Ada Ventures unveils Deck Genius to give founders VC-level feedback powered by AI

Pre-Seed investment startup Ada Ventures has launched an AI-powered pitch deck review tool for founders that allows them to access VC-grade feedback before they share their materials with prospective investors. Developed by Ada Ventures Principal and Head of Product Michael Tefula, Deck Genius is a free platform that gives founders VC-quality feedback on their pitch deck in a fraction of the time it may take an investor to respond.

The announcement comes just 12 months on from the launch of the firm’s inaugural AI review tool, AdaGPT —  see our earlier interview — which has been used by over 200 founders per month since launch.  

Building on this success, Deck Genius will give founding teams an even deeper analysis of their pitch content, including slide-by-slide holistic analysis and actionable recommendations for improvement.

To use the platform, founders simply upload a PDF copy of their pitch deck. Within minutes, they’ll receive a comprehensive analysis of the fundamental business elements of their proposal, as well as insights on the design and story-telling qualities of the pitch deck. Once complete, founders have the option to delete their pitch deck from the system or choose to have their analysis securely stored, allowing them to revisit the feedback in the future.

By helping teams stress-test their proposals before they formally seek funding, Deck Genius will provide founders with the guidance and confidence they need to have the best chance of success when they eventually present their ideas to investors.

Ada’s goal is for Deck Genius to analyse 500 pitch decks per month, more than double the amount processed by AdaGPT. Once their proposals have been analysed and refined, teams that wish to engage further with Ada Ventures will also have the option of reaching out directly to the investment team, via the firm’s existing portal.

Michael Tefula, Principal and Head of Product at Ada Ventures, commented on last year’s AdaGPT experiment:

“To our surprise, hundreds of founders engaged with the product shortly after launch, and we were quite taken aback by the uptake. 

But while the appetite was encouraging, AdaGPT was too Ada-focussed, and we were keen to build something that could help all founders, regardless of whether or not they ultimately wanted to approach us for investment.”

Deck Genius is the product of a team that has reviewed thousands of pitch decks a year, with input from other VCs and experienced operators from top firms across the ecosystem.

According to Tefula, “their feedback helped us refine the quality of the AI analysis, and we expect this to improve further as we hand the tool over to the wider community.”

He stresses that while Ada Ventures will never outsource its decision-making to AI,  “Deck Genius is an effective medium through which we can engage and support prospective founders from the beginning.”

“The tool has been through a rigorous early testing process, including being vetted for bias, and we’re excited to now be sharing it with the wider community.

We’ve already offered a term sheet to one startup that approached after running their deck through AdaGPT, and we hope our work on Deck Genius will help to surface and support even more high-potential founders going forward.”

The product has now launched in beta, and the firm is actively encouraging feedback from entrepreneurs that will help improve the tool for future users.