10/20/30 Rule

Guy Kawasaki, venture capitalist, entrepreneur, author and former Apple Fellow at Apple Computers, Inc. has this advice for people pitching anything using Powerpoint. He said in his blog at http://blog.guykawasaki.com, “If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business.”

10 slides: A venture capitalist cares about the following ten topics. The Problem. Your Solution. Business Model. Underlying Magic/Technology. Marketing & Sales. Competition. Team. Projections and Milestones. Status and Timeline. Summary and Call to Action.

20 Minutes: So you are slotted for an hour. Remember set-up, people coming and going. “In a perfect world, you give your pitch in 20 minutes and leave 40 minutes for discussion,” he said.

30 Point: “People think more text is more convincing,” Kawasaki said. “Force yourself to use no font smaller than 30 points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the more salient points and to know how to explain them well.”