According to studies by Docsend, investors spend an average of 3 minutes and 44 seconds reviewing a pitch deck. More importantly, they spend 15% of that time reading the Team Slide.

Creating an impactful team slide is an art. Your aim is to describe the key team members, their achievements, and why they are suitable for their roles. Unfortunately, the pitch deck team slide is one of the most challenging slides to get right. 

This article will discuss various team slide designs and provide examples from successful startups that have received significant funding. 

What is the Pitch Deck Team Slide? 

In a startup pitch deck, a team slide is a visual representation of each member of your team. This slide introduces the founders and team members and their backgrounds. More importantly, it proves that the team has the experience and skills to drive the business to success. The slide can incorporate many elements, including headshots, job titles, role descriptions, and prior career history.

When designing your pitch deck team slide, there are three approaches you should consider. These include the Full Bio, the Combined Experience slide, and the Minimal Approach.

Team Slide Option #1: The Full Bio

The Full Bio approach is a great way to showcase the pitch deck team slide. While there are numerous ways that a startup can utilize the team slide, the full bio is the most comprehensive. Generally, these slides resemble a resume, providing a full scope of the team member’s most notable achievements. 

This version of the pitch deck team slide can take many different forms.

Sometimes, founders use entire paragraphs to explain the team member’s background and career highlights. Other times, the team uses a series of bullet points to display each member’s history in a more digestible way. Some teams use a mix of paragraphs and bullet points for the slide. They leverage the length of the paragraphs to give a summary and highlight noteworthy accomplishments in the bullet points. 

Pros and Cons

Those who adopt this approach will face both pros and cons. This format uses more text and length than other slide structures, explaining team members’ experiences more broadly.

However, extended team slides are detrimental when presenting your pitch deck. Instead of listening to you, investors will use their attention to read your text. If investors are reading your slides during your presentation, you’ve failed. Instead, they should browse the text quickly while intensely listening to your pitch.

When To Use This Approach

We don’t recommend using full biographies in pitch deck team slides for every occasion. More appropriate team slide options exist that you can leverage when presenting your business to investors. However, this extended version is ideal if you’re emailing the deck as an introduction to investors.

The key to leveraging this slide is ensuring each member’s bio is concise and well-structured. Avoid overwhelming the audience with details or unnecessary information. Focus on team members’ relevant backgrounds and align their expertise with your business’s specific challenges. 

Full Bio – Team Slide Examples

Check out the following examples to see how these successful startups used the pitch deck team slide to raise capital from investors.

Fyre’s Team Slide

Those who have seen the Netflix or Hulu specials about Fyre already know how disastrous the venture was. However, while the event was a notable failure, the founders did a fantastic job proving a strong team.

Fyre’s team slide includes significant information about its founders. The slide gives insight into each team member’s track record and explains their role responsibilities. It shows how each founder contributes to the business and how their experiences match their team responsibilities. 

Ultimately, Fyre’s startup team successfully showcased the business idea and raised over $26 million from angel investors. 

Mattermark’s Team Slide 

Mattermark may have misunderstood what the term pitch deck team slide meant. Typically, companies present their teams on a single slide. However, Mattermark gave each member an entire slide for their biography.

If our team at ThinkLions had created this slide, we would have made several changes. Still, it has several positive aspects that caught our attention.

The slide is visually overwhelming, and the design is confusing. Although it details the founders’ skills and experience, the design is hard to make sense of. Ultimately, the pitch deck template feels off-putting instead of inviting.

It makes the reader avoid reading it instead of making them want to engage with the information. A better design would make it easier for readers to digest the information. The slide is similar to entering a hoarder’s home. Your eyes can’t quite comprehend what’s happening and your brain immediately feels overwhelmed with information.

Despite the long text and terrible design, the slide has some redeeming factors. The use of logos and imagery adds credibility to each founder’s background. Readers instantly know that the founders have experience at massive companies like Microsoft and Twilio. Unfortunately, that may be as far as investors get before giving up on reading through the clutter.

The Airbnb Team Slide

Airbnb’s pitch deck team slide caught our eye because it balances visual design with informative details. The team bolded each founder’s name and presented their positions and responsibilities in large text. The bios are informative and short, using a maximum of three lines. They aligned the photos and text to the left, making the slide look clean and easy to read. 

