Your Deck is BS

Founders use their deck as a brochure. Something to send an investor or potential partner. But, that’s not what it is for.

Your deck is a condensed business plan. What use to be 20 pages of bullet points. It is a plan, a map, and a strategy in 10 slides.

The message is condensed, clarified, and made better daily. Stop treating it like a brochure. And never embellish. Instead, focus on how the things you’re doing now will change the future state of the company.

It should spell out what you do, how you do it, why your team is best, and why now. An internal tool that is reluctantly shared with qualified investors. Not a public document.

Behind the deck is the financial model. A 3 to 5 year plan that dictates how money grows the business and the future results of today’s actions.

Don’t close your deck once funding is achieved. Keep updating it with new information. Not for others. For your leadership team.

Update the financial model as things change. You may be surprised by the impact. Maybe it’s not a good idea to make that hire. Perhaps, using funds for something else will grow the company faster.

This is what the deck should illustrate. Using data from the financial model. It’s your tool. Not a brochure for investors.

Todd Moses