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Avoid Death By PowerPoint – Create Slides That Don’t Suck

InfoChachkie

As a venture capitalist, I am asked to provide feedback on a fair number of PowerPoint and Keynote slide decks. 9 Steps To Better Slides. Presentation slides serve two primary purposes. One is to support a live presentation in which each slide is annotated verbally. The other is for the content to standalone, allowing a reader to effectively review the slides without the benefit of a speaker's insights. Your slides should do the same.

Slides 258
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Profits Slide at Activision as Competitors Gain Ground

L.A. Business Journal

The Santa Monica-based video game publisher behind popular games such as “Call of Duty” and “Overwatch” saw its profits decline more than 18% from this time last year, reporting a net income of $328 million

Slides 113
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Cash-Strapped Snap Sees Stock Price Slide Following Analyst Report

L.A. Business Journal

The stock price for Snap Inc. hit a new low — falling 6.4 percent to $7 a share – after a report described the Santa Monica social media company as “quickly running out of money

Slides 113
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Katalyst Teams With Slide On KatalystHQ Distribution

socalTECH

Hollywood-based Katalyst Media , the online content production firm headed by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, said Tuesday that the firm has inked a partnership with social media firm Slide to publish the firm's original web series through its widgets. According to the firms, Slide will be the exclusive distributor of a season of KatalystHQ, which is focused on "life at corporate headquarters of Katalyst Media." Tags: katalyst ashton content slide kutcher media

Slides 100
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Look Out, Investors: Cryptocurrency Values Slide As Warnings Take Off

Xconomy

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have seen dramatic but volatile price surges during the past year. But this month their billions in estimated market value are eroding , amid widening suspicions against one trading platform, a half-billion-dollar heist from another exchange, and an awakened global regulatory community.

Slides 61
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Ten Slides Make a Killer Investor Presentation

Startup Professionals Musings

A perfect round number is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Most advisors will tell you to write the business plan first (20-30 pages), then distill the key points into a set of Microsoft PowerPoint slides for standup presentations to potential investors. Here are the ten slides you need: Problem and market need.

Slides 93
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Adding Slides Does Not Enhance Your Investor Pitch

Startup Professionals Musings

A perfect round number is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minutes. Here are the ten slides you need: Problem and market need. Hand out copies of the slides before the presentation for note taking, with proper cover sheet, with brochures, product samples, or other marketing material you may have.

Slides 97
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It’s A Tablet! It’s A PC! No! It’s The Samsung Sliding Tablet PC 7 Series

Tech Zulu Event

Samsung announced the launch of its first sliding tablet PC with Microsoft Windows 7 operating system and powered by the upcoming Intel Atom processor platform, currently code-named “Oak Trail,” the PC 7 Series. News Retail & Consumers Science & Technology Video CES CES 2011 Microsoft PC Samsung Samsung 7 series Samsung Sliding PC Tablet tablet Windows 7We first caught a glimpse of this beauty at the Microsoft Keynote the opening night of CES.

Slides 76
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Katalyst Media Ties With Ustream, Sets Season Finale

socalTECH

Separately, Katalyst and Slide said that it will release the season finale for the firm's online series KatalystHQ on Slide's FunSpace site Wednesday. Slide has been the exclusive distributor of the KatalystHQ series on its FunSpace site, since February. Tags: katalyst media ashton kutcher ustream iphone slide katalysthq content video

Slides 133
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Stock Market Slide Effecting Start Up Valuations

The Quigley Report

Early stage VCs typically say that the ebbs and flows of the stock market don't effect the valuations they pay in start up financings. That may be true. At the formation stage, when a start up is little more than a business plan and a few dedicated engineers, there are a host of other factors that influence valuations more so than PE multiples of public companies.

Report 40
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Tinder Acquires Snapchat-Like App Wheel

L.A. Business Journal

Tinder announced on Thursday that it had acquired Wheel, a video-and-picture slide show app developer, for an undisclosed amount

Slides 133
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10 Ways To Make Your Funding Pitch More Hard-Hitting

Startup Professionals Musings

If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time. I outlined what investors expect to see in an old article “ Adding Slides Does Not Enhance Your Investor Pitch.

