IndexCase study · Consumer health
A clear story for a noisy category.
Two clinical founders, real outcomes data, and a deck that read like a journal article. Investors respected the science and passed on the company. We separated the two.
Stage
Seed
Engagement
Round-out
Duration
7 weeks to close
Outcome
$4.2M closed
01 · Diagnosis
What was broken on arrival.
The deck assumed the reader cared about mechanism. They didn't. They cared about distribution, retention, and whether this was a brand or a clinic. Nothing on the first six slides answered that.
Signals
- —Strong technical praise, weak commercial conviction
- —Repeated questions about CAC and channel that the deck never addressed
- —Founders reading the deck verbatim in meetings
02 · Rewrite
What we changed.
Two-track narrative: the science earns the right to exist, the brand earns the right to scale. Separate sections, separate pacing.
- Cut the mechanism slide
- Moved to an appendix link. Replaced with a single retention chart.
- Built the brand frame
- Three slides on category creation, channel strategy, and unit economics.
- Coached delivery
- Founders stopped reading. Started conversing.
03 · Outcome
What closed.
Oversubscribed seed closed in seven weeks. The lead investor had previously declined a meeting on the old deck.
Meetings to close
18
Conversion to second
61%
Round size
$4.2M
Days kickoff to close
47