Fundraising
AI Is Reading Your Pitch Deck
Partners are auditing decks with AI and buyers are asking models for recommendations. Two things founders should do about it.
A four-step audit to run before an investor runs one.
I can't stop thinking about two founder conversations and a viral VC LinkedIn post.
The viral post read: "Founders, please send investors your slide deck in PDF format or a downloadable file!"
Why? Partners are auditing them with AI.
The same week, two founder stories stopped me cold.
The first founder showed me a rejection email that ended: "Should I rewrite this with a warmer, more personal tone?" The investor had forgotten to delete ChatGPT's reply.
The second founder told me they won a new customer because Claude recommended their product to a buyer searching for data center solutions.
Morality aside, the signal is impossible to miss: AI is now central to fundraising and customer acquisition.
Founders should do two things right now:
Have AI audit your deck
Pick three target funds. Have ChatGPT write prompts instructing Claude to roleplay as a partner at each firm: score the deck, flag kill criteria, and deliver an invest or pass decision. Run the prompts in Claude with research mode on and the deck attached. Iterate until the objections are real, specific, and survivable across all three firms.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
Buyers, partners, and investors are all increasingly using AI to make decisions. Ask Claude, ChatGPT, and Perplexity the questions your buyers ask. If you're missing or wrong, fix your site, GitHub, press, and founder bios until LLMs cite you correctly. Re-test monthly.
SEO got you found on Google. GEO gets you recommended by AI.
Founders and investors: what's the third action you'd add?
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