IR Narrative

Bespoke IR-narrative & pitch-deck outline report

Why your deck gets polite passes — and the re-sequenced story that fixes it.

Fathom Clinical (FICTIONAL SAMPLE)

Vertical AI — clinical documentation for outpatient specialty clinics
Series A · raising $19M · US · Vertical / applied AI

6

gaps a partner sees
before you speak

Platform / multi-product

the arc your raise
actually fits

0red 2watch

arithmetic flags on the ask alone — the metric
and arc gaps are counted separately, left

FICTIONAL SAMPLE — “Fathom Clinical” does not exist; every number is invented for demonstration. This is the exact structure and the exact engine that produce a paid report from your own inputs.

Generated 2026-07-20 · deterministic engine, human-reviewed

Your situation, mirrored back

You've raised before. This deck is getting passes anyway. Here's what a partner sees.

You are raising a Series A round of $19M for AI documentation copilot that turns clinician-patient conversations into billing-ready notes. You closed a prior round on a story that worked. This one is different: the passes are polite, information-free, and you can't tell whether it's the market or the deck. It's the deck — specifically, its order, the metric you lead with, and whether the arithmetic on your ask survives the ten seconds a partner spends on it before reading a word.

A first read of a deck lasts about 3 minutes 44 seconds, and the first three slides decide whether the partner finishes (DocSend deck-analytics, public). In that window they are not reading your prose. They are checking three things, in this order:

Is the story in an order I recognize? — the arc. A Series A Vertical / applied AI company telling a seed-stage story reads as unready.
Is the number that matters for this stage on the slide I expect it on? — the lead metric.
Does the ask survive ten seconds of mental arithmetic? — round size, dilution, runway.

This report answers all three from your inputs. What follows is the diagnosis, then the fix, then the checklist. First, your headline numbers.

Attention · Your situation snapshotIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)2

The diagnosis, in four numbers

Read these before anything else.

Gaps surfaced

6

discrete, fixable issues a partner would register on a first read — each one is a section below.

Your arc

Platform / multi-product

the narrative order your raise fits — scored 6 vs. the runner-up's 4.

Ask sanity

2 to tighten, no red flags

$19M at Series A, checked against round-size, dilution, and runway bands. This covers the ask arithmetic only — a clean ask sits right next to 3 below-bar metrics, so "no red flags" here is not a clean bill of health.

Metrics below bar

3

3 of your reported metrics sit below the Series A bar.

The one-sentence read

Your company has earned the Platform / multi-product story, but your deck is likely still told in the order that worked at your last round. Re-sequence it, lead with ARR, YoY growth (revenue multiple), Gross margin, Net dollar retention (NDR), Burn multiple, and defend the ask with the arithmetic on the next pages — that is the difference between a polite pass and a second meeting.

Attention · Your situation snapshotIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)3

How to read this report

Four movements, ~70 pages, one build-against outline at the end.

Attention

Your situation snapshot (you're here) — the diagnosis in numbers, mirrored from your intake.

Interest

The analysis core — your arc & why it scored highest, your re-sequenced 11 slides with the diligence lens on each, your metrics vs. the stage bar, and the arithmetic red-flag detector on your ask. Every section opens with why it matters to you and shows the input→output mapping.

Desire

The transformation — what “good” looks like: the before/after of your deck, the roadmap from today's deck to a funded round, a milestone timeline, and how the next partner conversation changes.

Action

Remove all doubt — a prioritized checklist (this week / 30 / 90 days), copy-paste scripts for the slides that matter most, an advisor/lawyer handoff sheet, and your next step.

What you told us → what this section computed

Company + one-liner	Fathom Clinical — AI documentation copilot that turns clinician-patient conversations into billing-ready notes
Stage + model	Series A · Vertical / applied AI
The ask	$19M
Metrics you provided	7 of 8 rows filled

→ This section: every page below is computed from exactly these inputs. Change an input, and the arc, the slide order, the metric reads, and the flags all change with it. Nothing here is a template paragraph.

Attention · Your situation snapshotIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)4

What a polite pass actually is

It is not a verdict on your company. It is a failure of the first read.

“Great team, a little early for us.” “Not a fit for our thesis right now.” “Let's stay in touch.” These are not feedback. They are what a partner writes when the deck didn't earn the ten minutes it takes to write real feedback.

