Pitch Deck
Pitch Deck Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Getting Started
Everyone draws a hand of 8 Pitch cards and takes a stack of 8 Funding tiles from one of the game's Venture Capital funds. The VCs all have the same investment amounts ($1-8 billion), so people are free to pick one based on which they like--or dislike?--the most. Everyone shuffles their Funding tiles and places them in a stack face down in front of themselves, so you can't see the dollar amounts. Pick someone to be the first Lead Investor. We suggest the person least familiar with the game.
Playing Pitch Deck
Making Pitches
The Lead Investor draws 3 Company cards and reads each name out loud. Then they pick the company they want to hear pitches for, e.g. LinkedIn. Discard the other two cards. Everyone else chooses a Pitch card from their hand to pair with that company, e.g. LinkedIn for "Babies" or LinkedIn for "The profoundly lazy."
Starting with the person to the Lead Investor's left, going clockwise, everyone gives a quick elevator pitch for their brilliantly awful business idea. It can be as short as a single word, or as long as a minute or two. The Lead Investor does not make a pitch. After everyone has made their pitch, the Lead Investor decides whose business everyone will fund, placing the Company and Pitch card pairing in the middle of the table. Their choice can be based on anything, but it's usually given to whoever gave the best or funniest or weirdest pitch.
Investing
Everyone draws the top two Funding tiles from their stack and secretly chooses one of the amounts to invest in the winning business. Then they place the chosen tiles face down on top of the card pairing, so that the amount is secret. Everyone reshuffles the unchosen tile into their stack. The person whose pitch won does not invest this round. Everyone except the Lead Investor draws a replacement Pitch card, so you always have 8 cards in your hand to begin a turn. The player to the left of the current Lead Investor becomes the new Lead Investor.
Scoring
After everyone has been Lead Investor once, reveal and add up the investment amounts, going one company at a time (for drama). Each round, there are two winners: the person who pitched the company with the highest total funding is the winning founder, and the person who invested the most in that company is the winning investor. Either play again or actually go start that company.
Finicky Rules
Pivoting
Every card in Pitch Deck is hilarious and good. But if someone incorrectly doesn't like the cards they have in their hand, once per game they can discard their hand and draw 8 new cards.
Co-Founders
In the unlikely event you have enough friends to play with 9+ people, we recommend playing in 2-person(ish) teams. Everyone has their own hand, but you pitch together and collectively decide which cards/funding amounts to use.
Pitch Off
It is statistically possible that a game will end in a tie for one or both winners. When this happens, just like in real business, it immediately triggers a Pitch Off. Draw a Company card from the top of the deck and give each tied player a single Pitch card to play--but they can't look at it until immediately before they start their pitch. After they finish, everyone can either argue or vote on who won. Also: the drama is heightened if everyone chants "Pitch. Off. Pitch. Off. Pitch. Off." to begin.