Let’s be honest: creating a slide deck can be a slog.

The content alone is hard enough. And then to have to make each slide beautiful? Sorry, VCs… we’re entrepreneurs, not designers.

But here’s the thing: ugly slides will distract from your core message. 

Eric once had a mentor who said he had to be pixel-perfect when it came to creating slides.

This is the idea that all your slides should be aligned, balanced, and aesthetically pleasing.  

This mentor told Eric that if he presented pixel-perfect slides to executives, they would be engaged (not distracted) during his pitch. 

This advice stuck with Eric over the years. And now, years later, Eric shares specific and simple techniques to take your slides to pixel-perfect levels. 

(BTW, this is a summary of a recent episode of Uncapped Notes. If you’d rather watch, you can do that here.)

How to create pixel-perfect slides

Let’s start with a bad example.

What’s wrong with this slide? 

So. Many. Things.

1. The headline isn’t differentiated enough
2. The company logo is way too big
3. The company logo and headline are off-centered
4. The headshots are too small and they aren’t the same size 
5. The headshots would look better in circles instead of squares
6. The names of the founders aren’t differentiated enough
7. There’s a weird background color behind the text
8. The text boxes aren’t aligned and centered
9. The text boxes aren’t aligned with the images above them
10. Eric’s bio has more text than Janel’s
11. The logos aren’t the same size and are in weird places
12. The fonts and text sizes are inconsistent

These details might seem trivial… but your slides are a reflection of your team. Spend a few minutes here to clean things up.

Now let’s give it a little Hustle Fund magic.

Here’s the new and improved slide! Do you notice the differences?

• All elements are centered and aligned 
• The headline is bold and bigger
• Headshots look much cleaner
• Text is clear and concise
• All the sizing is consistent 

With only a few minutes of work, we turned an ugly slide into one that’s clean, professional, and presentable. 

If you want to see the magic in action, you have to see the full episode on YouTube. 

But if you prefer to scroll, here’s a sneak peek of some things we did in Google Slides.

Magic Tools

Example #1 – Center

The elements are off-centered in the photos below. Let’s fix this.

Select all the elements and click Arrange up top.

Click Center on page and Horizontally to make these elements centered. That’s it! 

Example #2 – Alignment

The logo and headline aren’t aligned in the photo below. Let’s change that.

Select both elements and click Arrange. 

Click Align and Top so they are the same aligned again.

‍

Voila! You did it. 🥳

Each software is different. Learn how to use their tools to make sure your pitch deck is pixel-perfect.

‍

Why do we need pretty slides again? 

How you design your slides is important. 

Presenting ugly slides distracts investors from your core message. Investors might even question the quality of your actual product after seeing the quality of your deck.

Take 10 minutes to clean up your slides and feel confident going into your pitch. You got this.