We've seen all sorts of presentations from startups over the years. But none as succinct, yet as effective as one we saw a few days ago.
The Seattle company in question is one that pitched us a few years ago. At the time, we loved the team, but thought they seemed to be remarkably unfocused. So, rather than have our money burned in a "bumping into trees" exercise, we passed. Now they were back - with laser focus - and it showed.
Before the presentation started, the CEO told us he only brought seven slides. And oh, by the way, they were all in 30 point type! My immediate reaction was, "This guy must have his stuff together!" Rather than death by PowerPoint, he was planning to subject us to a real discussion, where the knowledge of the management team was the foundation, not the slides. And the goal was interaction with potential investors, not to baffle us with BS.
They did not disappoint. Picture this:
- Slide 1: Company name, their thesis in three words, the opportunity in nine words
- Slide 2: Their secret sauce - in about five bullet points and a total of 15 words
- Slide 3: Why their customers see their value - in three bullet points and a total of 30 words
- Slide 4: Their customer traction - in four bullet points and about 40 words
- Slide 5: Customer traction graph (essentially proof points for slide 4)
- Slide 6: Revenue forecast for last 2, next 8 quarters - with justification in less than 10 words
- Slide 7: Profit model - in three bullet points and about 20 words
That was it. We talked for an hour, and had to end the session with all of us still fully engaged.
How different that is than the standard pitch where we see slide after wordy slide while the CEO or other members drone on, and by the end of the hour half the room has mentally checked out.
Now, to be fair, besides a crisp presentation, this team also had a powerful one. Having bumped into trees as we expected them to, they had their eyes open. So when a customer started pulling them in a direction they hadn't initially expected, they were ready to engage, understand, and generalize that opportunity to a broad market.
We've still got work to do to find out more here. But as an initial meeting, it doesn't get much better than this. In fact, I dropped a quick email to our lead partner on the deal that simply said, "Nike (company name)" - or in other words "Just Do It!".
Next time you think about pitching a potential investor, see if you can condense your pitch down to something under 10 slides, using something north of 24 point type. If you can, you'll stand out. If you can't - maybe you need more focus.