The polite pass	What it usually means	Which section fixes it
“A little early for us”	Your metrics are being read against the wrong bar, or your lead metric is buried.	§ Interest — Metrics vs. the stage bar
“Not a fit for our thesis”	The arc didn't land in the first three slides — the partner never got what you actually are.	§ Interest — Your arc & slide order
“Need to see more traction”	The traction is there but presented in a form (cumulative, no axis) that hides it.	§ Interest — Slide-by-slide & metric rules
Silence after data-room access	A number in the deck didn't reconcile with the data room — a silent, un-appealable no.	§ Interest — Traction slide & consistency
“Why do you need $19M?”	The ask isn't milestone-anchored or isn't in-band for the stage.	§ Interest — Red-flag detector on the ask

The pattern

Every row above is a first-read failure, not a company failure. You can't fix what no partner will name for you — so this report names all of it, in the order a partner encounters it.

Attention · Your situation snapshotIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)5

Attention

How to use this report

Why this matters to you, nowThis is a working tool, not a document to file. Here's how to get the most from it in the next 48 hours — including who on your team does what.

You (CEO)

Own the arc and the ask. Read sections 1 and 4 first — they decide the first impression and the ten-second arithmetic. Everything else supports these.

Your co-founder / ops

Own the metric reconciliation. Take section 3 and the diligence checklist; make every deck number match the data room before any partner sees it.

Your designer / whoever builds the deck

Take section 2. Rebuild the slide ORDER first, then the content per slide. The order is the highest-leverage change and it's free.

Your advisor / CFO / lawyer

Hand them the one-page handoff sheet (near the end). It summarizes the computed dilution, multiple, and flags for them to pressure-test.

One rule

Do the free re-ordering (section 2) before you gather anything new. It moves the read more than any single metric you could add this week.

Attention · Your situation snapshotIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)6

Contents

Attention — your situation
Your situation, mirrored back	2
The diagnosis, in four numbers	3
How to read this report & your inputs	4
What a polite pass actually is	5
Interest — the analysis core
1 · Your narrative arc & transparent scoring	7
2 · Your re-sequenced 11-slide outline	13
3 · Metric-presentation rules vs. your stage bar	32
4 · Red-flag detector on the ask	40
Desire — the transformation
Before / after: your deck re-read	47
The roadmap & milestone timeline	51
Your next partner conversation, rewritten	57
Action — remove all doubt
Prioritized checklist — this week / 30 / 90 days	61
Copy-paste scripts & templates	64
Advisor / lawyer handoff sheet	68
Your next step & guarantee	70

Attention · Your situation snapshotIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)7

Interest · 1

Your narrative arc

Why this matters to you, nowA funded pitch is not your eleven slides in a fixed order. It is ONE of a small number of story arcs, and the arc decides which slide opens, what the partner is really underwriting, and where the burden of proof sits. Tell the wrong arc for your stage and traction, and every individual slide can be correct while the deck still reads as “not for us.” This is the single most common cause of the polite pass — and the one no template can catch, because a template has only one order.

We score five canonical funded-deck arcs against your inputs and pick the best fit. Your winning arc:

Selected narrative arc

Platform / multi-product

The thesis an investor underwrites: You've earned the right to expand: a beachhead is working, and the same customer relationship + data unlock adjacent products and a rising NDR.

This arc leads with: Traction on the beachhead first — you can only tell a platform story from a position of proven single-product strength. Leading with the platform vision before the wedge works reads as premature.

Where the burden of proof sits: Proof the beachhead works (retention, NDR, logo concentration) AND a credible, sequenced expansion path — not a everything-for-everyone map.

The risk a partner re-prices: Focus risk — 'are they expanding because the core works, or because it doesn't.' The partner underwrites whether NDR/retention justify the platform claim.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your one-liner	AI documentation copilot that turns clinician-patient conversations into billing-ready notes
Your stated why-now	Ambient-speech models crossed clinical-grade accuracy only in the last ~18 months, and 2024 CMS billing changes made documentation quality directly revenue-linked.
Your stated wedge	We own the specialty-specific billing-code layer that generic scribes miss, trained on a proprietary corpus of specialty encounters.
Stage / model / ARR	Series A · Vertical / applied AI · $2.4M ARR

→ This section: these inputs, together with the metrics you reported, are what the next page scores — both for the Platform / multi-product arc that won and for the Category creation arc just behind it. The next page shows every point for both, and each one traces back to an input above or a metric you reported — so you can check the math, not just take the pick on faith.