The Takeaway

We prefer some of these examples more than others. However, every one of these early-stage companies successfully raised investor capital. Some of these companies, like Airbnb, even had successful exits, earning the founders billions of dollars. When examining these pitch deck team slides, there are several lessons we can take away:

• Only incorporate the information that matters most. Although the team slide layout in a pitch deck commands detail, it isn’t the place to dump every detail of your professional life. Instead, highlight your relevant experience and the qualities demonstrating your ability to succeed in your startup role.
• Make it as easy as possible for the reader to digest. The issue with full bio team slides is that they are lengthy. Keep the text short to make it easy for readers to comprehend the material. Furthermore, use bullet points instead of paragraphs to highlight your career history.
• Utilize logos and graphics to improve the slide’s impact. Founders often lean on text to get their points across in a pitch deck. But in many cases, there are better options available. Graphics, like logos, can tell a story much more effectively than text while streamlining your slide design.

Team Slide Option #2: Combined Experience

Another approach to the pitch deck team slide is the Combined Experience bio. In this version, founders showcase their career experience as a team instead of describing each member separately. This shorter version shows the team working together towards one goal. The focus is on what the team can do rather than the backgrounds of each team member. 

A brand can present a pitch deck team slide with a Combined Experience structure in numerous ways. Brands can show combined experience with statistics, like their total sales or capital raised. They can also highlight key achievements or essential facts about their team. 

Pros and Cons

Every team slide format has strengths and flaws. While the Combined Experience variant is an excellent approach for a great team slide, it can also have drawbacks. 

The advantage of this type of slide is its brevity. The condensed format is presentable and readable and can quickly display the team’s abilities. It presents the team as a formidable unit and helps investors understand the potential of all members.

This approach’s drawback is that many investors don’t want to see the team as a whole unit. They may be interested in understanding the organization of the team. These investors want to understand each team position and find proof of each person’s skills for their respective roles. Unfortunately, a Combined Experience slide will not provide this level of detail. 

When To Use This Approach

Use the Combined Experience approach when presenting your pitch deck to an audience. That way, you can fill in the blanks about each team member during the presentation.

Avoid using this format when creating a pitch deck for reading instead of one for presenting. Since it provides a minimal view of each team member, it will leave readers with more questions than answers. Unanswered questions can lead to doubt, and doubt leads to objection. The last thing you want to hear from your prospective investors is an objection. 

Combined Experience – Team Slide Examples

Many startups have used this approach to present the team in the pitch deck. To create a great team slide, study examples from founders who secured funding from investors and venture capitalists. 

The Fyre Team Slide

While Fyre Festival is a great model for what not to do as a business, its pitch deck has many great qualities. In the slide, Fyre presents the team’s combined experiences and accomplishments.

The slide explains that the team members have worked at top companies such as Google, Nike, Helmut Lang, and Breather. The vital information is clear and readable.  

The design is clean and consistent throughout Fyre’s entire pitch deck. It utilizes small and light fonts for less critical information. Furthermore, it uses bolded text with a thin orange line to separate the most important details. The content showcases the team as a unit and clarifies that there is significant experience between the team members. 

Intercom’s Pitch Deck Team Slide

Intercom’s team slide showcases individual team members and their positions. However, as a Combined Experience slide, it successfully showcases the team’s highlights as a unit. It helps us see who is responsible for each role. However, it is unclear which achievement belongs to each member.

For example, we know that the team launched Qwitter and Exceptional, and participated in startup acquisitions. However, it is unclear whether the entire team launched these companies or just one of the members. Most likely, the founders kept things mysterious for a reason. 

One massive benefit of this slide type is that it takes the pressure off team members with weaker backgrounds. For example, say one founder launched both mentioned companies, while the other three had no accolades. In this case, the team would seem unbalanced, and investors would question the team’s strength. However, by combining the members’ experience, each member receives equal credit for the achievements. 

The Takeaway

The Combined Experience slide can either contribute to the success of your pitch deck or completely backfire. Investors will either love this approach or feel slighted. Only choose this option if your team’s combined statistics are notable enough to make a difference. When examining the previously mentioned samples, there are several lessons we can take away: 

• Know when to use a Combined Experience approach. The Combined Experience slide only works in certain circumstances. For example, use it when presenting the slide and when one founder’s accomplishments may have to carry everyone else’s. 
• Focus on the highlights that matter most. Refrain from overloading your slide with every possible detail. Be intentional with every highlight and only display the experiences that best align with the startup’s needs.  
• Consider adding names and team roles. Use this version when showcasing the highlights of the team as a unit. However, you should still consider adding each member’s name, image, and team role.

Team Slide Option #3: The Minimal Slide

Some brands give detailed background information about each member, while others use a simpler approach in their pitch decks. 

This approach is precisely what it sounds like – minimal. Usually, it only includes the member’s headshot, name, and job role. Sometimes, it may consist of a small blurb about their career accomplishments.

