10.1.

1: Marketing the Fund: How to write an Effective

Investor Presentation
The author of Marketing the Fund: How to write an Effective I nvestor Presentation is Amy Solas.
Here are Solas Communications International's key rules for writing presentations to prospective investors
that are persuasive, clear and compelling. We developed these rules, which may challenge some of your
preconceived notions about "good" presentations, incorporating a communications methodology developed
by McKinsey and used throughout the consulting world. SCI's approach wins rave reviews from audiences
and presenters alike.

First, a few words on common misconceptions about the role of presentations in the investment process.
An investor presentation isn't a "leave-behind" for meetings where you speak off-the-cuff. An effective
investor presentation supports the speaker and reinforces her messages while she is presenting.

An investor presentation isn't a replacement for a strong executive summary. If, during an initial
conversation, a prospective investor tells you, "Send me your presentation," it means, "I'm drowning in
paper and have no time for yet another lengthy PPM. Just tell me succinctly why I should be interested."
That's the function of an executive summary. For a first cut, any investor would prefer reading a solid 2-4
page executive summary to reading a presentation or a PPM.

In comparison, the investor presentation comes in at a later point in the process. It's primary purposes are
to instill prospective investors with confidence in the management team, to elaborate on information
presented in the PPM and to give prospective investors the opportunity to ask questions.

In our example below, we look at writing a presentation to prospective investors for a private equity fund,
the Prospect Street Fund II. However, these rules can easily be applied to presentations for companies that
are seeking funding.
1. Start with an introduction
The purpose of an introduction is to make sure that you and your audience are on the same page, so to
speak. It does not sell the investment opportunity or provide the audience with information that they do
not already know.

For the introduction, we recommend a page presenting summary terms and/or a page capsulizing the
fund's objective. With you and your audience in agreement about those basics, you can smoothly transition
to selling the investment opportunity.

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2. Figure out your point
In order to be effective, any communication must have a point. When a presentation lacks a point, it's like
driving in a heavy fog. The driver (you) isn't sure of where they are going and neither is the passenger
(your audience).

A typical investor presentation, consisting of a collection of topics, is heading straight into the fog:

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When a presentation lacks a point:
It's difficult to distinguish irrelevant information when writing
It's difficult to speak to
It's boring
What is your point? Your point is simply the answer to the question on the audience's mind. In an investor
presentation, the audience wants to know, "Why should we invest in the Prospect Street Fund?"

Certainly, lots of reasons come to mind. The trick is to organize and shape them into logical and
persuasive groupings, including only what's relevant. What's relevant? The ultimate reason investors
should invest in the Prospect Street Fund II is that it will provide the risk/return profile they seek.
Therefore, everything in your presentation must ultimately support that point.

To figure out why your fund will provide investors with their desired risk/return profile, write down all the
reasons that comes to mind. Then group those reasons, putting like with like, so that you end up with
mutually exclusive groupings. Determine what those groupings have in common and label them. Then
within those groupings, figure out which reasons are broad points and which reasons support those
broader points. Group the specifics underneath the broader points they support. Ultimately, you will have a
pyramid. At the top row will be the broadest reasons to invest in the fund. Those are your investment
merits. For the Prospect Street Fund II, the highest level of the pyramid looks like this:

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3. Put your points at the beginning of your presentation
If you put your points at the end of your presentation, the presentation unfolds like a mystery novel.
However, this will not keep your audience in suspense. It will make them impatient. In a simple analogy,
how often do scroll through emails, wading through seemingly unrelated information of no clear relevance
and wonder, "What is he trying to tell me? What does he want?" At the end, you may say "Aha!" when all
of it (or at least some of it) comes together, but it was awfully frustrating to get there.

We tend to write with our conclusions at the end because this is how we learned to write in school; our
research papers were structured this way. We want to stuff our audience with facts before getting to our
conclusion because we take pride in showing how much we know about a subject. This is what our
academic success (a good grade) was based on. Our professors, who were our audience, read our work
because that was their job and they judged it based on how much we knew about a subject.

