Having trouble with the business model slide of your pitch deck? You probably skipped this step.

Lots of startup founders struggle with the business model slide in their first pitch deck.

Business models can be hard to simplify. I've helped hundreds of founders build pitch decks, and I've discovered it's often just a symptom of a more pernicious problem.

Let's talk about how it happens and what you can do to get perfect clarity on this slide.

You don't know how valuable your product is.

I'm not saying THAT it's valuable, but WHAT the value is — specifically.

AirBnb knew exactly what value they created. Their slide: 10% commission. Average stay of 3 nights at $70/night. That's $200m in revenue across 10.6m trips. Boom.

You might lack this kind of clarity because you don't know what value you create.

Because the customer never told you.

I'm willing to bet that you don't know the customer as well as you think you do.

The right business model — subscription, razors and blades, ultimate luxury, etc — is a function of profitability and the kind of wants, needs, fears, and pain the customer experiences. No one signs up for a subscription razor if don't need to shave regularly.

Similarly, pricing isn't just a question of what pain they experience. It's also a measure of how acutely they experience that pain. Severe pain, dire needs, terrible fears, and strong desires all mean higher prices. Can you quantify your customers' feelings?

If the customer is unclear, too much is unknown.

This leads to business model that's vague or convoluted. Founders justify this by saying, "it's just hard to explain". But it's really not.

If it's difficult to create a clear business model slide, you're probably jumping ahead.