PowerPoint Presentations

PowerPoint Presentations (“PP”) have become the defacto standard for company’s to present their story to investment bankers, venture capitalists and other funding sources. The reason that funding sources had switched to reading PP is it gives them the ability to review more deals at a quicker pace.

If you want to get a funding sources attention there is no better way than providing a killer PP. The PP should have no less than 10 and no more than 15 slides. Twelve is the perfect number. Each slide of the PP should contain short key bullet points. Try to limit bullet points to four a page. The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words is especially true when it comes to PP. If a graph, illustration, etc can get the message across by all means use it.

Here are the top 8 areas that a venture capitalist is looking for in your presentation

1. Clarity Be clear, concise and succinct. Don’t blather on about a subject. It makes you look as though you are not practiced, articulate about your business or considerate of your audience’s time.

2. Bullet Points Venture capitalists think in terms of bullet points. (You can easily imagine this as you catch them looking at their watches before you are even 5 minutes into your presentation). So try to place the most important information/message that you want them to retain in bullet point fashion.

3. Communicate Like the Executive Summary to your Business Plan, your presentation must clearly communicate:

Product or Service
Business Objective
Target Market
Market Size and Opportunity
Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Management Team
What You Will Need to Succeed

4. Be Honest & Direct Don’t be inhibited when asking for what you will need from a venture capitalist to move your company forward. Venture capitalists can offer a great deal of help and guidance in finance and management. It is important that you have a realistic perspective of your strengths and weaknesses and are willing to ask for help.

5. Use Demos, Graphs & Illustrations Demos of your product/services are good. Make sure that your demo paints a picture of how a customer will use your product. This will help the VC visualize your product’s application in the market, and confirms your knowledge of the target market. Don’t get lost in the ‘gee-whiz’ technology. Stay focused on the application and end benefit to your product. The demo’s objective is to illustrate who, how and why a customer will use your product. Finally, make sure the demo works well. Practice incorporating it into your presentation a lot.

6. Substantiate the Marketplace Present a complete picture of your market opportunity. Nothing will excite a VC audience more than substantiating why a large market will demand your product or service.

7. Be Passionate & Enthusiastic Investors love to work with entrepreneurs because they are excited about their product, passionate about meeting a customer need and talented visionaries. Don’t hold back when presenting. Enthusiasm is contagious.

8. Presentation Timing You are typically granted 60 minutes in your initial presentation meeting. Keep the presentation to 20 – 30 minutes allowing plenty of time for Q & A. Also remember to use the 1-Slide-Per-2-Minute rule.

Some individuals are just ‘naturals’ at presenting. Other individuals would rather have a root canal performed on them. No matter what your level of expertise, chances are you can benefit from brushing up on this valuable skill and I strongly recommend Mandel Communications as a source for training. (mandelcom.com).

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