Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. The Free Deck Scorer at /tools/deck-analyzer lets you upload your pitch deck and get your VaultScore™ in under 30 seconds — no account, no credit card required.

You get your overall score out of 100 and all 8 dimension scores, so you can see exactly where your deck is strong and where it is weak. You do not get written feedback, red flags, or slide-by-slide detail — those are in the full analysis.

To get the full report, create a free account. Free accounts include unlimited analyses — run your deck as many times as you like. You always see your VaultScore™ across all 8 criteria, section-by-section written feedback, red flags, and your top 2 priority actions.

Slide-by-slide feedback, VaultRisk™, VaultMoat™, VaultOps™, VaultRank™, and the investor leaderboard are Pro features.

A pitch deck analyzer is a tool that reviews your startup pitch deck and gives you structured, objective feedback on how investors are likely to evaluate it. The AI pitch deck analyzer here scores your deck across 8 investor criteria — problem, solution, market, team, traction, financials, business model, and ask — calibrated to your specific funding stage (Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B+). Unlike generic AI feedback, it produces a VaultScore™ out of 100 with a section-by-section breakdown, red flags, and a prioritised list of improvements.

Most pitch deck feedback tools give you a narrative summary. Here you get a score — every deck is run through a structured rubric calibrated to your funding stage, so a Seed deck is held to different standards than a Series A deck. The result is a VaultScore™ out of 100, a section-by-section breakdown, slide-by-slide feedback, and red flags phrased the way an investor would actually flag them in a real meeting.

Beyond the analysis, the platform connects you directly with approved investors: opt in to the founder leaderboard, let investors browse your ranked deck, and receive intro requests — without cold-pitching anyone. You go from "I need feedback on my deck" to "investors are finding me" in one workflow.

There are two audiences.

Founders: early-stage founders preparing to raise from angels or VCs who want objective, investor-grade feedback before outreach, and who want to appear on the investor leaderboard to attract inbound interest.

Investors: angel investors and early-stage fund managers who want curated, pre-scored deal flow — filtered by stage, sector, and VaultScore™ — without reviewing hundreds of unsolicited decks.

ChatGPT gives you feedback optimised to sound helpful — it will tell you your deck is strong, highlight what works, and suggest some improvements. That feels useful. But it is not how investors evaluate decks.

Your deck gets scored against the criteria investors actually use to make funding decisions — clarity of the problem, market sizing logic, traction credibility, team fit, financial ask, and narrative structure. Every deck is scored on the same rubric, against stage-specific benchmarks, so a Seed deck is not held to the same standard as a Series A.

The result is a VaultScore™ out of 100, a section-by-section breakdown, red flags an investor would flag in a real meeting, and a prioritised action list — not a narrative essay that changes every time you run it.

And ChatGPT cannot connect you to real investors. A high VaultScore™ can — it is your entry point into an active investor feed where approved investors are actively sourcing deal flow.

A rubric-based scoring system is used, calibrated to your selected funding stage (Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B+) and sector. Each stage has different weighted criteria — for example, team and problem weigh more at Pre-seed, while traction and unit economics dominate at Series A. When you select a sector (e.g. SaaS, Biotech, Consumer), scoring and feedback are further calibrated to what investors in that sector prioritize. Your deck is scored across 8 sections; the final VaultScore™ is out of 100.

Pro reports include four additional scores — VaultMoat™, VaultRisk™, and VaultOps™ are available immediately with no score gate. Investor Feed (Lens 5) unlocks when your deck clears all four lens thresholds. That lens structure is separate from the funding stage you select for calibration. See "What are the five investor lenses on my report?" below.

Pro reports are structured around five investor lenses — each one mapping to a question investors ask when they evaluate a deal. This is separate from the funding stage you select for rubric calibration (Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, etc.).

Lens 1 — Pitch Quality: VaultScore™ and slide-by-slide feedback. Always free.

Lens 2 — Investor Defensibility: VaultMoat™. Available immediately on Pro — no score gate.

Lens 3 — Risk Exposure: VaultRisk™. Available immediately on Pro — no score gate.

Lens 4 — Execution Readiness: VaultOps™. Available immediately on Pro — no score gate.

Lens 5 — Investor Feed: VaultRank™ and investor network opt-in. Unlocks when your deck has cleared all four lens thresholds — meaning your scores are strong enough for investors to engage.

VaultScore™ bands (0–39 / 40–54 / 55–69 / 70–84 / 85–100) describe deck quality and are separate from lens access. "Raise Ready" (75+) and "Investor Ready" (85+) are score-quality bands referenced in dashboard messaging — they are not lens gates.

