Fill in your details
The script updates automatically as you type, click Play in ScriptScroller when you're ready
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Script text
What you'll need to fill in
This script has 13 details to fill in before you read it. Have these to hand — the customizer above updates the script as you type:
- specific, surprising number related to y…
- explain what it means — a problem, an op…
- Your Name
- Company Name
- one clear sentence — what your company d…
- specific pain point
- industry / target customer
- dollar amount or time
- year / month
- brief product description
- one key insight or differentiator
- timeframe
- key traction metrics
It also contains 1 stage direction in grey. Those are instructions to you, not lines to say out loud — they mark where to pause, listen, or wait for a response.
That timing assumes about 130 words a minute, which is a normal conversational pace. If you are presenting to a room you will likely go slower; if you are nervous you will go faster. Read it aloud once and time yourself before it matters.
When to use this script
Use this when the opening keeps letting the rest of the presentation down. Most business presentations are lost in the first two minutes, to a throat-clearing start that establishes nothing. A scripted opening buys you the attention that your actual content needs, and it is the part you can most reliably fix in advance.
It is also worth scripting the transitions. Moving between sections is where unprepared presenters lose the thread and start narrating their slides instead of making their argument.
Making it sound like you
- Open with the conclusion or the problem, not with your agenda. Agendas are for the deck, not the first thirty seconds.
- Replace abstractions with your own numbers. A presentation lives on specifics your audience recognises.
- Write the transitions between sections. Those are the joins that fall apart when improvised.
- Cut anything the slides already say. Reading your slides aloud is the fastest way to lose a room.
Reading it out loud
If you are presenting remotely, keep the script on the screen your camera sits on and the deck on the other, so you are not visibly looking away mid-sentence. In person, treat the script as a set of anchors rather than a text to be read continuously.
More on the setup side: Moving Text for Presentations, Teleprompter for Dual-Monitor Setups, Teleprompter for PC and Mac.
Questions about this script
How long does this investor pitch opening script take to read?
The script runs to about 139 words, which is roughly 1 min at a normal speaking pace of around 130 words a minute. Your own pace will vary, so time one read-through before you rely on the number.
What do I need to prepare before using this script?
There are 13 details to fill in: specific, surprising number related to y…, explain what it means — a problem, an op…, Your Name, Company Name, one clear sentence — what your company d…, specific pain point, and a few more. Enter them in the customizer and the script updates as you type, then opens straight in the teleprompter.
Should I script a whole presentation?
Script the opening, the transitions, and the close. Those are the joins that fail under pressure. Scripting the middle word for word usually makes delivery flatter without making it clearer.
How do I present with a script and slides at the same time?
Put them on separate screens, with the script on the display nearest your camera if you are remote. Alternating between two distant windows is what produces the constant glancing that audiences notice.
