While you're pitching your business ideas, it is necessary to put your best foot forward. Whether you are an agency, a tech startup, or just a person with some random creative idea, having a professional-looking and well thought of pitch deck, gives you a leg up and makes you a step ahead in your niche.
So if you're looking for pitching investors to raise money for your company, it is very important to have a solid and creative pitch deck.
There are certain mandatory features, that play a huge role in making a certain pitch deck more successful than others. Though a lot of pitch decks have a basic outline but the ones that stand out the most, are the ones that are capable of gathering the reader's or the investor's attention quickly( preferably within 30 seconds of the read)!
It is indispensable to know that a pitch deck might be the very first impression that an investor gets, on your business and it should look STELLAR!
It is a prominent fundraising tool for any startup, but creating a pitch deck that can win an investment is pretty daunting at times.
Remember, no investor will ever invest, thinking about your team or skills but what will make them invest in a promising and profitable idea, and convincing them for that is a very strenuous task!
The Pitch Deck Outline and Structure
Dozens of accelerators, venture funds, successful startups, and internet personalities have polished their ideal content of a pitch deck that gives some insight about what is the general or basic approach followed. However, the majority of pitch decks have the same content. Pretty much every pitch deck follows this structure that consisting of:
- Cover
- Problem
- Solution
- Product Demo
- Market Size
- Business model
- Competition Slide
- Underlying Magic
- Go-to-market plan
- Team slide
- Traction or milestones
- Fundraising information
Though all these basic constituents are usually redundant, few companies have made a name for themselves, with the help of their pitch decks.
There are few examples of top companies pitch decks that stand out and are top in their domain.
List of Top 10 Companies Pitch Deck
Facebook is one of the biggest companies that everyone is aware of today, but this billion-dollar company was once a startup.
Back in 2004, when Facebook wasn't big in business, it was Mark Zuckerberg and his friend Eduardo Saverin, the co-founders of Facebook, looking for people to invest money in their growing company, just like any other entrepreneur. The success story of how they found one of the biggest company ever, is intriguing to everyone.
But like any other small business, Eduardo did go to New York, to meet potential buyers and investors for Facebook's initial idea of advertising.
Facebook's initial pitch deck was just a media kit, showcasing the company's value proposition, key metrics, and marketing services online.
Their slide layout included cover, quote, product description, solution, market validation, vision, market Size, demographics, user engagement, growth metrics, services, and closing quotes.
What was unique?
The most unique feature of Facebook’s pitch deck was that as the Facebook.com wasn’t making revenue back then, the pitch deck was also not revenue traction, but what made it a success was, they showed solid numbers about the growth metrics, customer base, and user engagement.
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Airbnb
Airbnb is a popular rental online marketplace company for vacations that helps people to find and list lodges, motels, hotels, and a lot more.
However, when it comes to startups, Airbnb is the one whose success story is looked up by a lot of entrepreneurs. Their pitch deck is a source of reference when it comes to top pitch decks of all time.
But what made Airbnb's pitch deck differently?
Airbnb’s pitch deck is a perfect example of how to convey a message using short and simple phrases. The intro or the cover page is what catches the eyes of the investor, at the beginning itself.
Imagine, explaining something to a 7-year-old about the business, it sounds difficult to convey but to be precise, if you can't do that with your pitch deck, then that pitch deck is certainly not what investors are looking for.
What was unique?
The Airbnb summarising the problem in three simple short sentences was a unique feature of their pitch deck.
- Price is an important factor for travelers
- Hotels are bubbles.
- And there is no way to book a room with a local or to host a spare room in your apartment.
This was the reality back then in 2009. The way the problem was summarised was pretty down to earth. There was no use of complicated Jargons, no debatable statements, and the claims made were 100% straightforward verifiable claim.
Moz Series B
The pitch deck made for Moz series B fundraise was also called SEOMoz, with the help of which the company raised $18 million.
Moz is a popular tool for SEO, link building, keywords search, and analytical comparison as well. It provides all in one marketing solutions, that help any business to grow without any manual excessive work.
The Moz pitch deck was made after 5 years of the company's existence. The pitch was somewhat on a lengthier side, but what perfectly was conveyed is the accurate details and in-depth idea of the company.
What was unique?
What was standing out in Moz's pitch deck was, as the company was already in business when the pitch was made, they could easily present the exact revenue rates, prices, average customer lifetime value, estimated revenue, cost of paid acquisition, etc.
Buffer
When talked about best SaaS pitch decks, Buffer hands down takes the top position. The pitch deck is an example of how basic and simple language can have a huge impact on your investor's mind.
This Buffer pitch deck was used to raise $3.5 million in series-a. Buffer as a platform helps the users share the content for social media by scheduling the posts throughout the day. These social media sites can be Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Pinterest.