Yes. When you run an analysis, you select your sector (e.g. SaaS / Enterprise Software, AI / Machine Learning, HealthTech, Consumer). Sector-specific calibration is applied so that scoring and red flags reflect what investors in your sector actually look for — for example, NRR and land-and-expand in SaaS, clinical milestones and IP in Biotech, retention and LTV/CAC in Consumer. The VaultRank™ tab also shows comparable raises and benchmarks for your stage and sector. If you choose "Other" or a sector without a dedicated calibration, scoring uses stage-only criteria.

A structured rubric is used, grounded in how investors actually evaluate decks at each stage — not a generic AI summary. That said, analysis quality depends on the content you provide. Decks with detailed slide content, specific metrics, and labelled slides get more precise feedback. Sparse decks (under 150 words) will trigger a low confidence warning. The analysis is a decision-support tool, not a guarantee of investor interest.

A stage mismatch warning means the AI detected that your deck's actual content — traction, revenue, team maturity, product stage — does not match the funding stage you selected.

There are two directions a mismatch can go:

Upward mismatch (more common): you selected an earlier stage (e.g. Pre-seed) but your deck reads as a later stage (e.g. Seed). This is treated as a serious signal. When detected, your VaultScore™ is capped at 80 with a prominent banner naming the detected stage and a "Re-analyze as [Stage]" CTA. A 95 scored against the wrong rubric is not a credible 95 — the cap reflects that and gives you an accurate score to work from.

Downward mismatch: you selected a later stage but your deck reads as an earlier one — your scoring expectations are higher than your current evidence supports.

In both cases, re-running the analysis with the correct stage selected is always the right first step. Investors evaluate decks against stage-specific benchmarks, so a mismatch is one of the most common reasons decks get passed on in the first meeting.

PDF and PowerPoint files (.pptx, .ppt) up to 20MB are supported. PDF gives the most reliable text extraction and fastest processing. PowerPoint files are automatically converted to PDF via a cloud conversion service before analysis — this usually takes a few seconds and happens in the background. If your PowerPoint has unusual formatting or embedded media that does not convert cleanly, exporting as PDF directly from PowerPoint or Keynote will give the best results.

Yes. Pitch decks written in English, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, Korean, and Arabic are supported. When you upload your deck, select the language it is written in from the deck language selector — this tells the AI to score your deck with the right market and language context.

The analysis output (scores, written feedback, and report) is always delivered in English, which is the standard language for international investor communications. This is intentional: founders raising capital from English-speaking investors benefit most from feedback written in the same language their investors think in.

Clicking the invitation link logs you in automatically (or creates a free account if you don't have one yet) and takes you to a dedicated page explaining who sent the invitation and what they're asking.

If the investor attached your pitch deck, it will be pre-loaded in the analyzer — you just click "Run the analysis" and the deck is already there. If no deck was attached, you upload your own.

Once the analysis is complete, you'll see a prompt on your report to share the results with the investor. Sharing is one click and notifies the investor by email with a link to your report. You are always in control — sharing is optional and your report belongs to you.

The Fundability Gap is a callout on your report Summary tab that names the single most important thing between your current deck and a term sheet from the right investor. It is not a category to improve — it is the specific missing piece of evidence, milestone, or narrative element that, if added, would most materially change an investor's decision.

Examples: a verified free-to-Pro conversion rate, a signed letter of intent from a named pilot customer, or a stated churn assumption behind an LTV/CAC claim. The gap is derived directly from the claim analysis in your report, so it changes with each deck version as you close the gaps.

Every report includes three questions on the Summary tab under "Prepare for your investor meeting." These are derived from the specific gaps and unverified claims identified in your deck — not generic questions that apply to every startup at your stage.

They represent the questions a real investor would ask in the first 15 minutes of a meeting based on what is missing or asserted-without-evidence in your specific deck. Use them to prepare your answers before outreach. If you cannot answer them confidently today, that is the gap to close first.

VaultRisk™, VaultMoat™, and VaultOps™ each include additional targeted questions specific to the risks and gaps found in those analyses.

Yes. Many founders use it on early drafts to identify gaps before they start investor outreach. You can run a new analysis anytime on an updated version of your deck — each re-upload adds a data point to your scoring trend chart in your dashboard.

Yes. Your pitch deck content is treated as strictly confidential. We do not share, sell, or disclose your content to any third party. There are two sub-processors who handle your content to deliver the service:

1. Anthropic — our AI provider processes your deck content to generate your analysis. They do not use your content to train their models under our API agreement.

2. CloudConvert — if you upload a PowerPoint file, it is converted to PDF via CloudConvert before analysis. The file is processed transiently and not stored by CloudConvert beyond the conversion.

