What a pitch deck consultant should do for you, and when you don't need one

Three kinds of help under one word: story, design and numbers

“Pitch deck consultant” covers very different work. Some consultants fix the story: what the company does, why now, and the order of the slides. Some fix the design: layout, charts and type. Some fix the numbers: the model behind the deck, and the figures the slides quote from it.

Each kind solves a different problem. A clear story with numbers that disagree still fails the second read, when an investor checks the arithmetic. Clean slides with the ask buried on the last slide still lose the first. Your deck probably needs one of the three far more than the other two, so find out which before you hire anyone.

Then ask each consultant which of the three they do themselves. The answer narrows the field faster than any portfolio. If design is the main gap, the guide with eight checks before you hire a designer covers that case.

When you don't need a pitch deck consultant

Plenty of decks need no outside help. If you have raised before, if a co-founder has built decks and models, or if your first investor meetings are months away, you can often do the work yourself with a checklist and an honest reader.

You also don't need a consultant to fix a problem you can name in one sentence. If the ask is on the last slide, move it to slide 2. If the market slide quotes an industry total, count the customers you can reach and multiply by your price and 12. Those are an evening's work, not a project.

Check yours: five signs you can do it yourself

1. You can state the amount, the runway in months and one milestone in a single sentence.
2. Every figure on your slides has a cell in your model, and the two agree.
3. Your revenue is built from customers and price, not from a growth rate typed in.
4. The people on your team slide, times their average salary, fit inside your operating costs.
5. Someone who has never seen the deck can say what the company does after two slides.

If all five hold, keep the money for the raise. If two or more fail, read on. For a slower pass you can run tonight, try the 20-minute investor deck self-check.

What the work should look like, all in writing

Good consulting work leaves a paper trail. Before the work: a written read of your current deck, and a written quote that names the scope, the files, the dates and the revision rounds. During the work: questions batched in writing, so you can answer them in one sitting. At the end: the editable deck, a PDF, and the model if one was part of the job.

Writing matters for more than tidiness. Every figure and every change is on record, so when an investor asks why a number moved between two versions, you can answer. If everything happens on calls, you are left with your memory of the calls.

Each step of how I work, with who acts and how long it takes, is on the process page. Calls are optional, and nothing depends on one.

Numbers before design

The order of the work decides what you end up with. If the slides are designed first, the numbers get fitted to the layout, and a chart drawn from last month's plan stays on the slide after the model moves. If the numbers are settled first, every slide is built from figures that already agree.

So ask a consultant where they start. The answer you want: with your model, or with whatever numbers you have, checked against each other before any design work. If there is no model yet, the deck should wait for one, or the model should be part of the job.

That first check is narrow on purpose. It asks whether your deck and your model agree, whether the arithmetic on each slide works, and where an investor will push. It is a consistency check, not an audit: it doesn't verify your data, but it tells you whether your own numbers tell one story.

Worked example: one read, three points that connect

Here is numbers-first work on a real format, written for a company that doesn't exist. The read of Hearthfold's first draft found three problems, and two of them turned out to be one.

A design-first consultant would have made the runway slide clearer. A numbers-first one asks whether it is true. If you would like the same read on your own deck, send me the deck, or first read the whole sample read to see the format.

What no consultant should promise

Some promises should end the conversation. No one can promise you a raise, a number of meetings, or a valuation. Investors decide those, on things no deck controls: the market, the timing, the team, and whatever else reached them that week.

Be careful with three more. Investor introductions bundled into a deck job mix two kinds of work, and you can't tell which one you are buying. A “proven template” that once raised a famous round tells you about someone else's company. And a promise to finish before you have sent your numbers means the numbers will be fitted to the slides.

What a consultant can honestly promise is narrower and more useful: a deck and a model that agree, the arithmetic checked, the hard questions written down before your meeting, and dates in writing. My own answer to “will this guarantee I raise?” is no. I don't introduce investors or take success fees.

Pricing models, and where each one puts the risk

How a consultant charges decides who carries the risk when the work takes longer than planned. There are four common ways.

• Hourly. You pay for time. The risk sits with you: if the work runs long, the bill grows, and you can't know the total until the end. Ask for a written cap.
• Fixed package. One price for a defined scope. The risk of the work running long sits with the consultant. The risk of a poor fit sits with you, so read the scope line by line before you pay.
• Retainer. A monthly amount for ongoing access. It suits a company that needs help every month, with investor updates for example. For a single deck it is the wrong shape: you pay in the quiet months too.
• Success fee. A share of the money you raise. It sounds aligned, but it is paid out of the round, so it shows up in your use of funds, where investors will read it. It can also reward a bigger raise over a better plan.

I quote fixed prices only. The $95 deck package and the $295 deck plus model package have a fixed scope, and anything else is quoted in writing before work starts. Every price is on the pricing page. For what a package should contain, file by file, see what a pitch deck service should hand you.

How to brief a consultant in writing

A good brief takes ten minutes and saves a week of calls. It needs only a few things:

• Your first name, and an email address for the reply.
• A view-only link to the deck, the same one you send investors.
• A link to your model, if you have one, so the deck can be checked against it.
• When you meet investors, so the consultant knows how fast you need it.
• The one thing you want looked at first.

That is the whole request form for the read I offer, and it is enough for a useful first page. Add the amount you are raising and your stage if the deck doesn't state them. Leave out passwords, and anything you wouldn't want forwarded.

Six questions to ask before you hire

1. Which of story, design and numbers will you do yourself, and who does the rest?
2. Will you check every figure on a slide against my model, and list every mismatch in writing?
3. What exactly will I receive, in which formats, and will I own the editable files?
4. How many revision rounds are included, and what counts as one round?
5. Who will open my deck, where will it be stored, and will you sign my NDA?
6. Can I see one real deck shown with its founder's written permission, and one labeled sample?

Send them in one message, then compare the written answers side by side. Vague answers to the second and third questions are the ones to worry about.

Test a consultant on one page first

Before you hire anyone, ask for one written page about your own deck. It shows how the consultant reads: whether they find the number that doesn't tie, and whether they tell you plainly. Mine costs nothing and needs no call. The review page explains what it covers.