15 Historically Famous Startup Pitch Decks to Emulate

As we launch Automated Pipelines, we get two frequent questions: What needs to go in my pitch? How does the investment process work? I thought it would be interesting to assemble a collection of 15 famous startup pitch decks from different ventures with realistic outcomes. Instead of naming ventures that are new to the market, I selected a group that you probably know and thus will make the read more interesting to examine the journey. These ventures have managed to tell their story in a way in which was attractive enough to convince outside investors to jump onboard and invest.

As an entrepreneur, you need to be a rockstar at storytelling and instilling passion in your audience, if you want to land capital from investors during your financing rounds. Truth be told, the best entrepreneurs are not visionaries. Instead, they’re excellent at sales and storytelling. The sooner you can establish a solid marketing strategy in respect to your brand, mission, pitch and outcomes the more investors will view you as a solid investment.

Something that you will see on all these pitch decks is how they are very similar to one another. The length of pitch decks averages 19 slides. Most of these pitch decks highlight in the best possible way the following slides:

• Product
• Team
• Business Model
• Market Size
• Company Purpose

In addition, you will notice that they do not just pitch ideas they pitch things. If the venture is already launched and in the market, investors want to a slide to view your progress. The further your venture is developed, commonly the higher the value; however, that really does depend on the market, climate, and your skillset. Before we dive in, recommend you attend a free Crash Course on entrepreneurship. Go to the Church & State event calendar to view all the cool gigs on the horizons.

 

1. Youtube

Youtube was founded on February 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. Given its popularity, it probably doesn‘t need that much of an introduction. In any case, YouTube is a video-sharing platform that allows users to upload, view and share videos, including movie and music clips and amateur content.

Before its acquisition by Google in 2006 for $1.6B, the company had raised a total of $11.5M from Sequoia and Artis Ventures.

 

2. AppNexus

Founded in September 2007, by Brian O‘Kelley and Mike Nolet, AppNexus is a technology company whose cloud-based software platform enables and optimizes programmatic online advertising.

Based out of New York, the company raised almost $300M from investors such as First Round, Khosla Ventures, SV Angel, or Venrock. So far the company has made over 3 significant acquisitions and is one of the most solid companies on the East Coast. As of today, AppNexus is worth 1.2 billion.

 

3. Manpacks

Founded in 2010 by Ken Johnson and Andrew Draper, Manpacks is a web-based service delivering men’s essentials such as underwear, razors, condoms, grooming and other products. The company raised over $500K in angel money from 500 Startups and 13 other angel investors.

 

4. Gazemetrix

Gazemetrix offers brands insight into when and where their brand was photographed across social media in real time. It was founded in 2012 by Saurab Paruthi, Deborah Singh, and Debayan Banerjee.

The company was acquired in 2015 by Sysomos after raising close to $200K from 500 Startups and Microsoft Ventures.

 

5. Tealet

Based out of Las Vegas, Tealet was founded in April 2012 by Elyse Petersen, Jie Gonsowski, and Christian Kamau. Tealet is an online farmers market for tea. Independent tea growers are connected directly to their retail and wholesale buyers. Tealet serves as a transparent supply chain platform that provides optimized online marketing, international logistics, and low costs payments via cryptocurrency.

As of last year, Tealet has raised over $300K from investors such as 500 Startups Blue Startups, or VTF Capital.

 

6. Fittr

Fittr designs custom workouts tailored to your needs, goals, and equipment. Fittr takes the uncertainty out of going to the gym by providing an app that creates new workouts specifically designed for you and that records your progress to use in building your next routine.

Founded in 2012 by Nolan and Tyler Perkins, Fitter graduated from the accelerator Tampa Bay Wave in 2014. So far it has raised a Seed round from angel investors, moving onto series.

 

7. Pinmypet

Founded on September 1, 2013, by Marcos Buson, Bruno Kenj, and Bruno Suza, Pinmypet allows users to track the location and physical activities of their pets.

With its headquarters in Brasilia, so far it has raised close to $1M+ from 500 Startups, Bozano Investments, Triaxis Capital and Criatec Fund.

 

8. Foursquare

Foursquare is a technology company that uses location intelligence to build meaningful consumer experiences and business solutions. It has two mobile apps: Foursquare and Swarm, and a suite of enterprise and advertising tools.

Founded in 2009 by Naveen Selvadurai and Dennis Crowley, the company has raised over $160M from some of the most prominent investors in the startup ecosystem. These investors include Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ Growth, Microsoft, and Silver Lake Partners amongst many others. They’re looking to raise a reported $20 million to $40 million in their next investment round.

 

9. Buffer

Founded back in October 2010 by Joel Gascoigne, Leo Widrich, and Tom Moor, Buffer helps users share social media content by scheduling online posts throughout the day.

Last year, the company is very profitable according to its blog posts and has raised $3M+ in 3 rounds of financing from top-tier investors like Collaborative Fund, Angel Pad, etc. As of today, Buffer has a net worth of $120 million with the CEO Bruce Buffer earning $5 million a year.

 

10. Dwolla

Founded in Iowa in 2008 by Shane Neuerburn and Ben Milne, Dwolla is a free web-based software platform allowing users to send, receive, and request funds from another user.

So far it has received over $30M in funding from investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital, USV, and Village Ventures.

 

11. MOZ

Beyond a cool name, Moz is the world’s most popular provider of inbound marketing software. The company was founded in 2004 by Rand Fishkin.

As of today, MOZ has raised close to $30M from investors such as Ignition Partners and Foundry Group. In addition, it has made 4 significant acquisitions in the past year.

 

12. Mixpanel

Based out of San Francisco, Mixpanel is an analytics platform for the mobile and web, supporting businesses to study consumer behavior.

The company was founded in June 2009 by Tim Trenfren and Suhail Doshi. Last year, it has managed to raise over $77M from investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. Moreover, the company also graduated from the accelerator program Y Combinator with its stock doing well.

 

13. Airbnb

Like YouTube, I doubt you need an explanation. We’re on a flow, so let’s give you a little background of this sweet unicorn. Airbnb is an online community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book accommodations around the world. The company was founded in August of 2008 by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk.

In 2016, the company has raised close to $2B+ from some of the most prominent investors out there. Some of these investors include Andressen Horowitz, China Broadband Capital, FirstMark Capital, Founders Fund, Greylock, GGV Capital, etc. As of today, the company is now worth $30 billion.

 

14. Linkedin

Linkedin was founded by Reid Hoffman back in 2003. The company went public in May 2011 after raising well over $100M from investors such as Bain Capital, Bessemer, Goldman Sachs, Greylock, or Sequoia just to name a few. In 2016 Microsoft bought LinkedIn for 26.2 billion. Microsoft paid $196 per share for the company.

 

15. Square

The company was co-founded by Jack Dorsey back in 2009. In 2016, Square had raised $10M and it would close later on a Series B round of financing lead by Sequoia Capital of $27M in January 2011.

Without a doubt, Square is one of the biggest success stories in financial technology with a recent IPO in 2015. Two years after going public, Square is now worth more than Twitter with a market value of $16.5 billion.