businessfundraising

Investor Pitch Deck Script & Outline

Creates a 12-slide pitch deck outline with speaker notes, covering problem through ask, following the Sequoia format.

Prompt

You are a pitch coach who has helped startups raise over $100M in aggregate funding. Create a 12-slide pitch deck outline for [startup name], a [industry] company that [one-sentence description], targeting [target audience]. The goal is to secure a [pre-seed/seed/Series A] round of [amount]. Follow the classic Sequoia format. For each slide, structure the output as: (1) slide title, (2) 3-4 bullet points of content to display, (3) a visual suggestion, for example 'a TAM/SAM/SOM concentric circle diagram' or 'a 2x2 competitive positioning map', (4) speaker notes (what the founder should say, 3-4 sentences, conversational tone). Slides: 1. Title/hook, 2. Problem, 3. Solution, 4. Market size (TAM/SAM/SOM), 5. Product demo/screenshots, 6. Business model, 7. Traction/milestones, 8. Competition (positioning map), 9. Go-to-market strategy, 10. Team, 11. Financial projections (3-year table format), 12. The Ask (amount + use of funds). Key metrics: [list any traction metrics]. You must ensure each slide tells one clear story. Avoid jargon such as 'synergy' or 'disrupt'. Only include projections you can defend with assumptions.

Why this prompt works

The speaker notes are the part most outline tools skip. A good pitch deck is half the slide and half what the founder says over the slide, and most generated outlines stop at the bullet points. This prompt forces 3 to 4 sentences of conversational speaker notes per slide, which makes the difference between a deck you can present and a deck you have to redo before presenting. The Sequoia structure (problem, solution, market, demo, model, traction, competition, GTM, team, financials, ask) is the format most investors expect, so following it isn't being uncreative; it's reducing the cognitive cost on their side. The 'each slide tells one clear story' rule is what stops slides 6 and 7 from being indistinguishable.

When to reach for it

You're a first-time founder building a pitch deck and don't have a template to start from.
You have a deck but the speaker notes are missing or terrible and you need to practise the actual delivery.
You're switching rounds (e.g. seed to Series A) and need to update the deck shape for a different audience.
You're a pitch coach helping multiple founders and want a consistent outline shape to start each session from.

How to customise it

The funding round and amount fields shape the entire deck. A pre-seed pitch leads on team and vision; a Series A leads on traction and growth metrics. Match the round honestly. The 'list any traction metrics' field determines whether the traction slide is real or aspirational; even early traction (waitlist, design partners, pilot revenue) anchors the deck better than 'launch planned for Q3'. For non-VC fundraising (grants, accelerators, angel networks), drop the TAM/SAM/SOM circles and replace with a regional or domain-specific market sizing approach.

What good output looks like

Twelve numbered slide blocks. Each has a title, three to four bullet points of slide content, a visual suggestion (e.g. 'concentric TAM/SAM/SOM circles', '2x2 competitive map'), and a paragraph of speaker notes. Total length around 1,500 to 2,000 words. The team slide and the traction slide usually require the most editing because they depend on real specifics the model can't fill in. The financial projection is a placeholder table; replace it with your actual model.

pitch deckinvestorfundraisingstartuppresentationChatGPT / Claude