Hey Reader,

Most pitch decks fail before the first slide is built. Not because the design is wrong. Because the person building it sat down in PowerPoint and started filling boxes instead of finding the story first.

Here's the sequence that fixes it. Two tools, both free, under five minutes.

Claude does the interview. Gamma builds the slides.

The reason this works: most people brief Claude the same way they brief themselves — vague. "Make me a pitch deck for my consulting business." Claude fills the gaps with averages and you get a generic deck.

The interview flips it. Claude pulls the specifics out of you through questions, one at a time. By the end, it has more context than you'd have written down on your own. That context is what makes the output usable.

Step 1 — Open Claude. Paste this prompt:

"I'm building a pitch deck. Ask me 1 question at a time. After I answer, immediately ask the next question — keep going until you've covered: my business, the problem I solve, who it's for, my proof, and what I'm asking for. Do not stop to summarize or comment between questions. Just keep asking. Once you have all the answers, write a full 10-slide pitch deck — one slide at a time, with a headline and 3 bullet points per slide — ready to paste into Gamma."

Answer every question like you're explaining it to a smart person who knows nothing about your business. The more specific you are, the better the output.

When Claude is done, you have a 10-slide narrative structure. Headline and three bullets per slide. Full story, ready to format.

Step 2 — Take that output to Gamma.

Go to gamma.app. Click "Create new." Choose "Paste in Text" and paste Claude's output directly. Select "Preserve this exact text." Gamma generates the slides, layout, and flow. Pick a theme that matches your brand. Hit Generate.

Then: swap in your logo. Tighten any slide that needs it. Export as PDF or share the live link.

The free version of Gamma gives you 10 slides. That's exactly how long a pitch deck should be.

Total time: under five minutes from blank page to finished deck.

Why the sequence matters

The mistake isn't the tools. It's the order.

Most people start in slide software because that's where the deck lives. So they think in slides — boxes to fill, not a story to tell. They write their problem slide before they've actually articulated the problem. They write their solution slide before they know what the audience needs to believe first.

The Claude interview forces you out of that. You're not filling boxes — you're answering questions about your business. By the time you get to Gamma, the story is already built. The software is just formatting it.

That's the whole system. Claude for thinking, Gamma for presenting.

If you want help building the story underneath the slides — what you're actually selling and how to sequence it — grab a free call: https://calendar.app.google/BCm78pVrBnPL3pWf8​

— Louis

P.S. The slide that kills most decks is the problem slide. People describe the problem they solve instead of the problem the buyer feels. Those are different. Claude's interview will ask you about both. Make sure your answers aren't the same.