Frequently Asked Questions.
General
We’ve all been there. You’re sitting through a meeting, counting down the seconds with a presentation deck gone wrong: Endless bullet points, lengthy text, confusing jargon, irrelevant stock photos, passive voice and distracting inconsistencies. These all lead to the same missed opportunity: an unengaged and unmoved audience.
VERBED was founded with a simple objective: Create engaging and action-oriented presentation and pitch decks.
The most successful presentation and pitch decks are those that include three elements: an engaging story that draws the audience in, striking design (including relevant visuals that support the narrative), and thoughtful strategy around framing the story to the audience. VERBED combines all three of these elements to set our clients up for success.
We’re passionate about creating persuasive and memorable decks that generate results (to sell, educate and delight). VERBED’s investor pitch decks and venture fund decks, in particular, have been used by clients to raise millions of dollars. To learn more about how our decks have been leveraged for client success, click here.
“VERBED” describes the process of going from a noun to a verb; from a passive stance to an active one. (E.g., “Let’s Google it”). Our presentation and pitch decks are designed to engage your audience and move them to action.
All of our presentation and pitch decks incorporate visual storytelling. We know that storytelling, combined with the right visuals, has a solid track record for success, including:
55% increase in focus with a great story1
43% more persuasive with visual aids2
100% increased retention with visual aids3
To be impactful, decks must tell a well-crafted story that is both easy to understand and remember, while visually engaging the audience. Design must serve the narrative (not the other way around). We use visual storytelling in our decks to enhance the impact on your audience and objective(s) by making sure the aesthetics support your core messages in a way that is cohesive and compelling.
We have developed a comprehensive course on Visual Storytelling via PowerPoint. Click here to learn more.
1 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/survey-finds-attention-spans-arent-shrinking–theyre-evolving-300702833.html
2 http://thinktwicelegal.com/olio/articles/persuasion_article.pdf
3 https://24slides.com/presentbetter/how-important-is-the-design-of-a-presentation
Projects
We work on presentation and pitch decks of all types. We have extensive experience creating effective presentation and pitch decks for a wide range of marketing and business development objectives, including, but not limited to:
- Investor Pitch Decks (for startup founders and entrepreneurs)
- Venture Fund Decks (for venture capital firms)
- Sales Decks (for sales teams)
- Product / Service Overview Decks (for B2B marketing teams)
- Sponsorship & Fundraising Decks (for conferences)
- Live Presentations (for professional speakers, consultants and events)
- External Decks (including company overview decks and annual reports)
- Internal Decks (including board meetings, onboarding, training, townhall presentations, and lunch and learn presentations)
- Role / Promotion Justification Decks
- Webinar Decks
- Template Decks
If your project can be done in PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides, we can help.
We have extensive experience in working with diverse clients across every vertical. We have supported both B2C and B2B clients across industries, including those in: Technology, SaaS, Consumer Product Goods, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Space, Energy, Mining, Agriculture, Logistics, Cannabis, Film, Financial Services and Cryptocurrency.
Yes. We offer a one-hour virtual consultation (via Zoom) where our CEO will review and provide feedback on your deck. Contact us for more information.
We are exclusively focused on designing compelling presentation and pitch decks that engage and persuade. At this time, we do not provide other design services outside of presentation design.
All we need to get started is a draft presentation document (either in PowerPoint / Keynote or Google Slides). We’ll review your draft presentation in detail as part of the Kickoff Call, focusing on your narrative and design preferences. As part of this call, we’ll cover a series of questions around core messages (value proposition, differentiators, etc.). Contact us to get started!
Draft slides – even in a very rough state – are required to get started, so we have a starting point and clarity on what you want to tell your audience.
- If you need more help getting your ideas into slides take a look at these examples or check out our Investor Pitch Deck Fundamentals and Visual Storytelling via Powerpoint courses here.
Yes. We take client confidentiality very seriously. Everyone on our team is under a strict VERBED NDA. We are always happy to review a company specific NDA, if required.
Even if an NDA has not been signed, we only share work examples (with any confidential information removed), if the client has provided prior written approval.
Yes. If you do not already have an established brand or style guide, we can support in creating a visual aesthetic that is tailored to your company, audience and objectives.
Our clients come to us for support in telling their stories in a more powerful, and visual, way. We deliver on that promise (while also making the deck look fantastic). To do this, we have a proven process with a collaborative approach that incorporates client feedback early and often. Read more about our process here.
We build our decks on Apple macOS. As part of our process, we ensure that your presentation will work seamlessly across both Windows PC and Apple Mac computers.
Turnaround time is dependent on project scope. A project that has 20-25 slides, on average, takes 10 business days from start (Kickoff Call) to finished product (Final Deliverable). Provide us with more details about your project by filling out our contact form here, and we can give you a more specific time and cost estimate.
We do our best to accommodate quick turnaround on projects. However, this is highly dependent on the project scope and existing client commitments. Require an expedited turnaround? An additional expedited fee may apply. Contact us for more information.
Yes. We use PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides primarily, since these are more accessible and widely known (e.g. over Adobe InDesign). This way, it’s easy for clients to edit the final files. A typical presentation deck includes text, graphs, icons, and other visuals. We keep as much as we can editable for you and your team.
Pricing ultimately depends on the time required to complete your project (the starting point and the scope of what you’re looking for). Click here to read about the factors that influence pricing (and how to streamline your project).
Provide us with more details about your project by filling out our contact form here, and we can give you a more specific time and cost estimate.
We use Upwork, the leading global work marketplace, to facilitate client projects. They make project management seamless for both clients and freelancers. If you haven’t used Upwork before, as part of our onboarding process, we’ll send you next steps to get set up.
Yes, Upwork charges a small processing fee. To learn more, click here.