Ask HN: Should I share my slide deck?

I'm a founder of a tech startup and I have been trying to get my product in front of companies in the field (automotive/AV). However, I am fairly new when it comes to how B2B sales/intros work in this field.

I recently gave a technical overview of our product to an R&D group with a pretty well known brand name with the potential promise of introducing me to companies in their network if there was a good fit. It initially seemed odd to me that an R&D company would introduce an external startup to their network but I decided to go through with it because they had a fairly well known automotive brand associated with them.

They also asked me to share my slides with them so that they could share it with their team and other companies.

I was wondering whether this sort of thing was normal and if there were any risks with sharing my slide deck with them.

Do such organizations in Silicon Valley generally operate ethically or is shady behavior the norm?

The biggest risk is that people will misinterpret your slides without your voice over, or that they get ignored because people have lots of competing priorities.

Without an NDA, you should only be sharing slides you're comfortable sharing with the world anyway. People can screenshot them, e.g. if they want a copy.

I would push hard for an opportunity to present the slides yourself so that you can give the context and respond to people's reaction. You are much more likely to move forward if you can be present vs. just providing the slides.