Does your “How it Works” slide make investors sleepy?

There are two types of “How it Works” slides: the ones that tell you how it works and the ones that tell you why it works.

Here’s the thing: nobody cares why it works.

At least, not until you give them a reason to.

The point of the “how it works” slide, like most slides, is to show why your business is valuable. Your back end software might be important, but to customers and investors, it doesn’t exactly scream value.

So what does? The experience of the end user.

A good “how it works” slide takes investors through the user journey step-by-step. You want to show how the user provides some input and gets a disproportionately valuable output.

Waste Management Example

Let’s say you run a waste management service. If you wanted someone to care about your business, you wouldn’t start with “We have X drivers in Y cities who operate at Z hours.” That’s how you get people to fall asleep.

Instead you’d say “Our customers take the trash to the end of their driveway every Tuesday morning, and we take it away.”

Now, they’d understand why this service is valuable.

Someone might ask about the driver network, operational logistics, etc. But not before they understand the end result and its value.

Stripe Example

We can also use a more relevant tech example. Let’s say Stripe. Their “How it Works” slide might go something like: business owner enters company information → connects business bank account → activates payment link → starts collecting credit card payments.

Then, it might say “We take a percentage of every transaction.”

The wrong approach would be to explain how they manage funds, how they store user data, how they connect everything together, etc. Again, nobody cares until they believe the thing actually creates value.

Put simply, don’t talk about your garbage truck drivers unless someone asks. You might be proud of them, but they themselves aren’t the value your business creates.

Best,

Nathan Bucci