# Explaining hard technology on a slide

Ten patterns from decks that explain hard technology to people outside the field: five SPAC
investor decks filed with the SEC (Luminar, Ouster, Matterport, Aurora, Joby), the XYO deck
(undated, about 2018), TechCrunch teardowns ("TC" = the reviewer's article about the deck) and
guidance from YC, Paul Graham, Sequoia and Hustle Fund. Then three more from pitches given
on stage, where the founder explains live and investors ask. Use it when the product needs a
"how it works" slide, or when the one-liner leans on technology the audience does not know.

Slide numbers follow each filing's own numbering. Limits: survivors only, no control group; the
SPAC decks are late-stage, so applying them to a seed deck is our inference. No legible YC
deep-tech deck was found.

## The patterns

1. **A first sentence anchored in something the audience knows.** Paul Graham: startups are
   usually "the x of y"; Viaweb's was "the Microsoft Word of ecommerce" [3]. Solana's seed pitch,
   as retold later: "Solana is blockchain at NASDAQ speed." [12]. Simba Chain: "What Stripe is to
   payments, Simba will be to blockchain" [11, TC]. XYO: developers "interact with the real world
   as if it were an API" [10].
2. **The problem and the customer before the technology.** Hustle Fund: "Start with the problem,
   not the solution." [4]. Agility Robotics' deck moves from "Dynamic robots for human
   environments" on its first slide to "Made for work" near the end [13, TC]. A speedrun company
   rewrote "Agentic AI for Complex Litigation" as "AI Operating System for trial lawyers" for demo
   day [5].
3. **How it works in three pieces, one line each.** Kevin Hale (YC): "A bulleted list of steps is
   my favorite technique for this", and "diagrams are like little mazes for ideas" [1]. Ouster
   slide 13 sets "100s of duplicate parts" against "3 integrated technologies", one line each [9].
   Counter-example: Rypplzz's technology slide, which the reviewer could not make sense of [14,
   TC].
4. **A layer on the incumbent, not a replacement.** Luminar slide 10: "Made possible with cameras
   and radar, ENHANCED by Luminar" [6]. Sateliot: "To connect all NB-IOT devices from space under
   5G standard" [15, TC].
5. **Before and after in a unit a layperson feels.** Joby slide 14: "~100x Quieter Than a
   Helicopter" and an operating cost of $95 against $393 for a 25-mile helicopter trip; slide 16: "5x faster than driving in major metros"
   [8]. Aurora slide 26: "Moving a load from LA to Houston drops from 2+ days to a single day" [7].
6. **Jargon in the detail, the title in plain words.** Michael Seibel: "eliminate jargon,
   acronyms, marketing speak, and any ambiguous terms such as "platform"", and "You need to be
   clear. Don't try to have pizzazz." [2]. XYO defines an
   invented role in one line: "SENTINELS are location witnesses." [10]. When Simba's deck used an
   unexplained acronym inside a step, the reviewer wrote "I don't know what an SCD is." [11, TC].
7. **Why now as a historical curve.** Sequoia: "why hasn't your solution been built before now?"
   [16]. Ouster slide 12 draws the analog-to-digital shift of cameras as "~230x market expansion"
   [9].
8. **A strong claim only with outside proof beside it.** Luminar slide 12: "LANDMARK AUTOMOTIVE
   PRODUCTION WIN WITH VOLVO" [6]. Matterport: "10B Sq ft captured" (slide 10) and "64 Patents"
   (slide 33) [17].
9. **A giant vision and a small wedge, in sequence.** Joby closes on its mission, to save "a
   billion people an hour a day" (the filed text splits the line) [8]. Aurora slide 21: "Trucking
   is the "tip of the spear"" [7]. Matterport slide 8 ("Take your building online") then slide 9
   ("Tomorrow our data will increase the value of every building") [17]. Full arcs:
   [library-deck-arcs.md](library-deck-arcs.md).
10. **One slide, one idea.** Hale's test: "Show it to a stranger and ask them to tell you what it
    means." If they do not say your idea at once, the slide fails [1].

