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Why This Topic Matters

CEOs often lead with science and data – but overlook the critical role of design in building trust and communicating value. Poor design, even when the science is sound, can erode credibility.

When investors spend just 3 minutes viewing a pitch deck – 21 seconds per slide – grabbing attention and creating an engaging presentation matters.

Our speaker, Richard Barnes, is a design expert at Hype Presentations. With award-winning experience across global brands like Harvard Business School, UEFA, and GSK, Richard brings a wealth of expertise in transforming dense scientific content into compelling, investor-ready narratives.

Key Takeaways From This Session

Develop Core Brand Assets

Visually engaging, well-designed pitch decks are twice as persuasive – and twice as likely to get funding – than text-only slides.

Richard suggests developing brand assets in typography, colour, and images to use in slide decks.

Typography: Choose fonts that reflect your brand personality, using them strategically to guide the audience’s attention. Keep consistency and clarity front of mind.

“We tend to not go below 16 point as a font size in PowerPoint… anything below that becomes quite hard to read.”

Colour: Use a clear, consistent palette to support hierarchy and focus.

“Colour-coded data visualisations improve comprehension of complex metrics by up to 50%.”

Images: Opt for relevant, high-quality visuals that support your narrative and evoke emotion. 

“Presentations using visual aids are 43% more effective at maintaining audience attention.”

Visualise Data and Show People Why it Matters

Present data with purpose. Richard explains not to simply show the chart, but to explain what matters and why. Simplify where possible and use colour and scale to emphasise the key message.

“We want people to see the hero before you’ve even said it.”

Bring Slides to Life with Animation

Richard uses simple animations – mainly fades in PowerPoint – to guide the narrative and prevent audiences from pre-reading.

“Animations in presentations make explaining things like trends and timelines 60 to 76% faster to comprehend.”

Control Pacing with Transitions

Transitions between slides allow you to control pacing and maintain attention, especially in complex diagrams or timelines.

“Forget about slide count… If you’ve got their attention, you can keep it really well with simple animations and transitions.”

Tailor your Deck for your Audience

Tailor presentations for the context. Use animated slides for live delivery, but prepare alternate versions for handouts or investor follow-ups. When sending files to investors, Richard suggests sending two versions – a slideshow and a printable deck.

“You can’t have one document that does both things… One is a presentation, and one is a document.”

Additionally, for on-stage presentations to large crowds, less is more. 

“If you're in a big auditorium or a big stage, you need to make sure people at the back can see what it is you're presenting. So we don't want lots of little words on the screen.”

Why This Session Was Valuable

This session demonstrated with clarity and precision that design is not decoration – it is strategy. Richard gave our founders practical, actionable tools to double their odds of investor engagement by using thoughtful, purposeful design. 

For CEOs preparing for an investor pitch, these are skills worth mastering – or outsourcing smartly. The presentation is a must-watch for anyone serious about making their science impossible to ignore.

Sign up for the reTREAT and we’ll also send you a link to access the resource from Hype Presentations featuring practical design tips and links to free tools that can instantly transform the audience impact of your pitch deck.