What’s missing from Guy Kawasaki’s 10-slide deck

For as long as I’ve been active as an entrepreneur, Guy Kawasaki has been a loud voice of influence in the world of startups. His 10/20/30 rule (a pitch should have 10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes, and contain no font smaller than 30 points) is a great place to start. He’s been talking about that format for a decade (here’s a video from about 11 years ago). The 10-slide rule made sense in the context where some founders were still using MBA-style business plans that run 50 to 60 pages and still fail to get to the meat of things.

A year ago, the average successful slide deck contained 19 slides. Today, the average deck contains 16 slides. So, should founders still be striving to shorten their deck to 10 slides? I took a closer look at the template, where it shines, and what founders are missing if they use it.