Your original deck file is stored in private, encrypted cloud storage and is never made public. Your report is private by default. There are two ways it can become visible to others:

• Share link: if you enable the share link on your report, anyone with the link can view the full report. You can disable this at any time.

• Investor platform access: approved investors can only view your report if you have explicitly opted into the leaderboard or enabled investor contact. If neither is turned on, investors cannot access your report.

You are always in control. You can request deletion of your data at any time by emailing support@pitchvault.ai.

Your founder dashboard — we call it VaultRank™ — is the central hub for tracking your fundraising progress. It shows your current VaultScore™ and where it sits relative to all other founders on the platform (your percentile rank), a visual scoring trend chart across every analysis you've run, your single #1 priority to improve before your next investor conversation, how many approved investors have viewed your deck, any intro requests you've received, and platform-wide stats like what the average score looks like at your stage.

Your Pro report is organized around five investor lenses — VaultScore™, VaultMoat™, VaultRisk™, VaultOps™, and Investor Feed. Lenses 2–4 are available immediately on Pro. Lens 5 (Investor Feed) shows your eligibility status across all four lens thresholds. See "What are the five investor lenses on my report?" for the full breakdown.

Yes. Free accounts include unlimited analyses, so you can run your deck as many times as you want and your dashboard always reflects your latest and best score. You get your VaultRank™ dashboard with your latest score, your rank vs the platform, your #1 priority gap, a score trend chart, and your investor lens progress tracker. Pro unlocks the deeper outputs — slide-by-slide feedback, VaultRisk™, VaultMoat™, VaultOps™ — but the core dashboard and unlimited runs are free.

The score trend chart plots your VaultScore™ across every deck version you've uploaded, in chronological order. Each re-upload adds a new point. The chart helps you see whether the changes you're making are moving the score in the right direction — and how fast. Founders who apply their top priority actions typically see a 20–35 point improvement within 2–3 iterations.

When an approved investor on PitchVault browses the leaderboard and views your deck entry, that view is counted in your dashboard. You'll see the total number of investor views your deck has received. This is a signal that your deck is attracting attention — and a nudge to make sure your score and contact opt-in are ready before that attention converts to an intro request.

The founder leaderboard is a ranked list of opted-in founders, sorted by VaultScore™. Approved investors on PitchVault browse it to find deals that match their thesis — filtering by stage, sector, and score. Every entry shows the founder's VaultScore™, stage, sector, red flag count, and investor archetype match. It's the core of how investors discover founders on the platform.

The Leaderboard toggle is available at any score. Find it on your dashboard history (latest analysis row) and flip it on — your entry appears immediately, no page reload required.

At Stage 5 (85+ Investor Ready), the same toggle also appears in the dedicated Stage 5 section of your report alongside the full investor feed controls.

Your deck content is never shared on the leaderboard. Investors see your score, stage, sector, and red flag summary — not your slides. You can turn it off at any time.

An intro request is how investors express interest in connecting with you through PitchVault. When an approved investor sees your deck on the leaderboard and wants to learn more, they can send you an intro request — optionally with a short message.

You'll receive an email notification with the investor's name and fund, and their message if they included one. You decide whether to respond — there is no obligation and no pressure. If you'd rather not receive intro requests at all, you can disable the "Allow investors to contact me" toggle in your report settings.

Investor contact (allowing approved investors to send you intro requests) becomes available once your deck has cleared all four lens thresholds and Lens 5 (Investor Feed) unlocks. The thresholds are stage-calibrated — your report and dashboard show exactly where each lens stands and what score is needed. Once eligible, a contact toggle appears on your dashboard and report. Flip it on and matched investors can reach out directly.

Your settings carry forward automatically on every new analysis run — you set it once and it sticks.

No. Investors on the leaderboard see your VaultScore™, stage, sector, red flag count, and archetype match — not your slides. An intro request opens a direct line of communication between you and the investor. It's up to you whether to share your deck with them after that.

No minimum score is required for the leaderboard. The list is sorted by VaultScore™, so higher scores get more attention — but any score can opt in.

Two separate controls:

Leaderboard — any score. Toggle on from your dashboard history at any time.

Investor contact (intro requests) — requires Lens 5 (Investor Feed) to unlock, which happens when your deck clears all four stage-calibrated lens thresholds. Your report shows exactly which lens is blocking and what score is needed.

Once contact is unlocked it stays unlocked permanently — even if a later re-run scores lower.

The Investor Network is a curated matching layer that connects founders with approved investors who are actively sourcing deal flow.

Your Pro report includes five investor lenses (see "What are the five investor lenses on my report?"). Lens 5 (Investor Feed) unlocks when your deck has cleared all four lens thresholds — that is when VaultRank™ and investor feed settings fully activate. Deal flow itself is not gated to a single score: Raise Ready (75+ VaultScore™) is the milestone we emphasize for productive attention, but approved investors set their own minimum score filter and lists are ranked by VaultScore™, so higher scores get more visibility.

