- People judge what they see within a fraction of a second; one study found impressions of web pages formed in about 50 milliseconds[1].
- Write every headline as a sentence that states the slide's point.
- Y Combinator's advice is to keep seed decks simple, legible and obvious[2].
- Use your brand's two fonts and four colours on every slide.
One idea per slide
If a slide makes three points, the reader remembers none. Decide the one thing each slide must prove and cut everything that does not prove it. The rest can go in an appendix.
Headlines that say the point
Replace label headlines like "Market" or "Traction" with a sentence: "Clinics in six cities spend ₹51 crore a year on scheduling" or "Revenue grew 6x in six months." An investor who reads only the headlines should still understand your story.
Type you can read
- Body text big enough to read on a laptop shared over a video call.
- No more than about 40 words of body text on a slide.
- Left-aligned text; centred paragraphs are harder to read.
- One headline font and one body font, both from your brand.
Colour with a job
Use your brand's ink for text, paper for backgrounds, your main colour for the one thing you want noticed, and the accent sparingly. Our guide to choosing brand colours explains the four roles and how to check contrast.
Real visuals, not clip art
Show your product, your customers' real situation and the places you work. Stock photos of handshakes and glowing networks make a deck look generic. A cover that shows your product or brand world as a confident hero image sets the tone for every slide after it.
Charts with one message
Each chart answers one question, highlights the bar or line that matters in your main colour, and puts the takeaway in the headline. Remove gridlines, 3D effects and legends you do not need.