A quote from Paul Graham’s Hackers and Painters starts off one of the chapters in my PhD thesis. Now Graham’s got some tips on presenting to investors. Hear him out.

This situation is constantly repeated when startups present to investors: people who are bad at explaining, talking to people who are bad at understanding.

I guess that’s the voice of experience talking.

Here are Graham’s tips:

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 (my favorite!)
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