What are the best AI prompts for pitch decks?

Paste your real numbers and ask the model to build the deck slide by slide in a standard investor order, flagging every gap instead of filling it. Do not let it invent market size or traction, because securities antifraud rules apply to exempt offerings too.

What slides should a startup pitch deck have?

Sequoia lists company purpose, problem, solution, why now, market potential, competition, business model, team, financials and vision. Use that order as a default and cut or reorder only with a reason. Ask the model to map your facts to each slide and mark missing ones.

Can AI prepare me for investor questions?

Yes, if you give it the finished deck and your supporting numbers and ask for the hardest questions per slide. Tell it to answer only from your material and mark anything unsupported as a gap. Rehearse those answers aloud, since the model cannot know your real data.

Is it legal to put AI-written claims in a pitch deck?

You are responsible for every statement. The SEC says all securities transactions, even exempt ones, are subject to antifraud provisions, covering misleading claims made in writing or on your behalf. Public posting of a deck can also raise general solicitation questions under Rule 506(b). Ask a securities lawyer.

Best AI Prompts for Pitch Decks (2026)

Prompts for pitch decks#

Five starting points#

Full briefVenture capital partner reviewing a seed-stage deck

Act as a venture capital partner reviewing a seed-stage deck. Using only the facts in [PASTE YOUR COMPANY FACTS: product, customers, revenue or usage, team, raise amount], propose a slide-by-slide outline in this order: company purpose, problem, solution, why now, market, competition, business model, team, financials, vision, ask. For each slide give the headline claim, the one proof point from my facts that supports it, and the visual to use. If a slide has no supporting fact, write "GAP: I need [what]" instead of inventing one.

AdvancedStartup pitch coach

Act as a startup pitch coach. Write the spoken script and slide text for the Problem and Solution slides from [DESCRIBE YOUR CUSTOMER, THEIR PAIN, AND YOUR PRODUCT], aimed at [DESCRIBE YOUR TARGET INVESTORS, e.g. deep tech or robotics funds]. Keep the problem to one customer and one sentence of cost, and cite only the numbers I supplied. Give two versions, 30 seconds and 90 seconds.

AdvancedFinancial analyst helping a founder

Act as a financial analyst helping a founder. From [PASTE YOUR REAL REVENUE, COSTS, PRICING AND CUSTOMER DATA], draft the market and financials slides: a bottom-up market estimate (number of target customers times price) with every assumption listed, unit economics with the formula shown, and a forecast in three scenarios. Do not supply any market-size figure I did not give you; where I need outside data, name the type of source to look up.

SpecializedSceptical investor who has seen many competitors in this space

Act as a sceptical investor who has seen many competitors in this space. Using [PASTE YOUR COMPETITOR LIST AND YOUR DIFFERENCES], write the competition and defensibility slide as a plain comparison of what each alternative does and where we win. Then list the three objections an investor would raise about defensibility and what evidence from my materials answers each. Mark any claim about patents or proprietary technology that I have not documented.

SpecializedInvestor preparing for a first meeting

Act as an investor preparing for a first meeting. Read [PASTE YOUR FULL DECK TEXT AND SUPPORTING NUMBERS] and list the 15 hardest questions you would ask, grouped by slide, with the best answer that my own material supports for each. Mark every question my material cannot answer as "NO ANSWER YET", and flag any slide where the numbers do not agree with each other.

What to add to any pitch deck prompt#

Your real facts first: customers, revenue or usage, pricing, team, amount raised and use of funds. Anthropic advises putting long documents and inputs at the top of the prompt, above the instructions.
The slide order you want. Sequoia lists company purpose, problem, solution, why now, market potential, competition, business model, team, financials and vision.
Why you want it: who the investor is and what the meeting is for. Anthropic says explaining the motivation behind an instruction helps the model give more targeted answers.
A rule for gaps: say "write GAP and what you need" instead of guessing. Anthropic includes a sample instruction not to speculate about material the model has not read.
Delimiters between your facts, your instructions and any example slides. Anthropic recommends XML tags and OpenAI recommends Markdown or XML to separate sections.
The output format per slide (headline, proof point, visual). Google says to state the format you want.

A worked example#

Code

You are a venture capital partner reviewing a seed deck.

<facts>
Company: LoadLens, software that predicts delivery-van battery wear for small fleets.
Customers: 14 paying fleets, 380 vans total (from our billing system, 2026-09-30).
Revenue: $11,200 monthly recurring revenue, 2026-09-30. Price: $30 per van per month.
Team: two founders, one ex-fleet operations manager, one ML engineer.
Raise: $1.5M seed, 18 months of runway, 60% engineering hires, 25% sales, 15% other.
Competitors: two telematics vendors that report battery data but do not predict wear.
</facts>

<instructions>
Propose a slide-by-slide outline in this order: purpose, problem, solution, why now, market, competition, business model, team, financials, vision, ask. For each slide give the headline claim, one proof point taken only from the facts above, and the visual. Write "GAP: I need ..." wherever the facts do not support a slide. Do not add any market size, growth rate or customer I did not list.
</instructions>

Every proof point matches a line in the facts. A good result notices that 380 vans at $30 would be $11,400, not $11,200, and flags the difference for you to explain.
The market slide is marked GAP, or built bottom-up from the 380-van base and a stated assumption, never a top-down figure from nowhere.
The "why now" slide asks you for the reason instead of making one up.
The ask slide ties $1.5M to the stated 18-month split.
Each slide has one headline claim, not a paragraph.

The full prompt library is on our prompt library page.

Limits of this guide#

This page gives a starting order and a method for finding gaps. It does not tell you what a good deck looks like for your sector or stage, and we did not test which prompt wording produces the best slides. We could not read Y Combinator's pitch-deck articles in this pass, so none of this page's advice is attributed to them. The legal notes are general information, not legal advice, and we did not confirm which exemption suits any given raise.

Sources & Further Reading#

All sources were fetched on 2026-10-22. The OpenAI guide was read at its current address, not through an Internet Archive copy.

Claim	Source	Section or date
Slide order: purpose, problem, solution, why now, market, competition, business model, team, financials, vision	Writing a Business Plan (Sequoia Capital)	Section list; undated
Put long inputs at the top; state motivation; use XML tags; do not speculate about material not read	Prompting best practices (Anthropic)	Context, structure and long-document sections; undated
Use Markdown or XML delimiters; supply your own context; few-shot examples	Prompt engineering (OpenAI)	Delimiters, external context, few-shot sections; undated
State clear goals, constraints, context and output format	Prompt design strategies (Google)	Instructions, constraints, context, format; undated
Exempt offerings remain subject to antifraud provisions; accountable for misleading claims	Exempt offerings FAQ (SEC)	"Do the anti-fraud provisions apply?"; undated
506(b): no general solicitation or advertising; unlimited accredited investors; up to 35 non-accredited per 90 days	Rule 506(b) (SEC)	Overview; undated
506(c): general solicitation permitted; reasonable steps to verify accredited status	Rule 506(c) (SEC)	Overview; undated