Q3 board update for a 60-person logistics startup. Revenue $3.1M against a $3.4M plan, gross margin up from 38% to 44%, 19 months of runway, we lost our biggest customer, the new VP Sales starts Nov 1. Ask: approve the Mexico pilot.
Companies, people and numbers in the example briefs are made up, unless they’re public facts like history or science.
The look Cue chose
First light
Night-road black with one sodium-amber accent that glows like a cab light, set in a tight grotesk with a technical mono for numbers.
Type
Inter Tight and Inter
Colours
inkasphaltfogsteelambersignal
Motion
Steady and cinematic, like headlights coming up a road. Ease is a long expo-out. Headlines rise word by word from a mask, 70 ms apart. Proof slides in from the left on a beat. Photos drift slowly. Numbers count; labels never move.
Transitions
Mostly a 0.7s fade or dissolve. Use a left wipe when the story turns from problem to plan. Use a cut into the one amber-field slide, the ask.
Slide by slide
8 slides, with what the presenter says. Highlighted words are cues: saying them makes something on the slide move.
1
Cover
Opens with a fade
Thanks for the time. I'll be direct about this quarter. We missed our revenue plan, and we lost our biggest customer. Our margins also got better, and we have the runway to act. At the end I'll ask you to approve the mexico pilot.
2
Revenue miss
Enters with a wipe
We made three point one million dollars in Q3. The plan was three point four. Our actual revenue came in under that plan. We ended the quarter three hundred thousand dollars short. I am not going to dress that up.
3
Lost customer
Enters with a push
We lost our biggest customer this quarter. That was the largest single risk in our book, and it happened. The remaining customers are still with us. But the base now rests on smaller accounts, and the rest of this update is about what we do about that.
4
Margin up
Enters with a split
Now the good part of the quarter. Gross margin went from thirty-eight percent to forty-four. That is six points in a single quarter. Every dollar of revenue now leaves us more to work with.
5
Runway
Enters with a dissolve
We have nineteen months of runway. That covers the customer loss and still leaves room for a careful bet. This is why I am comfortable asking you for the pilot.
6
New VP Sales
Enters with a slide over
We lost our biggest customer last quarter. It showed us we need one person who owns sales full time. Today I am asking you to decide on the Mexico pilot. On November first our new VP Sales starts, and the pilot is theirs to run.
7
Where we stand
Enters with a fade
So here is where we stand. Revenue came in at three point one million against a plan of three point four, and we lost our biggest customer. Those are real and I am not going to dress them up. Now look at what is in our favour. Margin is up six points, we have nineteen months of cash, and a new sales leader starts November first.
8
The ask
Enters with a iris
So this is my ask. Approve the Mexico pilot today. We can pay for it out of a nineteen month runway, and the new sales leader gives us the team to run it. I am asking for your approval now.
Make one like it.
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