There’s no better start to notching a billion-dollar valuation than nailing your investor pitch. In fact, the ability to tell a compelling story (typically in the form of slides) can be the determining factor in turning your startup into a unicorn.
We have compiled the best early startup pitch deck examples for companies now worth billions of dollars. These include the slides of some of the best pitch decks, including pre-revenue Airbnb, LinkedIn, Buzzfeed, and Tinder. So let’s look at successful pitch decks and what made them unique and which lessons you can learn from each for your own pitch deck to help raise funds for your startup.
1. Airbnb pitch deck
When Airbnb created its first pitch deck, roommates and former schoolmates Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky were still joking about putting an air mattress in their living room and turning it into a bed and breakfast. The hotel market was saturated, so Y combinator soon saw an opportunity and gave the new company $20,000 in venture funding. The Airbnb pitch deck starts with the three pillars of its business model: The issue of price, that of hotels being disconnected from a city and its culture, and the fact that there was then no way to book a room with a local person or become a host. These problems are turned into opportunities in the next slide: With Airbnb, you can save money, make money, and share culture. This simple yet powerful airbnb pitch deck, with plain bullet points and no more than ten images in total, was able to interest early potential investors, raising money quickly. The company’s current value is over $40 billion.
2. Buzzfeed pitch deck
The Buzzfeed pitch deck was created in 2008 when it had about 2.5 million page views per month. Two years later, this number climbed to 1.2 billion. Buzzfeed’s original pitch deck template is also a great example of clarity over quantity. Its 21 slides are a little more populated than Airbnb’s and use more images – the first ten or so slides show screenshots of the site and the pitch deck than most to cover the revenue mode, market direction, types of promotions, and competitors. After Buzzfeed went public via the SPAC merger in 2021, the company is now valued at $1.7 billion.
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3. WeWork pitch deck
WeWork has been through some trouble in the last couple of years, but the company is still worth about $9 billion. The WeWork pitch deck template is relatively long (36 slides) and very well-designed. The winning pitch deck includes a lot of research and graphs; it shows the company’s growth plan, business model, member base, value proposition, pipeline, and upcoming social initiatives, among other benefits of its online platform. WeWork shows an excellent pitch deck example that uses design and user engagement to communicate the company’s vision and potential success story.
4. Tinder pitch deck
One of the best high-pitched dream ideas is Tinder’s. Tinder’s winning startup pitch deck is just ten slides long. Unlike the other startup pitch deck templates we have covered so far, the management team in-charge of creating a pitch deck to showcase the company’s business idea company chose a gamified approach instead. You begin the ‘journey’ by meeting Matt, a man filled with fear of rejection who won’t say hi to a girl at a party. The cure? Match Box (now named Tinder). As slides progress, the last two slides go into more detail about the system and its revenue opportunities. The simplified approach with a good pitch deck seems to have done the trick. Tinder is now worth about $3 billion.
5. LinkedIn pitch deck
The Linkedin pitch deck was created in August 2004. The slides call the company “Professional people search 2.0” and highlight revenue as a high priority (as, by then, LinkedIn had no streams to achieve it). Before it went public in 2011, LinkedIn had raised over $103 million. When it was acquired by Microsoft in 2016, the company was worth $26.2 billion. Compared to some of the best pitch deck, the LinkedIn pitch deck templates is not particularly impressive – even for 2004! Entirely formatted in Arial and using blue as the only support color, it still managed to help LinkedIn become one of the most popular billion-dollar companies.
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6. Uber pitch deck
Uber’s startup pitch deck dates back to 2008, and it estimates the potential market for cabs at $4.2 billion annually. The company’s market cap today is approximately $65 billion. This pitch deck is also quite simple, with just black text on white backgrounds. However, the Uber pitch deck is more information-dense, with numerous differentiators, principles, competitor comparisons, use cases, benefits (both for users and the environment), and technology overview. Definitely a thorough pitch deck template and a success story.
7. YouTube pitch deck
When YouTube prepared its pitch deck to attract investor dollars, the actual website had just 10,000 users (and some 100,000 daily video views). The company was, however, reporting rapid growth. This investor pitch deck is part of a 41-page, highly-confidential document with a clean and professional design that includes graphs and exhibits. It also details key points such as past investments, business model, competition analysis, technology infrastructure, target audience, and distribution plans.
8. Nutanix pitch deck
Nutanix is a cloud-computing company founded in 2009 and known to have a great pitch deck. When it went public in 2016, it quickly became of the most successful IPOs of the year, with its stock price soaring 130%. This startup pitch deck is highly effective in communicating what the company is all about and using branding colors, brand voice, and realistic graphics to explain its functioning.
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We have been working with investors, debt finance specialists, grant writers, accountants, and advisors for years, so we know the market better than anyone. Simply contact us for a no-obligation recommendation.
9. MySQL pitch deck
Open-source database company MySQL had raised an impressive $38 million before it was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008. However, when Oracle snapped it, its value had catapulted to $7.4 billion. Their Series B pitch deck dates back from 2003 and has an incomparable amount of slides: 186! The investor deck explains in excruciating detail MySQL’s potential for disrupting the database market. And it was right.
10. Foursquare pitch deck
Foursquare’s early pitch deck was created in 2009 and outlines a vision for a new app that is “part friend finder, part social city guide, the part social game”. Today, the company has over 15B+ data points and has split and merged with other successful location data companies. This winning pitch deck has 15 very well-designed slides covering features, market opportunities, and revenue models. This investor pitch deck also closes with a trivia slide!
If you are looking for more startup pitch decks examples, these pitch decks are also worth noting: Facebook pitch deck, Mattermark pitch deck, Intercom pitch deck, Launchrock pitch deck and Cubeit’s pitch deck.
If your business is on its way to pitch to investors and is currently looking for other funding options for increasing cash runway, Fundsquire can help. Contact us today to learn more about non-dilutive funding.
If you are looking for more startup pitch decks examples, these pitch decks are also worth noting: Facebook pitch deck, Mattermark pitch deck, Intercom pitch deck, Launchrock pitch deck and Cubeit’s pitch deck.
If your business is on its way to pitch to investors and is currently looking for other funding options for increasing cash runway, Fundsquire can help. Contact us today to learn more about non-dilutive funding.
In between funding rounds?
Fundsquire has funding for every step of your growth journey. Maximise your working capital with non-dilutive options.