Slides 144
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Get your pitch applications in for the Boulder Micro-Meetup

TechCrunch LA

No slides, no props, no costumes (Ok, maybe costumes.) A reminder that I’ll be holding a micro-meetup at Boomtown on Broadway in Boulder, Colorado on Wednesday, March 29th at 7pm. You’ll have 2 minutes to pitch in front of two local judges and then 2 minutes of questions. Boomtown is at 2060 Broadway B1 in the basement. To get there, park around Spruce and Broadway and it’s… Read More. Startups TC broadway Los Angeles spruce

Slides 213
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Pitch Genius Workshop

SoCal Tech Calendar

Through a slide-by-slide explanation of the investor deck, you will learn what turns investors on, what turns them off, and what investors absolutely abhor when founders are pitching them. Saturday, August 11, 2018 -- Pitch Genius Workshop. The purpose of this workshop is to educate idea-to-early stage startups about investors, fundraising, and how to make a successful pitch. We're going deep into the investors' mind to understand how they analyze startups for investment.

Slides 100
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See you tonight at the Boulder Micro-Meetup

TechCrunch LA

No slides, no props, no costumes (Ok, maybe costumes.) A reminder that I’ll be holding a micro-meetup at Boomtown on Broadway in Boulder, Colorado tonight at 7pm. You’ll have two minutes to pitch in front of two local judges and then two minutes of questions. Boomtown is at 2060 Broadway B1 in the basement. To get there, park around Spruce and Broadway and it’s in the… Read More. Startups TC boulder broadway Karaoke Los Angeles meetups spruce

Slides 206
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Everything about Java 8

TechEmpower

There's more detail about this class and its performance in a set of slides put together by Heinz Kabutz (starting about half-way through the set of slides): "Phaser and StampedLock Presentation". The following post is a comprehensive summary of the developer-facing changes coming in Java 8. This next iteration of the JDK is currently scheduled for general availability in September 2013. At the time of this writing, Java 8 development is still very much in progress.

Java 560
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What Should You Send a VC Before Your Meeting?

Both Sides of the Table

If you have another 15–20 super detailed slides they should either be in an appendix after you get through the main presentation or in a separate deck that you may or may not get out. These additional slides are often called “pocket slides” as in you have them in your pocket in case you need to pull them out. Pocket slides work best when they prove a point you were asked and look like they’re just part of how you analyze your business outside of fund-raising meetings.

Slides 261
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One Simple Way to Eliminate Distractions in a Board Meeting

Both Sides of the Table

If you present slide after slide and if this becomes a download of too much information and not enough of a discussion then people’s attention spans wane. The best board meetings are discussions and debates about the business yet many executive teams spent their time wanting to walk through hours of slides on how great they’re doing.

Slides 275
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Please don’t overestimate your audience’s knowledge

Berkonomics

Immediately, I can tell how to orient the explanations behind my pre-cast slides, based upon the response. Ask the important question first.

Slides 156
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Even a taste of ownership motivates employees.

Berkonomics

Each month, at the monthly company lunch for all, I’d greet everyone with “Hello shareholders”, and proceed to show the assembled throng slides of high level financial statements, pointing out progress against plan. Close. How about employees all the way down the line and through the corporation? How do we align them to the goals and strategies of the enterprise? Obviously for the appropriate individuals, a bonus program aligned to the department’s goals is appropriate.

Slides 243
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Fixing the Top Fundraising Mistakes Startup Entrepreneurs Make

SoCal Tech Calendar

Together they will review the challenges that face startup founders, including how to avoid the most common problems in pitch deck slide presentations, developing new products/services, finding first customers, building a startup team, sharing equity with employees and advisors, setting valuations for venture capital and angel investors, and strategizing for scalable growth. Monday, August 3, 2020 -- Fixing the Top Fundraising Mistakes Startup Entrepreneurs Make.

Slides 100
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10 Keys To Limiting Your Startup Story To Ten Minutes

Startup Professionals Musings

If you have ten minutes, that means no more than ten slides. I’ve seen several presentations that never moved past the first slide before running out of time. I outlined what investors expect to see in an old article “ Adding Slides Does Not Enhance Your Investor Pitch.

