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.

Keywords

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Reference Guides

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

Templates

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

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.