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Fundraising, decoded.

Insights on seed-stage fundraising, VC meetings, and startup evaluation.

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David Rakusan · May 28, 2026

Investor Pitch Deck Template: 10 Slides That Actually Work in 2026

Most pitch deck templates give you a structure but not an argument. This 10-slide investor pitch deck template for 2026 walks slide by slide through what to put on each slide, the proof signal each one should carry, the most common 2026 mistake, and the test for whether the slide is doing its job. Built on the team-weighting research from 885 institutional VCs and DocSend's 2024 behavioral data on how investors read decks.

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David Rakusan · May 19, 2026

Pitch Deck Examples for Startups (and What Investors Actually Look at on Each Slide)

Most pitch deck guides show you what a great deck looks like. This one shows what investors actually read on each slide. Behavioral data from 30,000+ investor sessions, the slide-by-slide framework, and the proof signals that separate decks that move forward from decks that get a polite reply. Includes a 11-slide comparison table, a working redesign checklist, and the structural fix for the question-repetition trap that decks alone cannot solve.

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David Rakusan · May 14, 2026

DocSend Alternatives for Founders: Why a Living Profile Beats a File Tracker in 2026

DocSend is a tracker, not a proof layer. The investor still has to ask every question. We break down the real DocSend alternatives in 2026, including Papermark, Peony, Notion, and the Living Profile category that replaces the file-tracker model entirely.

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David Rakusan · May 6, 2026

What Investors Look for in a Pitch Deck (2026): Slide by Slide

The average VC spends 2 minutes and 37 seconds on a pitch deck before deciding to pass, forward, or ask a question. This guide breaks down what investors actually look at slide by slide in 2026, why the deck is losing power as a trust signal, and why the Team slide is now getting 40% more attention while the Competition slide gets 48% less. Written with 7 years on the investor side, backed by DocSend, PitchBook, Carta, and Affinity data.

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