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Today, we will look at a subscriber’s deck sent to me.
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The design here is incredible, and the one-liner (although split in two) is excellent. I don’t have any honest criticism of this slide.
I like the idea, but a perspective framer would have been more appropriate than a “market” slide. That said, this still works well and hits most of the key points that a prospective framer would have. Most importantly, it gives investors a reason to continue paying attention to see how you will capture the market.
I don’t like that we are diving deeper into the market here, we really need to nail the start of the deck with a perspective framer, problem the solution. This is now a real sidetrack into something that isn’t essential. Market information is not the core part of the story.
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Still on the market, and I can guarantee at this stage, investors are starting to skim because this isn’t the information they want or are expecting at this stage. Suppose you are going to fail to introduce your problem and solution early on. In that case, you risk investors skipping through the deck, you also start moving towards a point where you will be seen as a vitamin (as those companies like to follow this structure of emphasizing opportunity instead of stating a real solvable problem).
This is interesting data but again it doesn’t show me a problem that can be solved.
Finally, we get to the problem; it’s very late in the game to get there, and at this stage, it no longer sounds like a problem but like trying to capture a growing market. The previous slides have set the wrong perspective for this slide, which could have come across as a really important problem if presented correctly.
I like having two problem slides and diving deeper, but at this stage, the deck has lost me, and now we aren’t explaining a problem that I care about or seems specific enough to have a painkiller.
This isn’t a solution. It’s a statement, maybe some type of vision or mission statement. After the build up being poor this was a chance to maybe recapture attention that really failed.
By this point, the deck is dead, so I don’t see much reason to keep going through slide by slide. It needs to be trashed and start again; the entire narrative needs to be rethought, and the problem/solution needs to be clearly communicated. It’s clear that there is something there (as an advisor), but the deck is so poor that most investors won’t consider the company, and even as an advisor, I’d want to be able to start over; I wouldn’t want to rework this.
This is really a great example of a deck where, if the company were based on merit, it might have a 1/10 chance of raising; this deck made that 1/1000. The deck is a barrier to any progress.
Would you invest based on this deck? |
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