A first-time founder had six days, forty messy slides, and no story. She put a two-time CEO on her screen — and walked out with a term-sheet intro.
Maya runs a seed-stage SaaS company. Her first real board meeting was six days away, and her deck had grown into forty slides of dashboards with no through-line. She knew the numbers cold — she just didn’t know what a board actually wants to hear, or how to survive the questions.
She didn’t need someone to build the deck for her. She needed someone who’d sat on the other side of that table to look over her shoulder.
“Every slide felt important, so I couldn’t cut anything. And I had no idea what they’d grill me on. I’d freeze on the burn question every time I rehearsed.”
She opened her deck and pressed the hotkey. The persona could see exactly what was on screen.
“It was like having a chairman sit next to me for a week — except I could ask the dumb questions.”
The meeting ran on time. When the burn question came, Maya answered it before it was asked. The board didn’t just approve the plan — one member offered to introduce her to a fund. And the next time she builds a deck, she won’t need the help.
For your next board meeting, raise, or hard call.