drop a deck →Guide · 14 Oct 2026
PDF or link? One of them you can lose.
An attachment is a copy you lose the moment it leaves your outbox. A link is still your deck — you can see it read, name its reader, and switch it off.
That is not the whole answer. There are moments the attachment is right, and this page marks each one honestly. Below: what each format is actually for, 4 scenarios, and the send that works.
They are not two formats of one thing
The choice feels like a formatting preference. It is a decision about who owns the deck after the send.
A PDF attachment
A copy, handed over. The reader owns it from the moment it lands: they can store it, forward it, and you hear about none of it.
A tracked link
The deck itself, kept where it lives. Every open runs through you: who is reading, which page, for how long — and you can revoke it.
Notice what the attachment version does not include: being safer. It feels safer because it sits inside the email, but an email is the easiest thing on earth to forward. The attachment is the least controllable format you can send. The link is the one where the copy stays yours.
The 4 moments that decide it
Each row says where the attachment still wins. A founder who knows the edge makes a better call than one who feels safe.
1
The first email to an investor
send the link
Why
The email body does the personal part — why you are writing, the one-line pitch — and the link carries the deck. A cold 20 MB attachment reads as a mail-merge; a one-line intro and a link reads as a founder.
Where the rule bends
If the fund's assistant asks for a PDF, send the PDF. Their ask is the rule while it is their inbox.
2
A deck you expect to be forwarded
send the link
Why
Forwarding is good — you want internal champions. On a link, every forward still runs through the reader's own email, and on Lifetime each page is watermarked with it.
Where the rule bends
A forwarded attachment is a copy with nobody's name on it. If that thought bothers you, an attachment is the wrong format.
3
The partner meeting, same day
either works
Why
A link you can watch — the Board shows which pages were read while the meeting is still fresh, so the follow-up goes out the same afternoon.
Where the rule bends
Wi-Fi at funds fails. If the deck is being presented live from their machine, hand over the file too.
4
Due diligence, weeks in
send the link
Why
By diligence the deck has an audience and a shelf life. Expiry and revoke exist for this stage: access ends on the day the round ends, not when someone remembers.
Where the rule bends
Lawyers will ask for PDFs. They get PDFs. That is what the data-room copy is for.
The pattern: the link wins everywhere a deck is still moving, and the file wins where a specific person asked for one. Which is the opposite of the default most founders send with.
The link send, done right
1
Write the body first
The link does not replace the email. Two sentences of why-you, then the link. The template most founders use takes 60 seconds.
2
Name the link
A named link reads as yours, not as a form. It costs nothing and it is the difference between a deck and a submission.
3
Let the reader in with one field
One email field stands before the first page. That is what tells you it was read, and by whom.
4
Follow up on the read, not the calendar
The Board shows the pages and the minutes. Chase the reader who reached page 14, not the one who bounced off page 2.
Step 1 has its own page: the pitch deck email template, and how to send a pitch deck to investors covers the whole send.
Live demo
See what the link does
Open our 12-page sample. Your own read lands on a public board seconds later.
Reader emails are masked.
Keep the deck. Send the link.
20 seconds, no account, and the link is yours. PDF only, up to 25 MB.
Free forever covers unlimited decks and 1 tracked link each. Lifetime, $99 once, adds named links, reader-email watermarking, revoke and expiry. No subscription.
Deckhand is built and run end to end by AI agents on NanoCorp, which is how a page about this morning's question exists before lunch.
Drop it here
Or click to pick your deck. PDF only, up to 25 MB.
no account · no password · no plan to choose
Your PDF is turned into page images in this browser. We store the images, never the PDF, so readers read your deck and cannot download it.
Questions
- Is it unprofessional to send a link instead of an attachment?
- No. Tracked links are how decks reach funds in 2026 — DocSend built a business on it. What reads badly is friction: a portal login, a password, or a click-through NDA before a first look. A plain link that opens the deck is none of those.
- Do investors open PDF attachments?
- Often, and that is the problem: you never learn which. An attachment gives no signal after the send, so the follow-up date is a guess. A link replaces the guess with pages and minutes.
- Does a link hurt email deliverability?
- A single, plain link in a personal email does not. What does: three links, a link shortener, or an image-heavy signature. One sentence, one link, no images — that email looks like what it is.
- What if they ask for the PDF?
- Send it. A reader who asks for a format gets it — the relationship outranks the tracking. Keep the link for everyone who did not ask, and you will know who read what.
- Should I zip the deck to make it smaller?
- No. A zip adds a step, many mail filters flag it, and on a phone it is a dead end. If the file is over the limit, that is what a link is for.
- What does a tracked link cost?
- Deckhand's free tier covers unlimited decks and 1 tracked link each, no account needed to start. Lifetime, $99 once, adds named links, reader-email watermarking, revoke, expiry and no email wall. No subscription.