It’s been a couple of months since I “hosted” a Pitch Deck Study Hall in which I solicited pitch decks and offered to give some feedback on the decks. The response was great – definitely soaked up the two hours I allotted (and then some), and I still have pitch decks coming in.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get to all of them. So in reflecting on the decks for which I was able to send some feedback, I realized there were a few things I found myself repeating. For the people who haven’t yet sent me a deck or did but I haven’t been able to review, I thought I would consolidate a few tips:
- Words words words. The piece of feedback I found myself repeating most often was: way too wordy. This is how I think about it: Pitch decks aren’t made to be read, they’re glanced. A person should be able to glance at a slide and in 5-10 seconds “get” the point of the slide. It shouldn’t take 15-20 minutes to read a 15 slide deck. Think about what it would be like if you were presenting the slides. Would you expect the audience to focus on reading your slides instead of listening to your presentation? Of course not. They should be able to glance at your slide and get the point so they can focus on what you’re actually saying. My favorite decks were simple and elegant. They showed, not told. And did so with just enough words.
- Looks matter. Sorry, it's not just in your dating life :) The easiest way to make a great first impression on a VC, Angel or potential customer is to have one fine-looking deck. Some decks I saw just felt clean and professional. I could tell the person who put the deck together understood consumers, and that he or she would bring that same design aesthete and attention to detail to the design of their product. Other decks took away from the content of the slides with their unpolished presentation. Basically, you want your deck to be attractive and have a good personality. Does that mean you need to pay a designer to design a ppt master slide layout? No. But do what you can -- it goes a long way.
- Tell a story. A pitch deck is an opportunity to tell a story. When a reader effortlessly flows from one slide to the next, you have total control over that voyage. A choppy, random assortment of slides creates friction for your reader (or "glancer"). To test your story, try reading your slides out loud – does it flow? If you’re having trouble figuring out the right order for your slides, when I was working at a consulting firm, I remember I went through a workshop on the Pyramid Principle. You only need to read the first couple of chapters (at least that’s all I did – whoops!) but I really think it helps you think about how to structure the flow. That, or you can read my colleague David Cowan's great blog post, How to NOT Write a Business Plan (the ultimate pitch deck cheat sheet!).
Hope that’s helpful and look forward to hosting another Study Hall some time soon.
