DocSend Mid-Year 2023 Pitch Deck Interest Analysis Indicates Growing Gap in Founder and Investor Activity

Founders seeking capital see limited opportunities as investors take their time – and their summer vacations

SAN FRANCISCO, July 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- DocSend, a secure document sharing platform and Dropbox (NASDAQ: DBX) company, released a new data analysis of its Pitch Deck Interest (PDI) metrics showing lukewarm investor engagement is signaling continued diligence and selectivity in fund deployment. Despite this ongoing pullback, startup founders continued to seek out funding in Q2 2023. The amount of pitch decks sent out by founders in Q2 increased 4.0% year-over-year (YoY), but investors' engagement with those decks decreased both quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), and YoY by roughly the same amount. The widening gap punctuates the struggles founders face this year in their fundraising.

Early Summer Slowdown Keeps Investors in Control

Seasonality, which refers to the typical slowdown in activity during the summer months and other holiday time frames, may already be impacting the early-stage fundraising marketplace.

QoQ analysis shows that founder activity, which serves as a gauge for fundraising market supply, increased 4.0%, while investor activity, a gauge for market demand, decreased 4.6%. Similarly, YoY analysis saw a 4.0% increase in pitch decks sent out, with a 5.7% decrease in pitch decks reviewed by investors.

Year-to-date (YTD) data shows that this trend has been a constant in the first half of 2023. Founder activity decreased less than 1% in 2023, but investor activity decreased by nearly 12%, implying that investors are on the advantageous side of the deal-making table, and have been all year. YTD analysis is still impacted by 2021's end-of-year momentum, accounting for founders' strong start in 2022.

Additionally, while investors are reviewing fewer pitch decks from founders, they are spending less time reviewing them when they do. In Q2, investor time spent reviewing pitch decks decreased 4% QoQ, while decreasing 7.7% YoY and 7.7% YTD. These are all-time lows for investor time spent on deck, showing that founders have less time than ever to grab potential investors' attention.

"All three of DocSend's historical metrics point clearly to an investor-friendly marketplace at this time," said Justin Izzo, data and trends analyst at Dropbox DocSend. "Due to continued macro concerns as well as the usual seasonal lull, fundraising dollars may be challenging for fundraising founders to come across in the near future."

2023 vs. 2021 Analysis Reveals Uphill Battle for Founders

In venture capital, 2021 is a year that has been hailed as one of the most founder-friendly climates in recent history. 2023 is clearly a different picture, but analyzing these two years shows that founders have continued to aggressively pursue fundraising, but in two entirely different climates.

When comparing the percentage change from Q2 2021 to Q2 2023, founder activity increased by 15.9%, while investors slowed their pace by 11.5%. YTD analysis between the two years shows a slightly lower, but similar contrast, with a 13.6% increase and a 7.9% decrease for founders and investors, respectively. The 14.3% and 10.7% decreases in time spent by investors reviewing pitch decks in Q2 and YTD, respectively, further proves that founders looking to raise money in today's market are experiencing a starkly different marketplace than two years ago.

In Q1 of 2023, VC investment in early stage companies totaled $9.6 billion dollars, down significantly from Q1 of 2021's $16.4 billion, according to Crunchbase. Despite discouraging fundraising dollars, investors are still reviewing pitch decks at a relatively steadier pace than capital invested.

"Since 2021, there has been a consistent shift in valuations and some founders and investors aren't seeing eye-to-eye on company valuations," said Winter Mead, founder and Chief Executive Officer at Coolwater Capital. "Private markets usually take a few quarters to catch up to the public markets. The price correction can take a little longer to reach early-stage than late-stage and these dynamics are currently playing out in the market today."

DocSend releases quarterly data analyses via the Pitch Deck Interest metrics to track and predict the investment landscape, informing founders of volatility or stability in the venture capital environment.

Key Leading Indicators of Fundraising Activity

There are three core metrics unique to DocSend for tracking investors' hunger for deals and founders' quest for capital.

• Founder links created - the average number of pitch deck links each founder is creating via DocSend. This serves as a proxy for the supply of startups seeking funding. A "link" refers to the unique URL a founder creates using DocSend to share their pitch deck with investors. When the average number of links increases, it means that founders are sending their decks out to more investors.
• Investor deck interactions - the average number of investor interactions for each pitch deck link. This serves as a proxy for demand for investments. The higher the interaction metric, the more often decks are viewed, shared, and revisited by potential investors.
• Investor time spent - the average time spent per pitch deck by potential investors. This metric offers a look at how long VCs are spending reviewing deals. More time spent per deck could mean investors are more closely scrutinizing deals.

About DocSend
DocSend enables companies to share business-critical documents with ease and get real-time actionable feedback. With DocSend's security and control, startup founders, investors, executives, and business development professionals can build business partnerships that have a lasting impact. Over 30,000 customers of all sizes use DocSend today. Learn more at docsend.com.

About Dropbox
Dropbox is one place to keep life organized and keep work moving. With more than 700 million registered users across 180 countries, we're on a mission to design a more enlightened way of working. Dropbox is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. For more information on our mission and products, visit dropbox.com.

Media Contact:
Carol Boyko
104 West for DocSend
[email protected]

SOURCE DocSend