Writing For Tech Startups

After creating hundreds of thousands of presentations, Nancy Duarte discovered a framework in 2010 that changed her life. She mapped it over Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech and Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone. Both aligned perfectly. She cried in her office - the pattern she'd been desperate to find was real. See, most founder pitches fail the same way. You stack all the customer pain points at the start, then demo your product at the end. By the time you reach your solution, people have already decided if they're interested. They tuned out at slide 8. Duarte's Sparkline does the opposite. You alternate between “what is” and “what could be” throughout the entire pitch. Pain, solution. Pain, solution. The pattern works because contrast commands attention and open loops create psychological discomfort. The brain needs recurring tension to stay engaged: - MLK toggled between injustice now and "I have a dream" repeatedly. - Jobs contrasted clunky smartphone limitations with iPhone capabilities throughout the 80-minute presentation. - JFK alternated between the US’s space limitations and “we choose to go to the Moon in this decade.” Each toggle made staying in the current state unbearable. The execution: 1. Make your customer the hero by using their exact words Interview five target customers or investors before you build slides. When they describe frustrations, use their language verbatim. This proves you understand their reality before pitching your solution. 2. Paint “what could be” with sensory detail Not better accommodations. Instead: a family arrives in Paris, their Airbnb host left fresh croissants and a handwritten neighborhood guide on the kitchen table. They feel like locals, not tourists. Concrete outcomes stick. Abstract benefits are forgotten. 3. Alternative problem/solution throughout - never batch Pain 1, solution 1, pain 2, solution 2, pain 3, solution 3. Never group all problems then all features. Batching lets investors and customers mentally check out before you finish. 4. End with an immediate next step (24-48 hours) For investors: “By Friday, confirm the partner meeting date and three references you want to call.” For customers: “By tomorrow, send three use cases and I'll record a custom demo by Wednesday.” Make the decision immediate and concrete. Watch for these signals mid-pitch: You're losing them when investors lean back, check phones, or pivot to questions about your burn rate and competition. You're winning when customers interrupt to describe their specific use case, ask about implementation timeline, or want to loop in their team immediately. When every startup in your category has similar features, the pitch that creates unbearable tension wins the round, the sale, and the talent.

Working at Apple for a year completely changed the way I approach design presentations. Here are 3 ways I use Apple’s approach to elevate my design presentations as a Lead Product Designer. We all know that Apple excels at storytelling - you see it in everything from their physical and digital products to every single new launch presentation. As a designer working there, the most impactful part was observing how senior designers would present their work - both within the design team and to partners and leadership. It was incredible to observe how the Apple approach of crisp and impactful storytelling was expected of everyone, particularly on the design team. Here are 3 ways to design decks for more impactful storytelling that I learned at Apple, and that haven’t failed me yet 😊 1️⃣ Don’t skimp on context setting  Just assume that no one knows or cares about your work as much as you. It’s up to you to tell the story - help your audience understand your problem space, unique goals or your perspective on the work. Starting a presentation off with the basics is the best way to bring everyone along. 2️⃣ More slides doesn’t mean your presentation will take longer  Theres often this pressure to cut down on slides for the sake of time, but I have the opposite perspective. I don’t believe that using more slides will make your presentation take more time, rather, it helps space out the different parts of your presentation which actually moves things along quicker. While you might think less slides are better, having dense slides filled with content often doesn’t help tell the story. 3️⃣ Less text means more impact  Slides at Apple have very little text, and I still keep to this approach as much as possible. Here’s how I do it: Write all the content on the slide, and then edit it ruthlessly until I’m communicating the idea with as few words as possible. Remember that your slides don’t need to say everything - you need to tell the story, and your slides should back you up. These perspectives and tips have worked for me for all types of design presentations, and I’m curious if this resonates!

