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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Your Long-Suffering Audience

The title of this post could be "The companies weren't bad, but their presentations weren't any better."

But I'll go easy. (Hell, I've been guilty too...)

It's not that the presentations were bad, necessarily; well, okay, they were. Yet some had useful information either about the company, the sector, the pain they were addressing, or the solution they proposed. Some even had realistic projections and maybe even a pithy quotable line or two.

Really, I suspect none of the presenters spent sufficient time on their presentations; especially on cutting them. (Wasn't it Pascal who said, he "made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter"?)

Or thinking through their audiences.

Oh, speaking of audiences: If you're doing a keynote, especially first thing in the morning or just after lunch, do something different. Use your OWN knowledge of the topic to craft your points and don't really on someone's data points or best-selling book to get your message across.

And don't assume that the audience either knows too little or too much about your topic. (Especially after you've ask them who they are. If you're going to ask, you need to adjust accordingly.)

Paul Kedrosky posted some good tips for better presentations (or at least quirkier ones), which has my vote: paulkedrosky.com

And, of course, there is always something worth reading at Presentation Zen.

Before you commit a presentation misdemeanor, consider the alternatives. And respect your audience.