Show them, don't tell them. When making a presentation, we make lots of arguments and points. We talk about falling sales, competitors becoming aggressive, changing market dynamics and about our innovations. The problem - most of the time we only tell them, never show it to them.

Bullet points are considered a bad thing in today's times. Steve Jobs never used it. Most TED speakers don't use as well. If you have a slide with 4 or 5 bullet points and you want to make the slide visual and professional looking, what should you do?  There are many ways of removing bullet points. The simplest way is to use icons.  Here is the usual PowerPoint slide: Here is the modified slide. The bullet points have been replaced with icons and text. Looks so much better.  As much as possible, refrain from using bullet points. Try using icons. Icons are cool.

What makes people sleep during presentations?  They are bored.  They don't find anything new and exciting.  The presenter is lifeless (devoid of passion). They just had lunch and its cozy in this boardroom. They've had a long day at office. Yawn... Here are few things you can do to ensure fewer people sleep when you present. 1. Keep it short - Long presentations induce sleep When people know they are attending a short presentation, their likelihood of sleeping is less. As per molecular biologist John Medina , our attention span is only 10 minutes. Since most presentations cannot end within 10 minutes, your best chance is to stay as short as possible and create an engaging presentation. How? Read below. 2. Engage them Even though our attention span is only 10 minutes, we still watch TED talks (most of those are 18 minutes) and we still watch movies. To engage your audience, ask questions. Show a video. Bring in a new speaker. Make them do an exercise. ...

Hi guys. I am renaming  All About Presentations  as  JazzFactory.In . That's the name of my Presentation Design Firm. I had quit my job in December '14 and was working as a presentation consultant so far. My nameless firm now has a name; JazzFactory.In A new name also means a lot of new stuff. In the coming weeks and months you will find loads of content, e-books and articles on the blog. I will be writing mainly about PowerPoint speed hacks, sales presentations, investor presentations, answer common queries, discover resources, etc. This blog is now part of the new website JazzFactory.In . Check out the website and share your comments or feedback. My old email ID will be in use. You can also contact me on my new email ID if you want to collaborate with me. If you are making a high-stakes presentation, remember JazzFactory.In. C ya!

If you are pitching your startup to Sequoia Capital (or any other VC), here is a business plan template you can follow. Sequoia Capital has shared two articles on their website where they talk about how startups should pitch  and how a business plan  looks like. Here is a template which captures lessons from both the articles. I have added my views and comments below to help you make the most of this template. Please note the following: You only have 20 minutes to pitch, even if you have been allotted one hour. It is better to leave enough time for discussion. Audience interest begins to fall as you start presenting. You have to engage the investor in the first 5 minutes so that you earn the attention for the coming 15. First 3 Slides (5 minutes) The first 5 minutes is all about setting the context so that the investor understands what you do, how long you have been doing it, how is the business going (traction) and what funding are you seeking. Slide 1 - ...

Team slide is often the most overlooked slide in most pitch presentations. Most of the time it looks like a short bio of the founders and nothing else. This needs to change.  To write this post, I have drawn upon the knowledge of scores of experts and VCs. I have seen startup decks and read a lot of books and online material. What does the investor want from the Team slide? It does not matter what you want to say. What matters is what the investor wants to hear. So what does the investor want to hear about your startup team? What is he concerned about? Does your team have domain expertise ? If you are selling software for doctors, what do you know about doctors and about software? Does the team have the skills to run the business and minimize the risks? Does the team have experience of running a business (especially experience of working in a startup)? Will this team be able to work and stay together? Is there chemistry between the key members? Let us take an exam...

In my last post I shared experienced investor Vinod Khosla's tips for startup funding. In this post I will share 6 tips which Vinod Khosla has shared in the same talk. These tips are meant for startups (investor presentations) but can be used by every presenter. These are general presentation tips to help you design a better slide. #1 Reduce clutter This is a pretty common tip. We all know this, but still we cannot seem to follow this. After you have designed your slide, go back and cut down lots of words. If you are going to present the deck (slides) in person, then you do not need so much text on the slide. One way you can cut down stuff from your slide is by asking "do I really need this?" to everything (and every word) you have put on the slide. Here is a before and after slide from his talk. The original slide has way too many images, creating clutter. #2 Five second rule Khosla talks about the 'five second rule'. If I put up a slide and then re...