Interest · Your narrative arcIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)8

Interest · 1

Why this arc — transparent scoring

Why this matters to you, nowThe reason this is defensible — and worth bringing to an advisor — is that the choice is not a matter of taste. Every arc accrues points from explicit signals in your intake, and every point carries a human-readable reason. You can audit the whole decision against the public rubric on our methodology page and disagree with any single line.

Arc	Fit score	Relative fit
▶ Platform / multi-product	6
Category creation	4
Efficiency play (10x on a known job)	2
Sharp wedge → platform (default early-stage arc)	2
Picks-and-shovels (arms dealer to a boom)	1

Highest score wins. The runner-up (Category creation) is your fallback if your positioning shifts before you go out — e.g. if a metric moves or you re-cut the wedge. Rubric: https://irnarrative.co/methodology.

Why Platform / multi-product scored 6

+3 — NDR 121% ≥110 — expansion is already happening, the platform claim is earned
+1 — strong logo retention: the beachhead holds
+2 — later stage + real ARR is where a platform arc becomes credible

Interest · Your narrative arcIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)9

Interest · 1

The runner-up, and why it lost

Why this matters to you, nowKnowing the arc you did NOT pick is as useful as knowing the one you did — it tells you which story you must avoid drifting into. Founders under pressure tend to reach for a bigger, vaguer story (“we're building the platform for X”) exactly when they should hold a sharper one. Your runner-up is the most likely wrong turn.

Your arc (score 6)

Platform / multi-product

Leads with: Traction on the beachhead first — you can only tell a platform story from a position of proven single-product strength. Leading with the platform vision before the wedge works reads as premature.

Underwrites: You've earned the right to expand: a beachhead is working, and the same customer relationship + data unlock adjacent products and a rising NDR.

Runner-up (score 4)

Category creation

Leads with: Why-now first: the specific enabling shift (tech / regulation / behavior) that did not exist 2-3 years ago. Without a sharp why-now, this arc reads as a solution in search of a problem.

Underwrites: A shift just made a new category possible; you are defining it and will own the default position before incumbents notice.

Why Category creation scored 4

+2 — language signals a new AI-enabled approach (category-defining)
+2 — founder articulated a specific why-now — the spine of this arc

The drift to avoid

If you find your deck opening on why-now first: the specific enabling shift (tech / regulation / behavior) that did not exist 2-3 years ago, you have drifted into the runner-up arc. Your traction supports the Platform / multi-product story; tell that one.

Interest · Your narrative arcIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)10

Interest · 1

The five arcs, for reference

Why this matters to you, nowSo you can locate yourself and see the whole map. As you and the company change, your arc can change with you — this is the reference you return to at the next round.

Category creation

A shift just made a new category possible; you are defining it and will own the default position before incumbents notice.

Fit for you: 4

+2 — language signals a new AI-enabled approach (category-defining)+2 — founder articulated a specific why-now — the spine of this arc

Efficiency play (10x on a known job)

A large, well-understood job is done expensively today; you do the same job dramatically cheaper/faster, and the switching math is obvious.

Fit for you: 2

+1 — fast CAC payback signals an obvious switching case+1 — real revenue — buyers are already switching, the efficiency case lands

Picks-and-shovels (arms dealer to a boom)

A gold rush is underway; you sell the infrastructure every participant needs, so you win regardless of which application wins.

Fit for you: 1

+1 — sits under a recognizable boom that needs infrastructure

Platform / multi-product YOUR ARC

You've earned the right to expand: a beachhead is working, and the same customer relationship + data unlock adjacent products and a rising NDR.

Fit for you: 6

+3 — NDR 121% ≥110 — expansion is already happening, the platform claim is earned+1 — strong logo retention: the beachhead holds+2 — later stage + real ARR is where a platform arc becomes credible

Sharp wedge → platform (default early-stage arc)

You enter through one painfully specific wedge you can win outright, and that wedge is the on-ramp to a large market — narrow now, big later.

Fit for you: 2

+1 — the reliable early-stage default: narrow wedge into a big market+1 — founder named a specific wedge — the spine of this arc

Every score above is the sum of the signal lines beneath it — the same rubric for all five arcs, public on https://irnarrative.co/methodology. You can reproduce any of these five numbers, not just the winner's.

