In the Can: 5 Types of Presentations Every CEO Needs to Have

5 presentations CEOs must have ready

While industry trends and unique situations will dictate a CEO’s specific presentation needs, all leaders need the following five presentations. Be sure to practice and hone your presentations so they’re polished and professional ― you don’t want your business to go viral for the wrong reasons.

1. Investor pitch

Presenting your idea to investors is a delicate balance of sales, partnership, enthusiasm and vision. It’s essential to get straight to the point and convince investors to put their money and trust in your hands. If a CEO can’t make people care about their business in less than five minutes, they must return to the drawing board.

Sheldon Arora, CEO of StaffDNA, emphasized the importance of having an investor pitch deck ready even when looking for investors isn’t your current focus. “The deck should highlight key revenue numbers and industry market share and include an elevator pitch outlining the company’s business, mission and vision,” Arora explained. “In addition to financial performance, it should also outline growth plans. It’s important to keep a deck like this updated with relevant data.”

Angel investors and venture capitalists look for signs that a company is worth their time and money. Revenue numbers, customer data, a solid marketing plan, positive business trends and a realistic business growth plan are critical. However, don’t rely on the numbers to do all the talking: Investors want entrepreneurs they can trust.

Your investor pitch should weave together data with an engaging story that establishes that you’re an excellent, trustworthy leader with a capable team.

2. Board meeting update

Once you have a group of investors and advisors, you must keep them updated on the pulse of your business. While the investor pitch highlights your company’s potential, board meeting presentations should offer a more diverse view of what’s happening in the business. From successes and failures to plans for the future, a CEO should provide stakeholders with information to give guidance where needed.

Giving positive updates is easy since no CEO wants to look bad in front of the board. Thus, you may be tempted to avoid presenting dismal quarterly results. However, showing that you can learn from your failures is crucial. 

If you must present a less-than-optimal board meeting update, be honest about what went wrong and focus on what you and your company learned from your missteps. By showing the board you understand what went wrong and can avoid it in the future, you’ll build trust. In contrast, brushing failures under the rug will undermine trust.

3. All-hands vision pitch

Communicating with your team is crucial; employees want to hear from C-suite execs and understand the organizations they work for. In fact, according to AppSpace’s 2025 Workplace Experience Trends and Insights Report, 82 percent of employees say that consistent communication is crucial to their engagement and experience. However, 69 percent say their employers are consistently inconsistent, delivering unreliable messaging much of the time.

CEOs must become cheerleaders, inspiring and motivating their employees to work toward a collective goal. Company-wide presentations should give employees a “big picture” view of the business and an eye toward the future. 

“Regular updates with employees are essential to keep everyone well informed, from new hires to long-time members,” Arora advised. “It should also be inspiring: get employees fired up to take over the world.” 

This kind of presentation is often called a “vision pitch.” It conveys much more than your bottom line ― it shares your business’s potential impact on the world and inspires your team.

4. Press-worthy announcement speech

Apple has perfected the show-stopping press event. When many people think of Steve Jobs, they often recall his dynamic and unique presentations at Apple’s major product launch events.

Jobs elicited emotional responses from his audiences. For example, when announcing the iPod in 2001, he didn’t describe it as just a beautiful MP3 player. He equated it with the freedom to listen to any kind of music, anywhere. 

Investor pitches and all-hands vision pitches must help an audience see beyond basic facts and figures to something more meaningful. Similarly, press-worthy announcements should drive at something much deeper than technical specs. If you want people to care about what you’re announcing, help them understand the implications of your news in emotional terms.

5. Thought leadership keynote

Industry events are opportunities for CEOs to increase brand awareness and reach a broad audience of potential customers. But when a CEO is asked to give a keynote at an event, organizers don’t want a company pitch. 

Instead, CEOs should cultivate a platform of ideas beyond their products or services to call upon for keynote presentations. They can use these thought leadership topics to prepare a presentation that is meaningful to the audience while effortlessly raising their organization’s esteem and profile. 

The best tools for creating presentations

While PowerPoint presentations are ubiquitous, this software isn’t the only game in town. Consider the following free and low-cost presentation tools that can take your pitches to the next level.

