If you're planning to open a round in Q4 2026 — Series A, Seed, bridge, whatever it is — the useful preparation moment is now. Not in September, when you're already sending the first emails. Now, while the company runs at 60%, you have a little headspace, and you can calmly review what you produced hastily during the year.
Three specific things. All doable in two or three days of work distributed in the month. None requires consultants. All make the difference between an investor meeting that proceeds and one that runs aground.
1. The deck: cut 30%
The decks we see passing through in 2026 all have the same problem. They're too long and say too much.
Thirty-eight slides, each with its title, paragraph, chart. The investor flips through in 4 minutes — it's the declared average time they dedicate to an inbound deck — and forgets everything the next day.
The 2026 deck that works has between 12 and 16 slides. One idea per slide. One memorable sentence per slide. Everything else is in the appendix, or told verbally, or not told at all.
Exercise for August: take your current deck, count the slides, and put a black cross on the 10-15 slides you can remove without changing the substance. You'll probably notice you can remove more than you thought. When you've finished, look at it again. If it's still too long, cut more.
A heuristic rule: if the slide doesn't add an information that changes the reader's opinion, it must come out. "We also do X" doesn't change opinion. "We're the only ones in Italy doing X this specific way" does.
2. The narrative: the story in 90 seconds
Regardless of the deck, you must have a 90-second oral narrative of your business. Ready. By heart. Natural.
Not a one-minute pitch memorized "we're the Uber of X" style. A real story. Beginning, development, where you are today, where you're going.
Example structure:
- Beginning: the problem that made you meet your market. "Three years ago we were looking for a solution to X, we didn't find it, and we understood the problem was more widespread than we thought."
- Development: what you built and why in that specific way. "We tried approach Y for six months, understood it didn't scale, and went back to logic Z — which today is our competitive advantage."
- Today: the present situation, in concrete numbers. "Forty paying customers, ARR of 800k, growth of 15% month-on-month on enterprise customers."
- Where you're going: the promise for the next 18-24 months. "We want to reach 3 million ARR by bringing the model to another three adjacent sectors. That's what we're opening the round for."
90 seconds. Spoken. Without notes. From when you enter the investor's room, you must be able to say this thing naturally — it's the first test the investor gives you, even before looking at the deck.
Practice it. Literally. With a stopwatch. Record yourself. Listen back. It's boring, but it's where the first 30% of the valuation is played.
3. The numbers: three tables, not twenty charts
Italian investors — and the European ones who flank them — in 2026 ask for fewer metrics than a year ago, but much more seriously. They've moved from the "wow factor" phase to the "due diligence anticipated at the first meeting" phase.
The three tables that must be ready, updated to the previous month, and immediately defensible are:
Table 1 — Complete commercial funnel. From qualified lead to signed customer to active customer, month by month, last 18 months. Absolute numbers, not percentages (they calculate themselves). If you don't have 18 months of data, put what you have and declare it honestly.
Table 2 — Unit economics. Customer acquisition cost (CAC), customer lifetime value (LTV), payback period, gross margin. For each main customer segment. Even if the numbers are bad (high CAC, still low LTV because you're young), put them — a serious investor prefers honest bad numbers to clean fake numbers.
Table 3 — Cash runway. How many months do you have at the current spending pace? What changes if growth slows? What changes if you increase sales? Three scenarios (base, prudent, aggressive), all on one page.
These three tables go outside the deck, in an appendix or separate Excel. They serve in follow-up conversations, but they go prepared before the first meeting. If the investor asks for them and you reply "we have them, I'll send by Wednesday" — you lose speed. If you send them within 30 minutes of the call — you gain credibility.
Four things NOT to do in August
For honesty, also what to avoid.
Don't send emails to investors in August. 90% won't reply until mid-September. The 10% who reply will be distracted. You waste first-impression chances.
Don't completely rewrite the deck from scratch. Iterate on what you have. Revision pays more than restart.
Don't try to "perfect traction". Traction is made by product and team, not by August. If the numbers aren't sufficient now, they won't be on September 15 due to a month of extra work.
Don't talk about your round with everyone. Voices circulate. Having "round opening" as market rumor without yet a serious plan is a disadvantage. Keep everything in the family (founder + max 2 advisors) until September.
A note on how we're seeing valuations change
What we observe in rounds closed in the first half of 2026: Italian Series A valuations are about 30% below the 2021-2022 peaks but they're stabilized. The downward pressure of 2024 is no longer seen.
What does it mean for you: if you open a round in September, start with realistic expectations. Valuation multiples on ARR have normalized in the 6-10x range for B2B SaaS (down from 15-20x in 2021). For applied AI it goes higher, but with very strict conditions on milestones. For consumer / DTC it struggles.
Indicative numbers, varies a lot by sector and geography. But the strategic message is: evaluate what valuation you've mentally prepared for, and drop by 25-30%. That will be the realistic starting base of the conversation.
Thursday, August 6 we return to the glossary with a much-requested episode: #HardWords: Multimodal. When a model "sees" beyond words — and what changes practically in customer service, e-commerce, and manufacturing.
Are you preparing a round for Q4? Under brand and narrative strategies for startups, we help founders build the story they sell to investors. Let's talk — even in August, even at the end of August.