Recently we set out to raise a small round of angel financing for this crazy venture. Of course, we needed three things:

• A great idea, and a prototype (got that.)
• A great team (including a Board of Directors)
• A great ‘deck’

For those of you not yet familiar with Guy Kawasaki’s ideas on slideshows and pitching, check out the orginal blog post. I put together two versions of my presentation - one that’s fairly straight-laced and buttoned down. Dour, almost grim. And the other, using the “Colbert method” - keeping the spoken content in the “presenter’s notes”, but putting something funny in the main space. I’ve also been videotaping myself practicing the pitch - not only is this really easy to do with nothing but iMovie, but you can get amazingly valuable insights as well.

Time your presentation, make sure you’re keeping it within your goal (usually, 20 minutes). Watch out for unclear sections - this may be a good time to refine your thinking about your business goals, strategy, uses of funds - whatever. If you can’t explain it in under 2 minutes with a single slide, start again.

1. Make it funny.
2. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not.
3. Pare it down. Pare it down again.

Do this over and over and over again. You’ll find that as you refine your presentation, you actually need less and less content on the slide itself. With all this extra room, what do you fill it up with?

4. Use clip art and stock photos

The real reason for this is subtle - people, even Venture Capitalists, don’t make decisions rationally. Especially when it comes to decisions regarding money. They make them emotionally. And nothing is more effective in emotionally influencing your audience than some carefully selected stock photography - unless you can get your hands on photos of their kids.

I also noticed a surprising thing - no one had published a template for Kawasaki’s 10/20/30. So here’s mine.

5. Use my template.