Canva

Canva is an excellent presentation tool for CEOs without traditional artistic interests or experience. Users can drag and drop elements and search for high-quality, professional graphics and templates. Canva is similar to higher-end design software but without the expense and learning curve.

Arora appreciates Canva’s versatility. “We prefer Canva because it’s user-friendly and allows us to be creative with graphics,” Arora noted.

Here are some basic facts about Canva:

• Templates: Canva provides thousands of templates and millions of stock images.
• Price: Canva is free to use for basic templates and graphics. It costs $120 annually for premium templates, graphics and publishing features. The platform also offers Canva Teams and Enterprise options.
• Compatibility: You can use Canva on Macs, Windows PCs and iOS and Android devices.

Pitch

Pitch is an excellent presentation platform to help you secure new partners and increase capital. The software allows you to “Go live” by clicking a camera icon (top-right) to start a live video call. Team members can collaborate in real time, and you can assign individual slides to invited team members.

If you work with other companies, you can invite them to collaborate. The paid plan also gives you access to shared private folders and version histories.

Here’s what you need to know about Pitch:

• Templates: Pitch has over 100 templates to choose from.
• Price: Pitch is free for individuals who want to create unlimited presentations. The Pro tier is $20 per month for two editors and includes video uploads, interactive embeds and more. There is also a Business plan ($80 a month for up to five editors) and custom Enterprise plans.
• Compatibility: You can use Pitch on Macs, Windows PCs and iOS and Android devices.

Google Slides

Google Slides is an excellent, free alternative to PowerPoint that works on all devices. Collaborating with Google Slides is easy because it’s a cloud computing application. 

Here’s what you need to know about Google Slides:

• Templates: Google Slides has over 20 themes with simple color, typography and layout changes. Additional third-party themes can be imported from PowerPoint or Canva.
• Price: Google Slides is free (with a Google Account). To access premium features such as the Gemini AI assistant, plans start at $7 per user, per month, with a one-year commitment. Four tiers are available: Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus and Enterprise. Pricing increases according to a business’s size and storage needs.
• Compatibility: You can use Google Slides on Macs, Windows PCs and iOS and Android devices.

Visme

Visme is an all-in-one presentation-creation platform with easy customization features. Visme is more robust than PowerPoint but just as easy to use. It’s great for teams that want a professional look. You can use its free version with limited features or upgrade to its paid tiers for more functionality. 

Here’s some information on Visme:

• Templates: Visme provides thousands of templates and millions of graphics, audio and video options for a wide range of industries.
• Price: Visme’s free plan has limited features. Paid tiers cost $29 and $59 and provide additional options and functionality.
• Compatibility: With Visme, you show and edit presentations in a web browser.

Prezi

Prezi’s presentation software allows you to create nonlinear stories. It can manage slides in groups so you can quickly bounce from one topic to the next while keeping your audience engaged. Prezi also allows you to share presentation links to collaborate with co-workers.

Here’s what you should know about Prezi:

• Templates: Prezi offers over 200 templates catering to various industries.
• Price: Prezi has a free plan and paid tiers for businesses. The Plus plan is $19 per month, the Premium tier is $29 and the Teams tier is $39 per month, per user. 
• Compatibility: You can use Prezi on Windows PCs and Macs (offline access). You can also access it on iOS and Android devices.

Beautiful.ai

The Beautiful.ai software uses artificial intelligence to upgrade the standard human presentation. The platform is excellent if you are short on time. Import all your information, and Beautiful.ai will organize your slides to be clear, concise and aesthetically appealing.

Here’s some basic info on Beautiful.ai:

• Templates: Beautiful.ai provides 62 templates focusing on use cases instead of industry.
• Price: Beautiful.ai costs $12 per month (Pro) for unlimited slides and $40 per month, per user (Team), for sharing capabilities and custom templates. There is also an Enterprise option for 20-plus people.
• Compatibility: With Beautiful.ai, you show and edit presentations on a web browser.

Peter Arvai contributed to this article.