Slides 117
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How To Give A Horrendous Investor Pitch

InfoChachkie

If you are forced to display financial data, ensure that the slides are unintelligible. An effective method to incite Death By PowerPoint is to deploy an extraordinary number of slides. A minimum of 20 to 30 slides per minute is a reasonable rule of thumb. In addition to relying on an enormous slide deck, you can accentuate Death By PowerPoint in a number of ways: Hide behind a podium. Turn your back to the audience and read each slide verbatim from the screen.

Slides 220
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Pitch Genius Workshops: Learn What Investors Want

SoCal Tech Calendar

Through a slide-by-slide explanation of an investor pitch deck, learn what turns investors on, what turns them off, and what investors absolutely abhor when founders are pitching them. Saturday, April 14, 2018 -- Pitch Genius Workshops: Learn What Investors Want. The purpose of this workshop is to educate you about investors, fundraising, and how to make a successful pitch. We're going deep into the investors mind to really understand how they analyze startups for investment.

Slides 100
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Angel / VC Funding in A Frothy Market

Both Sides of the Table

I think you can get the gist of it from my presentation although some slides don’t quite tell the full story. I had the privilege of keynoting at the Founder Showcase tonight in San Francisco. Adeo asked me to speak about fund raising. I generally don’t like to speak about fund raising in a frothy market. If you’re bullish you seem like a Cramer-esque cheerleader and if you’re bearish you sound like a party pooper. But Adeo asked so I obliged.

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Report: Ring Encouraged Users To Report Their Neighbors For Free Stuff

socalTECH

Motherboard--citing an internal company slide presentation from Ring--said people were encouraged to report on their neighbors in exchange for discount codes and "swag" from Ring, after creating a new "Digital Neighborhood Watch" program. Los Angeles-based Ring , the developer of Internet-connected doorbells and security cameras, reportedly told people to report "suspicious activity" in their neighborhood in exchange for free "swag bags", according to Motherboard.

Slides 113
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5 Secrets That Make Jeff Bezos The Leader Of The Pack

Startup Professionals Musings

Avoid PowerPoint and graphic slide presentations. He, like Steve Jobs, believes the process of generating a short written narrative forces a clarity of thinking not found in visual slide presentations.

Slides 134
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Here’s how NOT to define your competition

Berkonomics

An entrepreneur pitches using a deck with no slide for competition. If you are raising funds, list “do nothing” as a viable competitor in your slide deck. We investors see this all the time. When asked (as we always do,) the response is “This is new. We have no competition.”. Niet! Unh unh. Professional investors laugh when they hear an entrepreneur come out with that one. That statement has killed more investment deals than almost any other.

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How to Make the Right Business Decisions

Jason Nazar

See the full presentation & slides below How do we make the right business decisions? There are 4 factors to consider whenever we have opportunity cost. Potential Upside 2.) Likelihood of Success 3.) Effort Involved 4.) Strategic Value.

Slides 40
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Aperio Acquisition Completes

socalTECH

Aperio, a maker of digital pathology and slide digitization systems, and Leica had announced the deal on August 21st. The acquisition of Vista, California-based Aperio by German firm Leica Biosystems has completed, the firms said Thursday. Financial details of the buy were not disclosed. Aperio was venture backed by HLM Venture Partners, Galen Partners, Advanced Technology Ventures, Acadia Woods Partners and BlackRock Alternative Advisors. READ MORE>>.

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Don’t over-estimate the knowledge of your audience.

Berkonomics

Immediately, I can tell how to orient the explanations behind my pre-cast slides, based upon the response. When making a presentation to a new audience, the smart thing to do, if there is an opportunity, is to ask your audience by show of hands, if they have some knowledge of your industry or space. If you are making a one-to-one presentation, don’t start without a conversation about the other person’s knowledge of your space.

Slides 201
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Here Are the Details About Upfront Ventures’ Newest EIR – @Chamillionaire

Both Sides of the Table

Chamillionaire has a way more refined sense of what customer behavior is like than most ivy league graduates with nice Powerpoint slides that I meet. Five-and-a-half years ago I first met Chamillionaire at a tech conference in LA. I saw him on stage at the event talking about how he used social media to engage audiences. This was 2009 and his understanding of audience engagement was far beyond anything I was hearing from most people at that time.

