5 ms·

The pitch deck heard ’round the web is now yours to copy

93 points by mjfern 15y ago

tudorw 15y ago
So it's a website, about a website ? Am I missing something here ? BTW it does not seem to work quite right, I am on IE5.5 behind a corporate firewall, I clicked start 20,000 already and still nothing happens ?
- tricolon 15y ago
  > I am on IE5.5 Well there's your problem! (No, really.)
  - tudorw 15y ago
    This was a joke, forget to include :), here's an extra one for kicks :)
- clistctrl 15y ago
  Seriously? IE 5.5... I kindly ask why.
- tudorw 15y ago
  Ok, so I got Chrome, still not impressed, it's like an interactive, except only a couple of the pages are interactive, I mean, I don't mean to be down on the product, but really, this is a website, it is not a new thing ?
tantalor 15y ago
Check it out if you haven't seen the deck, http://investors.dressrush.com/ http://investors.dressrush.com/ I think the navigation is a little awkward since some of the slides are much too large to fit on a single screen, so you end up scrolling and flipping pages.
- daversa 15y ago
  It's the ol' designer with a 27" cinema display problem.
jcampbell1 15y ago
> "AppSumo for weddings" People need to stop doing that. Isn't AppSumo Groupon for webapps? Great pitch otherwise.
- bravura 15y ago
  No, because AppSumo works on a niche and Groupon is general. Also, Groupon is hemorraging money, which AppSumo doesn't appear to be. AppSumo for weddings is a perfect pitch.
- kayhi 15y ago
  No, AppSumo isn't based on group buying.
LanceJones 15y ago
Agreed... we need to see better breaks in between sections. It's no fun trying to sort out the navigation by having to combine clicking the numbers at the top of the page and scrolling to figure out where each section ends. A simple arrow between sections and more space between them could solve it. Also, I wonder about the business numbers. A $0.17 cost per click on Google Adwords/FB Ads? Seriously? Sounds like nobody is bidding on wedding-related keywords. Also, a 31% conversion rate on all ad-based traffic sounds AMAZING. So the world's cheapest PPC ads combined with the world's highest converting pages makes for a good business? Sure! Who wouldn't want to invest in that.
- jcampbell1 15y ago
  》Also, a 31% conversion rate on all ad-based traffic sounds AMAZING. 31% is the conversion rate for "type your email to see deals". It is not that unusual.
  - LanceJones 15y ago
    Fair enough, but then I question the $0.55 to acquire a customer. You're not a customer until you BUY something (for etail, anyway). What they're really talking about is acquiring a prospect for 55 cents. Huge difference.
Jun8 15y ago
The Google bikes that three of the founders are riding is a nice touch, a gentle hint to their expertise?
- dpritchett 15y ago
  I did not realize those were Google bikes the first time I saw the photos. Thanks for sharing!
akkartik 15y ago
Lol, I love the exponential curves on the traction slide: http://investors.dressrush.com/#slide7 http://investors.dressrush.com/#slide7
- bittermang 15y ago
  Well, I don't think it's meant to be taken as a literal graph. The X or Y axises aren't labelled. But otherwise, yes, a chuckle-worthy presentation of growth.
run4yourlives 15y ago
So, they basically used javascript and target anchors to make a fancy navigation bar? The design and idea are really nice, but there's nothing earth shattering here. I do like the idea of a one page "pitch" that flows more like a slide show than a website. It gets to the point and covers off the main ideas. As to this particular pitch: 1. Let's hope the rest of the math isn't as optimistic as the 31% conversion rate. It's basically an online wedding dress shop, so it's going to suffer from the same issues that all online clothing retailers do. Interesting that none of the founders have a background in the fashion industry. 2. I couldn't really figure out what the purpose of the pitch is... are they looking for Partners? Cash? Staff? To do what with, exactly? The expansion plans essentially seem to be: grow out what we have and build a mobile site or two. I'm not sure why they would need investment to do that. 3. (Late add): I disregarded the AppSumo/GroupOn bit, but I took a closer look... Do people really shop for wedding dresses like this? The thing about weddings is that they are a fixed time event, unlike say GroupOn which is a "spur of the moment" purchase enabler. Point being that you have a wedding, need clothes for it, will be in a "search" mode for x number of days, make the purchase and move on. This idea basically tries to hit you in that "search" mode. The thing is that they are presenting 1 or two really good deals rather than opening up a store for you to browse. It's interesting math, but I'm not sure that works... you're betting that those deals will be so good (as in - not crap that doesn't sell) that it will beat out all the other avenues that women will use to solve this problem - to the tune of 31%. Hrm.
tatsuke95 15y ago
I'm with....most people in saying that this was an extremely nice looking site/pitch deck. But it scares me that all the talk and publicity about this BUSINESS is based on how pretty it made its slideshow. Even to the point that Dressrush pushed it that way (look at the tweet they sent out. Changing pitch decks, not changing wedding shopping). It's one thing to get credit for some great technology and design work, especially on a site like this, but this is being actively promoted. How many people here looked at this great deck a week ago, but as of yesterday couldn't recall what the business did? I'm in that group. AppSumo for weddings? I guess, except I had to look up what AppSumo was. Seems to me we're moving so far towards the "ideas don't matter, but tech and talent do" that it can't be good. I'm not knocking their business. But I guess that's my point; neither is anyone else.
- noahc 15y ago
  What you'll find is that often the talk and publicity is the dog and pony show needed to drive business. That's not to say it isn't valuable; it is. The problem is that ultimately the dog and pony show has to accomplish it's objective: get funding. That's the not so easy part.
keiferski 15y ago
Cute, but I don't buy the business. For starters, how are any of the "152 average guests" apart of the target market? Last time I checked, the only people who buy wedding dresses are...the 2 people getting married, and their immediate family. That brings their inflated metric of 448.2 million potential customers down to...2-5 million, globally. Sorry, but when you pull out ridiculous statements like "8% of the Earth's population is in our target market!", you look inexperienced. You might as well say "Our target market is 6-7 billion, because everyone wants to get married."
- noahc 15y ago
  I thought their numbers seem inflated too. I wonder if this signals 'they are thinking big' which results in investors thinking 10x instead of the no-invest 2x number.
- recursive 15y ago
  And it allows brides to save up to 100% off retail! These slides don't speak very well to their creators' grasp of numbers.
- jcampbell1 15y ago
  1. Find Lots of brides interested in deals. 2. Offer them a free "wedding website" 3. Add gift registry links to the website 4. Profit from affiliate commissions. That being said, registry affiliate commissions are tiny. The XO group only did $2.2MM in the most recent 10Q, compared to $11M for local ads (Wedding vendors)
- DannoHung 15y ago
  Wedding registry opportunities?
- marquis 15y ago
  Increasingly, wedding guests are asked to contribute to a fund instead of a gift, as couples are living together before marriage now and don't need 5 toasters but want to save for a first home deposit, travel plans etc, whatever the couple wants to do with their new life together. Keeping money in escrow for a couple of months could be highly lucrative and a spin-off into the honeymoon referral market.
reagan83 15y ago
The article references the deck "going viral" - that phrase causes me to immediately lose interest as a reader. That being said, the deck is beautiful.
robjohnson 15y ago
Really not sure how effective the template will be once the novelty wears off, but still glad they lifted the....dress to show everyone.