Interest · Your narrative arcIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)11

Interest · 1

Your first three slides — the ones that decide

Why this matters to you, nowThe first three slides are ~40% of the attention a partner will ever give the deck, and they determine whether slide 4 is read at all. For your arc, these three carry the whole first impression. Get their ORDER right and you have bought yourself the rest of the deck.

Slide 1 — Title / one-line purpose

What do you do, in one sentence a partner can repeat to the IC verbatim?

Slide 2 — Problem

Whose pain is this, exactly, and how acute is it in dollars or hours?

Slide 3 — Wedge / why you win

Why do you win the beachhead, and what durable advantage compounds as you scale?

What you told us → what this section computed

Selected arc	Platform / multi-product
Arc's opening sequence	Title / one-line purpose → Problem → Wedge / why you win

→ This section: your arc puts Title / one-line purpose first, not the fixed template order. The full re-sequenced 11 slides, each with its diligence lens, begin in the next section.

Interest · Your narrative arcIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)12

Interest · 1

Framing the wedge a partner can't unsee

Why this matters to you, nowWhatever your arc, the defensibility question — “what stops an incumbent copying this?” — is the one a partner keeps returning to. Your wedge slide has to answer it with a DURABLE advantage, not a temporary feature lead. Here is the frame that survives that question.

Weak wedge (a partner discounts)	Durable wedge (a partner underwrites)
“Better UX / easier to use”	Proprietary data that compounds with usage
A feature the incumbent can ship in a quarter	Distribution or workflow lock-in that's costly to switch
A 2×2 rigged so you're alone top-right	A structural cost edge you can quantify
An omitted competitor the partner already knows	Named competitors + the honest do-nothing / DIY status quo

Your stated wedge (echoed, not rewritten)

“We own the specialty-specific billing-code layer that generic scribes miss, trained on a proprietary corpus of specialty encounters.” — the report never rewrites this into advice. Test it against the right-hand column: is it durable, or a feature lead? That's the question to answer on the slide.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your stated wedge	We own the specialty-specific billing-code layer that generic scribes miss, trained on a proprietary corpus of specialty encounters.
Diligence lens on this slide	Whether the advantage is durable or a temporary feature lead an incumbent copies in a quarter. This is the defensibility question every partner returns to.

→ This section: your wedge text feeds the arc scoring and is echoed on the wedge slide verbatim — we grade the STRUCTURE against the durability frame, never rewrite your words.

Interest · Your narrative arcIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)13

Interest · 1

From arc to outline

You now have your arc, the score behind it, the runner-up to avoid, and your opening three slides. The next section takes all eleven slides and, for each, gives you the one question it must answer, exactly what to show, the specific thing the partner checks there, the failure that kills it, and notes tuned to your stage and model.

What changes for you

You stop guessing at slide order and start building against a sequence chosen for your raise. Every slide below is a checklist you can hand to your co-founder — “does ours pass this?”

Section 2 — your re-sequenced 11-slide outline →

Interest · Your narrative arcIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)14

Interest · 2

Your re-sequenced 11-slide outline

Why this matters to you, nowThe slide ORDER below is set by your arc — not a fixed template. Load-bearing slides carry the arc; get them wrong and the story collapses regardless of how polished the others are. This is the map; the next pages give each slide its own page with the full diligence lens.

#	Slide	Attention	Role in your arc
1	Title / one-line purpose	—	supporting
2	Problem	~38s	supporting
3	Wedge / why you win	~22s	supporting
4	Product	~21s	supporting
5	Traction	~49s	LOAD-BEARING
6	Business model & unit economics	~30s	LOAD-BEARING
7	Market size	~27s	LOAD-BEARING
8	Go-to-market	—	supporting
9	Why now	~33s	supporting
10	Team	~62s	supporting
11	The ask / use of funds	~52s	supporting

First-read totals ~3m44s across all slides (DocSend, public). Attention seconds travel with the slide TYPE, so they re-order with your arc. Load-bearing = the 2–3 slides that, per your arc, must be right.

