Follow the 10–20–30 Rule for Persuasive Presentations
A VC offers dead-simple guidance to save himself from a tsunami of terrible pitches
By Jessica Stillman
You’ve probably endured plenty of terrible presentations in your time, but maybe you think that up in the higher echelons of Silicon Valley, entrepreneurs have really nailed the art of the pitch.
Nope. As early Apple employee-turned-investor Guy Kawasaki bluntly puts it, “Most of these pitches are crap.” Even top-tier entrepreneurs pitching elite VCs can’t seem to make an engaging set of slides.
You might conclude from this fact that crafting a compelling presentation is incredibly hard, requiring subtle artistry and exceptional skill. Once again, nope. Kawasaki insists that all you have to do to not torture your audience with any persuasive presentation is follow his classic 10–20–30 rule.
10 slides
“Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation, because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than 10 concepts in a meeting,” Kawasaki insists. “If you must use more than 10 slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business.”
