Why Most Pitch Decks Fail the Investor's First 60 Seconds
The claim that kills most decks isn't false — it's unverifiable. Here's what a named verifier finds in the first pass.
Friday Notes
Intelligence dispatches
for founders
Weekly notes on pre-launch verification, AI governance, and what we've learned shipping verdicts. Every Friday at 09:00 GMT.
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8 dispatches
EU AI Act Article 50: What Founders Building with AI Actually Need to Know
Article 50 requires disclosure when AI generates content intended for humans. Here's the plain-English version and what it means for your deck.
The Pricing Page That Costs Founders Rounds
We've reviewed 214 pitch packages. The pricing section generates more investor pushback than any other slide. Here's why.
Why Your Series A Deck Will Fail the 40-Minute Test
VCs spend exactly 40 minutes desk-researching your deck before the meeting. Here's what they find — and how verified evidence changes the dynamic in the room.
The Category Problem: Why Most Benchmarks Are Wrong
How category mismatches silently invalidate your strongest data points — and a framework for finding defensible benchmarks that match your exact product.
Rebuttal Architecture: Preparing for Investor Questions
The founders who close fastest aren't those with the best answers — they're the ones who raised the hard questions themselves, first.
The 9 Investor Questions That Destroy Rounds at the Last Minute
9 of the 14 market-size claims in a typical Series A deck fail diligence. Not because the data is wrong — because the evidence can't be traced. Here's what gets checked and how to pre-empt it.
How to Validate a Startup Idea Before You Build
Most validation is wishful thinking dressed as research. Here's the 12-lens framework that catches fatal flaws while they're still cheap to fix — the same methodology applied across 214 verdicts.