What you told us → what this section computed

Selected arc	Platform / multi-product
Load-bearing slides	Traction, Business model & unit economics, Market size

→ This section: your arc set this exact order and these load-bearing slides. A different arc would re-sequence the same eleven slides differently.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)15

Interest · 2 · Slide 1 of 11

Title / one-line purpose

The one question it must answer

What do you do, in one sentence a partner can repeat to the IC verbatim?

What to show on the slide

Company name, one plain-English sentence (what you do, for whom), the raise amount, and how to reach you. No tagline poetry.

What the investor checks here

Whether they can retell it after one read. Partners forward decks; if the forward loses the sentence, the meeting never happens.

The failure that kills it

A clever tagline instead of a sentence. If a stranger can't restate what you do, nothing after slide 1 matters.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your stage / model	Series A · Vertical / applied AI
Position in your arc	slide 1 of 11

→ This section: the stage/model notes above are selected for YOUR Series A Vertical / applied AI raise. A pre-seed consumer deck would see different notes on this same slide.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)16

Interest · 2 · Slide 2 of 11

Problem

The one question it must answer

Whose pain is this, exactly, and how acute is it in dollars or hours?

What to show on the slide

The specific customer, the job-to-be-done, and the quantified cost of the status quo (dollars/hours/error-rate) — shown, not asserted.

What the investor checks here

Whether the pain is a painkiller (someone budgets to fix it now) or a vitamin (nice-to-have). They mentally test 'would a buyer pay to remove this today?'

The failure that kills it

A problem so broad it implies no wedge, or a vitamin no one has a line-item for. Broad ≠ big; broad = unfocused.

First-read attention

~38 seconds — you have about this long to make this slide land.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your stage / model	Series A · Vertical / applied AI
Position in your arc	slide 2 of 11

→ This section: the stage/model notes above are selected for YOUR Series A Vertical / applied AI raise. A pre-seed consumer deck would see different notes on this same slide.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)17

Interest · 2 · Slide 3 of 11

Wedge / why you win

The one question it must answer

Why do you win the beachhead, and what durable advantage compounds as you scale?

What to show on the slide

Your specific entry point (the narrow thing you win outright) and the durable wedge behind it — proprietary data, distribution, workflow lock-in, or a structural cost edge. Name real competitors and the do-nothing/DIY status quo.

What the investor checks here

Whether the advantage is durable or a temporary feature lead an incumbent copies in a quarter. This is the defensibility question every partner returns to.

The failure that kills it

'Better UX' as the whole moat, an omitted competitor the partner already knows, or a 2x2 rigged so you're alone top-right.

First-read attention

~22 seconds — you have about this long to make this slide land.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your stage / model	Series A · Vertical / applied AI
Position in your arc	slide 3 of 11

→ This section: the stage/model notes above are selected for YOUR Series A Vertical / applied AI raise. A pre-seed consumer deck would see different notes on this same slide.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)18

Interest · 2 · Slide 4 of 11

Product

The one question it must answer

Does it work, and can I understand the core flow without you in the room?

What to show on the slide

The single workflow that delivers the value, in 3-4 frames or a sandbox/demo link. What it does, not how it's built.

What the investor checks here

Whether the deck sells the product alone (partners share it internally) and whether the one workflow is real vs a mockup. They look for a live artifact.

The failure that kills it

A feature inventory instead of the one workflow that matters. Screenshots of settings pages, not the money moment.

First-read attention

~21 seconds — you have about this long to make this slide land.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your stage / model	Series A · Vertical / applied AI
Position in your arc	slide 4 of 11

→ This section: the stage/model notes above are selected for YOUR Series A Vertical / applied AI raise. A pre-seed consumer deck would see different notes on this same slide.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)19

Interest · 2 · Slide 5 of 11

Traction — load-bearing

Load-bearing for your arc

This slide carries your Platform / multi-product arc. If any slide must be perfect, it is this one — the arc collapses without it.

The one question it must answer

Is this working, measured by a number I can verify from your systems?

What to show on the slide

The one metric that matters for your model — ARR + growth (SaaS), GMV + take-rate (marketplace), MAU + retention (consumer) — as a monthly time series pulled from systems, not a slide-built chart.

What the investor checks here

Deck-vs-data-room consistency is machine-checked first here. They cross-reference this number against the model and the data room; a mismatch ends diligence.

The failure that kills it

Hand-assembled numbers, vanity metrics, or a chart with no axis. Cumulative-signups curves that hide flat MoM.

