Over the past six years, I've created hundreds of pitch decks and helped clients raise over $60 million collectively. More than building decks, though, I love finding the tools that make the process faster and better — especially the free ones.
A few years ago, we already published a roundup of presentation tools on a popular tech platform. It got over 100,000 views because it turned out founders and marketers everywhere are Googling the same thing: "what tools can make my slides not look terrible without hiring a designer?"
This is the updated version — reorganized for founders building pitch decks specifically, and refreshed for tools that are actually worth using in 2026.
Content and Structure Tools
Every deck starts with content. These tools help you organize your thinking before you open any slide software.
Coggle (coggle.it)
A collaborative mind-mapping tool. We use it during the brainstorming phase — when we're figuring out the deck's structure and logic with a founder. Everyone on the team can contribute in real-time, which means you end up with a richer set of ideas to work from.
Best for: Brainstorming your deck's narrative arc with co-founders or advisors.
Notion (notion.com)
Not a presentation tool, but an excellent place to draft your deck's content before touching slides. We write out the full storyline in Notion first — slide headings, key messages, supporting data — and don't open PowerPoint or Figma until the narrative is solid.
Best for: Writing and organizing your deck content collaboratively.
Hemingway Editor (hemingwayapp.com)
Checks your writing for readability. Pitch deck text should be punchy and scannable — if Hemingway highlights a sentence as hard to read, it's too long for a slide. We run all our deck copy through it before finalizing.
Best for: Tightening your slide text so it reads in under 3 seconds per slide.
Color and Typography Tools
Picular (picular.co)
Type a word — "trust," "energy," "health" — and Picular returns colors associated with it. Think of it as Google for color palettes. Surprisingly useful when you're setting the visual mood for a deck and don't have brand colors yet.
Best for: Finding a starting palette when you don't have established brand colors.
Coolors (coolors.co)
A palette generator that lets you lock in colors you like and regenerate the rest. We've moved to this from ColorSpace — it's faster and has better export options.
Best for: Building a 3-5 color palette that's cohesive and professional.
Fontjoy (fontjoy.com)
Generates font combinations from Google Fonts using machine learning. Set the contrast level, lock in a font you like, and it pairs the rest. We use it to find heading/body combinations that feel fresh without being distracting.
Best for: Choosing a typeface pairing that doesn't look like every other startup deck.
Visual Elements
Pexels (pexels.com)
Free, high-quality photos and videos. All commercially licensed. Better curation than most free stock sites, and the search actually returns relevant results.
Tip: If you put text over a photo, darken the image first. White text on a bright photo is unreadable. Every time.
Undraw (undraw.co)
Over 1,000 free illustrations, customizable to your brand color. Download as SVG, bring into your slides, adjust colors to match your palette. They're simple, modern, and better than clip art by a wide margin.
Tip: Download SVGs and ungroup them in PowerPoint (right-click → Group → Ungroup) to edit individual elements.
Flaticon (flaticon.com)
The largest icon library. Free tier has more than enough for a pitch deck. Icons replace bullet points, illustrate concepts, and make slides scannable.
Tip: Download as SVG so you can change colors directly in your slide tool. PNGs lock you into whatever color you downloaded.
Storyset (storyset.com)
Animated illustrations that you can customize. From Freepik's team. If you're sending your deck by email and want it to feel slightly more alive than static slides, Storyset's animated SVGs can add subtle movement.
Best for: Decks that will be viewed digitally rather than projected.
Data Visualization
Datawrapper (datawrapper.de)
Creates clean, publication-quality charts from your data. Free tier is generous and the output looks better than anything you'll make in Excel. We use it for market slides and traction charts, then screenshot into the deck.
Best for: Bar charts, line charts, and maps that need to look polished.
Flourish (flourish.studio)
If you need something more dynamic — animated charts, interactive data stories, race charts — Flourish handles it well. The free plan works for most startup needs.
Best for: Data visualizations you want to embed in a web-based deck or share as a link.
Presentation Delivery
Mentimeter (mentimeter.com)
Live interactive presentations. We don't use this for investor pitches, but it's excellent for demo days, accelerator presentations, and Q&A sessions where you want audience participation in real-time.
Best for: Live events, pitch competitions, and accelerator demo days.
Loom (loom.com)
Record yourself presenting over your slides. Send the Loom link instead of (or alongside) the deck file. Some investors actually prefer this because they can watch at their own pace and hear the founder's voice.
Best for: Async pitches, intro emails to investors, and YC-style application videos.
Slide Building Platforms
A note on where to actually build the deck:
PowerPoint is still the standard for investor decks. VCs are used to it, it works offline, and .pptx is universally compatible. Don't let anyone tell you it's outdated.
Figma is great if you want pixel-perfect control and your team uses it already. But the output isn't always easy for investors to open.
Pitch (pitch.com) is purpose-built for startup decks. Clean templates, collaboration features, and easy sharing. Worth trying.
Google Slides works in a pinch. It's the weakest option visually, but it's free and collaborative.
One Last Thing
Tools are accelerators, not replacements. The best icon library in the world won't save a deck with a bad narrative. The fanciest chart tool can't fix numbers that don't make sense.
Get your content and structure right first. Then use these tools to make it shine.
Need help building the whole thing?
We handle content, design, and strategy so you can focus on the pitch itself.
