Pitch Deck Reviewer

Score a pitch deck's structure against the YC / Sequoia / a16z heuristics.

Note: This evaluates structure, not content quality. A perfectly-structured deck for a bad business is still a bad pitch. But a poorly-structured deck for a great business often gets passed.

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Keywords

pitch deck, pitch, fundraise, fundraising, seed deck, Series A deck, investor deck, slide deck, YC, Y Combinator, Sequoia, a16z

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Clarify First

Before scoring the deck, confirm these inputs. If any is unknown or vague, ASK — do not assume:

• Funding stage — seed vs Series A sets the required-slide rubric (--stage flag) and what counts as a gap
• Slide-by-slide summary — one bullet per slide (number + title + 1-2 sentences); vague summaries produce false gaps
• Round context — amount raising and traction stage, so the "ask" and "traction" slides are judged against the right bar

Stop rule: ask only the 2-3 that most change the output. If the user says "just draft it," proceed and list your assumptions at the top of the artifact.

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Quick Start

1. Summarize each slide as one bullet in deck_summary.md (slide number + title + 1-2 sentences of content)
2. Run: python scripts/deck_structure_scorer.py deck_summary.md
3. Address gaps; iterate

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Core Workflows

Workflow 1: Pre-Send Deck Review

1. Summarize deck slide-by-slide in deck_summary.md
2. Run scorer
3. Add missing slides (the scorer flags by category)
4. Re-order if structure flow is off
5. Pair with documents/pptx-toolkit/ for actual pptx audit

Time Estimate: 1-2 hours per major deck iteration.

Workflow 2: First Deck Build (No Existing Deck)

1. Read references/pitch_deck_heuristics.md
2. Use the structure rubric (10-15 slides covering specific topics)
3. Draft slide-by-slide
4. Validate as Workflow 1

Time Estimate: 1-2 weeks for first complete draft.

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Tools

deck_structure_scorer.py

Reads a markdown file describing the deck slide-by-slide and scores it against required slides per stage.

python scripts/deck_structure_scorer.py deck_summary.md
python scripts/deck_structure_scorer.py deck_summary.md --json

# For Series A
python scripts/deck_structure_scorer.py deck_summary.md --stage series-a

Stages: seed (default), series-a.

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Reference Guides

• references/pitch_deck_heuristics.md — YC, Sequoia, a16z deck structure heuristics; common mistakes; stage differences

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Templates

• assets/deck_summary_template.md — Slide-by-slide summary template

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Best Practices

• One idea per slide. If you can't summarize it in one sentence, split it.
• Numbers, not adjectives. "Strong growth" is weak. "$80k → $312k MRR over 12 months" is strong.
• Order matters. Most decks under-invest in problem framing and the "why now" slide.
• Don't ship 30+ slides. A seed deck is 10-12 slides; a Series A deck is 12-15.
• Demo is not the deck. Decks introduce; demos persuade. Plan both.