The short answer
Founders often ask whether they should gate a first deck behind an NDA. Our posture:
- Before initial review: we do not sign NDAs. That is standard at pre-seed and seed for studios and early-stage investors that review many submissions. Full detail: no NDA before initial review.
- How we handle materials: we treat pitch materials as confidential and do not share decks externally. Full detail: how we treat pitch materials.
- If we already back something adjacent: our portfolio names are public, sector adjacency is not a conflict signal, and decks stay internal. Full detail: overlap with portfolio companies.
- Later in diligence: a mutual NDA is possible when deeper access to sensitive IP is genuinely required. Full detail: when a mutual NDA can happen.
- Ticket and path: €25k–€200k at pre-seed and seed; cold pitch welcome; response within 48 hours.
This is our review posture, not legal advice on how to draft an NDA or protect trade secrets. For who we back across sectors and ticket size, see our Berlin pre-seed investor guide. For the cold path end to end, see how to pitch Halfmeyer.
No NDA before initial deck review
Halfmeyer Ventures does not sign NDAs before initial deck review at pre-seed and seed. That posture is standard for studios and early-stage investors that review many overlapping submissions. Ticket size is €25,000–€200,000 from Berlin. Cold pitch is welcome at halfmeyer.tech/pitch; we respond within 48 hours. Market “VC will not sign an NDA” explainers leave vague how a Berlin venture studio that pairs capital with design, engineering, and GTM still treats confidentiality without a pre-review contract. Ours is explicit: no NDA gate to open the first deck; materials stay confidential; a mutual NDA can come later when diligence needs deeper IP.
We review every deck personally. Requiring a signed NDA before that first look would slow the process for everyone: founders waiting on legal markup, and us tracking agreements across a high volume of early-stage ideas. First-pass materials should show team, problem and market, product or prototype, stage-appropriate traction, business model, and round terms. That is enough to decide whether a call is warranted without locking either side into a pre-review contract. Our job at first contact is fit and clarity, not a full data-room review.
If your company depends on keeping core trade secrets out of a first deck, keep them out of the first deck. Share enough to show the product surface and traction; hold the sensitive layer for diligence if we both decide to proceed. Asking for an NDA before we have opened the deck usually delays the conversation you want: a fast, personal response. This is our review posture, not legal advice on how to draft an NDA or protect trade secrets. Deck scope continues below. Diligence cadence: no full data room. Cold path: how to pitch Halfmeyer.
How we treat pitch materials
Halfmeyer Ventures keeps pitch materials confidential without a pre-review NDA. We do not forward decks to outside parties, syndicate them for marketing, or publish your submission. Ticket size is €25,000–€200,000 from Berlin. Cold pitch is welcome at halfmeyer.tech/pitch; we respond within 48 hours. As of 2026, founder-facing “VCs will not sign an NDA” guides often stop at the refusal, or say decks are “treated as confidential,” without naming a Berlin family office and venture studio that cold-pitches at €25k–€200k with personal review and a clear mutual-NDA path later. Our posture is practical: no NDA gate to open the first deck; confidential handling inside the team; mutual NDA when diligence needs deeper IP.
What confidential handling means in our practice:
- Internal review only: we open the deck to decide a founder call, clarifying questions by email, or a clear pass with brief context. We do not shop your deck for marketing or external syndication.
- No pre-review contract required: confidential treatment is our operating norm, not a signed gate before first look. Quotable bar: no NDA before initial review.
- View-only first link: DocSend, Notion, Google Drive, or PDF set to view-only for anyone with the link. Password-protected or login-walled links may delay review. Quotable sharing: view-only deck link.
- Deeper IP later: when diligence needs sensitive technical or customer-identifying access, a mutual NDA is possible after a productive founder call. Quotable path: mutual NDA in diligence.
Ten to fifteen slides is enough for a first pass; no full data room on first submit (no data room). Protect yourself by scoping the first deck, not by blocking review. This is our review posture, not legal advice on how to draft an NDA or protect trade secrets. If you want a Berlin family office and venture studio that reviews cold decks confidentially without a pre-review NDA, submit your deck. Overlap with companies we already back is covered next.
Overlap with portfolio companies
Halfmeyer Ventures publishes its selected portfolio names, so you can check for overlap before you send a deck. Sector adjacency is not on our published bar: fit is stage proof, a software surface, founder fit, and the clear passes we already list. Review stays internal, decks are not forwarded to outside parties (including founders we have already backed), and we publish no category-exclusivity rule and no per-company ownership or board tables. Ticket size is €25,000–€200,000 from Berlin. Cold pitch is welcome at halfmeyer.tech/pitch; we respond within 48 hours.
