Guy Kawasaki has been a strong and influential voice in the startup world. Your 20/10/30 rule (a presentation must have 10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes and contain no sources smaller than 30 points) is an excellent starting reference. He's been talking about that format for a decade (here's a video from about 11 years ago). The 10-slide rule made sense in the context where some founders were still using MBA-style business plans that were 50 to 60 pages long and still didn't get to the heart of things.
A year ago, the average successful slide deck contained 19 slides. Today, the average deck contains 16 slides. So, should founders continue to strive to shorten their presentation to 10 slides? I took a closer look at the template, where it's key, and where founders miss out if they use it.
The Kawasaki template contains 10 slides:
- Title slide including address, email and mobile number.
- Problem/opportunity: What pain is being relieved?
- Value proposition: The value that solves the problem.
- Underlying magic or product demo.
- Business model: How do you make money?
- Marketing plan: How to reach customers?
- Competitive analysis.
- Equipment.
- Financial projections and key metrics with bottom-up analysis.
- Achievements to date, timeline and use of funds.
What works
Kawasaki's 10-slide deck does a few things very well. Thinking about the value of the solution (i.e. the value proposition) was quite ahead of its time. It is a great way to illustrate market demand for a product.
The demo flow from product to value proposition to underlying magic/product demo works very well. It is often described as problem/solution/product, and it is worth knowing why there is a difference between the solution and the product slide. In short: the solution is the strategy and vision of how to solve a problem, and the product is the tactics for it.
Founders often misunderstand the “underlying magic” part of this template. Today it is more commonly described as the "moat." What is it about your team, market, or product that gives you an unfair advantage? That's the magic.
Kawasaki's marketing scheme is excellent, and their note that “going viral” is not a marketing plan is astute: don't plan to go viral; It's weird, you can't plan for it, and it makes you seem out of touch.
The other note that Kawasaki makes is to leave aside the exit strategy. I agree, and his line is perfect: “If investors ask about your exit strategy, it means they have no idea. If you answer, you have a lot in common.”
What doesn't work so well
Combining financial projections, key metrics, and a bottom-up analysis of market size into a single slide can be counterproductive; Market sizing is not a precise science, but there are often many different approaches and it will almost certainly require an entire slide just for that. Financial projections are usually best presented as an operational plan, which combines financial and operational metrics, such as headcount, product milestones, etc.
The most confusing part of Kawasaki's model is splitting the “key metrics” and “accomplishments to date” into two different slides. For some startups, telling this part of the story as milestones and KPIs works well; For others, a timeline might better illustrate the point. If the startup doesn't have revenue yet, milestones can be about how the risk has been de-risked so far.
A bottom-up market size analysis can work very well, especially for companies that are creating entirely new markets. If you are entering an existing market, a top-down analysis (often expressed as TAM/SAM/SOM analysis) can work, as long as you are measuring the right things.
Another point about the Kawasaki model that has not aged well is the note that it is okay to have equipment that is not perfect. In general, that is no longer true. Founders are getting better, smarter, and more experienced, and I'd say that's the biggest slip these days.
Kawasaki also mentions putting an address and phone number on the cover. That's outdated, of course, but it's a nice touch to mention if you're headquartered (and if so, in what country, state, and city), or if you're a distributed company in some way.
Missing?
The most interesting omission from the template is the mission slide; Rarely do you see a presentation that doesn't explain to some extent the reason for the startup's existence. Often this is a short sentence on the cover slide, or a “why we exist” statement on slide 2.
It is also timely for startups to include some thoughts on “Why now?” Startups don't exist in a vacuum, and considering why this is the right time can be a powerful story motivation. Arriving too late is painful, as is arriving too early.
Kawasaki includes a “business model” slide, which discusses “who has your money and how it will get from your pocket to yours,” but most modern slides go into much greater detail. Decks now often include customer personas or target customer groups, expanding into the SOM part of the market. Who are the target customers? This is then translated into a marketing slide, which describes how these target customers become actual customers.
The template includes a lot of information beyond “usage of funds,” and it is advisable to split it into a separate slide. Money is raised for a reason; Making it clear what you are going to do with it is a crucial point to convey and should not be confused with much other information.
Getting into pricing and startup unit economics can be a bit deep, and most companies can leave it out of the presentation, but it requires stopping and thinking about whether it's something that could be useful for potential investors to be aware of. it. .