This version is relatively obscure and leaves many questions unanswered. On the other hand, this approach is clean, streamlined, and straightforward.

Pros and Cons

The Minimal pitch deck team slide is the opposite of the Full Bio version, with reversed strengths and weaknesses. 

Unlike the Full Bio team slide, a Minimal approach has a much cleaner design. Pitch deck writers and designers don’t have many elements to work with. Therefore, keeping the slide aligned with the design theme is easier.

Full Bio slides have lots of text and elements, so designers have to squeeze them in to fit. Those slides can become cluttered and overwhelming. 

While a minimal design is an advantage, it has its drawbacks, too. It doesn’t provide investors with enough information for them to assess and understand the team’s capabilities. 

When To Use This Approach

This approach makes sense only when someone is presenting the material. Other approaches are better if you use your deck to provide detailed team information.

When presenting the deck, the presenter can fill in the gaps the slide may have missed. You can verbally explain each team member’s background while displaying a clean, easy-to-read slide.

However, sending the pitch deck to an investor for self-review will leave more questions than answers. Unanswered questions lead to doubts, which turn into objections.

The Minimal Approach – Pitch Deck Team Slide Examples

For presentations, the minimal approach is the most popular. When presenting a deck, we recommend this version over others. See the examples below to learn about creating a practical but minimal pitch deck team slide. 

SEMRush’s Team Slide

SEMRush’s team slide includes components of the minimal and full bio approaches. While the information seems scarce, readers are clear about each member’s role and background.

Each team member’s bio follows a consistent format. The first line displays their names. The second line indicates their role. The third line highlights their experience.

The slide is minimal but still effective.  

The Buzzfeed Team Slide 

While BuzzFeed’s team slide is brief, it still provides significant information. This example shows the team role in bold, with the names of the individuals filling the role listed below. Some listed team members have parentheses beside their names, mentioning companies they previously worked for. 

Buzzfeed uses a unique but impactful design theme for its pitch deck team slide. Since creating this slide, the BuzzFeed team has raised more than $696.3 million in investor and VC funding.

Ooomf’s Pitch Deck Team Slide

Ooomf did an exceptional job presenting its pitch deck team slide. This slide combines the minimal approach with the full bio and combined experience versions. At the top of the slide, the team lists a combined experience statistic. Instead of only showing each member’s name and position, Ooomf listed several summarized highlights to display their credibility. 

In this version, the team maintained simplicity while still explaining each team member’s accomplishments. Even though Ooomf’s team slide uses sentence fragments, it offers more information than some Full Bio examples.

The Takeaway

Experts always suggest minimizing the amount of text on a pitch deck slide. However, it is possible to over-minimize the team slide in your pitch deck. The best slides were minimal but still presented the type of information an investor would want to know. These slides can teach you several lessons, including:

• Minimize the text, but not too much. The problem with minimal slides is that they can become too bare. You want to reduce the load on your pitch deck team slide. However, don’t minimize it to the point that it no longer includes the information investors want to know. 
• Minimize text, not impact. Ultimately, you should reduce the number of words on the page, but not at the expense of quality. To capture investors’ attention, you want to build memorable slides. If you eliminate the fluff, the highlights will stand out.   

Pitch Deck Team Slide – A Final Word

Creating the best pitch deck may seem easy, but I assure you it is not. Success means thinking like an investor, examining each slide, and presenting only the important information without any unnecessary details.

The best way to learn how to create a compelling pitch deck team slide is to assess decks from successful companies. Find patterns in their slides, and replicate them to create your team slide. 

At ThinkLions, our writers help startups raise money by creating investor packages, business plans, and pitch decks. Contact us, share your goals, and let us help you turn your startup idea into a successful business. 

The post The Art of Creating a Pitch Deck Team Slide appeared first on Startup Squared.

You’ve thought up an amazing business idea, built traction, and scheduled a pitch with an angel investor. As you’re ticking off the many boxes on your investor pitch checklist, you realize something is missing. Uh oh, you completely forgot that you need a pitch deck.

Immediately, you open PowerPoint on your laptop, with sweat dripping down your face. After three hours, the only progress you’ve made is typing the company’s name on the Title slide. With tears in your eyes, you give up and type “pitch deck writer” into the Google search bar.

Unfortunately, many founders share your experience. Thousands of entrepreneurs contact pitch deck writers every year in a panicked frenzy. But, if you know what to look for, you can find the optimal professional to create an investor pitch deck.

There are a few things you need to know before contracting a pitch deck consultant. With that investor meeting approaching rapidly, you may only have one shot to get your deck right.

What is a Pitch Deck Writer?

