>> If you can sell turds to financial elites you're at the top of your game.

My Dad worked for several silicon valley startups in the 60's and 70's and his advice always stuck with me. When I got caught up in the first dot com craze in the late 90's early aughts, he always told me about his experience then and told me: "Listen son, if it sounds like blue skies and bullshit, then it probably is."

It helped me steer clear a few disastrous startups right after graduating from college.

I think you will find that many of these were arguably "financial elite insiders" the whole time. Worse, if you read too long, it is very easy to get sucked into the narrative that they were the stooges for the actual insiders that still made out with the bank.

I sort of agree with this, but it assumes that the pitch deck impacts a critical outcome for these businesses.

For example, sometimes in my line of work a prosecutor reads a mitigation report (pitch deck) and offers a good plea bargain because they learned something that moved them. But there are other times that a prosecutor wants to make a better offer and wants a little administrative cover. They might text me, "Send me some mitigation. Sooner is better, nothing fancy." Those are the cases with the best outcomes, but not really the best "pitch decks."

Or you are stupid enough to do it and end up in jail for the rest of your life instead of putting your own imagination and skill into something a bit nicer

This is like saying the 2017 Astros are one of the best MLB teams of all time because they cheated to win the World Series.

That could actually be the pitch. We’re selling turds to idiots with too much money… of course not you though (audience).