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How to Make a Deck
How to Make a Deck
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Track 04Full course

The board deck

A governance document that runs a 90-minute meeting, not a pitch to impress.

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Step-by-step curriculum with modules, quizzes, teardowns, and a scored audit.

Reader
5-8 people: founders, investor-directors, independent directors. They already know the company; they're there to make decisions and give counsel.
Context
Prepared quarterly (or monthly at pre-seed and seed), sent 48-72 hours ahead so the meeting is discussion, not a read-aloud.
Read budget
~90 min live board meeting, plus 20-30 min pre-read
Length
15-25 slides, dense with numbers, no filler
Success
Board leaves with 2-3 decisions made, key risks surfaced early, and no surprises in the room.

The jobs, in order

The slide-by-slide argument structure. Skip a job and the reader feels the hole.

  1. 01Set the agenda and time allocation up front
  2. 02State the one-line company status: on plan, ahead, or behind
  3. 03Show the KPI dashboard: revenue, growth rate, burn, runway, cash
  4. 04Walk the P&L and cash position against plan
  5. 05Cover the org: headcount plan, key hires, departures
  6. 06Surface top 3 risks and what's being done about each
  7. 07Present 2-3 decisions needing board input or approval
  8. 08Review product and roadmap progress against last quarter's commitments
  9. 09Cover sales and pipeline or customer health if revenue-stage
  10. 10Flag legal, compliance, or option-pool items requiring a vote
  11. 11Close with asks: intros, hires, strategic help needed
  12. 12Appendix: everything else, available if pulled up
Keep · earns the next meeting
  • Metrics dashboard trended over time, not a single snapshot
  • Explicit variance-to-plan (actual vs. budget)
  • Named risks with owners and next steps
  • Clear decision slides ('we recommend X, need a vote')
  • Runway and cash-out date stated in months, not vaguely
  • Prior quarter's action items with status closed-loop
Cut · triggers a pass
  • Origin story, mission slide, or investor-style TAM slides
  • Product demo screenshots without a decision attached
  • Generic competitive landscape quadrants
  • Vanity metrics with no trend line or benchmark
  • Long narrative prose paragraphs; use tables and bullets
  • Anything the board already approved and hasn't changed
Starter · first slide template

Adapt this sentence to get past the blank page. Replace every bracket with a concrete noun, number, or role.

Q[N] status: [on plan / ahead / behind]. Cash-out [month]. Top decision this meeting: [one sentence]. Everything else on the agenda supports that.
Weak vs. strong · the opening line
Weak

"This quarter was strong overall. Team is aligned and executing well against the vision."

Strong

"Q3: behind on ARR ($196K vs $240K plan), on plan on burn ($312K/mo), cash-out Aug 2026. Decision needed: cut GTM spend 20% or extend runway via bridge."

Names the variance with real numbers, states the cash-out date, and puts the actual decision at the top instead of burying it in slide 14.

Where attention concentrates

Attention concentrates on the KPI dashboard and the 2-3 decision slides; everything else is context for those.

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Sources

Next step
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