Paul Graham has a great essay advising early-stage ventures on critical factors when presenting to potential investors.  One of our portfolio companies, Grou.ps, is going on a quasi-road show to meet with a group of potential funders, so this is timely for us.

The bullet points are:

1. Explain what you’re doing.
2. Get rapidly to demo.
3. Better a narrow description than a vague one.
4. Don’t talk and drive.
5. Don’t talk about secondary matters at length.
6. Don’t get too deeply into business models.
7. Talk slowly and clearly at the audience.
8. Have one person talk.
9. Seem confident.
10. Don’t try to seem more than you are.
11. Don’t put too many words on slides.
12. Specific numbers are good.
13. Tell stories about users.
14. Make a soundbite stick in their heads.

The entire article is well worth reading.