Last week I watched ~15 companies present in one hour. That's four minutes per presentation. As my photos will attest, it was a blur! I've forgotten most of them. Being forgetful is, of course, NOT the goal of the presenters. One presentation stood out for its simplicity and effectiveness. Which means somebody on the team had the confidence to leave a lot of slides out. And to leave a lot of things off their slides. Next time you present spend more time on what you can leave out as than you do on what you should include. Be confident in yourself. You will be great. The presentations were given at STIR Demo Day 2016 in San Francisco.The startups each had spent the past 16 weeks creating products for city departments in San Francisco, Oakland, San Leandro or West Sacramento. Each presentation was given by both a person from the startup and a person from the agency where they were in residence (AKA the customer). The presentation I liked most was given by Binti, a startup focused on improving the adoption and foster care placement process. The presentation was giving by CEO Felicia Curcuru and her customer Barrett Johnson, a program director at the San Francisco Human Services Agency. My notes are below each slide and you can scroll through them.

1. Slides 1-2: Hello
A quick introduction so we know who we
are hearing from. Never forget to let
people know who you are.Try to form a
bond with them. But don't force it. Be you!

2. Slide 3: The Emotional Problem
Binti told a “problem-solution” story. And you should too. They first stepped back from the
more mundane problems we'll soon see their technology can solve and started with the
bigger, emotional problem: There aren't enough foster parents in San Francisco. Foster
kids often need to be sent out of the city or even the Bay Area which is very disruptive.
They said this. They didn’t clutter their slide with a bullet point about it. Note too that the
customer delivers the message. You can’t always bring a customer along in person. But
you can quote them. They’re usually more believable than you.

3. Slide 4: The Practical Problem
The presenters dive down one level. One reason there
aren't enough families (and kids have to get pulled from
school, friends, their city) is that applying to be a family
is a horrible process. Too many documents. Not intuitive.

4. Slide 5: The Nitty Gritty Problem
Disconnected paper documents and multiple Excel files
are "pain points" a lot of us can relate to, believe, get.
So, actually, this hits people on an emotional level too.
That’s good.

5. Slide 6: The Solution
Slide 5: First Binti built a website for foster families. It's friendly.
Even its address is friendly (sfcaresforkids.org). It’s easy to find
online. And it is where a family can start the process to become
a foster family. In fact, do you want to become a foster family?

6. Slide 7: More Solution
Binti replaced the paper and Excel files with a process
that's simpler for families and the city. This slide's
simplicity reinforces the believability of this.

7. Slide 8: Money Shot
More Social Work and Less Paperwork. The audience is filled with
people who would love to spend less time (or at least managers who
would love their teams to spend less time) on busy work and more
time on what they were trained (and probably love) to do. Do you
have that one clear statement about your solution? If not, get one.

8. Slide 9: Quick Recap
A chance to review. Note the focus on benefits of the
solution, not the solution itself.

9. A Happy CTO
There was one more slide. The CEO’s contact info. I
happened to be sitting next to her CTO Gabe. I
whispered that I thought she rocked it. He appears to
agree.