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YC Seed Deck Template
- mozumder 9y agoNow I'm wondering if there's a viable "seed-deck development" business model that can scale to IPO..
- xrayzerone 9y agoUgh.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- m_ke 9y agoA reinforcement learning based pitch bot would be much better. Blindly pitch investors random ideas then build whatever they fall for.
- DenisM 9y agoGreat, now I have to guess if you are a human or a bot that’s both pitching and retelling it’s own inception in the same sentence.
- julesallen 9y agoChillHustle.com (shameless plug for one's own pre-launch business) isn't exactly that but could get you going in the right direction.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- artur_makly 9y agook this is freakier than that FB audio spying system...But I was JUST about to google for "Seed Deck Template"...and boom! I think YC's stealthy AI is finally on to me..
- davebryand 9y agoOr you are a wizard that has mastered the Law of Attraction.
- AJRF 9y ago"VP of Eng who doesn't sleep". Would be really great to remove that description, no one should lionize that behavior.
- biot 9y agoGiven that the CEO is a muppet, you don't think this is meant to be fun?
- AJRF 9y agoI do think it was meant to be fun. My point was that joking about that kind of culture is not a good thing and proliferation of the sleepless founder/employee/programmer that permeates startup culture is a bit ugly.
- brianwawok 9y agoI thinking worrying about how every little saying could possibly harm the world causes more harm vs leaving the slide as a funny joke.
- AJRF 9y ago"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
- dang 9y agoPlease don't do this here.
- jforman 9y agoPeppa Pig doesn't sleep. She merely sits in waiting during the nighttime hours.
- artur_makly 9y agobtw, for those who are design illiterate..you will find that Canva's free pitch-deck creator should solve your needs: https://www.canva.com/learn/pitch-decks/ https://www.canva.com/learn/pitch-decks/
- benjanik 9y agoAnother plug for those who are design illiterate: My startup https://www.beautiful.ai/ https://www.beautiful.ai/ is working on providing great design for presentations
- CharlesMerriam2 9y agoOther references for pitchdecks: The statistically recommended pitch deck breakdown: https://docsend.com/view/p8jxsqr https://docsend.com/view/p8jxsqr The original FaceBook pitch deck, including a keg stand: https://slidebean.com/blog/startups/facebook-pitch-deck https://slidebean.com/blog/startups/facebook-pitch-deck
- podinatutorials 9y agoSooper
- jph 9y agoSeed deck notes that complement the YC info: https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/pitch_deck https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/pitch_deck
- logicallee 9y agoIf it were a real company, I wouldn't invest in the seed template making company based on the seed template shown. What does that say about the ability of the seed template making company to make templates? It proves they have an inferior product. Now if a different template making company had a version that was exactly the same in every way but included machine learning, suddenly it's a no-brainer (literally: no thinking required.) The fact that I would invest just shows how effective that template would be. The above is a very real thought process. If you want a real template, litter it with the buzzwords you need. In 2018 that is AI/machine learning, and for at least a few more months, ICO and blockchain.
- logicallee 9y agoYou all downvoted my comment pretty heavily. If you're right and my point is in error, then out of the current YC batch, only a few startups would have Machine Learning (ML) or AI in their "core DNA" (pitch deck). Is this the case?
- jcadam 9y agoNot sure what all the downvotes are about. I tend to respond positively to sarcasm and cynicism. So, one (1) upvote for you.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- artur_makly 9y agoI took the liberty of making it more presentable by remixing the 'wire-frame' template with some minimal color, typography, and images. enjoy: https://goo.gl/u3gZuE https://goo.gl/u3gZuE updated :: Dark Theme: https://goo.gl/tcLkWY https://goo.gl/tcLkWY White+Orange: https://goo.gl/i4e724 https://goo.gl/i4e724
- louisswiss 9y agoI think it's great that you wanted to help others and posted this here for all to use. Thanks! Personally though, I found the original version to be more presentable. Perhaps that's just me.
- miguelrochefort 9y agoI can't tell whether it's a joke or if the person truly believes his version is better.
- sctb 9y agoPlease stop.
- miguelrochefort 9y ago> minimal color Bright yellow background. What were you thinking?
