Latest / The Series A Show with Fexingo: Early-Stage Funding, Pitch Decks, and Startup Milestones / How Startups Raise Money Without a Pitch Deck
Transcript
- Lucas: So you're a founder, you've got a solid product, some early revenue, maybe a few dozen enterprise customers. You start reaching out to VCs for your Series A. And almost every guide out there tells you: perfect your pitch deck, nail the narrative, make those 10 slides sing. Luna: Right. But what if I told you that an increasing number of Series A rounds are happening without a pitch deck at all? Lucas: Exactly. We've seen this shift building over the last couple years. Back in 2022, about 12 percent of Series A rounds in the US were done without a formal pitch deck. Fast forward to this year — 2026 — that number has climbed to 35 percent, according to data from DocSend and PitchBook. Luna: Wow, that's a big jump. So what's driving it? Are founders just getting lazy? Lucas: Not lazy — smarter, in many cases. The pitch deck was always a shortcut to get a meeting. But now, a lot of top-tier firms are shortening that path. Some VCs are publicly saying: don't send us a deck, send us a one-page memo or a data room. Luna: Like a16z's 'deal memo' approach. They have that internal tool that lets founders submit metrics directly. Lucas: Right. And Sequoia has been experimenting with a referral-only model for early-stage intros — no cold deck submission at all. The idea is that if you're building something truly impressive, the numbers and the customer traction should speak louder than a well-designed slide. Luna: I mean, a good deck can mask weak metrics. So maybe this is a way for VCs to cut through the noise. Lucas: Exactly. And it's not just the big names. I spoke with a partner at a mid-tier firm last week. He said they now use an AI tool that ingests a startup's Stripe, HubSpot, and AWS data to generate a real-time dashboard. If the numbers hit their thresholds, they schedule a partner meeting before they've even seen a deck. Luna: That's a whole new world. For founders, it means you have to have your operational metrics in order from day one. Lucas: Absolutely. But it also saves time. Instead of spending weeks perfecting a narrative, you focus on what matters: building product, closing customers, and keeping clean data. A pitch deck can take 40 hours to polish. A data room can be set up in an afternoon. Luna: And the VCs love it because they get the raw numbers, not a curated story. But is there a downside? I feel like some of the magic of storytelling gets lost. Lucas: That's a fair point. The narrative still matters, especially for consumer or mission-driven startups. But the trend is clear: data is becoming the primary filter. And interestingly, this shift is also changing the kind of founders who succeed. You're seeing more technical, operator types get funded — people who can articulate their unit economics cold, but might not be great at building a slide. Luna: So if you're a founder listening, should you just abandon your deck? Lucas: No, not entirely. You still need a deck for some investors, especially those outside the top tier. But I'd say: invest 80 percent of your prep time in your data room and your metrics narrative — your MRR, churn, ltv to cac ratio, net dollar retention. And only 20 percent on the deck itself. The deck becomes a supplement, not the centerpiece. Luna: That's really practical advice. I want to look at a specific example. Glean, the ai powered enterprise search company, just crossed $300 million in revenue. They raised a $200 million Series D back in 2022. I wonder if they used a deck. Lucas: I actually looked into that. Glean's founding team came from Google and had deep enterprise relationships. When they raised their Series A, they didn't use a traditional pitch deck — they shared a detailed memo with key metrics like deployment time, customer retention, and ROI case studies. The round closed in under three weeks. Luna: And now they're at $300 million in revenue. So clearly, substance over style worked for them. Lucas: And it's becoming more common. If you look at the data, companies that raised without a deck in 2025 had a median Series A valuation that was 15 percent higher than those that used a deck. Correlation isn't causation — but it suggests that investors are rewarding founders who lead with data. Luna: One thing I wonder about: does this shift affect diversity in funding? Historically, underrepresented founders have relied on storytelling to overcome metrics gaps. If VCs lean harder on pure data, does that hurt those founders? Lucas: It's a real concern. Data can embed existing biases if the benchmarks are set based on homogeneous founder profiles. But some firms are aware of that and are adjusting. For example, a firm we spoke with told me they normalize metrics by industry and stage — so a B2B SaaS startup in healthcare is compared to its peers, not to a consumer social app. Luna: That's good to hear. So the trend is not just about removing decks — it's about being more thoughtful about what signals matter. Lucas: Right. And at the end of the day, the best signal is still traction. Whether you present it on a slide or a dashboard, the question is the same: are you building something people want and are willing to pay for? Luna: Yeah. And if these conversations are useful for what you're building or running, I'll just mention — a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. If you've gotten something out of them, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Totally. Small contributions make a big difference and they keep this ad-free. So, back to the data trend — one more angle I find interesting: the rise of the 'virtual data room' as a replacement for the deck. Startups are using tools like DocSend or even Notion to create live, updating data rooms. Luna: Right, I've seen that. Founders can track which investors have viewed which sections, and even see how long they spent on the churn page. That's a level of insight you never get from a PDF deck. Lucas: Exactly. It's almost like a pitch deck but interactive and dynamic. Some founders even embed a video of themselves walking through the key numbers. But the core is still the data. Luna: So if I'm a founder preparing for a Series A in 2026, what's the one thing I should do this week? Lucas: Get your metrics in order. Make sure your revenue, churn, and growth numbers are clean and auditable. Then, put together a one-page memo that tells the story in three paragraphs — problem, solution, traction. And then, if you still want a deck, make it a 5-slide appendix to that memo. Luna: Short, sweet, and data-rich. That's the new playbook. Lucas: And it's working. We're seeing faster rounds, less time wasted on design, and more time spent on the actual business. It's a shift that both founders and VCs seem to be embracing. Luna: Alright, I'm going to go audit my own metrics now. Thanks for the reality check. Lucas: Happy to help. Until next time.