A hackathon pitch deck template that fits in three minutes

Speaking at a MeetKats event
Speaking at a MeetKats event

Originally published at https://pranjulrathour.scult.in/blog/hackathon-pitch-deck-template. That copy is the canonical version and gets updates first.

The pitch that won Product Genesis at CSJMU was delivered to a Vice Chancellor in front of a full hall; the one that lost with STROT was delivered to a panel of three. The difference was not the idea. It was whether the first minute made the judges want the second. This template is what I coach teams toward now.

At an Integral Startup Foundation hackathon
At an Integral Startup Foundation hackathon

The seven slides

  1. The person and the pain — one human, one situation, what goes wrong today. No logo, no team names yet.
  2. Why now, why us — one line on why this problem is tractable this weekend and what your team knows about it.
  3. What we built — one sentence, then hand off to the live demo. This slide is a doorway, not a description.
  4. Live demo — ninety seconds, real input, one path. See the demo that works live.
  5. How it works — one diagram, three boxes, the one technical decision you are proud of.
  6. What we cut and why — the honesty slide. Judges score it higher than any feature list.
  7. What happens Monday — the next step if this continued, and what you would need.

What to cut

  • The team introduction slide. Names go in the footer; the judge will meet you in Q&A.
  • The market-size slide with a number from a report you did not read.
  • The full architecture diagram. Three boxes, not thirteen.
  • Any slide that starts with "In today's world".

Delivery

One speaker for the story, one for the demo, then everyone answers questions about their own part. Rehearse with a timer until you finish at 2:40, because the venue will cost you twenty seconds. I covered the two-minute version in how to pitch a startup idea in two minutes.

A pitch deck is a script for the judge's attention. Spend it on the problem and the demo; everything else is footnotes.

In a packed college auditorium
In a packed college auditorium

Pranjul Rathour · GenAI engineer, 3x hackathon winner, campus mentor. Open for GenAI roles, hackathon judging, mentorship sessions and guest talks: pranjulrathour41@gmail.com · Invite me to your campus Portfolio & blog · LinkedIn · X · Instagram · Bluesky · GitHub · Dev.to

From my carousels
Three First Prizes, One Loss
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Full carousel on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Pranjul Rathour
Pranjul Rathour
GenAI engineer, Kanpur · 3x first-prize hackathon winner · campus mentor
I ship production RAG pipelines, fine-tune LLMs and build agentic AI products end to end. I lead engineering at SCULT INDIA for a 14-member team and have mentored 200+ students through TechVerse Enclave.
Open to: GenAI roles, hackathon judging, mentorship sessions and guest talks at colleges.
On stage, at hackathons and on campus
Pranjul Rathour at a campus event
Pranjul Rathour at a campus event
Pitching at CSJMU, Kanpur
Pitching at CSJMU, Kanpur
Trophy and certificate of merit at Vividhotsava 2025
Trophy and certificate of merit at Vividhotsava 2025

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