Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Key Takeaways
- Pitch decks open doors, but character determines who survives when everything inevitably breaks.
- Founders reveal more in quiet moments than in slides, metrics or polished narratives.
I’ve sat across from hundreds of founders. Coffee shops. Board rooms. Investor dinners where the food’s cold and the questions aren’t.
Some show up with beautiful decks. Perfect fonts. Charts that feel expensive. Most of those decks say the same thing. But what actually matters never appears on a slide.
You can polish a story.
You can’t edit character.
Here are 10 things I look for in founders that never show up on a pitch deck. These are the tells. The patterns. The stuff that predicts who lasts when things stop going according to plan.
1. How they talk about people who aren’t there anymore
Pay attention. How a founder discusses everyone behind them will usually blame everyone ahead of them, too. Accountability always leaks out.
Strong founders own the mess. Weak founders rewrite history.
2. Their relationship with the truth
Pay attention to the big lies. The small ones. Rounded numbers. Soft explanations. Convenient omissions.
Founders who exaggerate early will exaggerate later. Pressure doesn’t create dishonesty. It exposes it.
Trust compounds or it collapses. There’s no middle ground.
3. How fast they follow up when there’s nothing to gain
Anyone can be responsive when money’s on the table.
What about the quiet moments?
The intro doesn’t guarantee anything.
The update no one demanded.
Discipline without applause tells me everything.
4. Whether they let the product do the talking
This one never shows up on a slide.
Great founders don’t just talk about the product. They carry it. Wear it. Use it. Share it.
I notice who shows up wearing their brand. A hat. A hoodie. Something simple and lived-in. Not staged.
I notice who brings their product to meetings without making it weird. They drink it while we talk. They hand it across the table and say, “Try this.”
Someone inevitably asks, “What’s that?”
That’s not an accident.
They believe in it enough to put it in someone’s hands.
They trust the product to speak before they do.
They understand that distribution starts with presence, not ads.
If you aren’t willing to wear your brand, carry your brand, or give your brand away, you’re probably not as confident in it as you think.
There are always ways to share.
A hat sparks a conversation.
A drink on a walk becomes a question.
A free sample turns into a story someone retells.
That’s not marketing. That’s belief made visible.
5. Their comfort with saying “I don’t know”
This separates leaders from performers.
Founders who pretend to have every answer usually stop learning. The best ones pause. Think. Ask better questions.
Confidence isn’t pretending. It’s curiosity without ego.
6. How they react when you push back
I push on assumptions on purpose.
Do they get defensive?
Do they listen?
Do they adapt?
Founders who can’t absorb friction break under pressure.
The business will push back harder than any investor ever will.
7. Their relationship with control
Great founders know when to hold the wheel and when to hand it off. Weak ones either micromanage everything or disappear completely. Both stall momentum. Control isn’t about power. It’s about responsibility.
8. Whether they can explain the business without the slides
Close the laptop.
If the story falls apart, the business probably does too.
Clarity isn’t simplification. It’s understanding.
If you can’t explain it plainly, you don’t own it yet.
9. How they treat small wins
Do they celebrate quietly and keep building?
Or spike the football like they’ve arrived?
Founders who over-celebrate early wins usually stall later. The work never ends. The market doesn’t care about your last press release.
Hunger beats hype every time.
10. What they do when no one is watching
This matters most.
The best founders show up prepared… even when the meeting doesn’t matter. They treat a junior analyst the same way they treat a lead investor.
Character isn’t situational. It’s consistent.
Who you are in the quiet moments is who you’ll be when it counts.
Related: This Is the Courage Formula You Need to Transform How You Lead
Pitch decks don’t fail companies — people do. Markets shift, capital tightens and competitors copy what works. Something always breaks, usually at the worst possible moment. When that happens, I’m not betting on your TAM or your slides.
Better decks, louder messaging and the right buzzwords can build momentum, but they don’t carry a company through stress. I’m betting on you — on the habits you fall back on when the room empties and the noise fades. The deck might open the door, but who you are determines what happens once it closes.
Key Takeaways
- Pitch decks open doors, but character determines who survives when everything inevitably breaks.
- Founders reveal more in quiet moments than in slides, metrics or polished narratives.
I’ve sat across from hundreds of founders. Coffee shops. Board rooms. Investor dinners where the food’s cold and the questions aren’t.
Some show up with beautiful decks. Perfect fonts. Charts that feel expensive. Most of those decks say the same thing. But what actually matters never appears on a slide.