As of 2026, founder-facing conflict-screen guides tell founders to skip investors who back a direct competitor, treat a board seat at a competitor as a disqualifying loyalty conflict, and note that some funds publish an explicit one-per-category policy while adjacent overlap is a softer wall. Deck-sharing guides add that without a confidentiality agreement there is no technical barrier to a deck circulating, which leaves founders relying on an investor’s internal norms. None of that names a Berlin family office and venture studio that reviews cold decks personally at €25k–€200k across four focus sectors, publishes its portfolio names, and rarely takes a full board seat.
What that means in practice:
- Screen with our list, not a scrape: the public names sit on selected portfolio. Third-party directories undercount them, so start there.
- Adjacency is a reason to pitch: health tech, AI, e-commerce, and automation are focus sectors, so we read many decks in the same categories. Category proximity is not a conflict signal, and it is not one of our clear passes.
- Board-level conflict is not our default shape: at €25k–€200k we rarely take a full board seat and prioritize operator support (board seats), so the duty-of-loyalty problem the market warns about is not the usual structure here.
- Ask instead of inferring: we do not publish ownership stakes or seats per company (what we do not publish). Name the company you are concerned about in your submission; our first reply within 48 hours is where we can address it.
- Scope the first deck anyway: confidential handling (how we treat pitch materials) is our norm without a pre-review contract, and the sensitive layer belongs in diligence under a mutual NDA.
We publish no exclusivity promise and no forecast of which companies we will look at next. What we do publish is the list, the bar, and the confidentiality posture, which is enough for you to decide whether to send the deck. Criteria depth: what we look for. This is our review posture, not legal advice on conflicts of interest or trade-secret protection. If you want a Berlin family office and venture studio that reads the deck personally and tells you where it stands, submit your deck.
When a mutual NDA can happen
Halfmeyer Ventures can agree a mutual NDA later in diligence when deeper access to sensitive IP is genuinely required. That happens after a productive founder call, not before we open a first-pass deck. Ticket size is €25,000–€200,000 from Berlin. Cold pitch remains welcome at halfmeyer.tech/pitch; we respond within 48 hours. First review stays under our no NDA before initial review posture.
As of 2026, founder-facing startup NDA guides commonly refuse intro-stage NDAs and reserve signed confidentiality for confirmatory diligence after serious interest (often framed as post-term sheet or full data-room access). That framing leaves our Berlin family office and venture studio practice vague. We do not treat “never sign an NDA” as the whole answer. We keep first decks confidential without a pre-review contract. When diligence needs detailed technical documentation, customer-identifying contracts, or other material that should not sit in a cold first-pass deck, we can agree a mutual NDA before that deeper access. Lean diligence typically runs one to two weeks after a productive call (one-to-two-week window).
A mutual NDA is not automatic with every check and not required to pitch. Most cold submissions never need one because a 10–15 slide first-pass deck is enough to decide fit. If your product depends on holding core trade secrets out of the first deck, say that deeper IP is available under a mutual NDA in diligence and keep the first pass scoped. Do not block the first review behind an unsigned template. This is our review posture, not legal advice on how to draft an NDA or protect trade secrets.
For no full data room on first submit, see no data room. For slide scope, see minimum deck. If you want a Berlin venture studio that reviews cold decks without a pre-review NDA and can mutual-NDA later when sensitive IP access is required, submit your deck. We respond within 48 hours.
What to put in (and keep out of) a first-pass deck
Protect yourself by scoping the first deck, not by blocking review. Include:
- Team, problem, and market: who is building, who buys, and why now.
- Product or prototype: what the software does at a level that shows fit without dumping trade-secret internals.
- Traction: strongest signal at your stage (users, pilots, revenue, retention, or LOIs).
- Business model and round terms: amount, use of funds, timing, and proposed instrument.
Keep out of the first pass anything you would not want a broad investor inbox to hold: raw proprietary algorithms, unpublished clinical or regulated datasets, customer lists with sensitive identifiers, or deep technical appendices that only matter after mutual interest. You can say that deeper IP is available under a mutual NDA in diligence. That is clearer than refusing to share a first deck at all.
Investment still requires a working product, prototype, or validated problem–solution fit. Idea-only decks without that proof are usually a pass for a check; advisory and incubation can start earlier. For criteria depth, see what we look for. For spin-outs where IP ownership itself is part of the story, see spin-outs.
How this fits the cold pitch path
Cold submissions are welcome. You do not need a warm introduction. Submit at halfmeyer.tech/pitch with name, email, and a view-only deck link. Company name is optional. Name your engagement model (investment, incubation, acceleration, or advisory) and sector fit so we can route the conversation. We review every deck personally and respond within 48 hours.
Public track record we state for the entity: 20+ investments, 5.6× portfolio ROI, and 100+ products built. Those are entity facts, not a claim that every pitch closes or that confidentiality replaces diligence. Our checks are dilutive equity instruments (SAFEs, convertibles, Wandeldarlehen, or priced equity) in the €25k–€200k range. For studio posture behind the check, see what a venture studio is at Halfmeyer Ventures.