Presentation Toolkit

Purpose

This file covers everything that happens around the pitch — before, during, and after. Speaker notes, handouts, supporting materials, and the follow-up system that closes deals.

The deck gets you in the room. The toolkit determines what happens next.

SPEAKER NOTES SYSTEM

How to Write Speaker Notes That Actually Help

Bad speaker notes are a transcript of what you're going to say — which causes you to read them.

Good speaker notes are a prompt system — they remind you of your flow, flag your key transitions, and tell you what to emphasize.

Speaker Notes Template (Per Slide)

SLIDE [NUMBER]: [Slide title]

OPEN WITH:
[First sentence you say when this slide appears — memorized]

KEY POINT:
[The one thing they must remember from this slide — in bold]

TRANSITION TO NEXT:
[Exact phrase that bridges to the next slide — so you don't stall]

TIMING: [X] seconds / [X] minutes

IF THEY ASK [anticipated question]:
[Your prepared answer in 2–3 sentences]

ENERGY NOTE:
[How to deliver this slide — slow down / pause after / step forward / let visual breathe]

Filled-In Example (Traction Slide)

SLIDE 7: Traction

OPEN WITH:
"Let me show you what we've built in the last six months."

KEY POINT:
$12K MRR, growing 20% month over month — NOT the user count

TRANSITION TO NEXT:
"These numbers are growing because our business model works. Let me show you how we make money."

TIMING: 45 seconds

IF THEY ASK "How do you define MRR?":
"MRR is recurring monthly subscription revenue from active paying customers. 
We don't include one-time fees or pilots that haven't converted."

ENERGY NOTE:
Pause after saying the MRR number. 2 full seconds. Let it land.

SLIDE-BY-SLIDE SPEAKER NOTES TEMPLATE

Complete this for every slide before any live pitch.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SLIDE 1: COVER
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OPEN WITH: "Thank you for making time. I want to tell you about 
           [Company] and why I think this is the right moment for it."
KEY POINT: Your name. Company. Stick in their mind.
TIMING: 15 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SLIDE 2: PROBLEM
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OPEN WITH: [Your hook — story, stat, or question]
KEY POINT: [The pain must feel real. Not abstract.]
TRANSITION: "And here's what we built to solve it."
TIMING: 45–60 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SLIDE 3: SOLUTION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OPEN WITH: "[Company] is [one sentence — what it is and for whom]."
KEY POINT: The mechanism — HOW it works, not just what it is
TRANSITION: "And this is possible now because..."
TIMING: 45–60 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SLIDE 4: WHY NOW
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OPEN WITH: "Three things have changed that make this the right moment."
KEY POINT: Name the specific change — not vague trends
TRANSITION: "And the market this serves is significant."
TIMING: 30–45 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SLIDE 5: MARKET SIZE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OPEN WITH: "The total addressable market is $[X] billion."
KEY POINT: The beachhead — not just the TAM. Where you start and why.
TRANSITION: "And here's the product that captures that market."
TIMING: 30 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SLIDE 6: PRODUCT
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OPEN WITH: "Let me show you what a customer sees."
KEY POINT: The aha moment — what makes the customer say "I need this"
TRANSITION: "And it's working. Let me show you our numbers."
TIMING: 60–90 seconds (demo if live)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SLIDE 7: TRACTION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OPEN WITH: "Here's where we are today."
KEY POINT: [Your best number — headline it]
TRANSITION: "These numbers are growing because our model works."
TIMING: 45 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SLIDE 8: BUSINESS MODEL
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OPEN WITH: "We charge [pricing structure]. Here's the unit economics."
KEY POINT: LTV:CAC ratio — if it's favorable, say the number out loud
TRANSITION: "And we reach customers through a repeatable channel."
TIMING: 30–45 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SLIDE 9: GO-TO-MARKET
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OPEN WITH: "Our primary acquisition channel right now is [X]."
KEY POINT: Describe what's working NOW — not the theory
TRANSITION: "We're positioned where no one else is."
TIMING: 30 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SLIDE 10: COMPETITION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OPEN WITH: "There are [X] ways people solve this today. None of them work."
KEY POINT: Your position — what's different, not just what exists
TRANSITION: "The team building this is uniquely positioned to win it."
TIMING: 30–45 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SLIDE 11: TEAM
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OPEN WITH: "I want to tell you why this team."
KEY POINT: The personal connection to the problem — why you won't quit
TRANSITION: "Here's how we're going to deploy capital."
TIMING: 45 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SLIDE 12: THE ASK
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OPEN WITH: "We're raising $[X] on a [instrument] at a $[X]M cap."
KEY POINT: The milestone — what this money buys, not just what it pays for
CLOSE: "This is a big problem. We have early proof it can be solved. 
       And we have the team to do it. What questions can I answer?"
TIMING: 30–45 seconds
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

