How to prepare a website for an investor demo or pitch meeting
Investors look at your website before the meeting and again after it. They're not judging the gradient; they're checking whether what you said matches what's public, whether the product exists in some form, and whether you're easy to reach. To prepare a website for an investor demo, cut every claim you can't support, make the demo honest about what's real, and test the contact route the day before.
What investors actually check
- Does the one-line description match the pitch? If the deck says "payroll for clinics" and the site says "the future of work", that's a question you'll be asked.
- Is there a product? A live demo, a clickable prototype or real screenshots, with dates.
- Who's behind it? Founder names, roles, and links to profiles they can check.
- Are the numbers consistent? Any figure on the site will be compared with the deck and the data room.
- Can they reach you? A real email address, not a form that goes nowhere.
Two weeks before: the claims audit
Print the site, or read it on a laptop with the deck beside it, and mark every claim. For each, ask: could I show evidence in the meeting? If not, change it or remove it.
| On the site now | Replace with |
|---|---|
| Customer logos from pilots that haven't agreed | Nothing, or "Piloting with three clinics in Manchester" if that's true |
| A vague user count with no date | The real number with a date, or no number |
| Testimonials written by the team | None until you have real ones with permission |
| Market-size figures with no source | A sourced figure, or drop it |
| "AI-powered" on everything | What the product actually does for the user |
When you build or rebuild the site with Anticode, the design gate blocks stock AI phrases, placeholder text and empty links, which covers some of this. It doesn't test whether outside links work. It can't know whether your figures are true. That check is yours.
One week before: the demo
Decide what the demo is. A live product with real data is best. If you don't have one, a prototype can be honest, as long as it's labelled.
Anticode's app builds suit this. Describe the core workflow ("a dashboard where a clinic manager sees this week's rota gaps and fills one") and the model writes it as one interactive program that runs in a sandbox with no network. Anything that would need a server, such as accounts, live data or payments, is simulated with sample data and labelled "Demo data" on screen. Keep that label. An investor who discovers a fake-looking live product trusts nothing else you show them; one who sees a clearly labelled prototype understands exactly where you are.
- Script the demo path: the three or four clicks you'll show, in order.
- Rehearse on the device you'll use, at the meeting's screen size, with the sound off.
- Have a fallback: a short screen recording on your laptop in case the venue Wi-Fi fails. Link to it on a video host if you want it on the site; pages can't embed videos.
- Remember it's public. Published Anticode sites can't be password-protected, so anything on the site can be seen by anyone with the address. Keep confidential figures in the data room.
The day before: contact and follow-up
- Send a test message through the site's contact form and confirm it arrives where you'll see it the same day, by email or a connector such as Slack.
- Put a direct founder email address on the page as well.
- Check every link, especially to the founders' profiles and any coverage.
- Load the site on a phone on mobile data. Investors often look between meetings.
After the meeting
If you promised something, such as an updated deck or a metric, send it from your own email and make sure the site doesn't contradict it. Don't change your positioning on the site between first meeting and follow-up unless you mention it; investors notice.
How you know the site is ready
Every number on the site appears in your deck with the same value and date. Every logo and quote has permission behind it. The demo works on your device without the network, or is labelled as a prototype. A test enquiry reached you within minutes.
Limits
Anticode builds the site and a sandboxed prototype, and flags placeholder and stock phrasing. It doesn't verify your claims, host a private data room, password-protect pages, embed video, or connect a prototype to live data or real accounts; for that, the Next.js export is a starting point for a developer. See startup website, investor page and taking an AI prototype to production.
Questions people ask
Is it acceptable to demo with sample data?
Yes, if it's labelled. Anticode's app builds mark simulated data as "Demo data"; keep the label visible during the demo.
Can I make the demo private?
Not on a published Anticode site: it's public at its address. Share confidential material through your data room instead.
Should I show customer logos?
Only with each customer's permission. Unapproved logos are among the first things investors check.