Slides 420
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How To Give A Horrendous Investor Pitch

InfoChachkie

If you are forced to display financial data, ensure that the slides are unintelligible. An effective method to incite Death By PowerPoint is to deploy an extraordinary number of slides. A minimum of 20 to 30 slides per minute is a reasonable rule of thumb. In addition to relying on an enormous slide deck, you can accentuate Death By PowerPoint in a number of ways: Hide behind a podium. Turn your back to the audience and read each slide verbatim from the screen.

Slides 154
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6 Keys To Preserving A Positive Business Image Online

Startup Professionals Musings

On the other hand, if you let your reputation slide early to be “cool,” it may take a lifetime to recover.

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How to Present and Answer Questions in a Team Presentation or VC Pitch

Both Sides of the Table

Assign out slides: The best way to involve your team members is to assign out slides they will own. But I find when you don’t assign slides that each person owns often the quiet team members get silenced. I sit through a lot of presentations. These range from companies pitching me to portfolio companies presenting at board meetings. Each of these scenarios has a team presenting.

Slides 377
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5 Characteristics of A Startup Destined For Success

Startup Professionals Musings

Many businesses slowly slide into a treadmill stage, where they become over-systematized, or on toward the big rut where creativity disappears (“the way we have always done thing”), on into the death rattle, where the market moves faster than the company.

Framework 137
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24/7 Media Expands Video Formats

socalTECH

The group--which is run out of Los Angeles, and is made up of the former team of Panache--said it has added a new Social Slide Bar, Action Button, and Click-to-Long Play formats, all designed to help advertisers engage viewers with video advertising. The Social Slide Bar links users to social media sites like Facebook; the Action Button links to retailers like Amazon.com; and the Click-to-Long Play format features links to longer, branded content.

Media 154
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What We Must Learn from Asia

Both Sides of the Table

slide 29). 70% of Korean population has Internet speeds > 5mbps (and avg = 15 mbps) – don’t bet that the Koreans won’t innovate on online content (slide 30). Larger online game market ($1 billion) than Japan despite 1/3 population and 1/2 GDP per capital (slide 99). 20% in the US) (slide 30), More than 50% have mobile TV & NFC chipsets (slide 87). Mobile ARPU = a staggering $110 / month for content and commerce alone (slide 88).

Slides 188
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5 Tactics To Minimize Meeting Time And Get More Done

Startup Professionals Musings

For example, you must forego the traditional meeting approach, where a team member presents a slide deck with all the background and multiple solution options on an issue, and asks you for a decision.

Mentor 151
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How to Nail a Group Presentation

Both Sides of the Table

In any speech I do that is information rich I often have a summary slide at the end with the key points I want them to remember. If you really get nervous and are afraid you’ll forget your lines have one 3X5 cue card in your hands for each slide. ” But writing lots of words on a slide you put up on a big screen so that later people will be able to understand what you said is also suboptimal. Most people suck at presenting to big groups.

Slides 399
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How I Lost 65 Pounds In 18 Months Without Any Fad Diets or Gimmicks

Both Sides of the Table

If you stop measuring when you’re having a bad day, week, month you’ll slide back to your yo-yo weight. June 2019 (left) and November 2020 (right) I’ve been reluctant to write this blog post because historically I don’t like talking about weight.

Writing 525
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Quick Practical, Tactical Tips for Presentations

Both Sides of the Table

It’s any meeting where you are in a small room and are being called on to present on some form of overhead slides. The worst behaved will literally never be on the slide you’re presenting. In slides, less is almost always more.

Tips 392
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How to Handle a VC Presentation with No Deck

Both Sides of the Table

I believe in this so much that, despite my post advising you to be prepared for the *norm* in VC, I wrote a post about a company that came in for a presentation and never even got the slides out or presented a demo. I think the norm in the industry is still to see Powerpoint slides and I wouldn’t hold this against anybody. Does that work for you or would you prefer that I start with slides?&# And if you prefer a demo and they don’t – don’t be dogmatic.