Do you need a pitch deck designer?
Often, no. A founder can skip a pitch deck designer when someone in-house designs decks well and enjoys it, when the founder has the taste and the time to do it themselves, or when the budget or the return is not there yet. A designer earns the fee when the deck has to carry a round, a demo day or a board meeting and nobody on the team has the time or the eye to make it carry the story.
Short answer
No.
I design pitch decks for a living, and I’ll still tell you: plenty of founders don’t need me. You don’t need one if:
- You have an available designer in-house who likes doing decks.
- You’re good at design, or you have great visual and storytelling taste.
- You enjoy making decks and have the time to do it. (Weirdo. Welcome.)
- You don’t think there’s an ROI.
- You don’t have the funds to do it.
- You’re OK with AI doing the creative direction for you, no matter the results.
- Your story still changes every week. Design it when it stops moving.
- Your round is friends and family, and they’d fund you off a napkin.
- Your investors already said yes and just need something for the data room.
- You need one slide fixed by tomorrow morning.
- Your co-founder already made the deck, and you’d rather keep the peace.
- Comic Sans has never let you down.
No budget yet
If the money isn’t there yet
Build it yourself and keep it plain. One idea per slide, real numbers, nothing decorative. Come back when the raise or the deal makes it worth it. The prices are on the pricing page, so you can decide before we ever talk.
To make that easier, I made a free pitch deck template for Google Slides and Figma, in light and dark. Every slide title is a suggestion, and a note on each slide says what goes there. Get the free template.
Stuck on the data slides? How to show traction and financials in a pitch deck covers which charts fit seed, Series A and Series B, and how to lay out the financials.
When you probably do
When it’s worth it
- The deck is carrying a round, a demo day or a board meeting, and it has to work when you’re not in the room.
- Nobody on the team has the time, and your time is worth more than formatting slides.
- You’ve rebuilt the same deck three times and it still looks like three different companies.
- The story is right but the slides aren’t carrying it. That’s a Deck.
- The story isn’t there yet, and you need someone to build it with you. That’s a Story.
Before you hire anyone
Five questions to ask any designer
Whoever you talk to, ask these. My answers are next to them.
- Who actually designs it? Me. The person on the intro call is the person designing the slides.
- Do I get editable files, in my tool? Yes. Figma Slides, Google Slides, Keynote or PowerPoint, and it stays editable after handover (more in the tools guide).
- How are revisions handled? They aren’t counted. The scope is fixed on the call, and the deck keeps moving until it’s right.
- Will you sign an NDA? Yes. Most of my work is under one.
- Can I see work and talk to a past client? There are redacted sample slides on the homepage, and references are available on the call.
Questions
Is Overslide an agency or a one-person studio?
Overslide is a presentation design agency run by one designer, Max Marele. It is called an agency because that is the category the work sits in. Max designs every project himself, and the client works directly with him throughout. The one-person model is what gives a client direct access to the person doing the work.
What does a presentation designer actually change about a deck?
It depends on the tier. On a Deck, the hierarchy, the layout, the charts and the typography change, with the narrative left as it is. On a Story, the argument changes too: confusing metrics and bullet points become a clear narrative with focused numbers and a visual hierarchy that walks an investor through the growth story; generic problem lists become a personal story an investor can picture happening at their own portfolio companies; big market-size numbers without context become an impact-first narrative that explains why this moment matters and how the company wins. Whether a deck needs a designer at all is its own question: do you need a pitch deck designer?
Do you work on the narrative, or only the design?
Overslide works on both, and the tier decides which. Deck is design: the narrative and the brand stay as they are and the slides are rebuilt around them. Story is for a deck where something has to be built before it can be designed, the narrative or the visual direction; that is worked out with the client first, and then the deck is designed end to end. Every slide has to serve the story and support a business goal, and which of the two a project should be is settled on the 30-minute call, before anything is scoped.
Can I see examples of Overslide's work?
Yes, Overslide publishes examples of its work. The site shows 28 sample slides taken from real client projects, with client names and sensitive figures redacted, and Overslide’s own sales deck is downloadable as a PDF, a complete deck that can be shown end to end because it is the studio’s own. Overslide keeps client work confidential: client decks carry unreleased strategy and financials, and none is published in full.
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