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Slides also help diagnose blockers, such as difficulty getting sales meetings versus converting meetings into customers.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},352724,1791739073,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,97,102,107,112,117,122],{"id":85,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},11,90,"presentations",{"id":55,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Resumes",80,"resumes",{"id":93,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},14,"Invoices",70,"invoices",{"id":98,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},15,"Posters",60,"posters",{"id":103,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":104,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":106},16,"Social Media",50,"social-media",{"id":108,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":109,"show_sort_weight":110,"slug":111},17,"Forms",40,"forms",{"id":113,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":114,"show_sort_weight":115,"slug":116},18,"Letters",30,"letters",{"id":118,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":119,"show_sort_weight":120,"slug":121},21,"Paper Templates",5,"papers-templates",{"id":123,"doc_module":22,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":4,"slug":125},158,"General","general-158",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":127},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":128,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":129,"doc_module":22,"category_id":85,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":130,"file_id":131,"file_url":132,"file_type":133,"file_size":134,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":135,"language":136,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":137,"faqs":138,"seo_title":139,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":140,"read_time":141},2336477405376,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","O P T I MA L S L I D E S F O R T H E  \nGO-TO-MARKET  SECTION OF THE BOARD DECK  \nBest practices and a downloadable slide template from Stage 2 Capital Co-Founder Mark  \nRoberge  \nWWW . STAGE2 . CAPITAL @ STAGEE2 CAPITAL  \nINTRODUCTION  \nTake a look at these slides...  \n... from a startup board deck. The first slide represents a typical accounting balance sheet that includes Assets, Liabilities, and Equity. The second slide displays the percentage of customers using the product every week, organized by signup date . Which slide provides more valuable insights into a startup's performance?  \nFor me, it is obvious .  \nAt the early stage, customer engagement and value realization is the most important analysis . The spend on office supplies last quarter is not. Yet, I would approximate that 90% of the startups I see at this stage have a beautifully architected balance sheet, and close to 0% have the cohort analysis . It appears that startups have drawn too much inspiration from public companies' board meetings and decks, where standard accounting reports are crucial, and have not adjusted to the unique needs of a startup.  \nThis eBook aims to inspire an evolved approach by providing insights on the go-tomarket section of the board deck, encompassing sales, marketing, and customer success . Additionally, a slide template is available along with this eBook. The eBook explains the purpose behind each slide .  \nINTRODUCTION  \nWhile brainstorming on the optimal GTM slides, the Stage 2 Capital team found optimization depended on two variances in the startup context. The first variance was related to the go-to-market context, specifically the product price and sales strategy. We consolidated this variance into three distinct go-to-market contexts and created a separate eBook and slide template for each one . The three contexts are listed below . This eBook focuses on the first context.  \n1 . Sales-Led Growth with a Small Annual Contract Value ( SLG-Small ACV)  \n2 . Sales-Led Growth with a Large Annual Contract Value ( SLG-Large ACV)  \n3 . Product-Led-Growth ( PLG)  \nThe second variance was the startup’s stage . At Stage 2 Capital, a core attribute of our Science of Scaling methodology is the evolution of the north star KPI the startup should focus on as the startup progresses through a set of well-defined growth phases . The GTM section of the board deck should align and reinforce this evolution . For this reason, we have developed a set of board slides for each phase . The four phases are:  \n1 . Pre-Revenue  \n2 . Finding Product-Market-Fit  \n3 . Finding Go-to-Market-Fit  \n4 . Establishing Growth  \nThis eBook, along with the accompanying slide template, is structured according to these phases . In each section, the first slide reports the north star KPI for that phase, the next slides provide quantitative and qualitative detail on that KPI result, and the final slides verify that the KPIs from prior phases are still healthy.  \nA common theme in the recommended slides is to mitigate the pothole that most organizations fall into—premature focus on customer acquisition and revenue growth at the expense of repeatable customer success creation.  \nINTRODUCTION  \nFinally, one generic best practice for board meetings is maximize discussion time and minimize report out time . Board decks should be sent at least 2 days in advance of the meetings . A standard expectation should be that all attendees have reviewed the deck prior to the meeting. Each section should begin with a brief, 2-minute reminder out of the contents, and most of the time, say 15-20 minutes, is spent addressing questions and discussion .  \nPHASE 1  \nSlides for the GTM Section of the Board Deck for Pre-Revenue Business  \nStage Description:  \nGoal description:  \nEstablish a flow of customers to start iterating on and measuring product-market-fit  \nKPI:  \n> 3 new customers per month  \nSlides for GTM Section:  \nSlide 1 reports out the phase KPI. Is the company acquiring enough custo","cbCaihFJEobvPBXQ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihFJEobvPBXQ","pdf",10248370,23,"English","# Introduction\n## The need for evolved GTM slides\n## Go-to-market contexts and growth phases\n## Board meeting best practices\n# Phase 1: Pre-Revenue\n## Phase KPI and customer acquisition targets\n## Quantitative tracking: meetings to customers and conversion\n## LIR and retention-leading indicators\n## Qualitative pipeline and onboarding progress","[{\"question\":\"Why are standard board slides often less effective for startups?\",\"answer\":\"Many startups borrow heavily from public-company decks where accounting reports dominate, even though early-stage analysis should prioritize customer engagement and value realization. This misalignment leaves crucial cohort or retention-leading insights underdeveloped.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the eBook structure GTM slides for the board deck?\",\"answer\":\"It organizes GTM board slides around go-to-market contexts and a four-phase growth path. Each phase starts with the North Star KPI, follows with quantitative and qualitative KPI support, and ends by validating prior-phase KPIs remain healthy.\"},{\"question\":\"What does Phase 1 (Pre-Revenue) focus on?\",\"answer\":\"Phase 1 targets establishing a flow of customers to iterate on and measure product-market fit, using a KPI of more than 3 new customers per month. Slides also help diagnose blockers, such as difficulty getting sales meetings versus converting meetings into customers.\"}]","Optimal Slides for the Go-to-Market Section of the Board Deck - eBook | PDF",1790101117,8]