A Series A pitch deck works best as two separate decks. The send-out deck is detailed and built to be read without you. The presentation deck is visual, has almost no text and is built to be watched. Parloa used this setup for a Series A pitch that top investors called the best they had seen.
Why should your Series A pitch deck be two decks?
You need two decks because a deck that investors read alone and a deck that you present live have different jobs. A Series A is a company's first major round of venture capital. Many founders share their deck before the meeting and then screen-share the same deck during the meeting. The investor reads ahead, stops listening and turns to other things on a second screen.
Malte Kosub, CEO and co-founder of Parloa, solved this with two completely separate decks. Parloa is an AI company from Germany that has raised $560 million at a $3 billion valuation. Malte's Series A pitch became well known in VC (venture capital) circles. Top investors called it the best pitch they had ever seen. I worked with Malte on that Series A and talked to him about it in an episode of my podcast DEALMACHER. The full story is in the CEO Briefing article Two decks. No exceptions.
What is the difference between a send-out deck and a presentation deck?
The send-out deck answers questions. The presentation deck creates a feeling.
- Send-out deck: dense and detailed, designed to be read. Investors receive it before or after a meeting and read it on their own.
- Presentation deck: cinematic, with almost no text, designed to be watched while you speak.
The two decks are different documents with different jobs. When you share your send-out deck in a video meeting, you compete with your own document. Investors read faster than you speak. By the fifth bullet point they are three bullet points ahead, and your voice becomes background noise. The presentation deck removes that option, because there is almost nothing to read.
How did Parloa build its Series A pitch?
Parloa built the pitch in a clear order: script first, slides second.
- The script: Before Malte opened Keynote, Apple's presentation software, he wrote the story in a Google Doc. Beginning, middle and end stood in words before a single slide was designed. The design started only after the narrative was final.
- The demo inside the story: The product demo was not a separate section. It ran through the story from the first slide to the last.
- One idea per slide: The presentation deck had more than 120 slides. Each slide carried one idea, stayed on screen for a few seconds and moved the story forward. The presentation took 12 minutes.
- One moment to remember: In the middle of a pitch on a Zoom video call, Malte turned off his camera and muted himself. For about 30 seconds the slides kept moving. Distracted investors suddenly paid attention again. Then the camera came back on, and Malte explained what had just happened.
I call such a moment a S.T.A.R. moment, short for "Something They will Always Remember". The slide count of more than 120 shows the logic: what counts is that no slide is wasted.
Should you present when an investor says "just walk me through it"?
Malte Kosub's answer was yes: he insisted on presenting in every meeting, and investors respected it. Some investors suggest skipping the presentation and simply talking through the deck. Many founders agree, open the send-out deck and lose control of the meeting.
Malte set expectations at the start of every meeting:
- how long the presentation takes,
- that questions wait until the end,
- and that the deep discussion follows afterwards.
The first 12 minutes of every meeting were his. Afterwards, investors regularly told him they were glad he had insisted.
The reason behind insisting is control of the story. When you present, you decide the order in which investors hear your story. When you hand over the send-out deck, the investor's questions decide the order instead.
Where does detailed information go if not into the pitch deck?
Detailed information goes into a data room, the online space where investors find all documents and details about your company. Once an investor is interested, they want details about market, competitors, product and traction. I advise against adding detailed slides as an appendix at the end of the deck. End the deck with a strong last slide. If an investor wants more, they can ask for it.
In my experience, VCs do not read appendix slides about 90 percent of the time. The appendix often collects slides a founder could not decide on. More on this in Be brave or lose the appendix game.
My recommendation today is one information hub: a data room built in Notion, a tool for linked online pages. All details sit on sub-pages, with a link to the pitch deck. As a VC, I value one single source of truth for everything about a startup, and a well-structured data room makes information easier to find. The reasoning is in Should you have an extended pitch deck?
How do you prepare the pitch before the first investor meeting?
You prepare it through many iterations and many rehearsals. What made Malte's pitch exceptional was the number of iterations. During the Series A work with me, Malte once came back with three alternative versions of a single transition in the story and asked which one worked better.
He also rehearsed the pitch so many times before the official process started that the first real investor meeting no longer felt like a first. The nerves were gone and the answers were sharp. By the time the meetings mattered, Malte delivered the pitch almost by heart. You can hear the full conversation with Malte on the DEALMACHER podcast.
“The send-out deck answers questions. The presentation deck creates a feeling.”
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a send-out deck and a presentation deck?
The send-out deck is detailed and built to be read by investors on their own. The presentation deck is visual, has almost no text and is built to be watched while you present.
How long was Parloa's Series A presentation?
Malte Kosub's presentation ran 12 minutes and had more than 120 slides, each with one idea that stayed on screen for a few seconds.
Should my Series A pitch deck have an appendix?
I advise against it, because in my experience VCs skip appendix slides about 90 percent of the time. Detailed information fits better in a structured data room.
Should I let investors skip the presentation?
Malte Kosub insisted on presenting in every meeting and set the rules at the start: how long it takes, and that questions wait until the end. Investors later told him they were glad he did.
Do I need a fundraising advisor for a Series A?
Not for every round. For his Series A, Malte Kosub worked with me on the story and its details down to single transitions. See how fundraising advisory works.