93 points by mjfern 15y ago

So it's a website, about a website ? Am I missing something here ? BTW it does not seem to work quite right, I am on IE5.5 behind a corporate firewall, I clicked start 20,000 already and still nothing happens ?

tricolon 15y ago
> I am on IE5.5 Well there's your problem! (No, really.)
- tudorw 15y ago
  This was a joke, forget to include :), here's an extra one for kicks :)
clistctrl 15y ago
Seriously? IE 5.5... I kindly ask why.
tudorw 15y ago
Ok, so I got Chrome, still not impressed, it's like an interactive, except only a couple of the pages are interactive, I mean, I don't mean to be down on the product, but really, this is a website, it is not a new thing ?

tantalor 15y ago

Check it out if you haven't seen the deck, http://investors.dressrush.com/ http://investors.dressrush.com/ I think the navigation is a little awkward since some of the slides are much too large to fit on a single screen, so you end up scrolling and flipping pages.

daversa 15y ago
It's the ol' designer with a 27" cinema display problem.

jcampbell1 15y ago

> "AppSumo for weddings" People need to stop doing that. Isn't AppSumo Groupon for webapps? Great pitch otherwise.

bravura 15y ago
No, because AppSumo works on a niche and Groupon is general. Also, Groupon is hemorraging money, which AppSumo doesn't appear to be. AppSumo for weddings is a perfect pitch.
kayhi 15y ago
No, AppSumo isn't based on group buying.

LanceJones 15y ago

Agreed... we need to see better breaks in between sections. It's no fun trying to sort out the navigation by having to combine clicking the numbers at the top of the page and scrolling to figure out where each section ends. A simple arrow between sections and more space between them could solve it. Also, I wonder about the business numbers. A $0.17 cost per click on Google Adwords/FB Ads? Seriously? Sounds like nobody is bidding on wedding-related keywords. Also, a 31% conversion rate on all ad-based traffic sounds AMAZING. So the world's cheapest PPC ads combined with the world's highest converting pages makes for a good business? Sure! Who wouldn't want to invest in that.

jcampbell1 15y ago
》Also, a 31% conversion rate on all ad-based traffic sounds AMAZING. 31% is the conversion rate for "type your email to see deals". It is not that unusual.
- LanceJones 15y ago
  Fair enough, but then I question the $0.55 to acquire a customer. You're not a customer until you BUY something (for etail, anyway). What they're really talking about is acquiring a prospect for 55 cents. Huge difference.