A pitch deck writer is an individual, agency, or company hired to write and design a startup’s pitch deck. They develop the tools that startup teams need to approach investors and raise capital.

The pitch deck writer’s job is to assist startups by performing market research and developing the brand’s messaging. Furthermore, they prepare financial projections, analyze competitors, write content, and design the final presentation.

Preparing to Hire a Pitch Deck Writer

Creating a pitch deck is an extremely involved process. Despite what most entrepreneurs believe, writing and designing are only small pieces to a much larger puzzle. Unfortunately, finding a capable writer or designer doesn’t guarantee that you’ll end up with an investor-ready pitch deck.

According to statistics, only 1% of pitch decks attract investors and land investment money. Finding the right person or company to create your deck is crucial for your success.

Preparation is key to hiring a capable consultant. There are three preliminary steps you should take to prepare for the project and maximize your success potential.

1) Define Your Goals and Objectives

Startup consultants have varied skills, backgrounds, and experiences. The company may have more experience in one industry than another. Or, they may have more success creating one type of pitch deck over the next. The best pitch deck writer is one whose experience aligns with your startup’s goals and objectives. 

Start the process by defining your goals.

For example, you should know what type of audience will view or read your deck. A pitch deck for presenting to a VC firm may vastly differ from one used to impress a startup accelerator program. Likewise, a presentation deck will look much different than one prepared for email. 

Defining your goals and objectives early on makes evaluating startup consultants easier and quicker. Ultimately, your goal shouldn’t be to simply hire someone to create a pitch deck. Anyone with PowerPoint experience can toss a slideshow together. Unfortunately, very few can successfully help your startup reach its desired result.

2) Outline Key Messages

Your pitch deck must capture more than just information about your business. It encompasses your brand voice, tone, and personality. It communicates the specific messages that form the foundation of your brand. 

Too many entrepreneurs expect a pitch deck writer to create magic without any guidance or prior exposure to the brand. You know more about your startup than anyone, and your insights are important in the process. If you want your writer to stay on brand as they communicate your business, spend time creating brand guidelines.

In your project spec, answer the following questions: 

• What key messages do you want to display in your pitch deck? 
• What personality should the pitch deck reflect? Young and fun? Mature and professional?
• What is the tone of the pitch deck? Happy? Stern? 
• What feeling do you want the audience to take away from your pitch deck?

Remember that the more information you provide to your pitch deck writer, the better the outcome you can expect. Knowing the goals beforehand gives you clarity in the evaluation process as you choose the right professional for your project.

3) Assess Existing and Required Resources

Finally, evaluate what resources you already have and what you actually need from your hired professional. Hiring a pitch deck agency gives you access to professionals who can help with different parts of your deck. For example, they can provide market research, financial modeling, branding, content development, and design. 

Yet, if you have some of these assets already, there’s no reason to duplicate them. That would only require you to pay for them again and lengthen the time required to complete your deck. For example, if you’ve already written the content, you may only need a designer. If you’ve already modeled your financials, it can save time and money to have the company use your existing asset.

How To Evaluate A Pitch Deck Writer

The difference between a successful and failed pitch deck comes down to the experience and ability of the person creating it. You’ll likely interview several startup consultants, but you also need to know how to evaluate them. As you evaluate professionals, agencies, and companies, you should analyze their experience, industry understanding, and track record.

1) Experience & Expertise

Hiring someone with pitch deck experience isn’t enough to create a winning document. A well-written and aesthetically-pleasing presentation alone won’t attract investors. It is more important to find a company with funding knowledge, storytelling expertise, and a keen market understanding.

Are They Knowledgable?

Look for a writer who deeply understands the startup funding landscape. The optimal professional will understand various funding sources, including venture capital, angel investors, and crowdfunding. They will also have a clear understanding of the specific requirements of each funding avenue.

With their expertise, they can help you decide the right funding source for your startup, situation, and goals. Writers unfamiliar with the nuances of each funding channel will struggle to craft a pitch deck that aligns with investor preferences.

Can They Tell Your Startup’s Story?

Although your deck needs to communicate the right information, it should also be engaging. A well-written pitch will pull investors in and have them hanging on every word. Storytelling is the key to keeping your audience’s attention.

Storytelling is a powerful approach for conveying a startup and its potential impact. Make sure the writer you hire can create a captivating story that grabs investors’ interest. They should know how to present characters, follow a plot, and leave the audience wanting more.

Do They Know How Investors Think?

Your pitch deck writer should also understand how investors think in today’s market. The startup landscape constantly evolves. Today’s trends become outdated quickly, and markets shift rapidly.