The pitch deck became popular due to Buffer's transparency. The owner decided to put that up to help the other startups to raise funds.
What was unique?
Quite similar to Facebook, Buffer's pitch deck was also based on numbers and facts. These numbers were the ones that were provided by the Buffer users only. They even showed their milestones and had a pretty transparent business model to gain the investor's attention.
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LinkedIn, founded in 2002 is one of the biggest platforms for business-oriented social media interaction. Through LinkedIn, one can easily showcase their professional skills, experience, interests, and milestones.
With years passing, LinkedIn has become one of the favorite spots of recruiters and job seekers to grow a connection and be in a certain community that suits his or her niche.
When talked about the LinkedIn pitch deck, the theme of the company is clearly personified, which makes the pitch unique and appealing.
The pitch deck answers questions like:
- What is LinkedIn?
- Why is it valuable?
- How is it different?
It clearly talks about the company's values, the values this network brings and how is it different than other social media networks.
What was unique?
The detailed answers to questions are what make this pitch unique. The pitch deck also used graphics and pie charts, combined called infographics to explain the message. This pitch deck uses an extensive analogy in order to tell its investors, WHAT LINKEDIN ACTUALLY IS?
YouTube
YouTube just like Facebook doesn't need any introduction.
It is a vast platform of content creators that help in free video sharing. The platform was developed in 2005 and since then it is probably the most famous video-sharing platform in the world. With YouTube, one can easily share his or her content by creating a YouTube channel. The company was acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.6 billion.
YouTube wanted to be the primary outlet for videos sharing and that was what portrayed in its pitch deck as well.
What was unique?
YouTube focused on being the biggest video sharing platform and it succeeded to do so as well.
The pitch deck clearly mentioned the potential of its service and thus helped in earning a fruitful result as well. The pitch deck shows that if you understand the potential of your product and can portray that efficiently, then the pitch will always be successful.
Square
Square is an American based financial and merchant services aggregator, mobile payment company. The company is fulfilling the dream of bringing merchant services and mobile payment services into an easy to use, single service.
Square provides the transaction information to acquiring processor via an internet connection, while a small fee is paid per transaction.
Thus it helps the merchants in getting credit card payments via dongle.
Square's pitch deck consisted of in-depth details of its team, with its members being pretty experienced because of working with renowned companies. This helped in establishing social proof for square. Other than that the pitch deck also had detailed charts representing 5 years plans and the business model etc.
What was unique?
The greatest positive for the square was its company's team. SOCIAL PROOF AND EXPERIENCE played a major role in gaining trust. Showcasing experience, is usually what creates authenticity especially when your management team has worked in Twitter, PayPal, LinkedIn, Google, and a lot more.
Along with that the business model and simple financial model, it's pitch deck also depicted the company's annual revenue and 5-year revenue rate.
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Buzzfeed
Buzz feed is a digital platform that contains various news, headlines, entertainment, and a lot more. Buzz feed is one of the biggest digital platforms that provide information and data to millions.
With abundant features, it is popularly known for its quizzes and other than that various stuff and articles about DIY, animals, politics, and business, etc.
Talking about Buzzfeed pitch deck, the company managed to raise 240 million dollars. Its pitch deck gives answers to questions like:
- What we are?
- Where are we headed?
Other than that it also has its revenue model depicted transparently.
What was unique?
Similar to Square, what is unique about buzz feed is its SOCIAL PROOF ABOUT NUMBERS.
Pitch shows the number of users visiting the website on monthly basis and also there were quotations from large sites like CNN. Other than that the questions answered make the pitch unique and trustworthy.
Foursquare
Foursquare is a famous social media networking service used by common mobile users like for Android-powered phones, BlackBerry, iPhone, etc.
This app's prime goal is to discover various business opportunities and to discover and share various business attractions around you. It helps in searching for the best places to go in an area.
The pitch deck of Foursquare uses authenticity as a tactic. It shows its user's review, tweets to boost app popularity.
What was unique?
The pitch deck had screenshots of tweets from the existent users, thus helping in setting social proof and authentication. This makes the investor, aware of the pre-existing user base of the app and its review among its users as well.
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Mixpanel Series B
Mixpanel is a popular platform that helps in providing real-time insights about a certain page and also gives a detailed analysis of page viewership and actions taken.
It is a business analytical search company that helps in checking user's web and mobile applications interaction and provides tools for such targeted communication.
The pitch deck helped raise $65 million, which was the series "B" deck.
What was unique?
The pitch deck provided by mixpanel stands out because of its chronological order. It firstly highlights the problem and then shows solutions for the same. And then ultimately depicts the competitive advantages as well.
The problem-solving approach is what made the pitch deck unique and trustworthy.
Author: Gorish Dua
Source : https://startuptalky.com/top-companies-pitch-decks/
Date : 2020-08-23T14:44:39.000Z