Seed Round Pitch Deck Template
Every number gets a source, a definition and a date before it reaches a slide, because a deck built from memory cannot answer for itself.
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Metric Backup
[Company], Inc. — [round] deck, [n] slides, as of [date]
One row per number on the deck. A row missing any of the four fields does not go on a slide.
| ID | Slide | Metric | Value on deck | Source | Definition | As of | Owner | Re-derived | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-01 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| M-02 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| M-03 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| M-04 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Source has five values, and it decides what can be done about the number
| A system of record | Billing, the ledger, product analytics, the CRM. Re-derivable today and re-derivable next year |
| A spreadsheet that exists | Findable, openable, formulas readable. The formula is the definition whether or not anyone wrote one |
| A spreadsheet nobody can find | Computed once, correctly, in a file that has been overwritten. Cannot be produced again |
| Somebody's recollection | No artifact of any kind. Usually the pipeline figure, often a churn rate |
| A third-party report | Checkable, but not by you. Record whether anyone here has read it, and what market it covers |
On a slide, the third class looks exactly like the first. The only way to tell them apart is to try to re-derive each one, before somebody else asks you to.
A seed deck usually fails in the meeting after the one where it worked. It gets built once, from memory and from whatever was on screen that week, and every number in it is true on the day it is typed. Then diligence asks where a figure came from, and the honest answer is that somebody computed it once, in a spreadsheet that is gone, on a definition nobody wrote down. A number you cannot re-derive looks exactly like one you can, because both are digits on a slide.
So this pack builds the deck from the evidence sheet rather than the other way round. Every number gets a row carrying four fields: source, definition, as-of date and owner. Then everything that can be re-derived gets re-derived from the source, without looking at the slide. On the worked example, twenty-nine of forty-one numbers could be re-derived, eighteen came back identical, and eleven moved. Nine of the eleven moved down. The two that moved up were acquisition cost and its payback, where up is the worse direction.
Nobody had lied. Every ambiguous definition had been resolved once, quickly, at the moment of writing. The story then gets written from what survived, which is the opposite of the usual order and the reason it holds: a narrative built first and evidenced later always contains one claim the evidence will not support. That claim will be the most memorable line in the deck. It sits beside the data room the same round needs.
What's in the pack
Metric Backup
One row per number on the deck, carrying its source, its definition, its as-of date, its owner, the re-derived value and a verdict.
Definition Ledger
One row per contested word: customer, active, MRR, churn, qualified, reachable. The chosen definition, what it excludes, and every place it has to change.
Inconsistency Register
One row per appearance for any metric showing up twice at two values, with exactly one marked canonical and the decision that resolves the rest.
How Every Number Was Traced
The full worked audit: forty-one numbers, five source classes, the eighteen that held, the eleven that moved, and the four that left the deck.
Narrative Outline
Fourteen slides, each naming the numbers it is allowed to use, written after the backup sheet rather than before it.
Deck, Slide by Slide
The content of every slide with each figure carrying its backup row. Words and numbers, not design, so nothing looks finished before it is traced.
Appendix Notes
What answers a question rather than making an argument, so a slide can carry one number and a pointer instead of six numbers and no room.
Objection Preparation
One question per number that invites one, marked where it is blocked on a definition nobody has chosen yet.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Take the blank documents and sheets away with no account, or install the pack in River and hand it the deck you already have plus the exports behind it.
- 2
Inventory, then source
Every numeral that makes a claim gets a row, in slide order. Then four fields each, and each source sorted into one of the five classes.
- 3
Re-derive, and count the direction
Compute each re-derivable figure again from the source, without looking at the slide. Report how many moved down and how many moved up.
- 4
Write the story from what survived
Decide the contested definitions, resolve the register, then draft the narrative and the slides from the rows that hold. Objections come last.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. Three sheets and five documents download as Word and CSV files with no signup and no watermark. Opening the pack in River, where the agent inventories your deck and re-derives the numbers against your own exports, needs a free account. The blank files are useful on their own, and the other packs sit in the template library.
Does it produce the actual slides?
It produces the words and the numbers of every slide, each traced to a backup row, ready to lay out wherever you build decks. It does not render a PowerPoint file. Design is fast and content is slow, and a deck that looks finished before its numbers are traced is the failure this pack prevents.
How is this different from a pitch deck template?
A template gives you fourteen empty slides and an order. That is the part founders already have. What breaks a deck in diligence is a number nobody can produce again, so the artifact here is the backup sheet, and the slides are written from it rather than filled in beside it.
What if a number turns out to have no source?
Three outcomes, and one of them is that it leaves the deck. Recompute it from data that survived, restate it as a range with the basis named, or remove it. Four of the worked example's nine unsourceable numbers came off, and two of those four were a churn rate and a retention claim.
Is a deck a legal document?
It can be. Under SEC Rule 10b-5 it is unlawful, in connection with buying or selling a security, to state an untrue material fact or omit one needed to keep what you did say from misleading. Have a lawyer in your jurisdiction review the deck.
Can I post the deck publicly?
Ask counsel first. A private placement relying on Rule 502(c) may not be offered or sold by any form of general solicitation or general advertising, which is broader than most founders assume. Nothing here is legal advice, and how a deck circulates is a legal question.
What should I have ready before starting?
The deck, if one exists, and the places its numbers come from: billing exports, the general ledger, product analytics, the CRM, and the spreadsheets you actually open. A clean cap table helps the ask slide, a dated investor target list decides who receives it, and term sheet mechanics come later.
Find out how many of your numbers cannot be produced again
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open it in River and get the count, the headline number as it actually is, and the one definition that unblocks the most questions.
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