Pitch decks are the forefront and most of the time may well be considered the first impression an audience could get of you and your idea. Before the product demo, before the handshake, before anything else, there is the deck: ten to fifteen slides that decide whether you get a meeting, a check, or a polite email two weeks later. To create a better pitch deck that will captivate investors and clients alike, you have to study the decks that already worked.
Upon reading multiple pitch decks that have been submitted to YCombinator1, I’ve concluded that there is a certain pitch deck structure and characteristics needed.
Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas.
~ Paul Samuelson.
For me, I think a pitch deck must contain only the core of what you’re trying to do or achieve. I mean, just keep it short and simple which even a 5 year old could understand. Don’t put any jargon and highlight the important parts like graphs and figures. If you cannot explain your business in one sentence, no slide deck will save you.
Anyways, let’s dive into some pitch decks used and created by well known companies in this day and age.
🟠 Coinbase
If you’ve been in the crypto space for a while, I know for sure you’ve heard the name Coinbase. It’s one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges that is based in the US, along with Kraken and BitStamp. The company was founded in 2011 by a former Airbnb engineer named Brian Armstrong. Its first funding came from YCombinator.
These are the Coinbase seed round slides presented at YCombinator’s demo day in the year 2012:
Coinbase Seed Round Pitch Deck from Brian Armstrong
🌍 Transferwise
For me Transferwise is one of the cheapest ways to move funds internationally. If you’re a freelancer or a digital remote nomad, I’m sure you’ve come across this money transfer gateway. Transferwise launched in 2011, with the vision of making money transfer affordable, fast, and simple. Both founders were Estonian nationals: Taavet is a former Skype employee and Kristo is from Deloitte.
This is one of their first ever crafted pitch decks that was presented in London for seed investors:
Transferwise: €56K VC investment turned into $3.5B. Transferwise’s initial pitch deck from AA BB
🟩 Square
Been a merchant before? I’m sure you’ve seen this payment gateway. Square or Square, Inc. which is based in US soil offers financial services and is wholly a merchant services aggregator. The main product of the company is selling hardware and software products, focusing on easing the payment process. The company was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey, releasing its full product offering in 2010.
Here is one of the earliest versions of their pitch deck that was used in 2010:
Square pitch deck from pitchenvy
🔵 Revolut
A digital bank located in the heart of the United Kingdom (London). This company offers banking services; it first offered easy and convenient fiat currency exchange service, and after a few years transformed into a full pledged bank. The company was founded by Nikolay Storonsky in the year 2015.
This is the first ever revision of its pitch deck presented to early London angel investors:
Revolut pitch deck from BaseTemplates
⬜ N26
One of the first ever pure digital banks or so called a neobank in Europe. N26 is a FinTech2 company based in Berlin, Germany. The N26 name was derived from the 26 side of Rubik’s cube according to Wikipedia.
Here is the pitch deck presented by Valentin in 2016 at the NOAH Conference in London:
N26 - NOAH16 London from NOAH Advisors
💳 Monzo
In 2015, Monzo was founded by Tom Blomfield. Similar to N26 and Revolut, it offers banking services in Europe. It started its services in London then expanded across Europe; its first product offer was a loadable prepaid card, then it transitioned to a full banking experience.
Here is the pitch deck presented to venture capital in 2017:
Monzo: £19.3M VC investment turned into $2B. Monzo’s Series C pitch deck from AA BB
🧠 Final Thoughts
Creating pitch decks is a fun experience, and the contents of the deck depend on where you want to present it (e.g., Investors, Clients, Venture Capital, Consumers). It really depends on what agenda you are trying to push to the end reader. There is no universal template, but there is a universal rule: know your audience and talk about their problem, not your features.
Also for me the pitch deck is different from the presentation slide, so do not confuse the two. The deck is the document that travels without you; the slides are the backdrop while you speak. Try to listen to this video presentation on how to present keynotes.
Study the decks above, copy their structure, and then make it yours. That is exactly what every company on this list did, including the ones that started with a €56K check.
- Y Combinator is an American seed money startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch over 2,000 companies, including Stripe, Airbnb, Cruise Automation, DoorDash, Coinbase, Instacart, Dropbox, Twitch, and Reddit. ↩︎
- Financial technology is the technology and innovation that aims to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. It is an emerging industry that uses technology to improve activities in finance. ↩︎