Free tool · Startups
Pitch deck checklist: what investors expect, slide by slide
Pick your stage, tick off what each slide should answer and see what is still missing. The gaps become a brief that opens in the editor.
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How to use the pitch deck checklist
Pick your stage
Choose pre-seed, seed or Series A. The list changes with it, because the same slide has to prove different things at each stage.
Tick what your deck already answers
Go slide by slide. Tick a point only when a slide answers it with a number, a name or a picture, not when you plan to.
Read your gaps
The gauge shows the share of points covered and every slide shows its own count. Use Next gap to jump to the first open point.
Turn the gaps into a brief
The brief lists the slides in order and marks every open point as a placeholder, so the draft does not invent figures.
Build the draft and fill the placeholders
Open the brief in the editor, review the page plan and replace each placeholder with your real number before an investor sees the deck.
Sources
How it works and what it rests on
Where a number is our own rule of thumb, we say so.
The checklist is editorial guidance. It condenses published advice into points you can tick off; it is not a list that any investor requires, and fundraising norms differ by investor, region and year. Use it to find gaps in your own deck, not as a score. Sources as of October 2026.
Slide order and content follow three public sources. Sequoia Capital's article Writing a Business Plan names company purpose, problem, solution, why now, market potential, competition and alternatives, business model, team, financials and vision. Y Combinator's Startup Library article How to build your seed round pitch deck, by Michael Seibel, asks for a two-sentence description of the company, team accomplishments, traction with timeframes, unique insights, the market size with its math, and the ask with milestones. Guy Kawasaki's The Only 10 Slides You Need in Your Pitch gives the 10-20-30 rule: ten slides, at most twenty minutes and 30-point text. The Y Combinator and Kawasaki items were checked against secondary summaries of those texts.
The Series A items on unit economics follow CRV's article What Series A Investors Actually Analyze in Unit Economics, which looks for a clear definition of customer acquisition cost, retention curves and the ratio of lifetime value to acquisition cost. The tool states no minimum values, because published thresholds vary by source and by sector.
The reading-time item cites DocSend: its 2015 study of more than 200 decks, with Tom Eisenmann of Harvard Business School, found that investors spent an average of 3 minutes 44 seconds on a deck, and later DocSend updates reported shorter times. These are platform data, not an independent audit, so the tool uses them only as a reminder that the first slides must carry the story.
The stages are working definitions: pre-seed for the first outside money before there is a product or revenue, seed for a first product with early traction, and Series A for a company with a repeatable way to grow. Investors label rounds differently. Progress is the share of ticked points among the points shown for your stage. Your ticks stay in your browser, and nothing leaves it until you open the brief.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What should a pitch deck include?
Most guidance agrees on about a dozen topics: what the company does, the problem, the solution, why now, the market, traction, the business model, how you reach customers, the competition, the team, the financials and the ask. Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator and Guy Kawasaki each publish a version of this list, and the order differs a little. This checklist merges them and adapts the depth to your stage.
How many slides should a pitch deck have?
About ten for the story you present, which is what Guy Kawasaki's 10-20-30 rule says, plus an appendix for detail. This tool lists twelve slide topics, so merge related ones, such as the problem with why now or the business model with go-to-market, when you need ten.
What is the 10-20-30 rule for a pitch deck?
Guy Kawasaki's rule says a pitch should have ten slides, last at most twenty minutes and use text of at least 30 points. It guides a live pitch and is not a law. The font size mainly stops you from putting too much on one slide.
What do investors look for at pre-seed, seed and Series A?
In general, earlier rounds weigh the team, the problem and the insight more, because there is little data. Seed decks add traction with dates and a market sized with the math. At Series A the focus moves to growth, retention and unit economics that a stranger can check. Individual investors weigh these differently.
How long do investors spend on a pitch deck?
DocSend's 2015 study of more than 200 decks, with Tom Eisenmann of Harvard Business School, measured an average of 3 minutes 44 seconds per deck, and later updates reported shorter times. These are platform data, not an audit. The practical lesson is that the first slides must carry the whole story.
Can AI write my pitch deck?
AI can draft the slides and the wording from a brief, but it cannot know your traction, your numbers or your team. Write down your facts first, mark the gaps and say in the brief that missing figures stay placeholders. Check every figure in the result before an investor sees it.
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Put it into a finished deck
Describe your talk in a sentence, add your files and get an editable PowerPoint deck. The brief from this page is filled in for you.
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