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[Slide 2] A one-page summary to applaud.Image Credits: Plantee
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[Slide 8] Technology, AI and happy plants.Image Credits: Plantee
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[Slide 10] That’s a lot of competitors.Image Credits: Plantee
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[Slide 11] Plantee is arguing front and center that its Kickstarter campaign is part of the market validation. But there’s a catch.Image Credits: Plantee
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What happened?Image Credits: Screenshot from Kickstarter
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[Slide 5] I’m sorry for your loss, Ondra, but this is bordering on bad taste.Image Credits: Plantee.
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It ’s rarified that I come across a lurch pack of cards that ticks almost all the boxes . It ’s so unspoiled , in fact , that Ifed Plantee ’s deck of cards into an AI instrument I build up , and it determine there was a 97.7 % chance that Plantee would bring up money . This tool generally determines that only about 7.5 % of all pitch decks are up to scratch , so Plantee ’s is positively off the charts .
What the robots did n’t piece up , however , was that Plantee ’s Kickstarter campaign was cancel before it was finish , and there are a few other puzzling bits as well . rent ’s plunge in to see what work , and what could be improved .
We ’re looking for more unique pitch deck to tear down , so if you want to submit your own , here ’s how you could do that .
Slides in this deck
Three things to love about Plantee’s pitch deck
It turn out that Plantee ’s squad has been study my Pitch Deck Teardowns very cautiously indeed , and it shows . The ship’s company include lashings of details in its deck .
That’s how you do an introduction!
Slides 1 and 2 together ( sliding board 1 is at the top of the article ) set the stage for an investor to 100 % understand the what , why and how of the company :
The possibility slides of Plantee Innovations ’ pitch pack of cards are rock-and-roll solid . Between the two slides , the beginner offer a clear and engaging introduction to what the company stands for and aim to reach . The compendious overview capture the interview ’s attention right from the start but also serves a dual purpose of expeditiously level - setting for investors and filtering involvement found on investment dissertation alignment . The cover slide includes “ IoT Smart Home / B2C Consumer Electronics / AgriTech / Raising $ 1.7 M ” — it ’s basically keyword keno that help investors decide whether to lean in or whether to trash the deck of cards right by . That ’s a good affair : If this company is n’t a good fit with investors , they can move on right aside .
Gotta love a good tech solution
I ’ll be the first to accommodate that I ’m a raging nerd , and I love a good gadget . I also love plants ; I have dozens all over my flat , and I can keep most of them alive . As outlined , I love Plantee ’s approach to foolproofing plant life parentage .
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I ’d take chances a conjecture that most plant owner recollect about light precisely once : when they first bring the plant into the theater . They ’ll think of watering as often as they can , hopefully before the plants are a teetotal , crispy , sad mess on the corner of the vanity . I ’m glad there ’s an AI contain charge of all the other stuff , because I had no approximation plant life needed so much !
On the one hired hand , that ’s a reliever . On the other , perhaps I ’m just a naive and initiate flora daddy , but it left me a small unconnected . I ’ve never heard anyone mention airwave humidification and soil heating . I could be persuaded that these thing make a difference , sure , but I ’m definitely queer to what grade it ’s worth worrying about .
A good competitive landscape
This is a marketplace that does n’t have many contender . Seen through one lens , that ’s a good thing : It means that there ’s a expand market , and Plantee can see what its rival are doing well or badly and put itself consequently .
As a private-enterprise overview microscope slide , this is pretty comprehensive . It separates the competitive landscape into “ hard to grow ” and “ easy to grow ” and specialist ( e.g. , mushroom / avocado growers ) versus Renaissance man agriculturalist . That all makes sense , but there ’s still a little piece of the puzzle pretermit here : The only real exit in this infinite that I ’m cognisant of isScottsMiracle - Gro ’s acquisition of AeroGarden , for around $ 50 million . Not the world ’s pocket-sized accomplishment , but not wildly encouraging , either .
The other interrogative sentence I have is whether this dichotomy even makes horse sense . If someone implant a bonsai — a specific habit case pitched by the Plantee squad — they ’re probably not go to repot the plant , which is an interesting challenge . If you ’re positioning yourself in the market place as a “ you’re able to grow anything , ” I would get into that you ’d want to replant once in a while . The fiddling bonsai tree , however , cangrow up to 800 days , so it ’s heavy to lay claim that the “ grows all plant ” argument is that secure of a merchandising item .
