Cut to the chase in investor presentations

Most of the slides in my presentation about VC pitch lessons do not stand on their own. In a series of blog posts I will take some of them and add the full long-hand description of what they express.

Tell what you are about in the very first slide of the presentation. VCs like to put in you a box. If you don’t do it for them, they will spend the time guessing while you deliver your carefully crafted buildup of the story. People who are busy guessing, do not register other content.

Telling what you are about is not the same as running the entire presentation on the first slide, and repeat the same story on the other 20 slides in the deck. “We are an online book store”. “Aah, now I know”. No more explanation needed.

2 comments

Mike2009-05-21 13:56:41

Jan, as usual, has it exactly right. Many of my clients so desperately want to be known they insist on what I call "the myth of everything". They want the audience, say a potential investor, to know absolutely everything about them and then they go right ahead and try to achieve this ridiculous objective. In slide after slide. In meeting after meeting. Of course the result is utter boredom and disinterest. I liken them to adolescent males, who haven't learnt to be cool yet (do we ever learn this?) going on a first date. Instead of listening, instead of creating a sense of intrigue, they just start talking about everything and anything without thought as to whether or not their date has any interest in the topic or not. They just go and go and go. CEO's are much the same way. Their passion gets the better of them. What we have to do is help them to understand how defeatist they are being. Once they see the light, of how being disciplined in their script, of how powerful brevity is, they come around. For awhile anyway, then they typically revert back to their old ways.

Jeff2009-05-22 02:09:51

Jan, this is a great post. In fact, it has made me think about the first slide that I have in a presentation I am working on. Out it goes. I need something that places the talk in just the right context.

Thank again!