Death by PowerPoint Rule

–> Refrain from sending PowerPoint presentations that have more slides than the number of minutes you have been given to present your business.

You may laugh, but this happens a lot. We typically give entrepreneurs 30 minutes on a 1st call to discuss the business and demo the product. This leaves plenty of time to ask a bunch of initial questions. Before the call we have received slides decks with 50+ slides that the entrepreneur suggests we “discuss in depth” during the call… oh boy

I recently realized that younger entrepreneurs that have been coached through leading business incubators like AlphaLab or TechStars get this right every time. Through these programs, entrepreneurs are trained to present their business in a concise, time efficient manner. These entrepreneurs continue to use this format when approaching angels and VC. A practiced and tight business pitch will go a long way towards getting a 2nd meeting and, more importantly, getting funded.

There are tons of “rules” out there regarding PowerPoint but most rules focus on overall, message headings, font size, etc. We all love to hate PowerPoint, but it is here to stay….this doesn’t mean that we have to overuse it!