The academic approach is not effective in business communications. You are not paying your audience.
Prospective investors have a limited attention span and will only pay attention to what they choose to.
They are not interested in information for information's sake.

Putting your point at the beginning of your document makes it immediately clear and is more persuasive.
The audience isn't forced to drive through the fog, getting sidetracked by irrelevant information and trying
to figure out how all of the facts they are being told fit togetherif they can hold them all together in their
heads.

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To put your main points up front in your presentation, take the investment merits from the top level of
your pyramid and turn them into a single presentation page. Insert that page, called a tracker page, after
the introduction. The tracker page replaces the agenda or table of contents page and is carried through the
entire document, repeated at the beginning of each section.

The tracker page for the Prospect Street Fund II looks like this. "Rigorous investment process" is
highlighted because this particular page goes at the start of that section.


4. Organize your presentation around your points
Structure your presentation around your points by creating a section for each one of your investment
highlights. This makes it simple to determine what's relevant to include in each section and the right level
of detail to include for each point.
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Repeat the tracker page at the start of each section, in some way visually highlighting the coming section,
as with "Rigorous investment process" above. Repeating this page facilitates transitions when you are
presenting and reminds your audience of your key points.

Within each section, each page should support the point of that section. To figure out how to support the
point of the section, go back to your pyramid and look at the next level. Then create a page on each point.
Support each of those pages, in turn, with the support found at the next level of the pyramid.



For example, in the "Rigorous investment process" section of the Prospect Street Fund II presentation,
"Clear investment criteria" would be the message of the first page of that section. In turn, the point "Clear
investment criteria" would be supported by the points at the next level of the pyramid. The presentation
page would look like this:

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5. Have a point to each page
Again, give the reader the conclusion you want them to reach and the support for it. Not only should the
presentation and each section have a point, each page should have a point as well. That point should be
conveyed in a message headingnot a topic headingat the top of the page.
If your page lacks a point and you have a vague title such as "Investment process" or "Deal sourcing,", it
is difficult to determine what exactly you want to say about these topics or how to say it, as shown in the
example below.

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6. Keep pages simple
We're often asked, "How long should an investor presentation be?" Our response is that the appropriate
number of pages for a presentation is a function of the number of ideas you want to convey, not a specific
number. We've seen many "short" presentations with each page so stuffed with text and graphics that
they should be expanded four-fold! Each page should convey and support one point, and only one point.
As a rule of thumb, each page should have no more than 50 words of text.
7. Explain your data
Your job is to guide the audience to the conclusions you want them to reach. Do not to assume that if left
to their own devices, prospective investors will reach the same conclusions about the facts as you have
reached. Your data and facts do not speak for themselves.

In the following example from a hedge fund presentation, there could be many explanations for the change
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in the fund's performance. From the explanation provided, we know that the improvement was due to a
change in strategy, not luck.


8. Close by reiterating your key points
Close your presentation by repeating your tracker page. This reinforces your key messages and provides a
strong close to the presentation.



We'll close by reiterating our key points:
1. Start your presentation with an introduction to ensure that you and your audience are on the same
page.
2. Figure out your point: why should investors invest in your fund?
3. Put your points at the beginning of your document; resist the temptation to lead up to them.
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4. Organize your presentation around your points and use your points to structure your presentation.
5. Have a point to each page, with content that supports that point.
6. Keep pages simple, with one and only one main idea per page.
7. Explain your data; guide your audience to the conclusions you want them to reach about facts and
figures.
8. Close by reiterating your key points.
By following these rules, you can write an investor presentation that's more persuasive and succinct, and
write it more efficiently, thus increasing your chances for success and shortening the timeframe of the
capital raising process.

Amy Solas is President of Solas Communications International, Inc. SCI advises funds of all types and
companies of all sizes on creating superior messages and materials for raising capital, winning new
business and keeping investors informed. We also work with our clients to enhance their own professionals'
communications skills. For further information, contact us at 212-579-5054 or
asolas@solascommunications.com
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