Investors see your full score profile — VaultScore™, VaultRisk™, VaultMoat™, and VaultOps™ — before deciding whether to reach out.

For investors, it is not a cold inbound inbox. Every founder in the feed has been evaluated against the same rubric, so the signal-to-noise ratio stays high. For founders, it means qualified investors can find you without cold outreach — but you still need to opt in and score competitively within your stage.

For the full investor experience we recommend (digest highlights, strongest positioning):

1. Your VaultScore™ meets Raise Ready (75+) — the exact number is on your report and dashboard.

2. You have opted into the investor feed on your report. Enable "Show my deck on the investor leaderboard" in the feed settings card.

3. You have enabled investor contact — "Allow investors to contact me" — so investors can send intro requests.

Note: Opt-in is not locked to any minimum score. Lower scores can appear in ranked deal flow but rank below higher-scoring founders. The 85+ band is the top VaultScore™ tier (Investor Ready) and is separate from whether you are listed.

You can turn feed access or contact off at any time.

A Company Page is your investor-facing profile on PitchVault — a dedicated public page at /company/[your-slug] that goes beyond the pitch deck score.

It captures your founding thesis, origin story, team credentials, traction highlights, raise details, and the unfair advantages you bring to the business. Investors who view your report or leaderboard entry can click through to your Company Page to learn more before deciding to reach out.

Raise activity (for example preparing, actively raising, or round closed) and an optional target close month are edited in the Raise section of your Company Page editor — that drives what investors see in Deal Flow filters and on cards, separate from the round size text taken from your deck.

Without a Company Page, investors who view your score have nowhere to go — they close the tab and move on. With one, you give them everything they need to decide "I want to talk to this founder" in under two minutes.

Company Pages are available on Pro. Set yours up from the ◈ tab in your founder dashboard. Pages are private until you publish them.

Raise Ready (75+ VaultScore™) marks when a deck crosses from "promising but needs work" into "ready for serious investor attention with real upside." Below that bar, meetings often end in pass-with-feedback — the deck still raises too many unanswered questions. Above it, the conversation can move to the business, not just the slides.

Note: Raise Ready is a VaultScore™ quality band, not a lens gate. On Pro, all four lens scores (VaultMoat™, VaultRisk™, VaultOps™) are available immediately regardless of your VaultScore™. Investor Feed (Lens 5) unlocks when all four stage-calibrated lens thresholds are cleared — which for most stages requires a strong VaultScore™ alongside strong sub-scores.

The top Investor Ready band (85+) is intentionally rare; 75+ is the milestone we use for deal-flow positioning and founder highlights. Investors can still set their own minimum VaultScore™ filter — higher scores always help ranking.

Investors on the platform set filters when they apply: funding stage, sector focus, cheque size, and investor type (Angel, Pre-seed fund, Institutional seed, Growth). These filters are applied to the deal flow feed automatically — investors only see founders whose stage and sector match their mandate.

Within the feed, founders are ranked by VaultScore™. Investors can also filter by minimum VaultScore™, which is why scoring as high as possible matters even after you pass Raise Ready.

There is no algorithmic black box — founders who score well, opt in, and have a published Company Page get the most visibility.

No. Through the investor network feed and leaderboard, investors see your score profile (VaultScore™, VaultRisk™ band, VaultMoat™ score, VaultOps™ score), your stage, sector, red flag summary, and your Company Page if you have published one. Your slides are never shared automatically.

If you enable a share link on your report, investors who have the link can view the full report including all scoring tabs. But the link must come from you — investors on the platform cannot access your slides without it.

Approved investors get access to a dedicated dashboard and the founder leaderboard. Every deck on the platform is pre-scored with a VaultScore™, ranked red flags, and an investor archetype classification before you see it. You browse the leaderboard filtered by stage, sector, and score — and when you find a founder worth pursuing, you send an intro request directly through the platform. The founder is notified by email and decides whether to respond.

No cold outreach. No unscreened decks. Signal-first.

Investor access is by application. Submit your investor profile — stage focus, thesis, and cheque size — at pitchvault.ai/how-it-works-for-investors. Every applicant is reviewed manually by our team. We respond within 48 hours.

Once approved, you get full platform access: browse the deal flow, view founder decks, VaultScore™, VaultRisk™, VaultMoat™, VaultOps™, and all deep analysis on every deck, and send intro requests directly to founders.

Accreditation is a separate optional step. Some founders choose to restrict their deal flow visibility to verified accredited investors only. Submitting your accreditation certificate unlocks those exclusive deals. It does not affect access to standard deal flow or deep analysis.

