Fund II pitch deck: what changes from Fund I

From promise to proof

Founders make the same shift between seed and Series A, and funds make it between Fund I and Fund II. What changes in the deck:

• The Fund I portfolio becomes the centrepiece, shown in full.
• Early marks are shown and clearly labelled as unrealised, with dates.
• Follow-on decisions show how you manage reserves, not just how you pick.
• A lessons slide shows what you changed, framed as maturity.
• Fund I LPs coming back are evidence in their own right.

Slide by slide

The table mirrors the one in seed vs Series A, and that’s deliberate: it’s the same move from selling a promise to showing proof.

Show progress, label the marks

Most Fund II raises happen before Fund I has returned much cash, so the deck shows a young portfolio. Progress is the evidence: what each company has done since you invested. A timeline per company works well, with each round raised since entry marked along it, follow-ons you took shown in the accent, and the latest mark labelled as unrealised with its date and source.

Early marks belong in the deck, shown honestly. Showing your track record in an LP deck covers the chart conventions: cash and paper styled differently, every company included, every number dated.

Decisions, not just allocations

Fund I’s reserves policy was a promise. Fund II can show how it worked out: which companies you followed on into, which you didn’t, and the reasoning for each. A simple table does it, one row per follow-on decision with the reason in a few words. Declined follow-ons are as telling as the ones you took, because they show the discipline the policy promised.

Believed, happened, changed

A lessons slide reads as maturity when it’s specific and short. The format I’d use is three columns:

• What we believed. The assumption, stated as you held it at the time.
• What happened. The facts, without blame.
• What we changed. The concrete change in Fund II: process, cheque size, sector, reserves.

Two or three lessons on one slide. Each one ends in a change, which is what turns a confession into evidence of a manager who adjusts.

The LPs who know you best

An LP who has watched you run Fund I and is coming back is one of the strongest signals a Fund II deck can carry. Show it as a share of Fund I LPs who have committed or indicated interest, described in words the LPs have agreed to, with no names unless they’ve said yes. If an anchor LP is committed, that goes near the front.

Consistency, or a change explained

LPs back a strategy, so an unexplained change reads as drift. If Fund II keeps the strategy, the deck says so and shows Fund I as proof it works. If it changes, a larger fund, a new stage, a wider sector, the deck shows the change on its own slide with the reason, and ties the reason to something Fund I taught you. A change that comes out of the lessons slide reads as judgement. A change that appears without one reads as a different fund.

A checklist

Refresh the Fund I deck when the strategy is the same and the old structure still holds the new evidence. Rebuild it when any of these is true:

• The track record has outgrown the slide it was given.
• The deck still leads with the team, and the portfolio is now the stronger argument.
• The strategy has changed and the old thesis slide no longer describes it.
• The charts don’t match the ones in your quarterly LP updates.
• It was built in a tool your team can’t update.

Either way, keep one visual system across the Fund I deck, the LP updates, the AGM deck and Fund II. LPs have been reading your charts for years by now; the Fund II deck should look like the fund they already know.

Same fund, new centre

I’ve designed LP fundraising decks, and a Fund II deck is usually a reordering more than a restyling. The team slide gets shorter, the portfolio becomes a system of charts rather than one slide, and the lessons slide earns a place it never had in Fund I. I keep the visual language the LPs already know from the updates, so the evidence is the only thing that looks new. The numbers stay exactly as the fund reports them.

If you’re still on the first one, the Fund I guide covers raising without fund returns.

What do LPs look for in a Fund II pitch deck?

LPs look for proof in a Fund II pitch deck: the full Fund I portfolio with marks dated and labelled as unrealised, how the manager handled follow-ons and reserves, what they learned and changed, whether the strategy stayed consistent, and which Fund I LPs are coming back. The thesis that Fund I promised should now be visible in what the fund actually did.

Why is it harder to raise a Fund II than a Fund I?

A Fund II is often harder to raise because it usually happens before Fund I has returned much cash, so the manager has to show a young portfolio rather than results, and the first fund’s friends-and-network LPs may not re-up. The deck has to make early progress, follow-on discipline and LP retention easy to read, because those stand in for returns.

How do you show early marks in a Fund II deck?

Early marks in a Fund II deck should be shown with an “as of” date, the source of each mark, and a visual style that separates them from cash returned. A timeline per company, with the rounds raised since entry, shows progress without leaning on the marks alone. Every company goes in, including the ones that have been written down.

Should a Fund II deck include lessons from Fund I?

A Fund II deck is stronger with a short lessons slide: what the team believed, what happened, and what they changed for Fund II. Two or three specific lessons, each ending in a concrete change, read as a manager who adjusts. Kept vague or defensive, the same slide reads as an apology, so the change is what makes it work.

Should I rebuild my Fund I deck for Fund II?

A Fund I deck should be rebuilt for Fund II when the portfolio has become the stronger argument than the team, when the strategy has changed, or when its charts no longer match the fund’s LP updates. It can be refreshed when the strategy and structure still hold. Either way, the Fund II deck keeps the visual system LPs already know.

How do you show LP re-ups in a fund deck?

LP re-ups in a fund deck are shown as the share of Fund I LPs who have committed or indicated interest in Fund II, in wording the LPs have agreed to, and with names only where they have given permission. A committed anchor LP goes near the front of the deck, because LPs who watched Fund I closely are among the strongest evidence a manager has.

When the proof is there and the deck still sells the promise

That’s the work. LP decks for venture funds covers how Overslide works with funds, and the quarterly LP updates are where the Fund II story gets built, one quarter at a time. All the guides are on the guides page.