- artur_makly 9y ago>The color yellow can affects us mentally and physically which includes stimulating our mental and nervous system, activates our memory, and encourages communication. Golden yellow carries the promise of a positive future, and spreads its cheer. Especially since yellow shines its optimism, enlightenment, and happiness upon us. Yellow stands out from other colors, and with the support of other lively colors, it can spark one’s creativity while invigorating one’s spirit. In fact, people who suffer from mild cases of color blindness can usually see the color yellow more easily than other colors. https://onextrapixel.com/anatomy-of-colors-in-web-design-yellow-and-the-sunshine-feel/ https://onextrapixel.com/anatomy-of-colors-in-web-design-yel... https://designmodo.com/yellow-color/ https://designmodo.com/yellow-color/
- pilingual 9y agoFred Wilson’s perspective: http://avc.com/2010/06/six-slides/ http://avc.com/2010/06/six-slides/ http://avc.com/2011/09/six-slides-three-slides-or-no-slides/ http://avc.com/2011/09/six-slides-three-slides-or-no-slides/
- lima 9y ago"Forced to survive on revenue" that's a bad thing?
- carlosdp 9y agoI understand the sentiment behind it, but that also stuck out as a strange way to frame it to me =P
- akharris 9y agoNo, it's great. However, if you're building a seed deck with which to pitch investors, it probably isn't what you're going for.
- CharlesMerriam2 9y agoThe basis of venture capital is the simple statement: "For every buck you give us, we will give at least two bucks back next year." You take this extortion because the benefits are ludicrous. "If we get EBay into every country before anyone else, we make silly money" or "We need want <mumble> million to make <mumble> billion in the next few years." The hardest part to get investors to understand that exiting in two years with only a 3x return is still a win.
- chrisweekly 9y ago>"exiting in two years with only a 3x return is still a win" Not for traditional VCs it isn't. As a rule of thumb, 90% of the startups they bet on will fail outright, and simply burn through the investment. If you're looking to raise, you need to convince them not only that you are in that remaining 10% (ie, those that will generate any revenue at all, let alone profits), but that you're going to generate massive returns to way more than subsidize and justify all the other losses. Pitching VCs with "3x in 2 yrs" is saying you are not what they're looking for. (That said, it'd be a huge success from a business mgmt perspective.)
- gowld 9y agoClose, but it's impossible to say whether "3x in 2 yrs" is a win, because portfolios win, not single investments. Would you take a risk-free 70%/yr return? Of course you would. Every damn time. But you can't know if the investment is risk-free.
- anoncoward111 9y agoWhere can I find an investor that will give me 1.5 million so I can hire my insomniac friend as VP of engineering?
- jaequery 9y agoI like how simple that deck is. Why do people go overboard making it look fancy? Are there any investors that will take a look at the plain deck and think it is highly unprofessional, turning them down? I like that YC don't care about the fluff. But I do wonder how "other" investors feel about it.
- j45 9y agoClarity in explanation always wins. If there's a (little) design touch it doesn't hurt either. Color, layout, can all be used for good effect as long as it's not over done or distracting.
- anthonyshort 9y agoHow do you define "fluff"? If you think design (how the story is told) or quality (how easy it is to understand) doesn't matter, then I strongly disagree.
- dalbasal 9y agomy 2¢ addition: careful with your abstraction. Our instincts tend to be all wrong. When making general statements about a business, most try to make the most general statement possible. Otherwise we feel like we're selling it short. It's like when people write resumes. All trees, no forest. That's why "X of Y" is so common, it's a formula to get past your bad instincts to a better, less accurate abstraction. People are bad at going to abstraction without passing through specifics. If you'd never heard of jobs, it'd be hard to explain without examples. Fireman would be easier. Policeman would be even easier after that. Once we have two, the concept of job gets easier. Starting from the abstract... we'd be talking about, wages, specializations, uniforms, sick days... hard. Case in point here, can we see this deck for an actual startup or startupses? It'd be easier to grasp the good/bad points in context.
- fairpx 9y agoI’d like to add one more tip: good design. I’ve seen and designed many decks for startups and some engineers pay zero attention to design. Sure if you have insane traction or other extraordinary data points it becomes less of an issue. But the investors, like yourself, are human beings who want things to look clean, neat and be clear. Nice design doesnt mean add nice colors. It means to make it a joy to go through with visuals of your product, clear font and font color selection, consistent branding etc. don’t waste too much time on the design but do treat your deck as a product of its own. If you need any advice, feel free to ping me.
- jaequery 9y agook while we are on the topic, can you show us a sample of what is a good design in a deck?
- benjanik 9y agoA shameless plug for my startup: https://blog.beautiful.ai/uber-vc-pitch-deck-presentation-template https://blog.beautiful.ai/uber-vc-pitch-deck-presentation-te...