Platform approval and accreditation are two separate steps.

Platform approval is about identity and intent — every approved investor is verified as a legitimate, active participant in early-stage deal flow, not a spectator, aggregator, or directory browser. Approved investors get full access: all deep analysis tabs (VaultRisk™, VaultMoat™, VaultOps™), deal flow browsing, and founder contact — immediately on approval.

Accreditation is about financial qualification and unlocks exclusive deal flow. Some founders choose to restrict their deal to verified accredited investors only. Once approved, investors can upload their accreditation certificate on their investor profile. The certificate is reviewed against established qualified investor frameworks — including Parallel Markets (a US accreditation portal used across 506c investment platforms) and Japan's FSA-registered qualified investor system. Accredited investors gain access to those founder-restricted deals.

The legal responsibility for investment decisions rests with the investor and the founder. This screening process means every investor you encounter through the platform is a qualified, active participant in early-stage deal flow — not a passive observer or database scraper.

Accreditation is valid for the period set by the PitchVault team when your certificate is reviewed — typically tied to the validity of the underlying document you submitted.

You will receive an email reminder 30 days before your accreditation expires and again 7 days before expiry, both with a direct link to upload a renewal certificate. If your certificate expires without a renewal, your accredited status is automatically removed and founder-exclusive deals will be locked again until a new certificate is reviewed and approved.

You can upload a fresh certificate at any time from the accreditation section of your investor profile — the upload module is always visible regardless of your current accreditation status.

Investor access is $249/year, billed only when your application is approved — no charge during the 48-hour review period. Once approved, you get full platform access: curated deal flow filtered by stage, sector, and VaultScore™, full deep analysis on every deck (VaultScore™, VaultRisk™, VaultMoat™, VaultOps™, and VaultValuation™), and the ability to send intro requests directly to founders.

Accreditation is a separate optional step. Some founders choose to restrict their deal to verified accredited investors only. Submitting your accreditation certificate unlocks those founder-exclusive deals — it does not affect access to deal flow or deep analysis, which are available to all approved investors.

Yes. Approved investors can send invitations directly from the Invitations section in their investor dashboard.

You enter the founder's email, add an optional personal note, and optionally attach their pitch deck. The founder receives a personalized email explaining that you've reviewed their deck and are asking them to run it through PitchVault before your next conversation.

Clicking the link in the email automatically logs the founder in (or creates a free account) and — if you attached their deck — pre-loads it in the analyzer. The founder runs the analysis and decides whether to share the results with you. When they share, you receive an email notification with a direct link to their report.

Founder ownership is preserved throughout: the report belongs to the founder, and they control what gets shared. You cannot access the report unless they choose to share it.

Investor Articles is the name investors see in the nav for our content hub (founders see "Founder Articles"). It contains curated articles on pitch deck red flags to watch for, seed-stage valuation benchmarks, and early-stage due diligence. It's designed to help investors make better decisions — not generic startup content repackaged for founders.

The VaultMoat™ is a proprietary score (0–100) that measures how defensible your business model is against well-funded competitors — higher is better on the 0–100 scale. It is separate from your VaultScore™, which scores pitch deck quality. The VaultMoat™ scores the underlying business — specifically, whether you have a structural moat that makes it hard for a $50M+ competitor to replicate your position.

It scores six dimensions: moat type, moat strength, evidence of compounding, competitive stress test, time to replicate, and strategic clarity. The score is generated automatically whenever you run an analysis on Pro.

0–35 (No moat): Investors pass before deep diligence. The product may be good, but there is no structural reason customers cannot switch to a well-funded competitor.

36–55 (Unproven): Investors push hard in the room. If the founder cannot explain the structural mechanism clearly, the deal stalls or gets repriced.

56–74 (Forming): Term sheet possible, but investors add milestones tied to moat evidence. Valuation gets argued down without proof of compounding.

75–89 (Strong): Conviction investment territory. Investors ask whether the gap is widening each quarter — a yes gets strong terms.

90–100 (Exceptional): Preemptive term sheets. Questions shift from "do you have a moat" to "what could break it in 10 years."

A moat is a structural competitive advantage that makes it hard — expensive, slow, or technically difficult — for a competitor to reach parity with you, even with significant capital and engineering resources.

Seven moat types are evaluated:

Data Flywheel: Your product improves as more data is collected, and competitors cannot access that data. The advantage compounds with scale.

Network Effects: The product becomes more valuable as more users join. Each new user increases value for all existing users — Metcalfe's Law applied to business.

Switching Costs: Customers face high friction (financial, operational, or workflow) to leave for a competitor. ERP systems, deeply integrated tools, and data-heavy platforms create this.

