Quick answer: The business model slide shows how the product makes money and the economics of the unit. It contains the pricing, the recurring revenue, the customer acquisition cost, and the gross margin, and it follows the traction and market slides.

The slide contains

  1. The model. Subscription, usage, transaction, marketplace, or license.
  2. The pricing. The plans and the headline price.
  3. The revenue per customer. The annual or monthly value.
  4. The acquisition cost. What it costs to acquire a customer.
  5. The gross margin. The economics after the direct cost.

The common models

  • SaaS subscription. Monthly or annual recurring revenue, the most common model for tools.
  • Usage-based. Revenue tied to consumption.
  • Transaction or take-rate. A percentage of the activity.
  • Marketplace. Two-sided and the take-rate.
  • License or enterprise. Annual contracts and seat pricing.

The slide must state the model, not just the logo.

The pricing

The pricing slide should be honest:

  • The plan names and the headline prices.
  • The free tier if it exists.
  • The unit: per seat, per month, per transaction.

Hidden pricing is a weakness on the slide. The investor will ask.

The unit economics

The numbers the investor tests:

  • LTV: the lifetime value of a customer.
  • CAC: the customer acquisition cost.
  • LTV/CAC: the rough ratio, often above 3 for a healthy SaaS.
  • Payback period: how long it takes to recover the CAC.
  • Gross margin: usually above 70% for software.

At the pre-seed stage, the unit economics can be the plan and the assumption, not the proven numbers; by the seed stage, the numbers are real.

The slide layout

A clean business model slide:

  • One headline stating the model and the core price.
  • The three plans or the pricing table.
  • One row of the key unit economics.
  • A line on the gross margin and the retention assumption.

What to avoid

  • A "freemium" model with no conversion logic. The free tier must point to the paid plan.
  • Revenue claims without the unit.
  • CAC guessed with no acquisition channel.
  • Gross margin that ignores the support or compute cost.
  • A model that changes by customer. The pricing is a system, not a negotiation.

Connection to the other slides

The model connects to the traction slide (current customers are paying on the model) and the market slide (the bottom-up math uses the same price).

The go-to-market slide shows the channel that produces the CAC; the model and the channel must be consistent.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need the exact pricing on the slide? The headline price and the unit, yes. Can the model be hybrid? State the primary model and the secondary; don't show three equally. What if CAC is unknown at pre-seed? Show the planned channel and the assumed CAC; label it as an assumption. Should the slide include the full financial projections? The projections live in the financials slide or the appendix; the business model slide carries the logic. Can the slide be generated? The table and the layout can; the pricing and the costs are the founder's real numbers.

State the model and the price in one sentence, then show the numbers that prove the unit is a good business.

Related guide: the pitch deck guide.