At your stage (Series A)

A cohort retention curve is expected; it's the first thing an A partner opens.

First-read attention

~49 seconds — you have about this long to make this slide land.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your stage / model	Series A · Vertical / applied AI
Position in your arc	slide 5 of 11 (load-bearing)

→ This section: the stage/model notes above are selected for YOUR Series A Vertical / applied AI raise. A pre-seed consumer deck would see different notes on this same slide.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)20

Interest · 2 · Slide 6 of 11

Business model & unit economics — load-bearing

Load-bearing for your arc

This slide carries your Platform / multi-product arc. If any slide must be perfect, it is this one — the arc collapses without it.

The one question it must answer

How do you make money, and are the unit economics real at the shown scale?

What to show on the slide

Pricing, ACV, and the unit economics with methodology stated: CAC, payback, gross margin — the formulas, not just the outputs.

What the investor checks here

Whether the economics work at plausible scale and whether you show the formula. They reconstruct your CAC and payback from primitives.

The failure that kills it

A model that only works at implausible scale, or unit economics with no formula — a number with no derivation reads as invented.

For your model (Vertical / applied AI)

Show COGS incl. inference cost and the path up from ~52% gross margin as usage scales; investors expect this line explicitly.

First-read attention

~30 seconds — you have about this long to make this slide land.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your stage / model	Series A · Vertical / applied AI
Position in your arc	slide 6 of 11 (load-bearing)

→ This section: the stage/model notes above are selected for YOUR Series A Vertical / applied AI raise. A pre-seed consumer deck would see different notes on this same slide.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)21

Interest · 2 · Slide 7 of 11

Market size — load-bearing

Load-bearing for your arc

This slide carries your Platform / multi-product arc. If any slide must be perfect, it is this one — the arc collapses without it.

The one question it must answer

How big can this get, and do you actually know who pays and how much?

What to show on the slide

Bottom-up TAM = (number of buyers in your geography) × (annual price they pay) × (attainable share), stated as a formula. SAM and SOM you can defend. A tier-1 analyst number supports, never replaces, the bottom-up math.

What the investor checks here

Whether you built it bottom-up from a real buyer count or pasted a '$40B (Gartner)' top-down figure. They rebuild top-down-only numbers themselves and discount you for it.

The failure that kills it

Top-down only. '1% of a huge market' is the tell that you haven't counted actual buyers.

First-read attention

~27 seconds — you have about this long to make this slide land.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your stage / model	Series A · Vertical / applied AI
Position in your arc	slide 7 of 11 (load-bearing)

→ This section: the stage/model notes above are selected for YOUR Series A Vertical / applied AI raise. A pre-seed consumer deck would see different notes on this same slide.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)22

Interest · 2 · Slide 8 of 11

Go-to-market

The one question it must answer

How do you acquire customers repeatably, and does more capital buy more growth?

What to show on the slide

The one channel that works today, its current efficiency (magic number / CAC payback), and the mechanism by which the round's capital compounds it.

What the investor checks here

Whether you have one working channel or a wish-list. They look for evidence the motion is repeatable before the round scales it.

The failure that kills it

'Content + sales + partnerships + SEO' — a list of channels signals none of them works yet.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your stage / model	Series A · Vertical / applied AI
Position in your arc	slide 8 of 11

→ This section: the stage/model notes above are selected for YOUR Series A Vertical / applied AI raise. A pre-seed consumer deck would see different notes on this same slide.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)23

Interest · 2 · Slide 9 of 11

Why now

The one question it must answer

What changed recently that makes this possible/inevitable today, not 3 years ago?

What to show on the slide

The single enabling shift — a technology, regulation, cost curve, or behavior change — with the date it crossed the threshold.

What the investor checks here

Whether the inflection is real and current. 'Right idea, too early' kills more deals than bad ideas. They price timing risk here.

The failure that kills it

No why-now, or a vague 'the market is growing.' Investors fund inflection points, not good ideas that could have shipped anytime.

First-read attention

~33 seconds — you have about this long to make this slide land.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your stage / model	Series A · Vertical / applied AI
Position in your arc	slide 9 of 11

→ This section: the stage/model notes above are selected for YOUR Series A Vertical / applied AI raise. A pre-seed consumer deck would see different notes on this same slide.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)24

Interest · 2 · Slide 10 of 11

Team

The one question it must answer

Why is THIS team the one that wins THIS problem?

