Board Meeting Deck
Quick answer
A free board meeting deck template for UK startups. 10 slides: agenda, CEO summary, key metrics, financials against budget, product and go-to-market, team, risks and the decisions required. Circulate it before the meeting. Edit online, download the PDF or send it as a tracked link.
Customise it, then press "Send as tracked link" in the editor: you get a link to send instead of an attachment, and see who opened it and which slide they stopped on. Or put it in a data room with an NDA gate. Free to start, no card.
What goes on each slide?
Slide structure
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01 Slide
[Company] board meeting
[Date]
Board pack. Confidential. Circulated [N] days before the meeting.
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02 Slide
Agenda
Minutes of the last meeting, CEO summary, metrics, financials, decisions, any other business.
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03 Slide
CEO summary
The period in five lines: what went well, what did not, and the decisions needed today.
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04 Slide
Key metrics
Revenue, growth, customers, churn, burn and runway against plan.
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05 Slide
Financials
P&L and cash against budget for the period, with variances explained.
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06 Slide
Product and go-to-market
What shipped, pipeline, sales and marketing results against targets.
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07 Slide
Team
Hires, departures, open roles, organisation changes.
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08 Slide
Risks
Top three risks, with an owner and a mitigation for each.
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09 Slide
Decisions required
Each resolution the board is asked to approve, with a recommendation.
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10 Slide
Next meeting
Date, and the actions from this meeting with owners.
Director context for Board Meeting Deck.
What directors look for
- Numbers against plan, not just absolute figures
- A short CEO summary up front
- Explicit decisions, each with a recommendation
- Risks named with an owner
- Cash runway at every meeting
When to use this template
- Monthly or quarterly board meetings
- Boards with investor directors after a priced round
- Annual planning and budget approval
What NOT to include
- Raw spreadsheets; summarise and put the detail in an appendix
- Personal data about individual employees beyond what a decision needs
- Updates with no decision or metric attached
- Anything you would not want recorded in the minutes
Board Meeting Deck.
FAQ
What goes in a startup board pack?
An agenda, the minutes of the last meeting for approval, a CEO summary, key metrics and financials against budget, updates by function, the main risks, and the specific decisions the board is asked to make. Board time should go on decisions, not on reading the pack aloud.
How far in advance should a board pack be sent?
Three to five working days before the meeting is common practice, so directors can read it properly and come with questions. Packs sent the night before tend to be read in the meeting.
How long should a board deck be?
Ten to fifteen slides for an early-stage company, with detail moved to an appendix or the data room. Keep the decisions slide explicit so nothing is approved by accident.
How do I know if directors read the board pack?
Send it as a link rather than an attachment. A tracked link shows which directors opened the pack and which pages they read, so you can brief anyone who has not before the meeting.
Do UK private companies have to hold board meetings?
The Companies Act 2006 does not set a minimum number of board meetings for a private company, but the articles of association or a shareholders' agreement often do, and investors usually require regular meetings. Minutes of directors' meetings must be kept for at least ten years under section 248.
Keep going.
Related reading
How do you share your finished deck securely?
Send your finished deck through a per-recipient tracked link. See which slides each investor read, for how long, and on which day. NDA gate, watermark, expiry - all on the £29 Pro plan. UK/EU data residency by default.