A worthy consultant stays updated on the most recent trends and incorporates them into their work. As an expert, they can offer valuable insights to align your startup to current industry dynamics. Since they know how investors think, they can craft a deck that speaks to investors’ interests.

2) Industry & Niche Understanding

No individual or company has expertise across every industry. However, some elements of operating a business apply across every industry. For example, certain words or phrases may carry over from one industry to another. Still, each industry has its own nuances, jargon, and challenges.

With enough time, a competent startup consultant can perform the necessary research to learn your niche. But, if your team is in a hurry, there may not be enough time to understand the nuances of your industry.

Ultimately, the less experience they have with your niche, the more they will rely on their research capabilities. Someone with a strong research background can quickly grasp and understand the intricacies of your particular niche. The best writer will find market reports and customer studies, analyze the market, and use insights to learn quickly.

Furthermore, a capable writer should know what questions to ask and who they should seek out for an answer. Sometimes, they will engage you as the source for certain information. Other times, they may reach out to industry experts, leaders, or influencers to learn more about the industry.

The ideal consultant will have a proactive approach to research. They will welcome the opportunity to research and learn about a new market.

A lack of experience in your particular industry shouldn’t always be a deal breaker. Consultants with no industry experience can still be effective if they’ve created decks for the same target audience.

A consultant skilled in creating pitch decks for real estate tech companies can likely make one for a crypto startup. While these industries are vastly different, they share similar target audiences – investors. Therefore, the consultant may already be familiar with the target audience, its situations, needs, and language.

3) Track Record

A consultant’s track record is another important consideration. Ask about the successful pitch decks they created in the past and the results of those projects. If they cannot produce case studies or success stories that align with your goals, it could be cause for concern. 

As you interview consultants, don’t fall into the trap of setting your expectations too high. A pre-seed startup shouldn’t require its consultants to have a portfolio full of clients that raised millions in funding. A very small handful of startups raise millions of dollars in the seed stage.

Instead, have realistic expectations of how much your company has the potential to raise. Then, look for consultants who have helped similar companies raise seed capital within the same range. 

It is also important to realize that the pitch deck isn’t the only contributor to fundraising success. A startup can have the best pitch deck, but other elements can still cause it to fail at raising capital.

There could be a reason that the consultant can’t deliver million-dollar success studies. It is possible that they created great pitch decks for teams in industries that investors aren’t interested in. Another possibility is that they designed amazing pitch decks for mediocre teams that couldn’t pitch them properly.

Sidenote: Don’t go into your pitch unprepared. Check out our article on how to deliver a great pitch to attract investors. 

As you interview consultants, ask about companies they have worked with previously. Don’t focus all your attention on huge numbers, but look at their overall impact.

Seek to understand where the client started and the outcomes they achieved as a result of the pitch deck service. Spend some time looking through their portfolio, if they have one available. Focus on the entire package, not just the pitch deck design.

Design is the least important element of a deck to investors. There are more important aspects to evaluate when you’re examining a consultant’s portfolio. Look at how well they researched the market, how they conveyed the startup story, and how they communicated product-market fit.

Contracting A Pitch Deck Writer

So you’ve contacted a consultant or agency, evaluated their abilities, and assessed their portfolio. You feel confident that they can deliver a professional pitch deck. They’ve proven their pitch deck writing skills and you’re excited to proceed.

Before you decide to move forward, it is important to understand the specifics of the project and contract. At a minimum, you should have a clear understanding of pricing, terms, and deliverables. 

Pitch Deck Service – Pricing

Pitch deck services can vary from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. If you want to hire someone with years of experience and proven results, expect to pay a premium.

Different companies have varying business models, so decide your top budget before you begin negotiating. Price is simple to understand, but the pricing model may be a bit more confusing. Startup consultants typically use one of the following pricing models, including fixed-fee, hourly, and equity-based.  

Fixed Fee

Most often, consultants use a fixed fee model for pitch deck services. The company will propose a price for the entire project based on your specific requirements. They usually request a 50% deposit upfront and require you to pay the remaining amount once they achieve certain goals. 

Hourly

Few companies charge an hourly rate for pitch deck creation. But if you hire freelancers, they will likely place bids with an hourly price.

Be careful when contracting a writer using this model. Make sure you understand how many hours it takes them to create similar pitch decks, on average. Pitch presentations may look simple from the outside, but they can prove extremely time-consuming. For reference, at ThinkLions, our pitch deck services typically require more than 80 manhours from start to finish. 

Equity-Based

It isn’t common, but some startup consultants may propose an equity-based payment model. An experienced pitch deck writer will only offer this agreement to a startup with traction and a high valuation. You should deeply consider the pros and cons of an equity-based agreement. You might pay more over time with equity than with a fixed fee. 