How to build premium pitch decks in Lovable 🔥 I've seen a lot of founders and agency owners recently build their slide decks with Lovable, so I created a guide for you to do the same. Here's how it works: 1/ Start by giving Lovable the full picture Before you touch a single slide, tell Lovable who you are, who you're pitching, and what you want them to feel by the end. → Prompt: "I'm building a pitch deck for an early-stage startup pitching seed investors. The tone should feel confident and credible, and the design clean and modern. Let's build it slide by slide." 2/ Set your design system before anything else This is the mistake most people make. They jump straight into content and end up with a deck that looks different on every slide. Spend two minutes on this first. → Prompt: "Define a design system for this deck. Dark background, white text, single accent color. One display font for headlines, one clean font for body copy. Generous spacing throughout." 3/ Build one slide at a time Prompting your entire deck in one go will get you something generic. Build one slide, get it right, then move to the next. You stay in control of the narrative that way. → Prompt: "Now add the next slide. The goal is to clearly explain what we do and why it matters. Should feel simple and compelling." 4/ Use feeling words to shape the vibe Instead of describing layout, describe how the slide should make someone feel. Try words like "cinematic," "editorial," "tactile," "confident," or "bold and ambitious." Add "calm and trustworthy" for investor slides, or "energetic and forward-looking" for a product reveal. 5/ Visualize data instead of listing it Whenever you have numbers, timelines, or comparisons, ask Lovable to make them visual. A wall of bullet points kills momentum in any pitch. → Prompt: "Turn this data into a clean visual. No tables, no bullet points. Easy to scan and hard to ignore." 6/ Make your most important slide impossible to miss: Every deck has one slide that carries the most weight. Don't let it get lost in a busy layout. Give it space to breathe. → Prompt: "This is the most important slide in the deck. Make it feel that way. Bold, spacious, and visually distinct from the rest." 7/ Close with a clear direction Most decks fade out at the end. Give your audience one clear next step instead whatever moves things forward. → Prompt: "Create a closing slide with one clear call to action and our contact details. Confident and direct." 8/ Do a consistency pass before you share Ask Lovable to review the full deck before you send it. It will catch things you've stopped noticing. → Prompt: "Review the full deck for visual consistency and mobile responsiveness. Check spacing, font sizes, and alignment across every slide. Fix anything that feels off." Pro tip: Write prompts like you're briefing your best designer. Give them the intent and the feeling you're after, and leave room for them to surprise you.

"This white paper offers a comprehensive overview of how to responsibly govern AI systems, with particular emphasis on compliance with the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), the world’s first comprehensive legal framework for AI. It also outlines the evolving risk landscape that organizations must navigate as they scale their use of AI. These risks include: ▪ Ethical, social, and environmental risks – such as algorithmic bias, lack of transparency, insufficient human oversight, and the growing environmental footprint of generative AI systems. ▪ Operational risks – including unpredictable model behavior, hallucinations, data quality issues, and ineffective integration into business processes. ▪ Reputational risks – resulting from stakeholder distrust due to errors, discrimination, or mismanaged AI deployment. ▪ Security and privacy risks – encompassing cyber threats, data breaches, and unintended information disclosure. To mitigate these risks and ensure AI is used responsibly, in this white paper we propose a set of governance recommendations, including: ▪ Ensuring transparency through clear communication about AI systems’ purpose, capabilities, and limitations. ▪ Promoting AI literacy via targeted training and well-defined responsibilities across functions. ▪ Strengthening security and resilience by implementing monitoring processes, incident response protocols, and robust technical safeguards. ▪ Maintaining meaningful human oversight, particularly for high-impact decisions. ▪ Appointing an AI Champion to lead responsible deployment, oversee risk assessments, and foster a safe environment for experimentation. Lastly, this white paper acknowledges the key implementation challenges facing organizations: overcoming internal resistance, balancing innovation with regulatory compliance, managing technical complexity (such as explainability and auditability), and navigating a rapidly evolving and often fragmented regulatory landscape" Agata Szeliga, Anna Tujakowska, and Sylwia Macura-Targosz Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak

7 Science-Backed Principles for Powerful Presentations Most presenters focus on their slides. Top communicators focus on their audience’s brain. 🧠 The psychology of presentations is no longer a mystery. I cover it in the opening chapter in my book Message Machine — “Revealing the hidden psychology of communications.” Here are 7 psychology-based principles that will transform how you present: 1) 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞 ↳ Start and end with impact. ↳ People remember the beginning and the end — make those moments count. 2) 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐭-𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 ↳ Don’t narrate your slides. ↳ Reading text aloud while it’s on-screen splits focus and reduces retention. Use simple visuals to reinforce, not repeat. 3) 𝐃𝐮𝐚𝐥-𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 ↳ Pair your message with meaningful visuals. ↳ The brain processes visuals and audio separately. Used wisely, this boosts clarity — but irrelevant images just distract. 4) 𝐂𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲 ↳ Clarity is king. ↳ Every extra word or graphic adds cognitive strain. Trim slides to essentials that your audience can absorb instantly. 5) 𝐆𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 ↳ Design with the brain in mind. ↳ Group elements logically. Consistency, proximity, and alignment help the brain form patterns — and improve recall. 6) 𝐀𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 “𝐒𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬” ↳ If it doesn’t support your point, cut it. ↳ Fun facts or flashy visuals that don’t serve your message? They dilute impact. 7) 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐁𝐢𝐚𝐬 ↳ Use conversational language. ↳ Audiences absorb more when your delivery sounds natural. Skip jargon. Speak like a trusted guide. 💬 Which principle do you use most — or want to try next? ♻️ Share this to help your network and follow Oliver Aust to become an elite communicator.

