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Creating App Mockups for Investors: What Actually Works

·8 min read·By GenDesigns Team

I've sat in pitch meetings where founders showed beautifully designed mockups of apps they couldn't build. I've also seen founders with ugly prototypes get funded because the business made sense.

Here's the truth about mockups and fundraising: they matter, but not the way most founders think.

What investors actually care about

Mockups aren't what gets you funded. They're supporting evidence for something else.

What matters more:

  • Is this a real problem?
  • Is the market big enough?
  • Can this team execute?
  • Is there early traction?

Where mockups help:

  • Making the product vision tangible
  • Showing you've thought through the experience
  • Demonstrating design taste and user empathy
  • Giving something concrete to discuss

Mockups don't replace answers to hard questions. They illustrate your answers. For more on what founders need to know about design, see our founders resource page.

How much design you actually need

Different stages need different amounts of polish.

Pre-seed / Friends & Family

You're raising on vision and team. Mockups can be rough.

What's enough:

  • Wireframes or rough mockups
  • Hand-drawn sketches are fine
  • 3-5 screens showing the core flow
  • Conceptual, not polished

Investors expect: Early. Scrappy. They're betting on you, not on designs.

Seed

You probably have some user validation. Mockups should reflect that learning.

What's enough:

  • Clean mockups (not necessarily perfect)
  • Core user journey covered
  • Shows you understand the UX
  • 5-10 screens typical

Investors expect: Promising. Thoughtful. Evidence you're building the right thing.

Series A

You likely have a working product. Mockups might be screenshots of what exists, plus designs for what's coming.

What's enough:

  • Polished current product
  • Roadmap mockups for new features
  • Design system visible
  • 10-20 screens for different contexts

Investors expect: Professional. Proven. Growth-ready.

What to include in your deck

Your pitch deck isn't a product tour. Include mockups strategically.

The "Product" slide

Usually one slide showing 2-3 screens. Illustrates what you're building without derailing the narrative.

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                     │
│  Our Product                        │
│                                     │
│   ┌────┐    ┌────┐    ┌────┐       │
│   │ 1  │    │ 2  │    │ 3  │       │
│   └────┘    └────┘    └────┘       │
│                                     │
│  "Users can [core value] in         │
│   [impossibly short time]"          │
│                                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Choose screens that:

  • Show the primary use case
  • Look professional at small size
  • Don't require explanation

The "How it works" slide

If your product needs explanation, 3-4 screens showing a flow.

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                     │
│  How It Works                       │
│                                     │
│  1. User does X → 2. AI does Y →    │
│  3. User gets Z                     │
│                                     │
│  [Screen]  [Screen]  [Screen]       │
│                                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Keep it simple. If it takes more than 30 seconds to explain, it's too complex for a pitch.

Appendix slides

More detailed mockups can live in an appendix. Reference them if there's interest, but don't present them unprompted.

Creating mockups for investor purposes

You don't need a designer. You don't need weeks. Here's the practical approach.

Investor-ready mockups in hours: Generate polished app screens with GenDesigns — describe your product, get professional designs you can drop straight into your pitch deck.

Using AI tools

GenDesigns (or similar) can create investor-ready mockups in hours.

Example prompt:

Create mockups for a pitch deck. The app is a habit tracking tool for remote workers.

I need screens showing:
1. Main dashboard with daily habits
2. Habit tracking interaction
3. Weekly progress view

Style: Clean and professional. Should look trustworthy and polished.
Don't include too much detail—these will be shown small in a presentation.

Generate, pick the best outputs, refine if needed.

Using templates

Figma, Sketch, and other tools have UI kit templates. Mix and match components to create mockups quickly.

Pros: Consistent quality, professional look Cons: Might look generic, less unique

Doing it yourself

Even without design skills, you can create passable mockups:

  1. Find apps similar to yours
  2. Screenshot their layouts
  3. Modify with your content and colors
  4. Use Canva or Figma for basic assembly

Not ideal, but better than nothing.

Device frames matter

Present mockups in device frames. It looks more professional and gives context.

