Contentful Headers

Imagine if I told you a story (or worse yet had a PowerPoint deck) that went like this

1. once upon a time, the situation was normal, then,
2. something bad happened, which.
3. had unfortunate consequences, but,
4. something clever was done
5. and then things were even better.

Perhaps it would be better if I had said

1. a smith made swords from straw
2. until a dragon burned all the fields
3. without straw, she started to learn COBOL
4. but realized she could relocate
5. where she was very successful having neither competitors nor dragons

Each of the startup pitch decks that I am reviewing this morning has the same headers for the first seven slides.

Can you say Dull,

Repetitious &

Dull & Repetitious

1. (untitled)
2. problem
3. solution
4. market
5. competitors
6. traction
7. team

I wonder whether dragons would prefer PowerPoint decks to farm fields.

We can do better by using more descriptive “contentful headers.”

Allison Byers, the founder of Scroobius, presented a wonderful talk at Founder institute filled with hints about making better investor presentations in general and contentful headers in particular. She presented similar materials in the Business Insider article “Startup pitch deck most important elements.” She recently spoke about a broader range of issues on Founders Live.