The creator with 5K followers just landed the paid deal over the one with 50K. Here's the framework behind why: It's what I call proof over reach, and once you see it, you can't unsee it. For context, Creator Match 🧩 builds creator programs for tech brands (ie Notion, Lovable, Gusto, Zapier, WisprFlow, and more). Here are 6 things that separate the 5K creator who lands the deal from the 50K creator who doesn't: 1. Proof Beats Popularity When we build a sourcing sheet, we're not asking "how big is this person?" We're asking: has this creator already proven they can tell a story and move their audience? Or is it just AI slop or algo hacking. 2. Your Content Is Your Case Study The SaaS tools, the AI products, the workflow hacks you post about before anyone pays you to... those are case studies. When you cold pitch a brand, you're not sending a media kit. You need to send evidence. 3. Make Yourself Easy To Sell When we pitch a creator to a brand, your job is to remove every reason to pass. Help us help you. There are 3 main checks when a brand approves a creator: audience relevance, reach/engagement, product usage. 4. Use Case Marketing > Feature Marketing Tech brands don't need someone to simply announce the news of a product launch. It's too noisy in 2026. What sticks are use cases for your specific audience (ie here's how I use X tool to do Y for Z). 5. Own the Category Before the Contract You don't have to have named the brand yet in your content. But consistently talking about relevant topics puts you on the right list. We source by category first. Brand familiarity is a bonus. 6. Treat Every Post Like a Free Stage I did a lot of free talks before I got paid to speak. Same math applies here. You're not working for free, you're buying reps in a market where the contracts are real and the upside compounds. The creators landing the best tech deals right now started building proof before they needed it. The 5K creator who just landed that deal didn't get lucky. They made themselves the obvious yes, before anyone came looking. I broke all of this down (and more) on a recent episode of the "Just Send It" Show with Manychat. Sarah Gav asked me too many spicy questions now to listen. Watch here: https://lnkd.in/ekpTVVjp *** 🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, creator marketing strategies for tech brands, and tips for creators

I’ve worked with so many students who are brilliant, but might not sound like it. They often ramble and stumble (if someone didn’t know them personally, they might label them as “not bright”). Here’s how I have trained 10,000+ students to sound smart (without faking it): 1. Speak in short, structured sentences Using big words and long sentences is the fastest way to lose credibility. People can see that you’re hiding behind jargon. So, instead: • Use short, declarative sentences • Pick simple, specific words • Structure your thoughts (“First... Second... Third...”) And here’s a bonus: pair your points with gestures (like holding up fingers). It increases your clarity, both verbally and nonverbally. — 2. Clarity = Competence Get to the point fast. Explain: • The problem • The solution • What you don’t know, and how you’ll figure it out That last one is underrated. Being able to say “Here’s what I don’t know (yet)” shows confidence, not weakness. — 3. Pay attention to your body gestures Avoid touching your face, fidgeting, or rubbing your neck during a conversation. These subconscious gestures signal “I’m nervous and unsure,” which erodes trust and credibility. . – 4. Want a confidence boost? Try this mindset: “I’m lucky.” Before a big meeting, pitch, or interview, try this: “I’m the perfect person for this. I’m lucky to be here, and they’re lucky to have me.” This mindset instantly upgrades your posture, tone, and energy. People trust those who believe in themselves. We trust people who feel lucky and capable. — 5. Know your story. Own your role. People with strong narrative identity—who know how their story fits into the moment—radiate confidence. Go in knowing: • What you bring • What do you want • How does this opportunity fit your bigger story — 6. One last tip: Nail the first impression. Before any big interaction, ask: “How can I be of service?” It instantly reorients your focus away from nerves, and toward connection. Whether you're in sales, therapy, leadership, or interviewing, that simple question builds warmth and trust. You don’t have to act smart. Speak clearly. Know what you know, own what you don’t, and bring presence and purpose into the room. That’s how you sound like the smart, capable person you already are.

