Why Do I Need Two Different Pitch Decks? TFP 12/18

Hey founders, this will be our last edition before the holidays, but we'll be back in your inbox on January 8. See you in the new year! Now back to the good stuff.

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📰 Today's Edition: Why Do I Need Two Different Pitch Decks?

Some founders spend weeks perfecting one single pitch deck, then blast it out to every investor they can find.

Spoiler: nobody’s responding. 

The problem? They're sending what I (the hippocorn) call the presentation deck and are using it as an email deck.

These are different decks with two different formats and two different purposes. And mixing them up is killing your fundraise before it even starts.

Let me break down why you need both, and what should go in each one.

Why do you need an email deck?

First, let's get clear on what these decks actually are.

An email deck is a short, punchy, five-slide presentation that you send to investors before you've ever spoken with them. Think of it as your cold outreach tool.

A presentation deck is a longer, roughly ten-slide deck (plus appendix slides) that you use during an actual meeting. It's more detailed, allows for deeper explanation, and is designed to be walked through with you narrating.

Your job with an email deck is simple: get a meeting. That's it. Not to convince them to invest. Not to answer every possible question. Just to make them think, "Huh, this is interesting. Let me talk to these founders."

The email deck is your teaser. Your movie trailer. Your first impression that gets you in the door. 

Think about it from an investor's perspective. They're reviewing hundreds of pitch decks. Maybe they're on their phone between meetings. Maybe they're scanning through 30 decks on a Sunday morning.

If you fail to grab an investor's attention in the first 30 seconds, you've lost them for the entire pitch. So your email deck needs to hook them immediately.

What should go in your email deck?

Keep it to around five slides. That's it. Five.

Here’s what I’d include. The exact order isn’t critical, but you should cover these topics:

Slide 1: What is the problem? What are you solving? Keep it simple and clear.

Slide 2: What is your solution? How does your product or service address that problem?

Slide 3: What's the market opportunity? Show them the market size and why this matters.

Slide 4: What traction or notable results do you have? This could be a pilot customer, a signed contract, some early users, or even just a compelling case study. Anything that shows momentum.

Slide 5: Who's on your team? Why are you the right people to build this?

Notice what's NOT in this email deck: detailed financials, competition slides, go-to-market strategy, technical architecture. Save all that for later.

The email deck should raise questions, not answer them. You WANT investors to be curious enough to schedule a call.

How is the presentation deck different?

Your presentation deck is for when you've actually gotten the meeting. Now you need to go deeper.

This is where you can expand to roughly ten slides for your core pitch.

Start with those same five slides from your email deck, then elaborate on things like:

Business model: How do you actually make money?

Unit economics: If you're a marketplace or e-commerce company, what are your costs of goods sold? What's your revenue split? These numbers really matter for some business models.

Additional context: Whatever else is critical for YOUR specific business.

If you're in a crowded space and keep getting questions about competitors, make sure your main slides include a clear, compelling insight that shows exactly why you're different—and better.

Then add appendix slides for anticipated questions. Every company is different here. 

The difference between main deck and appendix: you won't get to appendix slides unless someone asks. And that's fine. 

Many investors will want to dig into certain things and completely skip others. You don't want to introduce new risk areas unprompted - let the investor ask their questions, then you have a ready answer waiting.

Should you include financials in a pre-revenue presentation deck?

Most VCs in Silicon Valley don't care too much about financials at the pre-revenue stage. They assume they'll be wildly off, for better or worse. 

Investors at this stage know you'll learn more from actually doing the work than from predicting outcomes.

But financials come in different flavors, and understanding the difference matters.

Five-year projections: Five-year projections are basically a trap: VCs will either think you're not ambitious enough or you're being unrealistic. It’s a Goldilocks problem—you rarely get it just right.

If an investor asks for five-year projections, here's what to do: push back politely. Say something like, "I'm happy to pull together something, but as we all know, five-year projections are going to be wildly off. I'd love to understand where your specific concern is, and I can address that directly."

One-year projections: This is fair game. You might still be wildly off, but investors want to see what you're aiming to achieve. What milestones will you hit? What will their money unlock? Ideally, you’re raising enough to fund 12–24 months of progress.

What one-year projections really show is: what are the levers of your business?

For example, does every dollar you put into advertising yield three dollars back? If so, that's a really strong lever - much stronger than putting that dollar somewhere else that might not move the needle at all.

Investors want to understand how you think. They want to see where different areas have the biggest impact on your growth.

What about exit possibilities?

My view, as a purple hippocorn, is to skip the exit slide, at least for seed stage companies.

Here's the reasoning: when investors look at companies, they're looking to be an investor for the long haul. That probably means seven years, ten years, maybe even longer if everything goes well.

You have no idea who's going to be around to buy your company in 7-10 years. Big companies that are acquisitive today might not be paying big money for acquisitions in 10 years. And companies that aren't acquisitive today might be huge acquirers a decade from now. And US investors tend to prefer either MASSIVE exits or staying independent and going big alone.

Some other investors, especially international investors, DO care about exit slides, so there's no hard and fast rule here. But if someone passes on your company, it's not because of the exit slide. They passed because they weren't bought into the opportunity itself.

How do you know which deck to send?

Simple rule: if you haven't had a conversation yet, send the email deck.

If an investor specifically requests "your deck" after you've already talked, you can send the full presentation deck. But include a note saying, "Here's our full deck. Happy to walk you through it on a call with your team if helpful."

Never send your email deck as a follow-up after a pitch meeting. That's like sending a movie trailer after someone already watched the film. Pointless.

And never send your 20-slide presentation deck cold. Nobody's reading that. Or you’ve introduced too many details that have scared investors away from meeting.

What should you do right now?

If you only have one deck, figure out which type it is. Is it short and punchy (email deck)? Or detailed and comprehensive (presentation deck)?

Then build the other one.

Most founders have a bloated presentation deck they're trying to use for everything. If that's you, create a stripped-down version for cold outreach. Five slides. Problem, solution, market, traction, team. That's your email deck.

Or maybe you have a super tight email deck but nothing to present with when you actually get meetings. Great! Now expand it into your presentation deck with more detail, more slides, and appendix content.

Two decks. Two purposes. Both essential.

Your email deck gets you in the door. Your presentation deck gets you the term sheet.

Know the difference, and use each one strategically.

Until next time,

Dunky, the "McKinsey presentation guru" hippocorn

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