CREATIVE EDGE · PRESENTATION DESIGN

You spent two years building a company. An investor might spend two minutes looking at your deck. A decent chunk of that time can go to figuring out what “reimagining the future of seamless collaboration” means.

Let’s give them those seconds back.

1. Give each slide one job

“Traction” is a folder name. “Paid pilots doubled in six months” is a headline. Put the news up top and use the rest of the slide to back it up. If you need three subheads and a footnote to get to the point, the slide may be doing a little freelancing.

2. Put the slides in the order people ask questions

You’ve shown me an expensive problem. I want to see how you solve it. If the next slide is a photo of your advisory board, I’m happy for them, but I still have the problem.

Read just the headlines in order. Each one should answer a question the previous slide made me want to ask.

3. Make the chart do something

If the story is growth, show me the growth. Label the axes, make the time period obvious, and call out the number that matters. If I have to match six shades of blue to a legend, congratulations on the puzzle.

Sometimes one big number will do the whole job. You’re allowed to leave the rest of the slide alone.

4. Design for the skim

Give the headline, the key number, and the supporting detail different levels of emphasis. Use an icon if it helps me find something. The slide will survive without a tiny rocket next to the word “growth.”

And if everything is bold, you’ve basically invented regular type again.

5. Make the ask sound like a plan

Say how much you’re raising, what it pays for, and what you expect to get done. “Scale the business” is doing an impressive amount of work for three words. “Build the integration our pilot customers need to roll out across their teams” gives me something I can picture.

Before you send the deck, give it to someone who’s never heard your pitch. Two minutes, no narration. Ask them what you do, what makes it believable, and what the money will buy. If your first instinct is to say “Well, what I meant on slide four was…,” start with slide four.

I hope this gave you something to think about. More from the Steve Blender soon.

To be continued.