Every week, I mentor students and faculty at University of Maryland who want to be entrepreneurs. I’ve probably done hundreds of slide deck reviews in my career…and I have opinions.
Here are a few (add an extra slide where needed):
Slide #1: The first slide should be clean, include your company logo and/or name, and the name and title of the presenter. If you have an awesome tagline, include it. Otherwise, skip it. The purpose of this slide is to center the attention on you, to indicate you’re ready to go.
Slide #2: Next, and absolutely most important, this slide is for the problem you are solving…not your product, not your bio. I need you to think big here. I’m looking for a global problem. For example, if you have a new app for teaching vocabulary to resistant-learners, the problem isn’t how to teach vocabulary, it’s changing how we think about education delivery.
Slide #3: How do you plan to solve that problem? If you haven’t inspired your audience by this point, you’ll have a hard time getting them to look away from their phone.
Slide #4: It’s finally here! This is your product slide. Include a demo or an explanation, benefits are good too.
Slide #5: Cool stuff goes here. Patents, unique market data, key partnerships and clients. If you don’t have enough data points, it’s always interesting to see a sample customer ROI, outlining how your product can save/make them money.
Slide #6: Include specific and relevant market data. Do not throw out a giant number for an addressable market without giving real context, unless you want them to look at their phone. Feel free to switch 5 and 6.
Slide #7: Financials. Everyone has the hockey stick. Surprise your audience with an understanding of the assumptions that go into building financial projections for your business.
Slide #8: Use of Funds/Raise. When I was raising $100 million for a venture, in a packed boardroom, I was asked how much I needed. I said the number without flinching. I asked the Chair later why he asked that question when he already knew the answer. His response, “I wanted to see if you could make the ask.”
Slide #9: Team. I know what you’re thinking…it’s all about execution, shouldn’t this be further up? You’re right, but they’ve probably checked you out on LinkedIn. Assemble the photos and mini-bios in a way that is easy to read. This isn’t the area for creativity.
Slide #10: Please do not forget to say thank you. This needs its own slide. Their time is valuable and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to express your appreciation. No need for a recap. Just a slide to let them know you’re here for it!
Most first presentations are 10-12 max. Definitely have hidden content-heavy back-up slides for due diligence questions.
You might’ve noticed I didn’t include a competition slide. I know I’m going against conventional wisdom here, but if you haven’t created differentiation from you’re competitors in slide 2 or 3, you haven’t delivered the presentation.
#entrepreneur
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