Pitch Deck Service – Terms and Deliverables

The final step is to negotiate the terms of service. The output of your project isn’t the only thing you should consider.

Ideally, you want to experience a smooth and predictable process from onboarding to delivery. During negotiations, ask the pitch deck consultant about revisions, ownership, and confidentiality. 

How Many Revisions Do They Offer?

Entrepreneurs often enter the project with certain expectations. Before starting a project, they already visualize how the deck will appear, including graphics and font selection. Even the best pitch deck writer may not meet your expectations on the first delivery. The project will probably need at least one revision along the way.

You might expect a couple of rounds of revisions to be industry standard. But, the contract terms may not state a specific number of revisions. Sometimes, consultants don’t allow for any revisions.

This situation is risky. You either have to live with the deck, make revisions yourself, or pay additional fees to the consultant for changes. An extra two or three rounds of revisions could end up costing hundreds or thousands of dollars. 

Other consultants may have a defined number of revision rounds. For example, their contract may clearly state that they are willing to do two rounds of revisions with no additional fee. This method is definitely less risky than agreeing to not have any revision opportunities.

At ThinkLions, we offer unlimited revision stages. Our team sends numerous client updates at every step of the process. These updates allow us to collect and implement our clients’ feedback along the way.

Even with unlimited revisions, problems can arise. If the consultant doesn’t update you, the first finished draft might be far lower than your expectation. It may require significant and time-consuming changes.

Clarify how many iterations the consultant will allow. Also, make sure they define how often they will update you on the project’s progress.

A Note About Confidentiality

Confidentiality is an important factor to negotiate in your service contract. You may think your consultant will be careful with your information, but that assumption can be costly. Many companies and freelancers use their client projects as samples in their portfolios. If your competitors contact them, they may also be able to access your pitch deck. 

Some teams encourage others to share their pitch decks. They want to reach the most people possible with their brand message and offer. However, this could lead to the wrong people gaining access to the details of their startup.

If you’re fine with a consultant using your presentation in their portfolio, make sure to state it in the contract. Better safe than sorry!  

The Final Step Before You Decide

Follow these tips and you will certainly find a pitch deck writer that can help you achieve your goals. Remember the factors that matter and use them to assess prospective consultants as you go forward.

If you need help with your pitch deck, we encourage you to contact us. Over the last decade, we have worked with more than 500 startups. We’ve created pitch decks and business plans that have raised over $50 million from investors. Click to learn more about our pitch deck services!

The post The Startup’s Guide to Hiring a Pitch Deck Writer appeared first on Startup Squared.

Pitch decks are essential for businesses in the fundraising process, especially when introducing investors to your brand and products. They play a pivotal role in telling your brand story and building excitement. While having a remarkable business idea is crucial, articulating its potential to investors can make or break your fundraising efforts.

Airbnb’s founders didn’t enter the market with fundraising experience. Still, in 2009, they crafted an extraordinary pitch deck that helped them raise an impressive $600,000 during their seed round.

In this article, we’ll meticulously analyze every aspect of the Airbnb pitch deck and uncover the secrets behind its powerful impact. By learning from this outstanding example, you can optimize your own pitch deck and maximize investor engagements for your startup.

About the Airbnb Pitch Deck

Before evaluating Airbnb’s pitch deck slides, let’s put the company’s situation into perspective. Airbnb is now a massive business, with millions of hosts and renters worldwide. However, the company didn’t begin with immediate success. Instead, the company’s humble beginnings started with an unexpected minimum viable product (MVP).

The company officially hit the market in 2008 but launched three times before attracting property owners and travelers across the nation.

The first launch was its minimum viable product. Before building an app, the team tested the market by offering airbeds for rent in the founder’s apartment. To validate its hypotheses, the team targeted travelers flying into California for a local conference. The team put the offer online, and three conference attendees immediately accepted.

Through this experiment, the company validated the customer problem. For travelers, hotels are expensive and don’t provide unique experiences.

After proving the concept, the founders created the initial website. The second version of the technology-enabled travelers to book a room in a renter’s home. After this launch, the team hit the fundraising trail, intending to raise $150,000 at a $1.5 million valuation.

CEO Brian Chesky said:

“We were introduced to 15 angel investors. 7 investors never responded, 8 replied – of those, 4 said no ‘it didn’t fit within their thesis,’ 1 said they didn’t like the market, and 3 just passed.”

Airbnb launched a third time at South by Southwest (SXSW), a festival that draws over 100,000 attendees each year. This final launch established the foundation for what would eventually become a unicorn startup.