     ┌──────────────────┐
     │  ┌────────────┐  │
     │  │            │  │
     │  │  Your      │  │
     │  │  Screen    │  │
     │  │            │  │
     │  └────────────┘  │
     └──────────────────┘
        iPhone frame

Tools for device frames:

  • Mockup World (free mockups)
  • Rotato (animated device mockups)
  • Figma device frame plugins
  • Plain device images with your screens placed in

Common mistakes

Over-designed mockups

Your mockups look better than your actual product could be. Investors will wonder if you're all vision, no execution.

Fix: Match mockup fidelity to your stage. Rough is fine early. Polished should reflect capability.

Too many screens

Thirty screens in the pitch deck. Nobody will look at them all. It derails the conversation.

Fix: 3-5 screens max in the main deck. More in appendix if needed.

Mockups that raise questions

Showing features you can't build, or implying capabilities that don't exist.

Fix: Only show what you can explain and deliver in reasonable timeframe.

Mockups instead of product

Spending months perfecting mockups instead of building something users can try.

Fix: A working prototype beats perfect mockups. Build something real.

No mockups at all

"Just imagine the app..." doesn't work. Investors can't imagine what you imagine.

Fix: Create something visual, even if rough. It anchors the conversation.

What to say about your mockups

When you show mockups, frame them appropriately.

Early stage: "Here's the concept we're testing. We've validated [specific thing] with [number] users."

With prototype: "Here's what we've built so far. These screens show where we're headed based on user feedback."

With product: "This is the current product. And here's what we're building next based on [data/feedback]."

Connect mockups to evidence. They're not just pretty pictures—they represent learning.

Live demo vs. mockups

If you have a working product, should you do a live demo?

For tips on moving from mockups to working prototypes quickly, see our rapid app prototyping guide.

Pros of live demo:

  • Shows it's real
  • More impressive than static images
  • Investors can see actual UX

Cons of live demo:

  • Things break (Murphy's Law)
  • Takes more time
  • Harder to control narrative

My recommendation: Show mockups in the deck, offer live demo at the end if there's interest. "I can show you the actual product if you'd like to see it."

The investor perspective

I asked a few VCs what they actually look for in product mockups.

"I want to see they understand users." Do the mockups reflect real user problems? Or do they show features without context?

"Design taste matters." Not polish—taste. Do they know what good looks like? Are they making deliberate choices?

"I look for signs of delusion." Mockups with 47 features. Insanely complex flows. Designs that would take 2 years to build. Red flags.

"I barely remember the mockups." The market, the team, the traction—those stick. Mockups are forgettable unless something's really off.

Step-by-step: Creating pitch mockups

Here's a practical process:

Day 1: Define what to show

Pick 3-5 screens that:

  • Show the core value proposition
  • Represent the primary user flow
  • Look coherent together
  • Can be understood at small size

Day 2: Create mockups

Use AI tools, templates, or basic design software. Don't aim for perfection—aim for clarity.

Generate multiple options. Pick the best. Do one round of refinement.

Day 3: Put in deck context

Place mockups in device frames. Test at the size they'll appear in presentation. Can you tell what's happening?

Add minimal text if needed, but the mockups should mostly speak for themselves.

Day 4: Practice the narrative

Know exactly what you'll say when each mockup appears. Practice transitioning smoothly.

"Here's the product. Users start here, where they [action]. Then they [action]. The key insight is [thing that's different]."

Twenty seconds max.

Tools I recommend

For creating mockups:

  • GenDesigns (AI-generated, our tool)
  • Figma (manual, free tier available)
  • Canva (simpler, template-based)

For device frames:

  • Rotato (paid, high quality)
  • Mockuuups Studio (paid)
  • Free mockup sites (variable quality)

For pitch decks:

  • Keynote / PowerPoint / Google Slides
  • Pitch (designed for fundraising decks)
  • Gamma (AI-assisted presentations)

The bottom line

Mockups help investors visualize your product. They demonstrate design taste and user empathy. They make abstract ideas concrete.

But they don't substitute for product-market fit, traction, or a compelling market opportunity. Get those right first. Then create mockups that support your story.

Start simple. Improve as you learn. And remember: a funded company with rough mockups beats an unfunded company with perfect ones.

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