Topic · 14 of 84 articles

Fundraising articles on pitch deck

What belongs in the deck, and what gets you passed on at slide three? This collection includes teardowns of real decks that raised, data on how investors actually read them, and opinionated guides from the people on the receiving end.

First Round Review·2017 ·25 min read

The Fundraising Wisdom That Helped Our Founders Raise $18B in Follow-On Capital

First Round distills lessons from over 1,000 rounds raised by its portfolio into a tactical playbook for follow-on fundraising: narrative construction, running a tight process, benchmarking traps, and partner-meeting dynamics.

Fundraising StrategyStorytellingSeries AHow-To
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Y Combinator Library·2016 ·40 min read

A Guide to Seed Fundraising

YC's comprehensive seed fundraising manual: when to raise, how much, SAFEs vs. priced rounds, meeting mechanics, negotiation, and closing documents, written by a YC partner for first-time founders.

Raise ReadinessFundraising StrategyPre-SeedHow-To
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Medium·June 2016 ·10 min read

Front Series A Deck

Collin publishes the actual deck Front used to raise its $10M Series A, slide by slide, with commentary on what worked. Later viewed over 2 million times and followed by her Series B, C, and D decks.

Pitch DeckStorytellingSeries AFirsthand Story
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celinehh.com·2021 ·20 min read

How I raised a $5.1M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech moonshot

Halioua details exactly how she raised $5.1M pre-product for a dog-longevity biotech as a solo, first-time, female founder: building the narrative for a moonshot, sequencing investors, and handling deep-tech skepticism.

Fundraising StrategyStorytellingSeedFirsthand Story
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Lenny's Newsletter·2022 ·25 min read

Raising a seed round 101

Aggregates advice from founders and investors who have collectively seen 1,000+ seed raises, organized as a step-by-step process with benchmarks for round size, dilution, timeline, and meeting counts.

Fundraising StrategyTarget ListSeedHow-To
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paulgraham.com·August 2013 ·15 min read

How to Convince Investors

Graham on the substance of persuasion: convince yourself first, be a domain expert, and make the truth about your startup legible rather than performing confidence you don't have.

StorytellingPitch DeckPre-SeedHow-To
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paulgraham.com·August 2007 ·12 min read

How to Present to Investors

Practical demo-day-era advice on presenting: explain what you do in the first sentence, show a demo, and optimize for being understood rather than impressive.

Investor MeetingsPitch DeckPre-SeedHow-To
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Both Sides of the Table·2018 ·8 min read

I Know Everybody Told You to Send Your Fund-Raising Decks as a Link. Here's Why You Should Just Send the Deck

Suster argues against DocSend-style gated links from the receiving end: friction kills investor attention, deck-tracking paranoia is misplaced, and your deck's job is to travel inside the partnership without you.

Pitch DeckCold OutreachSeedContrarian View
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michaelseibel.com·2015 ·8 min read

How to Pitch Your Company

Seibel's formulaic, repeatable pitch structure: a two-sentence company description anyone can repeat, traction, unique insight, market size, and the ask, with examples of each done well and badly.

StorytellingInvestor MeetingsPre-SeedHow-To
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DocSend blog·2020 ·10 min read

A (Brief) Anatomy of a Successful Seed Raise

DocSend's dataset of thousands of real fundraising decks quantifies the seed raise: how many meetings successful raises take, how long investors actually read decks, which slides funded decks include, and seasonal timing effects.

Pitch DeckInvestor MeetingsSeedData & Benchmarks
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Medium·January 2018 ·10 min read

Front Series B Deck

The actual deck behind Front's $66M Sequoia-led Series B, published with commentary on how the narrative evolved from the Series A and what growth evidence carried the round.

Pitch DeckStorytellingSeries B+Firsthand Story
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The Startup (Medium)·2019 ·20 min read

A Seed Round Manual for Founders: Strategies, Pitch Prep, Valuation, Traps, Tips and More

A founder who raised $1.5M+ across UK and US investors documents the whole process as a manual: what worked, the traps she fell into, and differences between London and Valley investor behavior.

Fundraising StrategyPitch DeckPre-SeedFirsthand Story
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Substack·2023 ·15 min read

Founder Toolkit: How to raise your seed round from top VCs & Angels

A repeat founder and angel condenses his raising experience into a toolkit: list-building, sequencing angels and funds, materials, and close mechanics, with templates.

Fundraising StrategyTarget ListPre-SeedHow-To
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Front blog·January 2020 ·10 min read

Front Series C Deck

The third installment in Collin's published-deck series: the actual deck behind Front's $59M Series C, showing how a growth-stage narrative differs from the A and B stories she'd already published.

Pitch DeckStorytellingSeries B+Firsthand Story
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