By the time Airbnb reached the seed round, it already had traction, a website, and a proven business model. As a result of Airbnb’s pitch deck and positioning, the team raised $600K from Sequoia Capital.

Slide 1: Title

The vast majority of pitch decks start with a title slide that includes the brand name, logo, and slogan. Airbnb used a minimal design in its title slide, using its brand colors and grey text over a white background. Unlike many brands, Airbnb’s team chose not to include many design elements, like a background or images.

By leveraging this minimal theme, Airbnb’s logo stands out against the backdrop. The reader’s focus immediately goes to the most important elements, including the brand name and slogan.

The brand name alone brings intrigue and sparks curiosity. Separately, we know what air beds are and we are familiar with the Bed & Breakfast concept. But no one at the time could describe the relationship between the two. Readers would have to hold on to their seats and wait for the presentation if they wanted to gain clarity.

The appeal of the slide is that it leaves the reader curious. In 2008, booking with locals instead of hotels was an unfamiliar concept. Yet, the idea of merging the short-term housing industry with the sharing economy was intriguing.

When the team pitched this slide, audience members wanted to hear more about it. Even those who didn’t want to invest wanted to satisfy their curiosity. With only a logo and seven words, Airbnb successfully captured investors’ attention.

Slide 2: Problem

The Airbnb team decided to present its Problem Slide immediately in its pitch deck. Likewise, you should also consider placing this slide as one of the first in your startup presentation.

Successful businesses are those that solve massive problems for a vast number of customers. Investors are fully aware that if the problem isn’t large enough, then the solution doesn’t matter.

The Airbnb pitch deck makes the reader or audience aware of three massive problems among travelers. First, they mention that online bookings are too expensive for travelers booking online. Furthermore, hotels lack unique experiences and travelers don’t have a way to book rooms with locals rather than hotels.

The founders didn’t waste multiple slides explaining the problem. All they needed was three bullet points to expose the market’s challenges. In 2008, prior to Airbnb’s launch, any occasional traveler could relate to these challenges. Even today, hotel prices peak when there is an event drawing thousands of travelers to a particular city.

Airbnb proved that even a few bullet points can have a massive impact. They didn’t write in full sentences but presented each problem as a short sentence fragment. The audience can scan the slide for a few seconds and understand exactly what problem the startup is hoping to solve.

When creating your Problem Slide, focus on connecting the audience to the problem in a way they can quickly relate to. The audience should understand the market challenges even if they don’t experience them firsthand.

Slide 3: Solution

The Airbnb founders immediately followed the Problem Slide with the Solution. Following the same theme throughout the deck, this slide does not leverage extensive design. By minimizing design features, each element on the slide becomes more profound. The slide uses bold and capital letters to make the most important text stand out.

Notice that this slide refrains from explaining the features of the Airbnb solution. Instead, they focused on showcasing the benefits of the platform. Ultimately, customers don’t care about your product or what features it provides. They only care about how it can benefit them, improve their situation, or better their lives.

The slide emphasizes the following words: a web platform, save money, make money, and share culture. Without reading it word-for-word, the audience quickly grasps that it is a web platform that provides three significant benefits.

Your pitch deck may or may not adopt Airbnb’s minimal design approach. However, you should also focus on the benefits of the solution as opposed to its features. Instead of explaining every feature offered, detail how your solution directly solves the issues from the Problem Slide.

Slide 4: Market Validation

Airbnb had some traction, but the founders only served three customers during its MVP launch. While that may seem impressive to some, it isn’t a strong enough metric to sway investors.

The founders refrained from showing Airbnb’s minimal traction. Instead, they showcased the market size by detailing the number of temporary housing listings on sites like CouchSurfing and Craigslist. This approach was risky but worth it. By showing statistics from other platforms, the pitch deck validates that real consumers are in the market seeking a suitable solution.

In this slide, Airbnb’s founders focused on simplicity and proof. There are no complex graphs, no distracting images, and very limited text. In this slide, the focus is on the elements that stand out the most, the market validation numbers.

Slide 5: Market Size

The Market Size slide utilizes a framework called the TAM, SAM, and SOM target market analysis. Many startups use this framework and investors are quite familiar with it. This analysis enables startups to showcase the total size of their markets compared to the percentage they can likely attract.

For the Total Available Market, the Airbnb pitch deck detailed the number of trips booked worldwide. Any traveler could potentially be a future Airbnb customer.

However, the company doesn’t attract every type of traveler with its solution. Instead, Airbnb focuses on individuals seeking to travel on a budget and those actively booking trips online. When the team created its pitch deck, 560 million individuals fit this description.

