“I need a data room”— now what?
Your advisor said you need one. Your accelerator mentor said you need one. But nobody told you what goes inside it or how to set it up.
“What even goes in a data room?”
Pitch deck, financials, cap table, incorporation docs — every investor expects something different, and there is no standard checklist.
Documents are everywhere
Your pitch deck is in Google Slides, financials in a spreadsheet, legal docs in email attachments. Pulling it all together is a full-day project.
Enterprise tools cost too much
Legacy data rooms charge hundreds per month. When you are pre-revenue, that is runway you cannot afford to burn on file sharing.
No time to figure it out
You have a product to build, customers to find, and a round to close. Learning complex VDR software is the last thing on your list.
“Every now and then, you come across a product that has a massive positive impact on your business. Peony is one such product.”
Panos Moutafis
Founder & CEO, Zenus
From zero to investor-ready
Peony guides you through every step — what to include, how to organize it, and how to share it professionally.
The folder structure investors expect
Every startup data room needs the same core sections: Financials, Legal, Team, Product, and Cap Table. Peony gives you a ready-made template so you never have to guess what belongs where.
Pitch Deck
Executive summary, problem, solution, market, traction
Financials
Revenue model, projections, burn rate, bank statements
Legal
Certificate of incorporation, bylaws, IP assignments
Cap Table
Ownership breakdown, SAFEs, option pool, vesting schedules
Product
Product roadmap, technical architecture, key metrics
Upload everything — AI sorts it out
Drag and drop your documents from anywhere. Peony's AI reads each file, categorizes it into the right folder, and suggests what is missing. No manual tagging. No folder headaches.
Your brand, not a Google Drive link
Add your logo, brand colors, and a custom cover image. Investors open a polished link page — not a folder of files. First impressions close rounds.
Predictable pricing
Plans from $20/admin/month with no per-viewer, per-page, or per-link limits. Your costs stay flat as your investor list grows.
Drag-and-drop upload
PDF, DOCX, PPTX, spreadsheets — upload any file type. No conversion needed. No file size limits on paid plans.
AI auto-organization
Peony reads your files, names folders intelligently, and flags missing documents so your data room is complete before you share it.
Custom branding
Your logo, your colors, your cover image. Share a link that looks like it was built by a design team, not a file hosting service.
Founders who went from zero to investor-ready
Robi Lin
Founder & CEO, Sepal AI (YC S24)
Peony is easily the best form factor for sharing client-facing material. At this point, I love hearing, “Does Sepal AI have a sales deck?”
Anish Bharadwaj
Founder & CEO, KiwiQ
Peony is a great example of a customer-obsessed company with a fantastic sense of design and UX. We moved on from Docsend in the first week — what we are really excited about is what all Peony does next.
Frequently asked questions
I'm raising a $1.5M pre-seed round — do I actually need a data room at this stage, or is Google Drive fine?
Google Drive has no page-level analytics, no link expiry, and no way to stop your cap table from being forwarded to anyone. Even at pre-seed, investors notice when your materials look disorganized. Peony's free plan gives you page analytics, 2FA, link expiry, and revoke access with 2 GB of storage — enough for a pitch deck, financial model, and incorporation docs. You can set it up in under 5 minutes and share a secure link before your next angel meeting, so you look as buttoned-up as a Series A company without spending a dollar.
We're a seed-stage startup raising $5M and have partner meetings next week — how fast can I get a data room ready?
Peony's median setup time is 4 minutes 19 seconds from account creation to your first document uploaded. Upload your pitch deck, financials, cap table, and incorporation docs, and Peony's AI auto-indexing organizes everything into the folder structure seed investors expect. You can share a personalized link with each partner before your meetings even start. Firmex and Ideals require onboarding calls and enterprise contracts that take weeks — by then your round window has closed.
I'm a Series A founder and our lead investor wants a 'proper' diligence room with 200+ documents — what plan do I need?
