You're probably here because you've done the hard part: you have a product, some traction, a story you actually believe in. Now you need to get that story in front of investors without looking amateur, leaking your deck everywhere, or flying blind on whether anyone even opened it.

Most founders underestimate this step. In 2024–25, investors are spending around 2–3 minutes total on a typical pitch deck. You are competing with hundreds of decks in their inbox every month. How you send and package your deck is part of your pitch—because it signals how you operate.

Let's walk through this calmly.

1. Why you need a deliberate way to send your deck (how things go wrong)

Here's how deck sending usually fails in practice:

Random attachments in cold emails. Subject line is vague, body is long, deck is attached as Pitch_Deck_v7_final_final.pdf. It gets buried in a crowded inbox, opened on mobile, and forgotten. Mobile email opens account for over 40% of all email opens, making attachments unreliable.
Leaky links. "Anyone with the link" Google Drive / Dropbox links circulate through forwarding and Slack, and you lose all sense of who has your deck. Without identity-bound access, you can't control distribution.
No tracking, no prioritization. You have no idea which funds actually opened the deck or how much time they spent. Without document analytics, you follow up blindly with everyone.
Version chaos. You tweak numbers and send "updated" decks to some investors but not others, and later during diligence your data room doesn't match what people saw originally. Investors explicitly use the data room to verify claims in your deck; inconsistencies burn trust.
Security theatre or overkill. Overly locked-down decks (weird viewers, broken links, forced signups) annoy investors. Some VCs publicly say they won't open certain tracking links from cold emails at all.

You need something better than "spray a PDF into the void and pray."

2. What "sending a pitch deck" actually has to do in 2025

A good deck delivery setup needs to do more than "attach file":

Get opened quickly. Clear subject, crisp email, deck that renders well on laptop and phone. Investors skim fast; your job is to make that skim easy.
Be shareable inside the firm. Partners need to forward your deck into Monday partner meeting threads and internal memos without fighting your tooling.
Give you signal. You want to know who opened it and roughly how engaged they were so you can prioritize follow-ups. DocSend data shows attention is scarce; knowing where it goes matters. Secure document sharing platforms provide complete document analytics to track engagement.
Stay consistent with your data room. When things progress, investors will check your deck against the data room. A16z, Carta, and others all stress that the data room is there to validate the story you told in your deck.
Not be annoying. This part is underrated. Friction-heavy gating might feel "secure" to you, but if an investor can't open it on their phone in one step, they may just skip it.

That's the bar. Let's use Peony to hit it without making your life miserable.

3. How to send your pitch deck with Peony (step by step)

Think of email / warm intro as the doorbell and Peony as the fundraising room your deck lives in.

Step 1 – Create a dedicated fundraising room

In Peony, create a room like:

“Fundraise – Pre-Seed 2025 – Core Deck” or
“Series A – Investor Deck + Metrics”

Upload:

Your main deck (PDF is safest across devices).
Optional appendix deck.
Any “light” supporting docs (e.g., one-pager, product screenshots).

This room becomes the canonical source for that round.

Step 2 – Configure access with investor flow in mind

For warm intros / ongoing conversations:

Grant email-based access for specific investors or domains (e.g., @topfund.com) using identity-bound access.
Set view-only for external viewers.
Disable downloads by default if you are worried about the deck being widely forwarded; enable for trusted leads later.
Turn on dynamic watermarking with investor email / firm / timestamp so screenshots are clearly attributable. This is subtle but meaningful deterrence.

For cold outreach where you’re worried about link friction:

You can still host the canonical deck in Peony for analytics and controlled sharing with investors who are comfortable with links, and
Optionally attach a light PDF version for those who never click any gated links (more on this nuance below).

Step 3 – Generate a single Peony link

Peony gives you one shareable link for that room. You will reuse this:

In cold/warm investor emails
In intros from angels and other founders
In your calendared follow-up emails
In your eventual data room (Peony can grow into that as you progress)

If you fix a typo or update a chart, you upload the new deck. The link does not change.

Step 4 – Send the actual email (structure that works)

A simple, founder-grade template for cold-ish outreach:

Subject: [Company] – [X] for [market] – deck inside

Hi [Name],

I’m [Name], founder of [Company]. We’re building [one-line problem + solution] for [who], and are currently raising a [stage, amount] round.