What to show on the slide

Founder-market fit made concrete: the specific lived experience that makes you right for this, key hires already in, and what the round's first hires are.

What the investor checks here

Whether there's a drawn line from your background to why you win this specific problem — not generic impressive logos.

The failure that kills it

Logo soup with no thesis. At pre-seed/seed the team IS the investment; a generic team slide is a generic no.

First-read attention

~62 seconds — you have about this long to make this slide land.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your stage / model	Series A · Vertical / applied AI
Position in your arc	slide 10 of 11

→ This section: the stage/model notes above are selected for YOUR Series A Vertical / applied AI raise. A pre-seed consumer deck would see different notes on this same slide.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)25

Interest · 2 · Slide 11 of 11

The ask / use of funds

The one question it must answer

How much, for what, to reach which specific milestone?

What to show on the slide

Raise amount, the runway it buys (months), the exact milestone it funds (the metrics that unlock the next round), and a use-of-funds split.

What the investor checks here

Whether the ask is milestone-anchored and whether the amount is sized to reach the NEXT round's bar (not just 'more runway'). They sanity-check ask vs. traction here.

The failure that kills it

An ask with no milestone — 'to grow the team' — instead of 'to reach $2M ARR / Series A metrics in 24 months.'

First-read attention

~52 seconds — you have about this long to make this slide land.

What you told us → what this section computed

Your stage / model	Series A · Vertical / applied AI
Position in your arc	slide 11 of 11

→ This section: the stage/model notes above are selected for YOUR Series A Vertical / applied AI raise. A pre-seed consumer deck would see different notes on this same slide.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)26

Interest · 2 · Slide 5 deep-dive

Traction: what good looks like

Why this matters to you, nowBecause this slide is load-bearing for your arc, it earns a second page. Here is the contrast a partner draws in their head between a slide that advances your arc and one that stalls it.

✓ Advances your arc

The one metric that matters for your model — ARR + growth (SaaS), GMV + take-rate (marketplace), MAU + retention (consumer) — as a monthly time series pulled from systems, not a slide-built chart.

✗ Stalls it

Hand-assembled numbers, vanity metrics, or a chart with no axis. Cumulative-signups curves that hide flat MoM.

The diligence lens on this slide: Deck-vs-data-room consistency is machine-checked first here. They cross-reference this number against the model and the data room; a mismatch ends diligence.

Your numbers that land on this slide

🟡 ARR: $2.4M (clears the bar — Clears $1.5M · Strong $3M)

🔴 YoY growth (revenue multiple): 2.7x (below the bar — Clears 3x · Strong 4x)

🔴 Gross margin: 41% (below the bar — Clears 45% · Strong 55%)

🟢 Net dollar retention (NDR): 121% (strong — Clears 100% · Strong 110%)

🔴 Burn multiple: 3.4x (below the bar — Clears ≤2x · Strong ≤1x)

▫️ MoM MRR growth: not provided — the report reasons about the gap below

🟢 Logo retention: 91% (strong — Clears 80% · Strong 90%)

🟡 CAC payback (months): 15mo (clears the bar — Clears ≤18mo · Strong ≤12mo)

What you told us → what this section computed

Slide	Traction (slide 5, load-bearing)
Metrics that surface here	ARR, YoY growth (revenue multiple), Gross margin, Net dollar retention (NDR), Burn multiple, MoM MRR growth, Logo retention, CAC payback (months)

→ This section: the numbers shown here are pulled straight from your intake and scored against your Series A Vertical / applied AI bar — they are the same numbers the metric section grades in full.

Interest · Your 11-slide outlineIR Narrative — sample report (fictional company)27

Interest · 2 · Slide 6 deep-dive

Business model & unit economics: what good looks like

Why this matters to you, nowBecause this slide is load-bearing for your arc, it earns a second page. Here is the contrast a partner draws in their head between a slide that advances your arc and one that stalls it.

✓ Advances your arc

Pricing, ACV, and the unit economics with methodology stated: CAC, payback, gross margin — the formulas, not just the outputs.

✗ Stalls it

A model that only works at implausible scale, or unit economics with no formula — a number with no derivation reads as invented.

The diligence lens on this slide: Whether the economics work at plausible scale and whether you show the formula. They reconstruct your CAC and payback from primitives.