For a full Series A diligence process, your lead VC will expect organized folders, NDA gating, and the ability to ask questions about your documents without emailing you separately. Peony's Business plan at $40/admin/month gives you NDA gating, AI-powered Smart Q&A so investors can query your documents directly, auto-indexing for 200+ files, and 1 TB of storage. That is a fraction of what Firmex or Ideals charge for equivalent enterprise features, and your investors access everything through a browser link — no app downloads or account creation required on their end.
We have 5 VCs sending us term sheets for our $50M Series B — how do I manage separate access for each firm without things leaking between them?
With Peony you create personalized links for each VC, so Firm A never sees what Firm B is reviewing. The Business plan ($40/admin/month) adds screenshot protection and dynamic watermarks that stamp each viewer's email on every page, so if a document does leak, you know exactly who shared it. Page-level analytics show you which pages each firm spent time on, helping you gauge who is genuinely deep in diligence versus just kicking tires. DocSend cannot do folder-level permissions at all, and legacy VDRs like Datasite would charge you thousands per month for the same setup.
I'm a YC founder about to hit Demo Day — I need to share my deck with 100+ investors at once. What's the best way to do that?
Create a single Peony link for broad distribution and turn on link expiry so it auto-disables 48 hours after Demo Day. Peony's free-plan analytics show you exactly which of those 100+ investors opened your deck, which pages they lingered on, and who came back for a second look — so you know who to prioritize for follow-up meetings. If you want to gate access behind an NDA or add watermarks for the most sensitive materials, upgrade to the Business plan at $40/admin/month. DocSend charges $45/user/month just for basic link tracking and caps you at limited security options.
I'm a deep-tech founder with patents and proprietary IP in my data room — how do I make sure nothing gets screenshotted or forwarded?
Peony's Business plan ($40/admin/month) includes screenshot protection that blocks screen capture on your documents, plus dynamic watermarks that overlay each viewer's email address on every page. You can require NDA signing before anyone accesses your IP filings, and link expiry automatically revokes access after a deadline. If a patent document does surface somewhere it should not, the watermark trace tells you exactly which viewer leaked it. Google Drive and Dropbox have zero equivalent protections — anyone with the link can screenshot, download, and forward freely.
I'm comparing Peony vs DocSend vs Google Drive for our fundraise — we're a 4-person team and can't afford enterprise pricing. What's the real difference?
Google Drive is free but gives you no analytics, no security controls, and no way to know if an investor even opened your deck. DocSend starts at $45/user/month for basic tracking but has no folder permissions, no AI features, and charges per seat — so a 4-person team pays $180/month minimum. Peony starts free with page analytics, 2FA, link expiry, and revoke access included. The Pro plan at $20/admin/month adds e-signatures for SAFEs and term sheets, and Business at $40/admin/month unlocks watermarks, screenshot protection, NDA gating, and AI-powered Smart Q&A. No per-viewer or per-link charges, so your cost stays flat as your investor list grows.
My pitch deck got forwarded to a competitor — is there a way to prevent that from happening again?
Peony's Business plan ($40/admin/month) gives you three layers of leak protection. Dynamic watermarks stamp each viewer's email on every page so forwarded documents are immediately traceable. Screenshot protection blocks screen capture attempts. And you can set link expiry so the deck auto-disables after a set date, or revoke access to any specific viewer instantly from your dashboard. On the free plan you still get link expiry and revoke access, so you can cut off a leaked link the moment you discover it. With Google Drive or Dropbox, once someone has your file, you have no way to trace or stop the spread.
I'm raising my second company and last time I just used Google Drive — what should I do differently this time with my data room?
Most second-time founders say they wish they had set up a proper data room from day one instead of scrambling to organize Google Drive folders mid-diligence. With Peony you can start on the free plan the day you incorporate — upload your formation docs, cap table, and early financials so everything is organized before investors ever ask. As your round heats up, Peony's page analytics show you exactly which investors are engaged, and you can upgrade to Pro ($20/admin/month) for e-signatures on SAFEs or Business ($40/admin/month) for full security features. The setup takes under 5 minutes, so there is no reason to wait until a VC asks for a data room link.