Making a Pitch: The 10/20/30 Rule

Understanding how to build a PowerPoint that will grab your audience’s attention is extremely important, especially when presenting to a Venture Capitalist. Follow the 10/20/30 rule of making PowerPoint presentations and you should be in good shape. (This rule was coined by Guy Kawasaki, a Venture Capitalist)

•    10 Slides
•    20 Minutes
•    No smaller than 30 point font

10 Slides: You need to sell idea and do it quickly.  10 slides is the optimal amount and will help to get your message without boring your listeners. The ten topics that should be included in your presentation that every Venture Capitalist will look for are:

1.    The Problem
2.    The Solution being presented
3.    Business Model
4.    Secret Sauce: the underlying technology that separates you from the competition
5.    Marketing and Sales
6.    Competition
7.    Team
8.    Future Projections and Milestones
9.    Status and Timeline
10.    Summary and Forward Steps

20 Minutes:  We all have heard stories of listeners getting bored or distracted by their CrackBerry’s;  don’t let it happen to you. 20 minutes is the appropriate time for any presentation, because it gives you approximately 2 minutes for each slide. Pace yourself and make sure that you speak about the topic at hand. Do not make the mistake of jumping or speaking about a topic that is in a future slide; keep focused.
These meetings will usually be scheduled for approximately an hour; even so, people will show up late, technical issues will arise, and meetings might be cut short. Giving your presentation in twenty minutes will allow for forty minutes of Q&A and comments.

30 Point: 30 Point font as a limitation is important, because using a size any smaller will result in having too many words on the page.  It will also seem as if you do not know your material. Additionally, if you write out your sentences, your audience tends to read the slides rather than listening to you present. Do not make your slides cluttered or wordy; when appropriate use images rather words – this can really help drive your point home. 

Another rule that should helpful is the 5X5: no more that 5 bullet points per slide with no more than 5 words per bullet point. This will help with the layout of each slide and leaves room to add images if need be.

Keep it short, simple, and to the point. Visit Presentation Zen for a list of great presentation and books that will help perfecting that pitch.

Hope these guidelines help on creating your presentations, if you have any questions please be sure to contact me or post a comment.

Happy Pitching!
Ashkan