Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 08/06/10

An EV1 all-electric car by GM that escaped in 2005.

Digging in this week post-vacation.

After five months of intense work with some great clients, my consultancy, VerdeStrategy, finally has a couple of open slots for new projects and clients. Contact me here if your company can use some help with strategic communications, business planning or developing your investor presentations.


Now, after that shameless self-promotion message, on to the links.


A lot of Electric Vehicle love  this week:

First, how'd you like to travel from Alaska to Argentina in an Electric Sports Car? Greentech Media has a story about two entrepreneurs who did just that: Sports Car

Anna Clark from GreenBiz explains that consumer choice will be the ultimate driver when it comes to EVs in Selling Electric Cars Requires Plugged-In Drivers

CleanTechies blog notes that Fast Vehicle Charging Goes by Many Names (Just don't call it Al...)

And here's a video link to my appearance on FOX Business Network this week on $GM and the Chevy Volt: Green Skeptic on FOX

All that EV goodness aside, our StockTwits pal Gregor MacDonald reminds us that we're still Eating Gasoline in America

Is solar now cheaper than new nuclear? A new US study says it's true in North Carolina: Solar

Up next: Two Energy Efficiency Stories from Beantown (or thereabouts):

Always smart @cleantechvc on Energy Efficiency: Where angels will shine.

And congratulations are in order for Green Skeptic-favorite EnerNoc (ENOC) on a profitable quarter and almost 5GW under management: $ENOC

Have a great weekend everyone!


(Disclosure: I hold long positions in ENOC. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)

The Six Slide Challenge

I have an outline for a pitch deck that I recommend to clients of VerdeStrategy. It calls for 11 slides (10 if they can, but no more than 11) and goes more or less like this:

1. Company name/logo/tag, full contact info
2. What Do You Do? Core Value Proposition
3. Team (Management/Advisory)
4. What Pain are you Solving?
5. How? What's Your Solution/Benefits
6. Secret Sauce/IP/Differentiation
7. Go-to-Market Strategy
8. Competition/True Size of Market/Opportunity
9. Business Model/Stage
10. Plausible Financials (Projections for 3-5 years)
11. The Ask/Milestones/Summary

There's some variation therein, obviously, depending upon the business model or the intended audience. I've gleaned a lot from experts ranging from Garr Reynolds, Guy Kawasaki, and Bill Reichert, among others. As a template, it works pretty well.

A couple of weeks ago, Fred Wilson published a post on investor pitches in which he recommended only six slides. "You can explain your business in mind numbing detail or you can inspire an investor and let them imagine," Fred suggested. "Guess what works better?"

But it was my pal Andy Swan's comments on Fred's post that really got me thinking. He outlined the following six slides:

1. Imagine a world where....
2. Here's how we get there...
3. Known obstacles to overcome
4. The pot of gold
5. Why our team is awesome
6. Routing number for investment

I decided to play around with it on Friday afternoon and try to describe VerdeStrategy, my consulting and advisory firm focused on the cleantech, energy, and environment sectors.

Could I describe VerdeStrategy in six slides using the "Swanified" outline? Could I further get across the essential value proposition we offer in, as Fred stipulated, "six slides that will inspire and leave something for the imagination"? It was a challenge I couldn't resist.

Here is my first take. Let me know what you think:

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• Can you pitch in 6 slides? (startupnorth.ca)
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• Six Slides (avc.com)
• Friday Green Skeptic Linkfest (thegreenskeptic.com)