# Every extracted fact points back to its slide

> Pitch deck citations are how Delsivo shows where each extracted fact came from. When a founder uploads a PDF deck, Delsivo is designed to pull out slide text, legible charts and company facts, and attach the slide number and a verbatim quote to every one. A quote that can't be found on that slide is dropped. Planned for the pilot release; Delsivo is at design partner stage.

Source: https://delsivo.com/features/slide-citations · Updated 2026-11-06 · Planned, not available yet

## Key takeaways

- Every fact and claim taken from a deck carries the slide number and the exact words it came from.
- A citation opens the slide viewer at that slide with the quote highlighted.
- If the quoted words aren't in the slide's extracted text, the claim is dropped rather than kept without a source.
- Slides that read poorly are flagged as weak extraction, so nobody mistakes a gap for a fact.
- PDF comes first. PowerPoint follows once extraction quality has been measured.

## What pitch deck citations look like in a deal

A citation has three parts: the deck version, the slide number and the quote. On Deal, Evidence, a line such as "ARR of $410k, December" sits beside a small slide 9 marker. Click it and the slide viewer opens at slide 9 with the words "$410k ARR as of December" highlighted.

The same reference follows the fact wherever it goes: into the [thesis fit report](https://delsivo.com/features/fit-report), into a claim on the [claim tracker](https://delsivo.com/features/claim-tracker), and into the briefs your team drafts later. Nobody has to hunt through the deck to check where a number came from.

Parts of a slide citation

| Part | What it holds | Why it matters |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Deck version | Which upload the fact came from | A later deck never rewrites what the first one said |
| Slide | The slide number in that version | Opens the viewer at the right page |
| Quote | The exact words from the slide | Lets a reviewer confirm the fact in a second |

## How a deck becomes cited facts

1. The founder uploads the deck on your portal, or an analyst uploads it on the deal. PDF in the pilot, within a size limit set before launch.
2. The file is checked for type and size and run through a malware scan. Nothing is read until the scan comes back clean.
3. Text is extracted slide by slide, with character recognition as a fallback for image-only slides. Each slide is also saved as an image for the viewer.
4. A routing pass maps each slide to a section such as problem, traction, team or ask, without scoring or inventing anything.
5. Numbers are pulled out by code first (currency, percentages, ARR, MRR, burn, runway) and checked for internal consistency.
6. A facts pass lists company facts and claims, each with a slide number and a quote. Any quote that isn't found in that slide's text is dropped.
7. Results appear on the deal's Brief and Evidence tabs for your team to review.

The design target for an eligible PDF is under five minutes from upload to results at the 95th percentile. That is a target for the pilot, not a measured result.

## What happens when a slide can't be read

Some decks are exported as flat images, use tiny fonts, or put the key number inside a chart. Delsivo is designed to say so instead of guessing. A slide is flagged as weak extraction when character recognition had to be used, or when fewer than 10 characters came out of it.

Analysts see the flag beside the slide and on any fact that depends on it. A weak slide lowers the evidence quality reading on the deal, which is kept separate from thesis fit, so a hard-to-read deck doesn't quietly count against the company.

- Image-only slides go through character recognition and are marked as such.
- Charts are read only where the values are legible as text or labels.
- If extraction fails entirely, a text-only fallback runs and the whole deck is marked weak.
- A failed step sends the deal to manual review and never blocks access to it.

## Why a quote must match the slide

Language models sometimes produce plausible numbers that aren't on the page. The quote check is the guard against that. Every claim the AI proposes must include words that appear in the extracted text of the slide it names. If they don't, the claim never reaches your team.

Deck text is also treated as untrusted input. Instructions hidden inside a deck are handled as content, never followed. Model output can suggest facts and claims, but it can't change a deal's stage or send anything to the founder. Those actions stay with your analysts and partners.

## What founders see

Founders see the facts extracted from their own deck and can correct them in the portal. They never see scores, ratings or internal notes. A correction is stored next to the original, both stay visible to your team, and the citation to the original slide is kept. The [deck versions and corrections](https://delsivo.com/features/deck-versions-and-corrections) page covers that in detail.

## Frequently asked questions

### Does Delsivo read PowerPoint decks?

Not in the pilot. The pilot reads PDF decks. PowerPoint support is designed in and will be switched on once extraction quality for those files has been measured.

### Can the AI invent a number that isn't in the deck?

It can propose one, but the claim is dropped unless its quote is found in the extracted text of the slide it cites. Facts without a matching quote never reach your team.

### What if the important figure is inside a chart image?

If the value can't be read as text, the slide is flagged as weak extraction and the figure is left unknown. An analyst can add it by hand or ask the founder for it.

### Are pitch deck citations available today?

No. They are planned for the pilot release. Delsivo is at design partner stage and nothing is generally available yet.

## Related pages

- [AI pitch deck analyzer](https://delsivo.com/deck-analyzer)
- [Pitch deck version history](https://delsivo.com/features/deck-versions-and-corrections)
- [Startup claims tracker](https://delsivo.com/features/claim-tracker)
- [Screen inbound applications](https://delsivo.com/use-cases/inbound-application-screening)