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[Slide 1] How’s that for minimalism.Image Credits: CommandBar
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CommandBar , a B2B tool designed to make software easier to expend , closed a $ 4.8 million raisein 2021 with one of the most starkly minimalist decks I ’ve ever seen . The deck only has seven slides and is missing a gross ton of really crucial selective information , but that did n’t stop Thrive Capital and Y Combinator from opening their checkbooks .
We ’re look for more unique sales pitch deck of cards to tear down , so if you want to reconcile your own , here ’s how you may do that .
Slides in this deck
Three things to love
In the midst of a pretty slim pitch deck , there are some founding that are deserving gleam a luminousness on .
Info design, not graphic design
I ’ve long hold that design is far less crucial than citizenry seem to think when it comes to early - stage pitch deck of cards . This fix sentiency : The primary purpose of a pitch is to communicate the inauguration ’s voltage to would - be investors . These element are fundamentally root in the content and clearness of the message rather than the aesthetic of the presentation .
That does n’t think that excogitation is n’t authoritative , but startups would do well to pay attending to information design ( i.e. , whether the contentedness is sluttish to ingest and show ) , rather than graphic design ; early - stagecoach investors are preponderantly concenter on substance over style . They are look for compelling business ideas with impregnable market potentiality and teams capable of perform those ideas .
Focusing too much on design can often misallocate precious early - stage resource . Startups typically operate under tight budget constraints , and spending significant time and money on pitch deck of cards conception may not be the best economic consumption of limited resource . The sentence and endeavor could be better spend on validating the business estimate , conducting market place inquiry and rectify the product or inspection and repair . If you have a talented house decorator on stave , by all means , have them loose on the deck , but be cognisant that expectant pitch deck design is a highly specialised niche in its own rightfield , and other design disciplines may not be as transferable as you think .
CommandBar sidestep this by essentially not design the deck at all . In doing so , the company created a stark , easy - to - ingest lot of slide .
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If you ’re on revision 900 of your pitch deck of cards , and you ca n’t get the design quite right , perhaps less is more .
Elegant combo of problem and competitive landscape
In my many years of focus over pitch deck of cards , I ca n’t say I ’ve seen the trouble playground slide combined with the contention slide before , but in this face , it just works :
Startup founders are always looking for room to make their auction pitch pack of cards stand out to potential investors . In this case , CommandBar produce a fresh take by meld its competitive landscape painting and job slides .
Yes , the intention is useful , but the combination of the two slides sharpens the presentation and help oneself do something unusual : It cohesively shows the company’sdeep mart understanding and the solution ’s singular time value .
The most effective part of this slide is that it show that CommandBar can take on some rightfully tremendous markets . The companionship does n’t have a market size slide ( boo ! ) , but the illustration on this slide give us an theme : WalkMe has an $ 830 million market capital . harmonize to PitchBook data , Zendesk last raised at a $ 10 billion valuation . As of its last investment round of drinks , Intercom and FullStory were valued by investors at $ 900 million and $ 1.8 billion , respectively . Back - of - a - nappy mathematics order CommandBar is going after a market of at least $ 13 billion . Not too tatty .
I do require to underscore that while integrating these slide offer some benefit , clarity is primal . insure the slide is not overcrowded with data . The aim is to raise understanding and booking , not to confuse . Careful design and contentedness pick are essential to making this scheme piece of work — and remember that more and more VCs are using AI to read pitch decks to do first - sifts . My own AI - based sales talk deck tool was confused by this slide , incorrectly key out it as a client slide . Your gas mileage may vary , butyour lurch deck does need to be machine - decipherable .
Simplicity
A lot of founders get stumped endeavor to express what the company is doing and who it is doing it for . That makes sense : Ofcoursea startup is complicated and full of subtlety . But investors do n’t need that level of in - the - weed preciseness , especially not the first prison term they search at a inauguration . CommandBar ’s second slide cut through the enticement of complexity , provide up the pursual :
It ’s unusual that a product - led pitch work well , but CommandBar is unlike here , too . Being a “ hunting - based interface for interact with software ” explicate thewhat , and enable “ web apps to configure program line bars ” explain thehow . “ Leveling up their UX ” picture why CommandBar can benefit companies . This is great , and show that the founding father really sympathise CommandBar’swhy .
Three things that could be improved
cagy innovations aside , there ’s a lot to be desire with this deck of cards .
The team slide doesn’t have a team on it
Princeton , McKinsey , Bain Capital , AngelList are all telling , but nothing about this slide suggests why CommandBar ’s institution team is the best squad to run this caller . And that ’s not all ; the squad lantern slide is often the most authoritative sliding board in a pack of cards . It should highlight the team ’s cryptic experience , connections or anything else that gives this finical startupa competitive sharpness .
There’s missing information
The deck does n’t let in enough information to cognize whether it ’s venture scale . There ’s no genuine sense of how big the market is . There ’s no ask or use of goods and services of funds . The team is miss . There ’s no financial plan , no business example , and no go - to - market programme . There ’s no well-defined pricing or unit of measurement economics . There ’s no clarity around who the target customers are , how this company might be defendable , or why now ’s the right meter to start the troupe .
For character , my AI - powered sales pitch pack of cards puppet gave this deck of cards a 16.9 % chance at elicit funding .
You need traction
CommandBar ’s deck of cards has no veridical grip metrics , which is n’t dandy . Even if there ’s no revenue , at least some work has been done to de - risk the fellowship . That ’s the grip ; cover it and show it as graphs .
So, what happened?
It ’s probable that CommandBar bring up its unit of ammunition without a deck at all and that investor came into the pitch acknowledge more about the society than we see here . Perhaps the squad is extraordinary , and the investor have it away that because they invest in a previous fellowship , or have had exposure to the founders in the past . Perhaps the company did a compelling demo when it was in Y Combinator .
I need the founding squad about what actually hap .
“ Vinay , Richard and I are overthinkers , so before spell our seed deck of cards we create some rule , ” said CommandBar ’s chief executive officer and carbon monoxide - founder , James Evans . The ship’s company took an unusual tack : “ We looked at our cum deck as a memoranda to ourselves of why we — self - proclaimed saucy multitude who could do a bunch of other thing with their meter — should enthrone the next decade+ of our ancestry , sweat and tears into this company . If that were clear and we could reasonably convince ourselves , conveying that message to appeal capital should be easy . And if it were n’t . . . then why were we knock off clip examine to raise money for this company to get with ? ”
Evans actually tore down the company ’s deck of cards himself in a recent blog post , which makes fora good behind - the - setting read(I had n’t read it before I compose my teardown above ) . He told me that while the company may or may not be raising another round of funding ( shhhh ) , itdid heighten its next roundwithout a deck of cards , saying “ it was n’t a traditional process . ”
“ We led the A because of a continuation of factors that were present at the source — a squad with swell aspiration + decipherable thinking , and a product that customer loved and you could see becoming omnipresent , ” said Itai Tsiddon , when TechCrunch asked him how the Series A stave come together . “ The prima early customer traction , with some marquee logos , certainly helped ! ”
The full pitch deck
If you want your own pitch deck of cards teardown featured on TechCrunch , here ’s more data . Also , check outall our Pitch Deck Teardownsall collected in one handy place for you !