Unique Distribution: You have an exclusive, proprietary, or structurally privileged channel to customers that competitors cannot easily replicate — regulatory relationships, exclusive partnerships, or owned channels.

Regulatory Barrier: Licences, accreditations, FDA approvals, or government relationships create a structural barrier to entry that capital alone cannot overcome quickly.

Economies of Scale: Your unit economics improve structurally as you grow, making it harder for smaller competitors to match your cost structure.

Brand Trust: Deep customer trust — typically in high-stakes domains like healthcare, legal, or finance — that takes years to build and functions as a real switching cost.

"Moat strength" reflects whether the moat exists in evidence or only in the founder's narrative.

Strong: The moat is structurally present and evidenced in the deck — metrics, customer behaviour, or market position confirm it is working.

Emerging: The moat mechanism is plausible and the foundation is being built, but there is limited evidence it is creating durable advantage yet.

Weak: The moat mechanism is generic or undifferentiated. Competitors could replicate it with 6–12 months of focused engineering.

Asserted Only: The founder claims a moat exists but provides no structural mechanism or evidence to support the claim. This is the most common pattern — and the most dangerous one in investor meetings, because investors will stress-test it and the founder will not have answers.

Moat compounding describes the direction your competitive advantage is moving over time.

Accreting: The moat strengthens as the business grows. A data flywheel with more users, a network effect with more nodes, or switching costs that deepen with integration — these get harder to attack over time. This is what investors mean when they ask "does the gap widen?"

Static: The moat is real but does not meaningfully strengthen with scale. A regulatory licence, for example, does not compound — it blocks entry but does not widen the advantage over time.

Eroding: The moat is under pressure — from technology shifts, open-source alternatives, platform policy changes, or data portability mandates. An eroding moat often kills a deal at the term sheet stage.

The most common investor stress-test questions by score range:

0–35: "What happens when a well-funded competitor replicates this in 12 months?" and "Why can't your customers just switch?"

36–55: "What specifically prevents a $50M entrant from reaching feature parity?" and "Walk me through the structural mechanism — not the roadmap, the mechanism that exists today."

56–74: "Show me the evidence the moat is forming — what metric proves the gap is widening?" and "What is the single thing that could undo this advantage in 3 years?"

75–89: "Is the gap widening each quarter? By how much?" and "What could a regulatory change or technology shift do to this position?"

90–100: "What breaks this in 10 years — not what threatens it, what actually breaks it?" and "Who is the most dangerous potential entrant and why have they not moved?"

Your VaultMoat™ report includes the specific investor stress-test questions most likely to come up in your next meeting, based on your actual moat type and evidence.

The score is computed across six dimensions, each evaluated against your specific deck content — not generic criteria:

1. Moat type (0–20 pts): How structurally durable is the moat category identified? 2. Moat strength (0–20 pts): Is the moat evidenced or just asserted? 3. Evidence of compounding (0–20 pts): Does the moat get stronger over time? 4. Competitive stress test (0–15 pts): How well does the deck address "why can't a big competitor replicate this?" 5. Time to replicate (0–15 pts): How long would it take a $50M+ entrant to reach competitive parity? 6. Strategic clarity (0–10 pts): Does the founder demonstrate they understand the moat mechanism and how to widen it?

The six dimension scores sum to the final VaultMoat™. The score is generated alongside your VaultScore™ on every Pro analysis.

VaultRisk™ is a 0–100 downside exposure score that measures the risk investors see in your startup — separate from VaultScore™, which measures the quality of your pitch deck. Where VaultScore™ answers "is this a compelling opportunity?", VaultRisk™ answers "what could make this investment fail?" On this scale, a higher VaultRisk™ number means more exposure (worse); lower is better — the opposite direction from VaultScore™, VaultMoat™, and VaultOps™.

A high VaultScore™ with a HIGH or CRITICAL VaultRisk™ band is a common pattern — and a dangerous one: the deck looks good but the underlying business has material exposure that sophisticated investors will surface in diligence. Knowing both scores before you pitch means you walk in prepared.

VaultRisk™ scores your startup across 12 stage-weighted risk dimensions (names match the live rubric):

1. Market Timing: Is the market ready now, or is this a timing bet? 2. Market Size: Is the addressable market large enough to return a fund? 3. Competitive Moat: What prevents a well-funded competitor from replicating this in 18 months? 4. Team Execution: Can this team execute the plan they have presented? 5. Business Model: Is the revenue model clear, credible, and scalable? 6. Traction Validation: Is there evidence the market wants this at the price being asked? 7. Capital Efficiency: How much capital is required to reach the next fundable milestone? 8. Product–Market Fit: Is there strong evidence users find the product indispensable? 9. Concentration: Is the business dangerously dependent on one customer, channel, or partner? 10. Regulatory & Legal: Are there regulatory or IP risks that could impair the business? 11. Go-to-Market: Is the GTM motion scalable and credible for the stage? 12. Exit Risk (Series B+ only): Is there a credible path to liquidity for investors — M&A, IPO, or secondary? This dimension has 0% weight before Series B+.

