Why now? How to answer it in your pitch deck
An idea from Sequoia Capital, Balaji Srinivasan · Updated 2 October 2026
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Short answer
Why now is the question of why your solution is possible or needed today and wasn't before. Sequoia includes it in its business plan outline and notes that the best companies almost always have a clear answer. Usually something changed: a technology, a cost, a behavior or a rule.
Sequoia's question
Sequoia's outline asks why your solution hasn't been built before now, and says the best companies almost always have a clear why now: "The best companies almost always have a clear why now."
Where the answer usually comes from
Balaji Srinivasan describes the same thing in his idea maze: the maze shifts over time, and new doors open as new technologies arrive, like Pandora on the iPhone.
- New technology that makes the product possible.
- A cost that fell far enough, like bandwidth or storage.
- A change in behavior.
- A new rule or regulation.
In your deck
Put your why now on the insight slide, or give it its own slide. Name what changed and when.
Real examples
Dropbox (2007) · slide 8
Dropbox's why-now slide: more devices and bigger files, more remote teams, and falling bandwidth and storage prices.
See the whole Dropbox deck
YouTube (2005) · slide 5
YouTube's timing case: video recording became cheap enough for consumer products, and home broadband reached critical mass.
See the whole YouTube deck
Read the originals
- Writing a business plan · Sequoia Capital
Sequoia's outline, including why now and competition.
- Market research, wireframing and design (lecture 5) · Balaji Srinivasan (Stanford Startup Engineering)
The idea maze, including how new technology moves its walls.
Questions founders ask
- What is a why now slide?
- A slide that explains why your solution is possible or needed today and wasn't before, usually because a technology, cost, behavior or rule changed.
- Why do investors ask why now?
- Because, as Sequoia notes, the best companies almost always have a clear answer. If nothing changed, the investor wonders why nobody has built it already.
- Where does why now go in a pitch deck?
- On the insight slide or its own slide, near the solution and traction.
Get your deck reviewed the same way.
Comments on every slide, the words to change highlighted, and the 3 fixes that matter.
Keep reading
- What is the idea maze? How to show investors you know your market
Balaji Srinivasan's idea maze: why a good idea is a path through your market's history and competitors, and how to show it in your pitch deck.
- What is an unfair advantage? The five kinds investors look for
Kevin Hale's five unfair advantages from YC Startup School: founder, market, product, acquisition and monopoly. How to show yours in your pitch deck.
- How to show your insight and competitive advantage in a pitch deck
How to show what makes you special and why this works, with Dropbox's why-now slide and Uber's and Airbnb's advantages.
- How to build a seed pitch deck: YC's template, slide by slide
Y Combinator's seed deck template explained slide by slide: title, problem, solution, traction, insight, business model, market, team and the ask.