We are happy to report that our ongoing expansion efforts in the Finnish startup ecosystem have opened exciting opportunities for new collaborations and gave us fresh possibilities to offer more value . Through partnerships with innovation hubs like Terkko Health Hub, Health Incubator Helsinki, and MiXi, and our sponsorship of the YScience Pitching Competition, we had a fantastic opportunity to deepen our engagement with this vibrant community.

As a natural next step in this journey, we had the privilege of conducting multiple investor deck design workshops for about 50 Finnish startups. Our objective was to equip early-stage founders with essential tools for creating professional investor presentations on their own, particularly when external design support might not be immediately accessible.

To achieve this, we developed a comprehensive workshop focusing on the foundational elements of presentation design. Simplicity and consistency emerged as our guiding principles, around which we built a practical framework of five key design fundamentals:

• Typography: Creating clear hierarchies and ensuring readability
• Color Theory: Establishing strong brand alignment
• Iconography: Simplifying complex concepts into clear visual elements
• Visualization: Representing data and ideas effectively
• Layout Systems: Building professional and consistent structure

“I must say it was one of the most constructive workshops we've had, since it incorporated easy-to-use and hands-on tips on how to make your slides more visually and semantically digestible. One could make a drastic improvement in their slides just with a couple of hours of work using these suggestions.”
_{Rashad Ismayil, Head of Partnerships at Terkko Health Hub}

The workshops weren’t about theory or design philosophies . We provided simple hands-on tools and actionable techniques, including curated resources and useful design platforms, empowering founders to create presentations that effectively communicate their message and are solid representations of their companies.

Beyond the Workshops: Impact and Insights

The response to our workshops was remarkable, with all three sessions having great attendance. Many participants actively engaged with the workshop materials afterward, downloading our complementary resources and implementing the principles we shared.

What followed was particularly interesting. During various industry events and follow-up conversations, founders approached us to share their implementation journeys with us. Many described how the workshops had shifted their perspective on their existing presentations. Some who had been confident in their decks discovered areas for significant improvement, while others found new ways to enhance their visual communication.

“The workshop helped us recognize where visual improvements were needed in our deck and provided the tools to make them, ensuring a stronger representation of our company—just in time for our customer and investor meetings at Slush and elsewhere.”
_{Jari Närhi, CEO & Co-founder at NADMED}

These conversations revealed something valuable – a deeper understanding of what founders truly need. Yes, they struggle with design principles, but we witnessed firsthand how the bigger challenge lies in crafting and telling their story effectively. How to structure it? How to simplify it? What to emphasize? What to leave out? 

While founders were successfully implementing the design principles we'd shared, many presentations still faced a fundamental challenge: storytelling gaps. We encountered numerous cases where critical narrative elements were missing – from founders diving too deep into technical specifications without proper context, to others skipping essential background information about their core innovation. We had the opportunity to be among the audience during pitches, in which founders forgot to mention what their product was, or that it was actually cheaper than current solutions. In another example the target audience was entirely skipped and in multiple presentations the greatest value was almost completely hidden. These and other patterns highlighted a challenge we've long recognized in startup presentations: the need for clear, strategic storytelling that connects with the audience.

Looking Forward

This reinforced understanding of the difficulties of clear and effective storytelling has led us to an obvious next step: a dedicated workshop focused on the storytelling.

Just as we've been fortunate to help teams enhance their visual communication, we see an opportunity to provide similar support in narrative development.

Drawing from our consulting expertise and extensive experience working with startups, we're developing a focused workshop on storytelling. Our goal remains the same - to share practical knowledge that helps founders better communicate their vision, innovation and value propositions.

We believe that a clear story, enhanced by thoughtful design, helps startups truly showcase their potential and significantly increase chances of a successful investment round.

Stay tuned for early registration details for our upcoming storytelling workshop by signing up here.