Be Direct

When I see the pitch decks, especially in the early stage startups, many of the messages are indirect. People unconsciously believe that audiences do some logical inference automatically, but the reality is that it only confuses people.

This is one of the examples in the presentation. Instead of titling the graphs, you should directly say the true message you want to convey.

Similarly in the competitive landscape slides. You should deliver the message that “we’re fully differentiated from others” or “we’re in the blue ocean” instead just saying “competitive landscape.”

Another example. The graph of ranking may imply many things; maybe №3 is good enough, or maybe №3 does not satisfy you. Hence, the clarification of the message is very important.

The example above is about the problem statement. “Repetitive Tasks” may imply something bad, but it’s still not direct enough. “Demotivated” is 100% a problem, though.

Following are the examples of simple, direct description of the problems.

Also, there’re typical patterns of expressions which are confusing. Examples are listed below.

Conclusion

Be direct.