I simultaneously think $40k for a great deck is a steal, and that if you need someone else to make it for you then you’re probably screwed.
The key insight is that pitching a company, or anything really, is primarily a challenge of storytelling. Once I fully understood this, after months of banging my head against a wall, it was like a lightbulb coming on. Yes, making your pitch coherent and look aesthetically appealing can be very helpful. However, what really persuades people is a good story. If you can get the audience excited about what you’re doing, they’ll start to see through your eyes and the hard work is done. From my limited experience, only one of the creators of the Shiny New Thing (company, product, movement, etc.) can figure out the right way to tell that story.
Also published on Medium.