Jun8 15y ago

The Google bikes that three of the founders are riding is a nice touch, a gentle hint to their expertise?

dpritchett 15y ago
I did not realize those were Google bikes the first time I saw the photos. Thanks for sharing!

akkartik 15y ago

Lol, I love the exponential curves on the traction slide: http://investors.dressrush.com/#slide7 http://investors.dressrush.com/#slide7

bittermang 15y ago
Well, I don't think it's meant to be taken as a literal graph. The X or Y axises aren't labelled. But otherwise, yes, a chuckle-worthy presentation of growth.

run4yourlives 15y ago

So, they basically used javascript and target anchors to make a fancy navigation bar? The design and idea are really nice, but there's nothing earth shattering here. I do like the idea of a one page "pitch" that flows more like a slide show than a website. It gets to the point and covers off the main ideas. As to this particular pitch: 1. Let's hope the rest of the math isn't as optimistic as the 31% conversion rate. It's basically an online wedding dress shop, so it's going to suffer from the same issues that all online clothing retailers do. Interesting that none of the founders have a background in the fashion industry. 2. I couldn't really figure out what the purpose of the pitch is... are they looking for Partners? Cash? Staff? To do what with, exactly? The expansion plans essentially seem to be: grow out what we have and build a mobile site or two. I'm not sure why they would need investment to do that. 3. (Late add): I disregarded the AppSumo/GroupOn bit, but I took a closer look... Do people really shop for wedding dresses like this? The thing about weddings is that they are a fixed time event, unlike say GroupOn which is a "spur of the moment" purchase enabler. Point being that you have a wedding, need clothes for it, will be in a "search" mode for x number of days, make the purchase and move on. This idea basically tries to hit you in that "search" mode. The thing is that they are presenting 1 or two really good deals rather than opening up a store for you to browse. It's interesting math, but I'm not sure that works... you're betting that those deals will be so good (as in - not crap that doesn't sell) that it will beat out all the other avenues that women will use to solve this problem - to the tune of 31%. Hrm.

tatsuke95 15y ago

I'm with....most people in saying that this was an extremely nice looking site/pitch deck. But it scares me that all the talk and publicity about this BUSINESS is based on how pretty it made its slideshow. Even to the point that Dressrush pushed it that way (look at the tweet they sent out. Changing pitch decks, not changing wedding shopping). It's one thing to get credit for some great technology and design work, especially on a site like this, but this is being actively promoted. How many people here looked at this great deck a week ago, but as of yesterday couldn't recall what the business did? I'm in that group. AppSumo for weddings? I guess, except I had to look up what AppSumo was. Seems to me we're moving so far towards the "ideas don't matter, but tech and talent do" that it can't be good. I'm not knocking their business. But I guess that's my point; neither is anyone else.

noahc 15y ago
What you'll find is that often the talk and publicity is the dog and pony show needed to drive business. That's not to say it isn't valuable; it is. The problem is that ultimately the dog and pony show has to accomplish it's objective: get funding. That's the not so easy part.

keiferski 15y ago

Cute, but I don't buy the business. For starters, how are any of the "152 average guests" apart of the target market? Last time I checked, the only people who buy wedding dresses are...the 2 people getting married, and their immediate family. That brings their inflated metric of 448.2 million potential customers down to...2-5 million, globally. Sorry, but when you pull out ridiculous statements like "8% of the Earth's population is in our target market!", you look inexperienced. You might as well say "Our target market is 6-7 billion, because everyone wants to get married."

noahc 15y ago
I thought their numbers seem inflated too. I wonder if this signals 'they are thinking big' which results in investors thinking 10x instead of the no-invest 2x number.
recursive 15y ago
And it allows brides to save up to 100% off retail! These slides don't speak very well to their creators' grasp of numbers.
jcampbell1 15y ago
1. Find Lots of brides interested in deals. 2. Offer them a free "wedding website" 3. Add gift registry links to the website 4. Profit from affiliate commissions. That being said, registry affiliate commissions are tiny. The XO group only did $2.2MM in the most recent 10Q, compared to $11M for local ads (Wedding vendors)
DannoHung 15y ago
Wedding registry opportunities?
marquis 15y ago
Increasingly, wedding guests are asked to contribute to a fund instead of a gift, as couples are living together before marriage now and don't need 5 toasters but want to save for a first home deposit, travel plans etc, whatever the couple wants to do with their new life together. Keeping money in escrow for a couple of months could be highly lucrative and a spin-off into the honeymoon referral market.

reagan83 15y ago

The article references the deck "going viral" - that phrase causes me to immediately lose interest as a reader. That being said, the deck is beautiful.

robjohnson 15y ago

Really not sure how effective the template will be once the novelty wears off, but still glad they lifted the....dress to show everyone.