What’s inside

One SKILL.md (the playbook) + one starter template. A preview:

Cobalt Growth Deck

When to use

• You are raising or reporting on growth and need a deck where investors can see the engine, not just the enthusiasm
• Your startup's growth story is real but your current deck buries it under product screenshots and adjectives
• You need a board or investor update deck that shows what grew, why it grew, and what happens next — in numbers that survive questions
• You are pitching a growth round and need the deck to argue from retention and unit economics, not from vibes
• Your existing deck has impressive charts with no sources, no definitions, and no two numbers that agree with each other

Workflow

1. Find the growth engine (input: business model + history → output: engine statement)
   State the growth engine in one paragraph: where new users come from, what makes them stay, and what makes the business grow with them. "Users invite teammates, teammates stay because the workflow lives here, and each team expands seats" is an engine; "we grow through marketing" is not. If you can't state the engine, the deck isn't ready — the numbers in later steps exist to prove this paragraph.
2. Set the system (input: engine statement → output: design rules)
   Fix the system before laying out slides: a deep cobalt blue as the primary color with a light neutral background and one restrained accent for highlights, one strong display typeface for headline numbers, one plain face for body text, and a rule for charts — one message per chart, axes labeled, sources on the slide. Cobalt carries authority only with discipline: no gradients, no decorative chartjunk, no second accent color.
3. Structure the argument (input: engine + numbers → output: slide outline)
   Order the deck as an argument, not a company tour: the engine (how growth works), the evidence (acquisition, retention, unit economics — each on its own slide, each with a definition), the market and why now, the plan (what the next milestone needs and what it costs), and the ask. Aim for 10–14 slides. One idea per slide; a slide that needs a paragraph to explain itself is two slides or a speaker note.
4. Lay out the numbers (input: outline → output: full deck)
   Give each number slide the same anatomy: a headline that states the point ("Retention compounds: month-6 retention is {X}%"), one chart or one big number, the definition in small text ("Retention = paying accounts active in month 6, cohort of {date}"), and the source. Put the honest caveats on the slide, not in the appendix — a deck that names its own weak spots gets believed. Keep product screenshots to one slide; the deck is about growth, not features.

Template preview

Cobalt Growth Deck — Investor Template

One company = one deck. Lock the engine statement before laying out slides — the numbers exist to prove it.

The company

Company: {company} | Round / update: {round or period} | The ask: {amount, terms} Growth engine (one paragraph — where users come from, what makes them stay, what makes the business grow): {paragraph} Next milestone: {milestone} by {date} | What it needs: {what it costs}

Design system (fixed before layout — follow literally)

Slide outline (10–14 slides, one idea each)

Number-slide anatomy (every number slide follows this)

Headline (states the point): {point}

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