

But if you’re pitching VCs, you have to show the scale of the opportunity. That doesn’t mean you should bluff—it means you need a believable story for how you’ll get there, and the conviction to back it up. Investors are betting on upside. You need to show them it’s there.

6) JH: Last one—what’s a piece of pitch advice you used to give that you no longer believe?

YM: I used to recommend tailoring decks for each investor. And in some cases, a minor tweak can help. But for the most part, it’s not worth the effort—and it risks diluting your story.

Your pitch should be consistent and rooted in what you believe. That’s what matters most. Investors care about your conviction, your clarity, and your narrative. Keep it clean. Keep it sharp.

Yorán Meijers is GM of Europe at Deck Doctors, a boutique consultancy that helps founders craft winning pitch decks with both story and visual polish. Previously, he was a VC investor at Anterra Capital in Amsterdam and Co-Founder & CEO of Nom Nom Nom. If you’re interested in learning more about Deck Doctors, you can reach out to Yorán at [email protected]. 

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