PRESENTATION HANDOUT FORMATS

When to Provide Handouts

Printed Deck — 3-Up Format Specs

Paper: US Letter, landscape
Layout: 3 slides per page (1 column, 3 rows)
Each slide: 6" × 3.375" with 0.25" margin around
Notes lines: 3 horizontal lines to the right of each slide
Header: Company name + date — top right corner
Footer: Page number + "Confidential" — bottom center

QR Code Business Card

Front:
[Logo]
[Name]
[Title]
[Company]

Back:
[QR code — links to: Linktree / direct deck link / Calendly]
"[Tagline — 40 characters max]"
[Website] | [Email]

FOLLOW-UP SYSTEM

The 24-Hour Rule

Every pitch or significant meeting must generate a follow-up within 24 hours. After 48 hours, the momentum is gone.

Follow-Up Email — After Investor Pitch

Subject: [Company] — thank you + [specific thing they asked about]

Hi [Name],

Thank you for the time today — [1 specific thing from the conversation that showed you were listening].

As promised / As mentioned, I'm sharing:
• [Deck link — use Docsend to track opens]
• [Executive summary / one-sheet]
• [Specific data or answer to question they raised]

On the question of [specific thing they raised]:
[2–3 sentences directly addressing their concern or curiosity]

Our next step from here: [What you discussed — follow-up call / intro / data room access]
[If no clear next step was established]: "I'd love to schedule a follow-up call if this is moving in the right direction. Here's my calendar: [Calendly link]"

[Name]
[Title] | [Company]
[Phone] | [Email] | [LinkedIn]

Follow-Up Email — After Customer Demo

Subject: [Company] + [Customer Company] — next steps

Hi [Name],

Great demo today. A few things I wanted to follow up on:

1. [Thing they asked about] → [Your answer / resource / clarification]
2. [Feature or concern they raised] → [Your response]

Based on what you shared, here's what I'd recommend as a next step:
[Specific: pilot / trial / proposal / intro call with [specific person]]

I'll send over [specific thing: proposal / pricing / contract] by [date].

[Name]

Follow-Up Sequence — After No Response (Investor)

Day 1: Send primary follow-up (above)

Day 5 — Value add:
Subject: Re: [Company] — one more thing

Hi [Name],

Didn't want to let this thread go cold. 

[New development or data point since your last conversation — even small]

Or: "Wanted to share [article / resource] that's relevant to what we discussed."

Still open to continuing the conversation when timing works.

[Name]

Day 12 — Pattern interrupt:
Subject: Re: [Company] — last note from me

Hi [Name],

I'll stop here — I know your inbox is full.

[Company] is continuing to grow: [1-line update on traction].

If timing ever changes, my door is open.

[Name]

DEMO SCRIPT TEMPLATE

Use when delivering a live product demo during a pitch or customer call.

Demo Structure (5 minutes)

SETUP (30 seconds)
"Let me show you what a [customer type] sees the first time they use [Product].
I'll walk you through [main workflow — name it specifically]."

THE PERSONA (15 seconds)
"Meet [fictional customer name] — a [specific role] dealing with [specific situation].
[He/she/they] need to [core task the demo covers]."

