Every potential investor will probably reply with “sure” to the question if she is interested in a copy of the pitch deck. But what should you share? Some of your slides could be highly confidential, others might be too detailed. It is impossible to give a conclusive answer to this question, but here are some points to consider, given a number of possible investor profiles.
- Investor profile: angel investor who invests as a hobby and loves networking and being involved in the buzz of the startup world. She is incredibly friendly and wants to be helpful, but you don’t know her that well. She was asking fairly high level questions and you had to give her a 101 on the industry you are working in. Maybe a short summary deck with non-confidential information will do. She probably does not have a deep technological understanding of your niche, and is likely to forward material to many of her friends to see if they can help you as well.
- Investor profile: junior analyst at a specialized VC firm who keeps on asking about very detailed financial growth benchmarks. She is begging you to provide all the ammunition you can find to convince her boss. No, they don’t sign NDAs. You probably have to provide the details as it sounds like an all-or-nothing shot with a highly relevant investor.
- Investor profile: you happen to sit next to her at a post-COVID dinner party and find out she is actually an investor with a potential fit. The setting was not right for an in-depth pitch. Maybe here you should send a very short “business card” presentation, slides that look great, give a brief explanation of the idea, plus additional background on you as an entrepreneur. The objective is not to land the investment, but to get an opportunity to do that proper pitch.
- Investor profile: someone who makes it pretty clear that the possibility of investment is close to zero: wrong industry, wrong stage, wrong geography. Saying that she is interested in the deck is her being polite. Maybe better not to send anything at all.
The above is not a binding advice, just to let you think about that the fact that every investor, and every conversation with an investor is different. Do not simply “attach and send” your standard pitch deck.
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