Silicon Valley is fueled by digital ingenuity, but the founders of tech companies have been known to walk into offices on Sand Hill Road with printed pitch decks. Outsiders are baffled by this contradiction, but venture capitalists know something fundamental about human psychology and decision making.

Physical materials are processed by the brain differently than screens, and when you’re going after millions in funding, any edge helps.

What happens during a typical VC pitch that makes printed materials valuable?

Partner meetings at firms like Sequoia or Andreessen Horowitz are sessions during which dozens of companies are reviewed each week by four to six decision makers. A founder has 20 minutes to present, then partners talk without the entrepreneur. 

Printed decks remain in the room during such deliberations, occupying the surface of a conference table as if to serve as a physical reminder, whereas digital presentations vanish when laptops are snapped closed.

Even smart founders rely on more than their two minutes in the spotlight. They create printed leave-behinds, distributed at the evening receptions to ensure their company remains top-of-mind when investors read back through their notes after the event.

With services as HelloPrint, startups are able to easily generate professional booklets on the cheap and quick, essentially turning pitch decks into bound presentations that potential investors can pull from a mass of business cards and one-pagers.

How do Series A and B fundraising dynamics differ from seed rounds?

The first seed rounds are the beginning for you to meet with angel investors who seen your products, and this could change everything. You now have access to institutional investors who want to know about your company’s financial projections, market analysis, and team background.

In these meetings, you will meet analysts who were not present at the original pitch, associates whose job it is to write investment memos, and partners who then have to compare your opportunity with those of their entire portfolio.

Printed matter is for selling you after you leave. If a junior partner is pitching your startup in partnership meetings on Monday, it helps them to make your case properly, if you have well-structured materials.

Why do some of the most digital-forward companies still use physical pitch materials?

It’s really not shocking when a SaaS company that offers cloud based solutions hands out printed booklets. But there’s a behavioral economics explanation for this. Investors are bombarded by 100s of pitch decks every month over email. The vast majority are skimmed for 90 seconds and then deleted. 

Physical documents produce what psychologists call the “endowment effect,” which is that possessing a physical object makes people value it more. An investor with your printed deck has physically invested more attention than someone reading a PDF.

Senior partners at most big funds are 50+ managers who made their careers before smartphones existed. And many still like to review potential investments outside of a screen, jotting notes in the margin or during their commute, or reading and reviewing after work at night.

If you respect the choices made by your audience, then it requires that they be met on their own terms, not yours. That is why tech companies still print booklets for investor meetings even when all they build is digital.

What specific elements make a pitch deck work and how can HelloPrint help?

Laying out packets of pages across a conference table allows investors to compare year-to-year growth, unit economics and cash flow at the same time. Linear time In a digital presentation, progression through the slides is linear in time, which makes it difficult to recognise patterns.

Consistency of brand is more important than founders think it is. Your pitch deck shows your company’s level of detail and professionalism. Cheap printing with crooked pages or weak color reproduction betrays the message you’re trying to communicate about the quality of your product. Professional print helps ensure that your materials are a reflection of the caliber you’re promising investors. 

Through HelloPrint, startups can choose from saddle-stitched booklets for a casual meeting to perfect-bound presentations for the more official board-pitch moments, allowing you to tailor your materials to each round of fundraising.

Does the format of investor materials actually influence funding outcomes?

Correlation is not causation, but venture capital is based on pattern recognition and nuances. Founders who invest in quality presentations are signaling their understanding of a professional level and also attention to detail.

The answer is probably multi-factorial. Print shows commitment and seriousness about the relationship. They make it easy for investment opportunities to be reviewed internally by your investors. They form a material distinguisher in the pile of generic PDF attachments.

Above all, they demonstrate that you know money-raising is a game of human psychology, not just spreadsheet analysis. The most successful founders think of fundraising as relationship building, where physical materials play into their strategy to build that connection.