How to Make a Pitch Deck with AI: 10 Slides Investors Expect

 

Investors decide quickly whether a pitch deck earns a meeting. In DocSend's 2022 analysis of 300 pre-seed startups, VCs spent an average of 2 minutes 42 seconds on a deck, about 16 seconds per slide on a 10-slide deck. In that time, the content has to be clear and the design has to make it easy to read.

The content is your job, and the design is the part you can hand to AI. To make a pitch deck with AI, write the 10 sections investors expect in your own words, then let the AI build the slides. In Grafista that takes three steps: add your text, pick a Blueprint and your Brand Kit, and edit the generated slides. When the deck is ready, publish it as a link instead of emailing a PDF, so investors always see your latest numbers.

Throughout this post we build one deck for Brewline, an example startup we made up for this guide: wholesale ordering software for independent coffee roasters. The numbers are illustrative. The slides are real Grafista output.

 

The 10 slides investors expect

Use the order in Sequoia's Writing a Business Plan. Investors read hundreds of decks in this order, so they find what they need without hunting. Each slide answers one question:

• Company purpose: what you do, in one sentence. Brewline: "Wholesale ordering for independent coffee roasters, in one app."
• Problem: who has the pain and what it costs them today. "A typical roaster takes 140 wholesale orders a month by email, WhatsApp and phone, then retypes each one into their invoicing tool."
• Solution: what you built and how it removes the problem. "Cafés order from the roaster's Brewline catalogue. The order lands in their invoicing tool automatically."
• Why now: what changed that makes this possible or urgent. "Roasters who started selling wholesale in the last five years now run 50+ café accounts on spreadsheets."
• Market size: show the calculation, not only the result. "8,000 independent roasters in the EU and UK × €1,440 a year = €11.5M."
• Competition: who else solves this and where you win. "Generic B2B ordering tools charge per seat and don't handle roast schedules."
• Product: screenshots of what exists today, not descriptions of what's planned.
• Business model: price, who pays, how often. "€120 per roaster per month, billed annually."
• Team: why these people can build this. "CEO ran wholesale at a 12-person roastery for 4 years."
• Financials: current revenue, projection and the ask. "€9,600 MRR from 80 roasters. Raising €600K to reach 400."

Sequoia's outline has no separate traction slide. Add one, or put traction at the top of the financials slide. In the same DocSend report, traction received 41% more investor time in 2022 than in 2021, and it was the most scrutinized section in decks that failed to raise.

 

How to make the deck in Grafista

Grafista generates the design from your content, so almost all of your time goes into writing the 10 pages. The full walkthrough is in How to make a presentation with AI. Here is the pitch deck version:

1. Add your content: Paste the text for your 10 slides into the Text Editor, or import an existing document such as a business plan. You can also generate the text, but supply every metric yourself. A model asked for market size without your figures will produce plausible ones that are not yours.
2. Pick the Presentations size (16:9), a Blueprint and your Brand Kit: A Blueprint sets the layout and aesthetic. Your Brand Kit applies your logo, colors and fonts to every slide. You don't need a prompt describing your ideal design. Pick a Blueprint that already looks the way you want, and Grafista builds the deck around your content.

 

3. Edit the slides: Every text box, image and shape is a separate object. Double-click to retype a figure, which costs no credits. For bigger changes, ask the Agent, for example "make the €11.5M the largest element on the market size slide".

 

Send investors a link, not a PDF

A PDF is frozen the moment you attach it. A published Grafista deck is a link that you can update after you send it.

Click Publish and you get a link, a QR code and an embed code. When something changes, edit the slide and click Republish. The same link now shows the new version. Nobody has to delete an old attachment, and you don't send a "v3_final" email.

This matters because fundraising takes months. In the DocSend report, the average pre-seed raise took 15 weeks in 2022. Your MRR will change several times in that window. With a published deck, the investor you emailed in week 2 and the partner they forward it to in week 9 both see this month's numbers.

Publishing is available on paid plans, starting at €10 per month, no per seat charging.

 

5 mistakes that get pitch decks skipped

Most of these come from the same cause: writing slides to be read in full by someone who gives each one about 16 seconds.

• Traction without numbers: "Strong early interest" tells an investor nothing. Write MRR, customer count and growth rate, each with a date.
• A purpose slide that needs a second read: DocSend found company purpose rose from the 13th to the 3rd most scrutinized section in two years. Keep it to one sentence with no adjectives.
• Paragraphs on slides: Use one headline and one number or image per slide. Detail belongs in the meeting or the data room.
• AI-written figures you didn't check: Treat generated text as a draft. Every number on the slide should be one you can defend in the meeting.
• Sending last month's deck: Publish once and Republish after every change.

 

Grafista for startups

Early-stage teams can apply to our startup program for 50% off any plan for the first 3 months. Every plan includes unlimited users, so the whole founding team can edit the same deck.

 

Quick answers

How many slides should a pitch deck have? 10 to 12. That covers Sequoia's 10 sections plus traction and the ask, if you give them their own slides.

How long do investors spend on a pitch deck? 2 minutes 42 seconds on average, in DocSend's 2022 pre-seed data. Many sites quote 3 minutes 44 seconds as a current figure.

Can I update a deck after sending it to investors? Yes. Publish the deck, then click Republish after each edit. The link stays the same and shows the latest version.

Do I need design skills or a prompt? No. You write the content and pick a Blueprint or Brand Kit. Written instructions are optional.

Is Grafista free? You get 300 free credits at signup, no credit card required, enough to generate your first deck. Downloads and publishing need a paid plan, from €10 per month.

 

Try Grafista for free, you team will thank you.