How to Submit a Pitch Deck: A Checklist for the October 28 Competition

To submit a pitch deck for JR Secure Design’s live online pitch deck competition on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at 7:00 PM ET, export your deck as a PDF, upload it through the form on our Startups page by 11:59 PM ET on Sunday, October 25, 2026, then book a 30-minute call with our team. You do not need a perfect deck to enter. You need a clear story, a credible plan to build it, and a deck that answers investors’ questions before they ask them.

Below: who should enter, the exact submission steps, a 12-slide pitch deck checklist, the AI security slide investors now ask about early, and a one-week prep plan.

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What is the October 28 pitch deck competition?

It is a live, online pitch deck competition hosted by JR Secure Design for startup founders who want a sharper narrative, clearer technical credibility, and honest feedback on investor readiness. It builds on the free monthly pitch deck review we already run on our Startups page, and it is free to enter. The winner gets James DeCrescenzo as a free advisor to their company.

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Why pitch at a live competition instead of just emailing your deck?

Most founders send decks into inboxes and never hear back. A live competition changes three things:

	Emailing your deck	Pitching at the live competition
Deadline	No fixed date	You get a deadline. A fixed date forces the hard edits you have been putting off: the clearer problem slide, the honest traction slide, the real ask.
Audience	One cold email at a time	You get seen. Your deck lands in front of people who sit in CTO, CMO, CSO, CFO / Chief Fundraising Officer, CAO, and COO seats every day, all at once, instead of one cold email at a time.
Feedback	Most founders never hear back	You get pressure-tested. Live questions show you, fast, where your story is weak. Better to find that out on October 28 than in a partner meeting.

The good news: getting ready is mostly editing, not starting over.

You do not need a perfect deck to enter. You need a clear story, a credible plan to build it, and a deck that answers investors’ questions before they ask them.

JR Secure Design

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Step 1: Is your startup a fit for the competition?

Is my startup too early to enter?

Probably not. The competition is built for pre-seed and seed teams, solo founders, and both technical and non-technical builders who need a polished story for fundraising. If you can explain the problem, who has it, what you are building, and what you need next, you have enough for a first deck. Judges look for clarity and judgment, not a finished company.

Fit checklist

• You are building a startup and are raising, refining your narrative, or testing whether your deck lands.
• You can name the customer: one clear group of people or businesses with a painful, specific problem.
• You have something to show: a prototype, a pilot, early users, letters of intent, or a clear build plan.
• You know your ask: how much you are raising (or what help you need) and what it gets you to.
• You can make the dates: deck in by 11:59 PM ET on Sunday, October 25, 2026, and pitch online on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at 7:00 PM ET.

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Step 2: How do you submit a pitch deck?

Submitting takes about ten minutes once your deck is ready:

1. Export your deck as a PDF. The upload form on our Startups page accepts PDF files only.
2. Name the file clearly: CompanyName-PitchDeck-Oct2026.pdf.
3. Put your contact details on the last slide. The upload form asks only for the file, so your name, email, phone, and website need to be in the deck itself.
4. Upload it on the Startups page using the “Upload Pitch Deck (PDF)” box. It is the same form founders use for our free monthly pitch deck review.
5. Book a 30-minute call at https://calendly.com/jdecrescenzojr/30min with our team.
6. Submit by 11:59 PM ET on Sunday, October 25, 2026, so your deck is in before the competition on Wednesday, October 28.

What happens after I submit?

After you submit, we’ll follow up by email.

What will the advisors look for?

• Story: does the deck tell one clear narrative from problem to ask?
• Product feasibility: can this actually be built, at this cost, by this team?
• Investor readiness: how will investors read the room, and what will they ask first?

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Step 3: What should your pitch deck include?

A strong startup pitch deck tells one story in about 10 to 15 slides: a real problem, a credible solution, proof that people want it, and a team that can build it. Every slide should earn its place.

Pitch deck checklist (12 slides)

1. Problem: who hurts, how badly, and how they solve it today.
2. Solution: what you built, in one sentence, then one screenshot or demo image.
3. Why now: what changed in the market or technology that makes this possible today.
4. Market: who buys and how many of them there are. Show your math, not just a big number.
5. Product: how it works, kept short. Save the deep detail for Q&A or an appendix.
6. Business model: who pays, how much, and how often.
7. Traction: users, revenue, pilots, waitlist, partnerships. Real numbers only.
8. Competition: the honest landscape, and why customers will pick you.
9. Go-to-market: how you will reach your first 100 or 1,000 customers.
10. Team: why you are the people to build this.
11. Financials and the ask: what you are raising, what it buys, and the milestones it reaches.
12. Contact slide: name, email, phone, website.

How many slides should a pitch deck have?

About 10 to 15. Cover the 12 slides above, and move extra detail (deep product specs, full financial models, security details) into an appendix you can pull up during Q&A.

If your deck needs a technical credibility check, such as whether the stack, architecture, and costs hold up, that is the work a fractional CTO does. See What Is a Fractional CTO? When Your Startup Needs One.

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Step 4: How should a startup show AI security and governance in its pitch deck?

Add one short slide, or an appendix slide, that answers three questions: where your customer data and models live, who can access them, and what rules your team follows when using AI tools. Investors and enterprise buyers ask where your data and models live. A clear answer up front makes due diligence and security reviews easier to pass.

AI security slide checklist

• Data location: name the cloud or hosting provider and region where customer data lives.
• AI models and vendors: list the AI services you use and whether customer data is used to train them. Check each vendor’s current data-use terms.
• Access controls: multi-factor sign-in, least-privilege access, and how you remove access when someone leaves.
• AI use policy: a written AI acceptable use policy for your team, even a one-page one.
• Framework alignment: say your practices are aligned to a recognized framework such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework or ISO/IEC 42001. Do not claim a formal assessment you do not hold.
• Private AI option: if you handle sensitive data, explain how you keep prompts and documents inside your own environment. See our Private LLM for Business page.

For the full picture of access controls and AI-powered fraud, see AI Security for Small Business.

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A one-week pitch deck prep plan

If you only do five things before the deck deadline of 11:59 PM ET on Sunday, October 25, 2026:

1. Write your one-sentence pitch: “We help [customer] solve [problem] by [solution].” Put it on slide 1.
2. Cut to 10 to 15 slides. Move detail to an appendix.
3. Check every number on your market, traction, and financial slides, and be ready to show the source.
4. Add the AI security slide from Step 4 if you use AI or handle customer data.
5. Export to PDF, upload it on the Startups page, and book your 30-minute call.

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Frequently asked questions

We can’t wait to see what you’re building. Upload your deck, mark Wednesday, October 28 at 7 PM ET (online) on your calendar, and bring the story only you can tell.