– Every entrepreneur needs a good pitch deck, whether it's to raise money or to win over customers.
– Your pitch deck should set your company apart, establish credibility, and demonstrate growth.
Business: Fabric, an e-commerce platform Raised: $9.5 million seed round in October 2020
The cofounders of Fabric started their pitch deck by introducing themselves and listing the major companies where they've worked. This establishes credibility and shows how their experience relates to the market their product serves.
Business: Almanac, an open-source platform Raised: $9 million seed round in May 2020
One of the biggest mistakes Almanac CEO and cofounder Adam Nathan sees entrepreneurs make in their pitch decks is introducing their product in the first slides. Instead, they should tell a story to create empathy around the trend, the customer, and their pain points, he said.
Business: Squire, a bookings-and-sales platform for barbershops Raised: $59 million Series C in December 2020
Squire's cofounders, Dave Salvant and Songe LaRon, started their deck by presenting the problem their barbershop-booking platform solves — a common method that they learned from the startup accelerator Y Combinator. The following slides explained how Squire served multiple business functions, eliminating a barbershop's need for several apps for different services.
Business: Papa, an eldercare provider Raised: $18 million Series C in April 2021
Papa's Series A round of $10 million was led by the Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian. Since its launch, the startup has raised a total of $91 million. One way its founder, Andrew Parker, achieved this was through an effective pitch deck that guided investors through his service. He not only visualized the experience for the customer but explained how the service recruited and vetted its caregivers.
Business: Mediakits, a digital resume company Raised: $1 million pre-seed in October 2021
During fundraising, Kieran O'Brien and Casey Adams found success showing investors what their product looked like, in addition to walking them through how to navigate the website and build a digital resume.
Business: Afrocenchix, a beauty and haircare brand Raised: $1.2 million seed round in June 2021
Afrocenchix first laid out how it planned to dominate a growing market. Then its cofounders, Rachael Twumasi-Corson and Joycelyn Mate, used a chart to show how its product was distinct from others on the market, specifically as a nontoxic, sustainable, and direct-to-consumer brand.
Business: ArtSugar, an online art store and gallery Raised: $500,000 in July 2021
In her pitch deck, ArtSugar's founder, Alix Greenberg, broke down the ArtSugar customer and how her company met their art-shopping habits. She took it one step further and provided survey data on how likely existing customers were to return for another purchase.
Business: A-Champs, a line of connected devices paired with training programs to gamify fitness Raised: $124,000 seed round in spring 2020
Kilian Saekel, a cofounder of A-Champs, demonstrated his company's progress by dedicating a slide to revenue, showing how he'd made $10,000 in his first month in business and $600,000 in his first year.
Business: XPO, an invoicing firm for creators Raised: $1 million in August 2021
XPO's cofounder Lotanna Ezeike chose to use bright colors and emojis in his team's pitch deck to keep it bright and youthful. When many startups use the same blues and neutral tones, colors like purple and pink stand out.
Business: Yac, a voice-messing app Raised: $7.5 million Series A in January 2021
Throughout its deck, Yac inserted client reviews and testimonies to demonstrate how its product was already being used. It focused on clients with name recognition to build credibility, or "social proof," that the product was successful.
Business: Misha's Kind Foods, a dairy-free cheese brand Raised: $3 million seed round in April 2021
When it came time to ask for an investment, Misha's pitch deck was very clear: The company included the $5 million it was seeking and how it would use the fund for marketing initiatives and infrastructure expansion.
Business: Seraphina Therapeutics, a wellness company selling a dietary supplement called Fatty15. Raised: $11.2 million Series A in October 2021
Stephanie Venn-Watson's research on dolphins led to a discovery of an essential fat, C15, now sold as a dietary supplement through Seraphina Therapeutics. As a scientist, Venn-Watson said the most challenging part of building her pitch deck was transforming the rigorous scientific studies into information investors would understand. Depending on who Venn-Watson was pitching to, she would gear the conversation towards their expertise.