The problem is no longer making a deck.
It’s making a case that stands out to investors who receive 100+ AI-generated decks a week.
Funded companies don’t always have better ideas.
They have stories that ignite investors’ interest.
When you’re raising for something the market doesn’t have a name for yet, how you tell the story matters as much as the idea.
Petrina Robins
I’m Petrina, an investor pitch architect. I turn ambitious, complex ideas into narratives investors can understand, trust, and fund.
Your idea might be brilliant. Getting a stranger to want in — in eight minutes — is a different problem. And that’s how I help.
I’ve built my career around one question: why do people lean in to some ideas and tune out others? I first came to it as a presentation coach, technical courseware designer, and instructor. The study of instructional design taught me how people best absorb complex information. Coaching taught me what makes them care. Pitching needs both.
That’s what I do for founders now. Take an idea only a few people understand and make it one investors can’t stop thinking about.
Based in Oakland, California
I often get called in after founders have already been at this a while — sometimes a deck tested on 40+ investors with no traction, sometimes co-founders who’ve each built their own version of the pitch and are quietly at odds about whose story is right.
Part of my work is often sitting with each of you, hearing what you think is essential, and weaving one narrative that honors both. So you walk into the next meeting as a unified team.
Most of my work is under NDA. Founders bring me in mid-raise, when things are sensitive. They trust me to keep their secrets. Case studies are available on request.
My work is almost entirely confidential, so I don’t have a large public portfolio. What I do have are case studies and a track record of helping smart founders and skilled engineers tell their story well enough to get the resources they need to build it.
Early on, I coached medical and pharmaceutical executives in Japan headed to Western conferences. Brilliant researchers wanted to open their talks by apologizing for their dull findings — the expected courtesy at home. A Western audience would likely have understood that as a warning and tuned out world-class findings. It was the first time I understood how essential framing is in deciding an outcome.
If that’s useful, the best next step is a conversation.
Most decks read like a book.
Mine move like a film: wide shots for the stakes, close-ups for the proof, and every cut timed to keep investors leaning in.
Zoom, don’t scroll
AI can draft the first 80%. I build the 20% that gets you funded.
When every founder has the same tools, slides become polished but interchangeable. Investors don’t need another plausible deck — they need to feel passionate about this team, this timing, this market.
A honed narrative that draws investors to lean in rather than asking them to follow along
Design that carries your argument and distinguishes your deck with stand-out visuals that bring your words and numbers to life
Creating the actual deck. Or decks.
Plural, because sending and presenting are two different jobs. The send deck has to survive without you. You need the presenting deck to support but not compete with you. The last thing you want is someone reading a list of bullets instead of focusing on your every word.
We may use AI initially to move fast — drafting, structuring, iterating. What you’re getting in addition to that is everything AI doesn’t do: the judgment that turns a draft into a case investors feel in their bones and believe.
Determine timing requirements
(in person or online meeting)
Assess current state including any existing materials
If founder/presenter has an existing pitch, present it or share a recording
If multiple founders have different approaches, each presents and explains perspective
Determine preferred process - range being I’m working independently with meetings to evaluate progress and direction, or working within a team
Build and hone the narrative
Find the through-line, draft the arc and key pillars, the version that’s electrifying
Locate the real tension and make it palpable — why this, why now, why not two years ago
Align to audience, if investor, which type: VC, angel, strategic
Decide what to cut, most decks fail from too much, not too little
Compress complexity so a generalist partner gets it in 20 seconds without dumbing it down
Review and revise with founders until it holds up under hostile questions
This is where the deck comes to life, becoming more of an experience than a document. Investors have seen a thousand templates, they won’t have seen this.
Translate narrative into slide structure and visual design — one person doing both, so nothing gets lost in the handoff
Build something genuinely beautiful, because a deck that looks extraordinary is more likely to make people believe the organization behind it is too
Design the data so the point is unmissable and compelling, not just accurate
Two decks, one story. The send deck carries the full argument on its own, since you won’t be in the room. The present deck is the same slides, stripped back — because when you’re talking, the deck’s job is to support you, not compete with you.
Polish pass — consistency, accuracy, flow, and the small details that read as “this founder is to be taken seriously”
Deliver everything you need: one-pager, appendix, talk track
Optional: Presentation coaching