Most brands spend lacs pushing products on social media. We spent ₹0 on and focused on this type of content to grow 10X faster. Here's the shift that changed everything: Most brands fail at social media because they focus too much on selling. Their feeds are: - endless product catalogs - discount announcements - and sales pitches. That's why audience growth stays stagnant and selfish content becomes the norm. To flip the script, you have to stop selling continuously and start gaining people's trust. When we created a strategy with 80% focus on audience-centric content and 20% promotion, everything changed. - Engagement tripled - DMs flooded with queries - and sales grew organically The blueprint that works for brands is as follows: - Answer audience's questions, break myths, misconceptions, and more - Create how-to content that makes your audience trust your knowledge - Share behind-the-scenes that makes others feel like a community - Turn product features into relatable content for everyone Simply put, we must shift the focus from the product to the people and make them the hero of your brand. As a result, you can have a growing community of engaged individuals who trust you and your products. Your social media isn't your shopping catalog. Make it your classroom, your stage, your way to make a difference. 💭 Are you making selfish content or selfless? #socialmedia #brands #strategy

One great presentation can do what multiple applications can't. Over the years, my presentations have earned awards, speaking invitations, and opportunities I never applied for. Most recently, at MAA MathFest 2024, someone from the audience approached me and said: "Your talk was so engaging. You made such a complex topic accessible." On the spot, he invited me to speak to high school students in Chicago. Full expenses paid + speaker fee. Here is the framework I use every single time... (You might want to save this.) 1. Know your audience before you make a single slide → Kids? Public? Policy makers? Academics? → Your job is to design your talk to suit them. → Picture one person in the audience, let's call them "Bola." 2. Map out the entire talk first → Write the takeaway from each slide in one sentence. → Connect each slide logically to the next. → Ask yourself: Will Bola digest this information? 3. Ditch the jargon → Would Bola understand this? → If not, go back to the drawing board. → Use simple, plain English. 4. Make it visual → One message per slide. Big font. Bullet points. → Use visuals or illustrations instead of text (if possible.)  → The moment your audience starts reading your slides, you've lost them. 5. Practice as you build each slide → After creating each slide, ask: What will I say here? → This reveals what to add, remove, or fix as you go. → Once done, practice the full presentation again. 6. Never read off your slides during delivery → Deliver like you're telling a story. → Everything on screen is just supporting visuals. → Know your slides inside out. Keep eye contact. 7. Use your body language intentionally → Don't stare at the ceiling, ground, or stand frozen. → Your movement and energy speak louder than words. → This automatically communicates confidence and authority. Great presentations aren’t about showing how smart you are. They’re about making your audience feel something... curiosity, clarity, and inspiration. That’s what makes you memorable. And that’s what opens doors. --- PS: What's ONE thing that's helped you improve your presentations? PPS: Want to see this framework in action? Link to the Chicago talk is in the comments. ♻️ REPOST if this was useful. Thanks!

Most founders get pitch decks completely wrong. They spend weeks perfecting slide designs. They cram 20+ slides with unnecessary details. They forget the fundamentals. I have reviewed, revamped, and built from scratch 1000+ pitch decks for startups at all stages, and here's what actually matters... Your pitch deck has ONE job. Answer two simple questions: → Will this make investors money? → Can your team actually deliver? That's it. Everything else is noise. The 6 slides that matter matter most: 1️⃣ Problem: Is this a real pain that people desperately need solved? Not a nice-to-have. A must-have. 2️⃣ Solution: How does your product solve this pain better than anything else? Be specific. 3️⃣ Market Size: Is this big enough for a billion-dollar outcome? If not, most VCs won't care. 4️⃣ Traction: What proof do you have that customers want this? Revenue beats promises every time. 5️⃣ Competition: If others exist, why will you win? If nobody's solving it, why now? 6️⃣ Team: Why are you the right people to build this? Results matter more than fancy resumes. Here's what most founders miss... They think about stages wrong. Pre-seed investors bet on teams and big problems. Seed investors want early validation. Series A investors need proven unit economics. Know your stage. Pitch accordingly. The brutal truth? Beautiful slide design won't save a weak business model. Fancy animations won't hide lack of traction. Perfect formatting won't fix team capability issues. Focus on substance over style. 📍 Pro tip: The team slide gets the most attention. Know why? Investors pause to Google every team member. Your credentials matter. But your ability to execute matters more. Bottom line... Stop overthinking your deck. Start proving your market exists. Show why customers will pay for your solution. Demonstrate your team can scale. The rest is just packaging. What's the biggest mistake you see in pitch decks? And if you're preparing to raise, what stage are you at? Let me know in the comments. --- I'm Nidhi Kaushal, founder of Team Flexbox. We help startups with strategic fundraising support. If you're preparing to raise capital and want a deck that actually converts, let's chat. Book a 1:1 call through the link in my bio or send me a DM. Let's turn your vision into a fundable reality.