STEP 1 — THE ENTRY POINT (45 seconds)
"[Persona] starts here. [What they do.] Notice [highlight key design decision].
This matters because [why the UX choice solves a real problem]."

STEP 2 — THE CORE ACTION (60–90 seconds)
"Now [persona] [takes the main action].
[What happens — narrate what the audience sees].
Compare this to [how they do it today] — this used to take [X time / steps].
Now it's [outcome]."

THE AHA MOMENT (30 seconds)
"And here's where it changes everything for [customer]: [show the outcome].
This is what [customer type] tells us they can't get anywhere else."

STEP 3 — THE RESULT (30–45 seconds)
"[Persona] can now [what they have / can do / can send].
[Show the output — report, document, dashboard, export — whatever the deliverable is]."

CLOSE THE DEMO (30 seconds)
"That's the core workflow. Questions before I show you [next section / pricing / next steps]?"

Demo Backup Plan

Always have a recorded video demo. If your live demo fails (internet, software, authentication), you say:

"I'm going to pivot to a pre-recorded walkthrough — it's actually cleaner. [Opens video.] This shows the same flow we'd see live."

Record with: Loom (loom.com) — free, clean, shareable link.

POST-PITCH DEBRIEF TEMPLATE

Complete within 2 hours after every significant pitch while it's fresh.

POST-PITCH DEBRIEF — [Date] — [Investor/Customer/Event name]

WHAT LANDED:
[What moment in the pitch created the most visible engagement or positive reaction?]

WHAT DIDN'T:
[Where did attention drift? What question confused you? What made them hesitate?]

QUESTIONS I WASN'T READY FOR:
[Specific questions that caught you off guard — prepare answers before next pitch]

WHAT TO CHANGE IN THE DECK:
[Any slide that prompted confusion or required too much verbal explanation]

THEIR BIGGEST CONCERN:
[What seems to be their real hesitation — not necessarily what they said]

COMMITTED NEXT STEP:
[What did they say they would do? What did you say you would do?]
[Deadline: when by?]

FOLLOW-UP STATUS:
[ ] Email sent within 24 hours
[ ] Materials sent as promised
[ ] Calendar invite sent / accepted
[ ] Noted in CRM / tracker

MY HONEST READ:
Hot / Warm / Cool / Pass — and why

PITCH MATERIALS MASTER CHECKLIST

Use before any major fundraising campaign or product launch pitch cycle.

VERBAL PITCH
[ ] 10-second intro — memorized
[ ] 30-second pitch — memorized, timed, practiced with 3+ people
[ ] 2-minute pitch — practiced, timed, recorded
[ ] 5-minute pitch — practiced with slides, demo ready
[ ] Top 10 Q&A responses — written out and practiced
[ ] Demo script — written and rehearsed 10+ times
[ ] Demo backup video — recorded and accessible

DECK
[ ] 12 slides built per deck-design-system.md specs
[ ] Speaker notes complete for every slide
[ ] All metrics current (updated within 7 days)
[ ] All images high resolution
[ ] Deck exported as PDF (tested on mobile)
[ ] Deck uploaded to Docsend (tracking enabled)
[ ] Deck link ready to paste — not an attachment

ONE-SHEETS
[ ] Investor one-sheet — complete, proofed, PDF ready
[ ] Product one-sheet — complete, proofed, PDF ready
[ ] Speaker one-sheet (if applicable) — complete

COPY ASSETS
[ ] Tagline finalized (all length variants — see marketing-copy-library.md)
[ ] Company description (50, 100, 150, 300 word versions)
[ ] Founder bio (50, 100, 200 word versions)
[ ] Email subject lines (3 variants, A/B ready)
[ ] LinkedIn announcement copy drafted

FOLLOW-UP SYSTEM
[ ] Follow-up email template drafted and ready
[ ] 3-email follow-up sequence written
[ ] Calendly link active and calendar cleared
[ ] CRM or tracker set up to log all meetings and follow-ups
[ ] Post-pitch debrief template ready to complete after each meeting