Essays tagged craft.
9 essays in this collection.
- Craft · 6 min read
Problem slides that work: numbers, names, and consequences
The problem slide is where most decks lose the meeting. The fix is not more empathy, it is a specific person, a specific cost, and a specific reason it exists today.
- Craft · 6 min read
Traction without revenue: what counts, what to leave off
Pre-revenue does not mean pre-traction. What to put on the traction slide when you have no ARR chart yet, and what to keep out of it.
- Craft · 8 min read
Sizing a market investors will actually believe
TAM, SAM, SOM is not the point. The point is a bottom-up number a partner can rebuild on the back of a napkin and still find defensible.
- Craft · 7 min read
The competition slide: how to draw a 2x2 that isn't a lie
Every 2x2 puts the founder in the empty top-right. The exercise is not choosing the axes that flatter you. It is choosing the axes a buyer actually decides on.
- Craft · 6 min read
The ask slide: raise, runway, milestones
The ask slide is the last thing an investor reads and the first thing they remember. Three numbers, in order: how much, for how long, to prove what.
- Craft · 6 min read
The team slide: why you, not just who you are
A team slide full of logos is a resume, not an argument. The argument is why this team is the one that finally does this thing.
- Craft · 7 min read
Board decks that produce decisions, not applause
A board deck is a governance document, not a pitch. If the meeting ends without two or three decisions, the deck failed no matter how nice the charts were.
- Craft · 5 min read
Investor updates that compound trust between rounds
The monthly investor email is the highest-return document a founder writes. Cadence matters more than length, and lowlights matter more than wins.
- Craft · 6 min read
Recruiting decks that close senior hires
A senior candidate deciding between you and a bigger name is running a private risk model. The recruiting deck exists to give that model better data.