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If you want to raise venture capital funding, you should be able to tell a compelling story to get anywhere. What\u2019s more, according to conventional wisdom, your story should be supported by a pitch-perfect deck, too. How many slides a deck needs<\/a> and what order they should be in is up for debate, but the deck itself is non-negotiable.<\/p>\n That said, there are, in fact, people out there raising lots of capital without employing a deck at all. I was really intrigued to speak to two of them and learn how they did it.<\/p>\n Before Michal Cieplinksi became the CEO and founder of fintech startup Capstack, he successfully founded several companies and invested in others. Today, he has refined his story-telling chops to the extent that he doesn\u2019t use a deck at all.<\/p>\n For Cieplinski, not using a deck yields a major benefit: You ensure that your startup is based on a real product and not a feature<\/a>. The perils associated with launching a business that relies on another product are many and dangerous, but in short, if the original product changes or is no longer available, then it\u2019s bye-bye for your business.<\/p>\n Your idea needs to stand alone. As Cieplinksi says, if your company is reliant on a proprietary product, you often have so much to explain to potential investors that you need a deck to help you.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n