In short: – Problem: [1–2 lines in the investor’s language] – What we do: [1–2 lines] – Traction: [3 bullets – revenue, usage, retention, marquee customers] – Why now: [market change / timing]

Here is a short deck you can skim in a couple of minutes: [Peony link]

If this looks interesting, I’d love 20 minutes to go deeper and answer questions.

Best, [You] [Company] – [1-line tagline] [Signature with link to site]

For warm intros, same structure, but start with the mutual connection and context.

Step 5 – Use Peony analytics to decide what to do next

Once the deck is out:

You can see with page-level analytics who viewed the deck, how often, and where the time went.
More engagement from a partner or associate → push for a meeting / next call.
No engagement at all → light follow-up, then move on.

When things progress toward a term sheet, you can expand that same Peony space into a light data room: put financials, cap table, product docs, and keep everything under the same branded, controlled umbrella using secure document sharing platforms.

4. Other ways to send a pitch deck if you can't use Peony

If Peony really is off the table, your realistic options are:

Plain PDF attachment + clear email. This is still widely accepted, especially for cold emails. Downsides: zero tracking, easy to leak, and no update path except resending.
DocSend / similar link-based viewers. This has become a common pattern: trackable link, basic analytics, sometimes light security. Some investors like it; some publicly say they ignore gated links in cold outreach.
Drive / Dropbox / Box links. Can work, but you need to configure sharing carefully (specific people vs "anyone with the link"), and analytics are weaker unless you are on enterprise tiers. Without identity-bound access, you lose control over distribution.

Whatever you choose, the fundamentals don't change: short, clean deck; clear email; obvious next step.

5. Practical setup tips (so this becomes a repeatable system)

Let's finish with a few habits that make your life saner:

Keep the deck short and skimmable. DocSend's analyses keep finding that investors spend a couple of minutes total, and less on bloated decks.
One canonical deck per round. No v7_final_FINAL. The deck in Peony (or your chosen system) is the single source of truth.
Separate "teaser" vs "deep dive" decks. Short, crisp deck for first contact; optional longer appendix for later. Don't try to make one deck do everything.
Align deck ↔ data room early. Keep key metrics, revenue, and cap table consistent. Investors will check.
Systematize follow-ups. Decide in advance: send deck → follow up at Day 3 → follow up at Day 7 → move on. Don't burn emotional energy re-deciding every time.

If the round is casual and tiny, any method works. If it actually matters, sending your pitch deck is not a random attachment; it is a small, deliberate system: one canonical deck, one controlled link, clean emails, and a data room that matches your story.

That is exactly what Peony is built to make boring and reliable, so you can focus your energy on the part only you can do: telling a compelling story about a company worth funding.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you track if an investor opened your pitch deck?

Basic email tracking shows if the email was opened, but not if the deck itself was viewed. Peony provides complete document analytics: see who opened the deck, when, how long they viewed it, and which pages they engaged with most.

Can you update a pitch deck after sending it to investors?

With attachments or basic cloud links, you can't update decks after sending. Peony lets you update the deck behind the same secure link—all investors automatically see the latest version without resending files or creating version chaos.

How do you protect a pitch deck from being shared without permission?

Peony provides identity-bound access that restricts sharing to specific email addresses or domains, dynamic watermarking to attribute screenshots, and download restrictions to prevent unauthorized distribution.

What's the best way to send a pitch deck to investors?

Peony is the best solution: share your secure Peony link in the email with identity-bound access, page-level analytics, and the ability to update the deck without resending. Avoid "anyone with the link" sharing—it loses control.

Should you attach a PDF or send a link for pitch decks?

Send a secure link instead of attachments. Links provide tracking, allow updates without resending, and work better on mobile. Attachments get buried, provide no analytics, and create version chaos when you need to update numbers.

How do you know which investors are most interested in your pitch deck?

Peony gives you complete visibility: see who opened it, when, how long they viewed it, and which sections they engaged with most. High engagement from a partner or associate signals strong interest—prioritize follow-ups accordingly.

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How to Send Pitch Deck to Investors in 2025: Complete Guide to Secure Fundraising Deck Sharing