Your pitch deck is 35MB. Gmail truncates it. Some VCs have stricter inbox limits and reject it outright. You send a Dropbox link and feel the friction.
A properly compressed deck attaches cleanly and lands at full quality.
Target under 10MB
Most investor inboxes accept up to 25MB but many flag anything over 10MB. For pitch decks, target under 10MB — small enough to attach without friction, large enough to preserve image quality. Compress PDF at medium handles this for most decks.
Test the visuals
Open the compressed deck on your phone and a laptop. Brand colours should still look right, typography should still be sharp, product screenshots should still read. If any of these degrade visibly, dial compression back. Most founders over-compress without checking.
Remove what doesn't need to be there
Backup slides, appendices, and detailed financials can live in a separate "appendix" PDF. The main deck stays lean. Split PDF the deck into main + appendix. Send the main; offer the appendix on request. The lean deck reads faster, and most VCs don't open the appendix anyway.
Keep the master
Never overwrite the original deck with the compressed version. Keep both: `Deck_Master.pdf` (full quality) and `Deck_Email.pdf` (compressed). The master is for in-person presentations and print; the email version is for distribution.
FAQ
Does compression affect deck quality on big screens?
Aggressive compression can. For in-person presentations on big screens, use the original. For email and digital distribution, compressed is fine.
Should I embed videos in the deck PDF?
PDFs don't reliably play video. Link to hosted videos (YouTube unlisted, Loom) instead. The deck stays light.
What if my deck has full-bleed photography?
Test compression on the photography slides specifically — large flat colour areas show JPEG artefacts first. Use light compression if photography is central.
Can I compress an already-compressed deck further?
Diminishing returns and visible quality loss. Compress once from the original; if too large, redesign rather than re-compress.
Decks land cleanly when compressed properly. Compress in Flint and your investor inbox attaches first time.