## From pitches on stage

11. **Explain by what the system does not need to do.** Rovenso, at a hardware accelerator's demo
    day: the robot "doesn't even know it's climbing an obstacle"; the mechanics adapt passively
    to the terrain [18].
12. **Expect the mechanism in Q&A, and prepare it.** On stage the pitch often stays at what the
    product does, and the investors ask how. ForestGuard explained its sensor with a metaphor
    ("we take the fingerprint of the air") and named its model only when asked [19].
13. **Proof without revenue comes in kinds.** A live demo, even one that fails once and is rerun
    (Mbodi [20]); field hours (Burro: about 3,000 autonomous hours in paid trials [21]); letters
    of intent and purchase orders (Glid: $70M, said on stage, plus a live demo [22]); a regulator
    or a customer who vouches for you (sees.ai joined the aviation regulator's sandbox and opened
    with a customer on stage [23]). Which kind fits depends on the stage, and an LOI counts more
    the more specific it is (E35 in [library-investor-advice.md](library-investor-advice.md)).

More of these: TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield sessions on YouTube carry a six-minute pitch plus
investor Q&A, and hardware accelerators post their demo days.

For the diagram itself, see [library-flow-slide.md](library-flow-slide.md).

## Sources

1. Kevin Hale, [How to Design a Better Pitch Deck](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/how-to-design-a-better-pitch-deck), YC blog, 2015-11-15
2. Michael Seibel, [How to Pitch Your Company](https://www.michaelseibel.com/blog/how-to-pitch-your-company)
3. Paul Graham, [How to Present to Investors](https://paulgraham.com/investors.html), 2006, revised 2010
4. Hustle Fund, [The Technical Founder's Guide to Explaining Technology to Angel Investors](https://www.hustlefund.vc/post/angel-squad-the-technical-founders-guide-to-explaining-technology-to-angel-investors), undated
5. a16z speedrun, [Case Study: The Evolution of a Pitch Deck](https://speedrun.substack.com/p/evolution-of-a-pitch-deck), 2026-05-26
6. Luminar investor presentation, Aug 2020, [SEC Exhibit 99.2](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1758057/000119312520227516/d63113dex992.htm)
7. Aurora investor presentation, Jul 2021, [SEC Exhibit 99.2](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1828108/000119312521215991/d326572dex992.htm)
8. Joby Aviation investor presentation, Feb 2021, [SEC Exhibit 99.2](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1819848/000119312521053631/d135823dex992.htm)
9. Ouster investor presentation, Dec 2020, [SEC Exhibit 99.2](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1816581/000119312520323819/d65011dex992.htm)
10. XYO Network deck, undated, [archived copy of docs.xyo.network/XYO-Deck.pdf](https://web.archive.org/web/20190110123108/https://docs.xyo.network/XYO-Deck.pdf?gclid=CjwKCAjwj4zaBRABEiwA0xwsP2n-z-5f_7pPZo_ZCeS4hkgDWRoASaL0OkkeLcVgaMGcxK1iQ5JTnBoCTTwQAvD_BwE), captured 2019-01-10
11. TechCrunch, [Simba Chain Series A teardown](https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/25/sample-series-a-pitch-deck-simba-chain/), 2022-08-25
12. Packy McCormick (Not Boring), [Solana Summer](https://solana.com/news/solana-summer), republished on solana.com
13. TechCrunch, [Robotics founders: build your pitch deck around problem-solving, not technology](https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/07/robotics-founders-build-your-pitch-deck-around-problem-solving-not-technology/), 2022-03-07
14. TechCrunch, [Rypplzz seed teardown](https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/19/sample-seed-pitch-deck-rypplzz/), 2024-01-19
15. TechCrunch, [Sateliot Series A teardown](https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/17/sample-series-a-pitch-deck-sateliot/), 2022-11-17
16. Sequoia, [Writing a Business Plan](https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/writing-a-business-plan/)
17. Matterport investor presentation, Feb 2021, [SEC Exhibit 99.2](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1819394/000119312521031520/d42860dex992.htm)
18. Rovenso, HAX 8 demo day, 2016, [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUjbr7nnssg), auto-captions
19. ForestGuard, TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Startup Battlefield, [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5CC-WT6_ic&t=1011), auto-captions
20. Mbodi AI, TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 Startup Battlefield, [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KsnYRk5BUc&t=170)
21. Burro, TC Sessions: Robotics+AI 2020 pitch-off, [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT9nVi-bQxc), auto-captions
22. Glid Technologies, TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 Startup Battlefield, [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KsnYRk5BUc&t=3290), auto-captions
23. sees.ai, Techstars London demo day, 2019, [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxS-m_ti73g)