- joering2 9y agolooks very nice but I have to ask - it says you not live yet but then you have all those logos of known companies in "used by" section... can you elaborate?
- tehno 9y agoTypically this means the team has convinced someone they know at these companies to try it or give some feedback on an early version and thus voila you'll find "used by Apple" or something impressive like that in slides :)
- benjanik 9y agoYou're not wrong. We don't have any paying customers, but we've had discussions with people from dozens of companies, and those are the ones we chose to advertise. Only a couple are people we knew beforehand.
- tnolet 9y agoTotally off topic, but this thread shows that sarcasm and irony do not always translate that well over the internet. I had a chuckle at the deck and the comments it generated.
- keyle 9y agoThis made me snark loudly > No money raised means companies are forced to surive on revenue
- dm8 9y agoI'd like to add two more points - unit economics, and bottoms up market analysis. And these are helpful to founders, these 2 give an important insight into viability of business before you start the multi year grind in to make your business work - Unit economics - what it'll take to make this work with healthy profit margins? This is crucial in case of online-offline startups, infra heavy products, or hardware products. May not be critical in consumer startups until they start monetizing. Bottoms-up analysis of market - what will be your CAC (cost to acquire customers), ARPU/LTV (avg. rev per user/lifetime value) etc. Both of these things are quantifiable and it'll answer an important Q - how much money will it take for the biz to reach whatever milestones that are decided.
- mrkurt 9y agoThose are important, but very difficult to know with any certainty at the seed stage. They've never really come up for me until later rounds.
- awad 9y agoAnecdotally, I believe the act of going through the exercise is important, even if the the precision is off. Perhaps not a deal breaker, but IMO shows that you're at least thinking about these things. As with everything fundraising however, context is key and when you're raising your seed relative to company maturity/development matters very much whether such things will come up.
- dm8 9y agoI agree that it's difficult to know exact numbers at the seeds stage, but it's good to do some sort of exercise on user/customer acquisition costs, expected margins (particularly important in case of h/w products or online-offline work startups) etc.. It will help - 1. to know how long will this money last 2. can you build good business (even though it may not be profitable) before next round of financing. And founders who do this exercise really set themselves apart as they know their business and gives strong signal to investors. Moreover, investors that I've spoken to often talk that they fund startups not only based on growth, or existing business but also ability to raise next round.
- zxcvvcxz 9y agoI've seen a lot of seed decks and quite frankly while they may have many similar slides (summary, problem, solution, team, etc) I've noticed that the ones that get funded have one of the following: 1) Social proof 2) Significant Traction That's it. In fact I'd go as far to say that without either of those, you won't get funded period, except through lucky angel connections. In fact I can't think of a case of something getting funded without one of these. Social proof is typically something of the form of the founders being 3 PhDs in something hot from insert-top-school, or there's a co-founder with a previous successful exit, or there's a top notch advisory board of semi-famous or at least provably successful people. So when Mr. VC throws his money at this startup, hey it's in the hands of the best. Traction is the other option, and is the typical desired hockey stick graph of users, revenue, deals, whatever. The traction metric often maps really well onto software startups specifically, because very limited labor and capital can lead to real results. Meanwhile for larger enterprises that require legitimate development and manpower to get traction - it's going to be tough to show traction before you have the resources to deliver something. So something like a "nuclear power startup" (which YC has funded for instance) would probably rely more on social proof. It's a tad disheartening because it makes something like non-consumer hardware a very difficult spot to be in if you're a younger entrepreneur. Maybe an incubator/accelerator (plus personal savings) can get you on the order of $100K, but that's often not enough to prove real traction. And unless you have significant social proof (often not the case for a younger first time founder), then it seems you're going to be stuck in a vast fundraising chasm between $100K and $1M, e.g. between accelerator and seed financing. In particular I'd be interested to hear people's take on hardware startups in this respect. Consumer hardware has the recently developed option of crowdfunding to bridge this gap. But what about industrial hardware, like a piece of smart machinery, or something in robotics that isn't a sub-$1K developer kit? Maybe then traction looks like a big deal or two that the crafty entrepreneurs are able to hustle. Anyways, good overall deck template but I don't think people should be under the impression that a good deck is a huge piece of the puzzle. It's social proof and/or traction, plain and simple.
- sebleon 9y ago> No money raised means companies are forced to surive on revenue The opposite seems more true: insufficient revenue means companies are forced to fundraise.
- rman666 9y ago"$50,000,000 in seed decks per month?" Prove it, said the VC.