Latest / The Series A Show with Fexingo: Early-Stage Funding, Pitch Decks, and Startup Milestones / Why Startups Are Using Pitch Decks as Data Rooms
Transcript
- Lucas: So we talk a lot on this show about how founders are raising money differently — rolling closes, one-slide decks, live demos. But there's a quieter shift happening that I think is actually more structural. Startups are starting to use their pitch deck as a data room. Luna: Meaning they're putting detailed financials and metrics directly into the deck, not saving them for a separate due diligence folder? Lucas: Exactly. And I don't just mean including a chart or two. I mean building the entire deck as a living document with live data — think Carta cap table snapshots, revenue graphs that update automatically, customer cohort tables. The deck becomes the source of truth, not a teaser. Luna: That's a big departure from the old model where you show a polished story deck and then, if an investor asks for more, you send a data room with the real numbers. Lucas: Right, and that two-step process creates friction. The investor has to ask, wait for you to compile, then schedule a follow-up. By that point, you've lost momentum. The startups that are winning right now — especially in a market where investors are still cautious but hungry for quality — they're front-loading transparency. Luna: Give me a concrete example. Who's doing this well? Lucas: I talked to a founder last week who closed a $2 million seed round for a B2B SaaS company using a single Notion page. Not a slide deck, not a PDF. A Notion page with embedded charts from their analytics tool, a live cap table from Carta, and a video of the product demo. He said the first investor who saw it committed within 48 hours. Luna: Forty-eight hours? That's almost unheard of for a seed round. Lucas: It is. But the logic makes sense. The investor didn't have to ask for any follow-up data — it was all there. They could see the month-over-month revenue growth, the customer acquisition cost trending down, the burn rate. They could make a decision faster because they had more confidence. Luna: So the deck as data room eliminates the 'show me more' step. But doesn't that also risk overwhelming investors? A traditional deck is maybe 10 slides. A full data room could be 50 pages. Lucas: That's the tension. The founders who are doing it well structure the deck so the narrative leads — the story comes first — and then they layer in the data as supporting evidence. It's not a firehose. It's a well-organized library where the investor can drill into whatever they care about. Luna: And I imagine this works especially well for funds that have a quantitative focus — firms that use data-driven scoring models. Lucas: Exactly. Some of the larger seed funds, like those backed by Y Combinator's Continuity Fund, have been encouraging this approach. They want to see unit economics, cohort retention, and net dollar retention upfront. If you hide those numbers, they assume the worst. Luna: That ties into something we've seen in public markets too — the demand for transparency. Look at ARK Invest's innovation ETFs, ARKK and ARKW, both up over 5% in the last five days. Part of that is sentiment around AI, but I think it's also that companies like Tesla and Coinbase are providing more granular data to investors. Lucas: That's a good parallel. And on the startup side, the tools have gotten much better. Besides Notion, there are platforms like DocSend that now offer data room analytics — you can see exactly which pages investors spend the most time on. And Carta has a feature that lets you share a read-only view of your cap table with stakeholders. Luna: So the pitch deck is becoming a living asset, not a static PDF that's outdated the day after you send it. Lucas: That's exactly right. And it changes the relationship between founder and investor. Instead of a one-way pitch followed by a Q&A, it becomes a collaborative exploration of the business. The investor can click around, form their own thesis, and come back with sharper questions. Luna: But what about the downside? If you're putting all your data out there, aren't you giving away competitive information? A competitor could pretend to be an investor. Lucas: That's a real risk. Founders I've talked to handle it by using NDAs selectively — they'll share a high-level version of the deck with everyone, but the full data room version only goes to investors who have had an intro call or come from a trusted source. Also, many of the tools allow you to revoke access or set expiration dates. Luna: So it's not about broadcasting everything; it's about making the right data available at the right time. Lucas: And the trend is accelerating. I expect that within 18 months, a static PDF pitch deck will feel as outdated as a printed business plan. Investors will expect a dynamic, data-rich document from the start. Luna: That's a pretty bold prediction. But it makes sense given the speed of the market. Look at Roblox — up 15% this week alone. The market rewards companies that are transparent about their metrics, like daily active users and engagement. Lucas: Right, and startups that adopt this approach are essentially pre-signaling that they're ready for institutional due diligence. They're saying, 'We have nothing to hide, and we're confident in our numbers.' That builds trust fast. Luna: I think this is one of those rare shifts where both sides win. Founders raise faster, investors make better decisions faster, and the overall quality of dialogue improves. Lucas: And if these conversations are useful for what you're building or running, we hope you'll consider supporting the show. Listener support is what keeps this podcast ad-free and focused on the details that matter. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: We appreciate everyone who chips in — it really helps us keep digging into these shifts. Lucas: Now, back to the data room deck. One thing I want to highlight is the role of the cap table. Founders often underinvest in keeping their cap table clean early on. But if you're going to share it with investors, it needs to be spotless. I've seen deals fall apart because a founder's cap table had a complicated convertible note that was hard to explain. Luna: So the deck as data room forces founders to get their house in order earlier. That's probably a good thing. Lucas: Absolutely. And there's a secondary benefit: when you have your data organized in a shareable format, you can also use it for hiring, partnerships, and board updates. It becomes the operating system for your company's story. Luna: I want to hear more about that Notion founder — how did he structure the page? Was it just one long scroll? Lucas: He showed me a screenshot. He had a table of contents at the top — company overview, product, market, traction, team, financials. Each section had inline charts from his analytics tool, with a short paragraph of narrative. The financials section had a live view of his QuickBooks dashboard. It was about as long as a typical 15-slide deck, but the density of information was much higher. Luna: And the investors responded to that density positively? Lucas: He said the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. One investor told him, 'This is the first time I've felt like I truly understood a company after reading a deck.' And that's exactly the reaction you want. Luna: So what's the one piece of advice you'd give to a founder preparing their deck right now? Lucas: Don't think of your deck as a marketing document. Think of it as a research report. Answer the investor's questions before they ask them. Show your churn, show your gross margins, show your CAC payback period. If those numbers are good, they'll accelerate your round. And if they're not good, you need to know that before you start pitching. Luna: That's a great closing thought. Next week, we'll look at how founders are using AI to personalize their pitch decks for specific investors — a natural extension of this trend. Lucas: Looking forward to it. For now, thanks for listening.