Three things that Plantee could have improved
On first effect , the Plantee deck is pretty over-the-top , and the AI tool yield it a 97 % chance of success . As a human investor , I ’m less positive , and I disagree with the AI for a few essential reason .
Does it make sense as a product?
I love a honest indoor uprise system , and there have been many that tried ( and fail ) in this space . GROW raised $ 2.4 millionback in 2017 , before it eventually ground to a halt . I reviewed the $ 1,000 Abby a match year ago , which , like Plantee , had pre - sold $ 100,000 Charles Frederick Worth of product on Kickstarter , andit was moderately awful . I ’ve alsobuilt my own aquiculture organization for under $ 150 , which is obviously a lot more work , but it shows that these types of arrangement do n’t have to be expensive .
Plantee is up against some pretty unnerving competitor . At the humiliated end , for just $ 40you can pick up a pod - ground hydroponic system . If you want to pass a bit more , Click & Grow has your back . Rise Gardensrecently raised a $ 9 million round . People kill theatre industrial plant all the time , but most of them are pretty easy to take fear of . If you require some service , a immediate Google hunting for “ AI plant life growing app ” gives you dozens of choice , most of them loose .
My big challenge with the Plantee deck of cards is n’t what ’s there , but it ’s what ’s miss : wider context . If you take all the companionship ’s claims at face time value , it ’s an over-the-top opportunity . However , zoom out a little , and blab out to a few plant fan , and you realize that perhaps there is n’t as big a gap in the marketplace as one might think . It seems that the inbuilt assumption in the Plantee chronicle is that people who are bad at plants will spend $ 1,400 on a fancy automatic flora pot .
I ’d indicate that ’s a fallacy and that people who are bad at plants alternatively get a kitten , or take up watercolor , or get a shaping plant life , before they ’re wiling to invest four calendar month of car payment on a fancy piece of technical school .
So what happened to that Kickstarter campaign?
Plantee did , in fact , persuade 109 backersto toast just over $ 100,000 for its product . The campaign wasfully funded in less than eight hoursbut was scratch just under a month after .
That puts the Plantee team in a strange spot : It claim that the Kickstarter campaign prove securities industry validation . And that might be dead on target : The caller says it was able to attract its preorder customers for a CAC of $ 275 . By deal 109 social unit , basic math order that the company pass about $ 30,000 to make $ 100,000 worth of sales . That ’s not too shabby , assume that there ’s enough margin in the merchandise to make that customer acquisition cost make sense .
The problem , however , is that the party does n’t mention anywhere in the pitch deck that the campaign was canceled , and it does n’t discusswhyit was cancel . It could debate that it never designate to deliver on the Kickstarter campaign and that it was just a merchandising test to facilitate confirm whether there was a market for this sort of thing .
I ’m not sure that have signified . Before Plantee ’s campaign , EcoQube ( $ 300,000 funded in 2019 ) , GroBox ( $ 70,000 funded in 2019 ) , Herbert ( $ 280,000 funded in 2019 ) and dozens of others had already been successful , and it ’s not to the full clear what Plantee learned from this practice session . Since then , a bunch of others have run successful Kickstarter campaign ( Herbstation , MarsPlanter , GrowChef ) .
Put simply , I ’m struggle to fancy out how the Kickstarter campaign agree into the overall narrative , and by seeming to hedge the publication within the deck , Plantee is n’t doing itself any favors . Perhaps I ’m being sorely raw after one of my own Kickstarter campaignswent down in flaming a decade ago , and eventuallytook the whole company with it , but in person , I ’d admit a “ so , what happened with the Kickstarter ” playground slide in the appendix to get ahead of that part of the history . Bad news should journey tight .
A little on the dramatic side
I know some good storytelling , do n’t get me wrong , but piece of this pitch deck seem to have lost all view . phrase like “ never lose another green youngster , ” “ It started when my good champion die out , ” and “ stress affecting the mental wellness of growers ” are undoubtedly sinewy and emotionally charged , but to those of us who ’ve lost a secure friend , had serious mental health challenges , or actually lose a human child , it seems pretty tasteless to compare the Brobdingnagian and almost unbearable pain of that with losing a household plant .
The full pitch deck
If you require your own pitch deck teardown featured on TechCrunch , here ’s more information . Also , check outall our Pitch Deck Teardownsall collected in one handy home for you !