Finally, the team expressed the market share they believed the company could acquire – 84 million customers. The Serviceable Obtainable Market looks at competition and the startup’s ability to secure a meaningful position. Then, it analyzes what portion of the SAM the startup could potentially capture.

Slide 6: Product

Airbnb’s Product Slide successfully fulfills two objectives. First, it showcases the company’s web platform with three images, making investors fully aware of its features. It also proves how simple it is for users to book a property – search by city, review listings, and book it.

The team could have decided to explain its payment system and the intricate details of its browse/search engine. However, these additions would have muddied the slide and made the process seem complex. Instead, Airbnb wanted to showcase the simplicity of its platform – and the Product Slide achieves this goal.

Slide 7: Business Model

Investors want to know about market sizes and problems. But always remember that they are investors, not activists. Their primary goal is to make money, not save the world.

There is one question every investor will ask – how do you earn revenue? Investors want to earn a return on their investment, which is impossible if the business cannot turn a profit.

The Airbnb pitch deck defines its revenue model with a short statement, “We take a 10% commission on each transaction.” Furthermore, it showcases a single business model and defines the company’s expected revenue by its third year.

Don’t expect investors to do complex calculations to estimate the financial potential of your startup. Follow Airbnb’s lead and model it in a way that they can immediately understand.

Slide 8: Adoption Strategy

Airbnb’s Market Adoption Slide used imagery to explain its strategy for attracting new customers. The three channels include events, partnerships, and a Craigslist dual posting feature.

Customer acquisition is critical to a startup’s success. This slide shouldn’t just provide a long list of marketing strategies. Instead, consider how you will introduce your product to customers who have never heard of your company. Furthermore, consider your budget and how you can leverage it to attract early adopters.

Slide 9: Competition

The Competition Slide explains the startup’s market position as it relates to competitors offering a similar solution. Most startups add a Competitor Feature Table to this slide. In the table, they list each competitor and use checkmarks to compare each brand’s features, offerings, and qualities.

However, Airbnb designed its Competition slide differently. It used a matrix with Offline vs. Online Transactions on the X-axis and Affordable vs. Expensive on the Y-axis. This approach positions Airbnb as an affordable online provider and separates its offering from competitors placed in other rows and columns.

Slide 10: Competitive Advantage

In the previous slide, Airbnb showcased its closest competitors and mapped out its position in the competitive landscape. In the Competitive Advantages Slide, the deck showcases how Airbnb outperforms similar existing solutions.

The slide uses six frames to emphasize Airbnb’s advantages. Despite having more text than previous slides, the clean design makes it simple to understand.

Slide 11: Team

There is nothing especially unique about Airbnb’s team slide, but it includes all the information an investor requires. The slide provides a short bio of each founder, comprising an image, their positions, and a detailed but short description.

Furthermore, the slide mentions the company’s advisors. Investors look for solid teams with the experiences needed to build and scale a successful startup. Investors feel more comfortable when teams have advisors to provide advice in areas where founders lack experience.

Slide 12: Press

By adding a Press Slide, Airbnb added credibility to its pitch deck and business concept. Since media sources seek out interesting stories, a new concept like Airbnb received massive coverage. In exchange for providing journalists with a great story, the media provided Airbnb with significant brand awareness across its markets.

In this slide, the founders showcased logos from different sources and added relevant quotes from the articles.

Slide 13: User Testimonials

User testimonials serve as a form of validation, giving investors confidence that the solution fulfills customers’ needs. Furthermore, they validate the company’s claims by providing evidence that the product meets its claims.

The Airbnb pitch deck uses personalization to make its user testimonials more impactful. They added real pictures, not headshots, so the audience knows it’s a real person. In addition to photos, they included a bubble with the user’s actual feedback.

Slide 14: Financials

In many pitch decks, startups showcase a separate Financials Slide and Capital Ask Slide. The pitch deck for Airbnb combines these slides. It showcases the investment opportunity on the left and financial projections on the right.

Too often, startups load the financials slide with complex graphs and tables. Yet, Airbnb’s design enabled the team to show how much they were raising and provide a 12-month projection. The Airbnb pitch deck makes it clear that less explanation can be more impactful than too much information.

Learn THIS About the Airbnb Pitch Deck

Startups seeking to approach investors to raise funds should study the Airbnb pitch deck template closely. The pitch deck was effective because it told a story using very few words. It utilized visuals and minimal design to hone in on the most important information. If you follow the pitch deck structures of successful startups like Airbnb, you may be able to replicate their success, too!

For more pitch deck examples, take a look at the following video. In this video, we evaluate slides from several of the world’s best pitch decks.

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