PITCH THINKING #9: How to send your deck to investors

Tl;dr: Learn how to send your deck to investors in a way that makes sense for you and investors. 

Pitch deck thinking course outline

You are now on part nine of the pitch deck thinking course. 2 more to go.

1. What pitch material do you need?
2. What is a good deck?
3. The importance of narrative
4. What are the key questions investors will want to get from your deck?
   
5. How to approach writing decks
   
6. The flick test
7. Who do you trust with the pitch deck? Can I have an NDA?
   
8. How do you know if your deck is good?
   
9. How to send your deck to investors
   
10. Formatting your deck
    
11. 25 tips

If you can’t face them all at once, you can join the course and get these sent straight to your mailbox here:

How to send your deck to investors

So the deck is done, right? How do you get it out there to investors?

How do you make the deck?

You have two options.

• PowerPoint
• KeyNote

You can get a designer to do InDesign, but it’s way too slow to change then. Don’t do this!

I’m historically a massive Microsoft nerd. Last year I used KeyNote as I didn’t have my PC with me. Dang. Keynote is waaaaaay better. It looks prettier and formatting is easier. But…. there is a problem.

Not many people have Macs. You may have to send your deck in PPT for a presentation/demo day, investors sometimes want to use your deck for internal purposes when making internal proposals etc.

So don’t use Keynote. I highly recommend ONLY using PowerPoint. It will save you pain.

I used to recommend Keynote in these emails but a founder emailed me to say this, which I think enforces my revised stance:

“I agree about keynotes but…most competitions won’t let you use it, they only allow PPT format.“

Do I send my deck in PPT?

No.

You should always convert your deck into a PDF. Everyone can open a PDF and they also can’t edit it. Done.

How do I send my deck

There are two ways to send your pitch deck:

• PDF
• Presentation sharing software

PDF

Send your PDF as an attachment in an email. That’s the default.

Make sure the file size is around 5mb though. If it’s 15mb or more you will have deliverability issues.

If you HAVE to send a deck which is huge, use WeTransfer or other and send the link. Don’t do this unless you have a reason.

Presentation sharing software

I used to be a real fan of this, but I’ve changed my mind.

Head over to Attach and set up an account. This is what I used with all my fundraises in the past. There are other SaaS companies, but I’m used to this.

It’s super handy. Why?

• You send a link, not a big file. I bet that you didn’t optimize all your images, did you? Your file is what, 20mb? That might not even get into the inbox, or out of your outbox, for that matter. When you email someone there is a 1kb email. It’s just a link. It’s getting to their inbox, not bouncing.
• You get stats. Did an investor spend any time reading your deck? How much, how much time… on each slide! Cray cray, I know.
• Did the investor open it? if you’re under 25 you won’t know what it’s like to ‘wait by the phone for someone to call.’ With Attach you know when the investor checks your deck… and if they do it again
• You know who viewed if it shared. When you send a PDF, you lose all control. It can be sent anywhere, to anyone. When you send a link you can set the settings so every person has to add their email. You can’t share the doc without tracking
• Kill switch. You can set the delete date, so investors can only view for say 4 weeks, then it is gone

Thing is, and a few investors agree, that it’s kind of annoying. Investors would prefer to just open an attachment in their mail client. PDF doesn’t have mobile issues etc.

There are pros and cons for both, but I would keep it simple and use PDF attachments.

Wop wop

That’s that. The next installment is here: Formatting your deck