Stage-calibration means the same risk matters differently at different points in a company's life.

At Pre-seed, Team Execution carries 20% of the score — because with no traction, the team is the only real signal. Traction Validation carries just 5%.

At Series B+, Traction Validation carries 22% — because by then, the market has had time to speak. Team Execution drops to 6%. Go-to-Market is 15% because investors need a proven, repeatable sales motion. Exit Risk carries 4% (0% at earlier stages).

VaultRisk™ applies the correct weights for your selected stage automatically, so a Seed deck is not penalised for lacking Series A-level traction evidence.

LOW (0–39): Strong evidence across all material dimensions for your stage. Investors see a well-controlled risk profile — risk is not a gating concern. Investor attention shifts to upside: market size, timing, and team.

MEDIUM (40–59): Normal risk for your stage. Investors see nothing surprising — the focus becomes which dimension to de-risk first with capital. Risk discussion becomes a capital allocation conversation, not a veto decision.

HIGH (60–79): Material exposure in multiple dimensions. Investors can still get to yes — but they spend diligence confirming the risks are understood and managed. Term sheets may include protective clauses and tranched funding.

CRITICAL (80–100): One or more dimensions carry existential risk. Investors will surface these in the first meeting — often as the reason they pass.

Certain risk patterns are so severe they trigger an Instant Pass Signal — a flag that means most investors will decline the deal before completing diligence. Common triggers include: founder team with zero relevant domain experience, no discernible revenue model, regulatory prohibition in the primary market, active IP litigation, or product that has not launched after 18+ months of development.

If your VaultRisk™ report shows an Instant Pass Signal triggered, address those issues before pitching. A great deck cannot overcome a fundamental structural issue that investors will catch in the first meeting.

If your deck does not provide enough information to score a dimension, VaultRisk™ flags it as INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE rather than scoring it at a mid-range default. Missing information is treated as a risk signal in itself — investors facing an unanswerable question about market size, regulatory exposure, or team capability will price that uncertainty into their terms or pass entirely.

For each dimension flagged as insufficient, VaultRisk™ provides the specific evidence your deck should include to allow scoring.

VaultRisk™ is generated automatically on every Pro analysis alongside your VaultScore™. No additional upload is needed — the same deck content is analysed for risk signals across all 12 dimensions (Exit Risk is weighted from Series B+ onward). The result is cached: returning to a report shows the same risk score instantly, with no re-run required. For analyses generated before VaultRisk™ was introduced, you can run a fresh analysis to get your score.

VaultOps™ is a 0–100 operational execution score (higher is better) that answers the question investors ask three weeks into diligence: "Can this team actually execute the plan they're pitching?"

Where VaultScore™ measures the quality of your pitch and VaultRisk™ measures downside exposure (where higher is worse), VaultOps™ measures whether the operational infrastructure is in place to deploy capital effectively. A compelling pitch with an operational gap often gets killed in diligence — VaultOps™ surfaces those gaps before the first meeting.

VaultOps™ scores your startup across 7 dimensions, each weighted by funding stage using a Theory of Constraints framework:

1. Primary Constraint Clarity: Can you name the single operational factor limiting your throughput right now — not a list, the one constraint? 2. Scaling Stress Readiness: If demand triples in 90 days, what fails first and by what mechanism? 3. Dependency Concentration: Are critical external dependencies named, understood, and managed? 4. Key-Person Risk: Is irreplaceable knowledge concentrated in one person with no transfer plan? 5. Capital-to-Throughput: Does the capital ask map to specific operational output — or is it a headcount budget without a throughput model? 6. Management Depth: Is there a management layer, or are founders still in every decision? 7. Operational Repeatability: Are critical processes documented in a form a new hire could execute independently?

Each dimension returns a specific finding based on your deck — not a generic observation that could apply to any company.

VaultOps™ returns one of four verdicts:

Execution-Ready (high score): Operations are not a gating concern. Investor attention moves to upside — market size, moat strength, and timing. Diligence is faster because the execution story holds under questioning.

Building Foundations: Core operational elements are present but gaps exist in one or more areas. Investors engage on substance but probe the specific gap — GTM missing, incomplete management layer, or key-person concentration.

