Bootstrapper.com - Confessions of Serial Entrepreneurs

So there are people who spend thousands of dollars and weeks of their time creating powerpoint decks to pitch investors or for their own internal pitching desires. I never understood that. What’s the point of fancy slides, fades, transparencies and cool effects? I could have sworn I learned somewhere that the point of a deck is to be a guide for a conversation. I could be wrong.

All I know is I hate decks with fancy functionality - because I can’t do it myself! and because i don’t see the point. Personally, I follow a modified version of Guy Kawasaki’s deck rules. I even use the same template for every deck (because I don’t know how to change it!) and I rarely will spend more than 30 minutes creating one.

Here’s the reason: My feeling is a deck should follow the logical chain of selling your idea - and be just that selling your idea - giving you the ammo to sell yourself and the company. No one wants to reach a 43 slide deck with a 6 windings font. At least I don’t. I’d rather read a 43 page business plan with a 6 windings font than a 43 slide deck. It defeats the friggin purpose of a deck!

So what’s in my average deck look like?

Slide 1) Name of company and slogan. Slogan must clearly state value prop that your customer will appreciate. I don’t care if it’s not a pun, it’s not a good slogan if it doesn’t clearly state your value prop to your target customer.

Slide 2) Problem - either ask a question or state the problem - 1-3 sentances

Slide 3) Solution - state your solution, 4 bullets MAX

Slide 4) Use Case or Example of how it works - 1-3 short examples

Slide 5) Research data - pretty (useless) chart

Slide 6) Business Model - 5 bullets MAX

Slide 7) IP or competitive advantage

Slide Team - name of key 3 people + 1 line on each = show why you’re people are the shit in 7 words or less for each.

Slide 9) Marketing - 5 bullets

Slide 10) Contact Info

The end.

The whole idea is to talk through each slide and explain what’s going on. You have to remember, if you’ve managed to get an in person meeting, that means they want to speak to you - not to your deck - they talk to their own decks every day - they don’t need to talk to yours.

So what’s the real purpose of a deck then? A visual guideline to your sales pitch. That’s it.

Adios.