Pre-Operational: Significant gaps in constraint awareness, scaling readiness, or management depth make the current raise premature relative to operational readiness. Most institutional investors will wait for specific milestones.

Execution-Risk (low score): Material execution risk across multiple dimensions. Investors who engage will price the risk heavily or require milestone-gated tranches. The most effective use of this score is identifying which gaps to close before the next raise.

VaultRisk™ measures downside exposure — the likelihood that external or structural factors cause the company to fail. It covers market timing, competitive threats, regulatory risk, capital efficiency, and investor-facing signals.

VaultOps™ measures internal execution capacity — whether the team and operational infrastructure can actually deploy capital and execute the plan. A company can have LOW VaultRisk™ (good market, strong moat, clean cap table) and still fail because the founders are doing everything themselves with no management layer and an unidentified binding constraint.

Both scores appear on every Pro report. The combination gives investors — and you — the full picture.

VaultOps™ is generated automatically on every Pro analysis alongside VaultScore™. No extra upload or step is required — it reads the same deck content. The result is generated on demand when you open the VaultOps™ tab on your report, so it never slows down your core score. Once generated, it is cached — every return visit is instant.

VaultValuation™ is a focused view that compares the raise in your deck to a model-derived post-money range — using standard venture approaches such as Berkus, Scorecard, VC Method, and revenue multiples, calibrated to your stage. You get a bear / base / bull style range, an ask-vs-model verdict, confidence, flags, and section-level feedback tied to how you presented the round.

It is separate from VaultScore™ (which scores deck quality). VaultValuation™ answers a different question: "Does the ask line up with how this round would typically be valued on paper?" The feature is in beta and may evolve.

Investor overview (what it is for and how access works): https://www.pitchvault.ai/vaultvaluation

VaultValuation™ is an investor-side stress test: all approved investors see a VaultValuation™ card on a founder's report (when visibility allows) and can open a dedicated page for that analysis, including from deal flow. Founders do not see this link on their own reports — the model is meant to check the raise against typical valuation methods, not for founders to tune the ask.

All approved investors can run VaultValuation™ on a founder's report when that report is accessible (share link on, or leaderboard / contact opt-in, depending on your relationship to the deck). PitchVault admins can also run it from the admin valuation lab. Founders cannot run VaultValuation™ on their own decks. If you are an investor and do not see the link, the founder's visibility settings may not include this view yet.

Yes. Each successful run you execute is saved in a list on the VaultValuation™ page. You can select two runs to compare side by side — useful after the deck or raise context changes and you want to see how the model range and verdict shifted.

PitchVault codes (partner, VIP, launch offers, etc.) are redeemed inside your PitchVault account — not on the Stripe payment page.

1. While signed in, go to Settings → Redeem a coupon, or enter the code in the coupon field on your report upgrade card. 2. If you also need a paid subscription after your code grant, use Get Pro from Pricing — the checkout page cannot apply PitchVault codes.

Free accounts get unlimited analyses. Every run shows your VaultScore™ across all 8 criteria, section-by-section written feedback, red flags, and your top 2 priority actions.

Pro unlocks all four deeper lenses immediately — no score gate to cross first: slide-by-slide feedback, VaultRisk™ (12 stage-calibrated risk dimensions), VaultMoat™ (defensibility assessment), VaultOps™ (operational execution score), VaultRank™ (percentile ranking and comparable raises), permanent shareable links, PDF export, full scoring history, and the founder leaderboard. Lens 5 (Investor Feed) unlocks automatically when your deck clears all four stage-calibrated lens thresholds.

If you want to try before creating an account at all, the Free Deck Scorer at /tools/deck-analyzer gives you your VaultScore™ and all 8 dimension scores in under 30 seconds — no signup required.

Investor Feed is a feature included in the Pro plan. It is Lens 5 on your report and activates when your deck has cleared all four stage-calibrated lens thresholds (Pitch Quality, Investor Defensibility, Risk Exposure, and Execution Readiness). Once eligible and opted in, your profile can appear in curated investor browsing — filtered by stage, sector, and VaultScore™ — and you receive notifications when matched investors engage. Raise Ready (75+ VaultScore™) is the deal-flow milestone we emphasize for ranked positioning; the Investor Ready band (85+) is the top quality tier.

Yes. You can cancel at any time from your account dashboard. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period — you keep full access until then. We also offer a 14-day money-back guarantee for first-time Pro subscribers. Contact support@pitchvault.ai to request a refund within 14 days of your first payment.

Pro subscribers can request a full refund within 14 days of their first payment by emailing support@pitchvault.ai. After the 14-day window, cancellations take effect at the end of the billing period with no further charges.

If your report doesn't deliver value, email support@pitchvault.ai within 7 days for a resolution.