7 ms·

Show HN: Never make a pitch deck yourself again. We will take care of that

42 points by saliagato 4y ago

dannyw 4y ago
I imagine there's a market for this, but this feels unethical.
- saliagato 4y ago
  Why? Genuinely curious
- qwerty456127 4y ago
  Everything that can be outsourced to a specialist should be (unless you have serious reasons not to), shouldn't it?
  - saliagato 4y ago
    I agree. Unless a start-up is short on cash I don't see why it shouldn't outsource a service like this. Thinking of solving the problem for start-ups on budget, maybe by offering a plan with a % of what they raise instead of a flat fee.
- bobro 4y ago
  Seems categorically similar to having someone write your college admission application or your cover letter for a job application. Paying for an advantage where the established system is assuming you’re doing the work yourself and judging you on your ability to do so.
gnrlst 4y ago
Shouldn't you put your company info on the website? especially if it's a company registered in Italy? (i.e. partita iva & ragione sociale)
- saliagato 4y ago
  Just started out. Taking advantage of a 30 day policy law.
casey2 4y ago
- booi 4y ago
  I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not..
- saliagato 4y ago
  got you bro. https://deckly.co/blog/what-is-a-pitch-deck-and-how-to-make-one https://deckly.co/blog/what-is-a-pitch-deck-and-how-to-make-...
- intelVISA 4y ago
  it's a money hack
- halfmatthalfcat 4y ago
  It’s basically like a take-home code challenge where you’re doing work for someone more rich with little chance of getting the job.
- silisili 4y ago
  New name for powerpoint presentation, it would seem.
- ShivShankaran 4y ago
  it's a free money glitch for smooth talkers and charmers.
- vba616 4y ago
  I learned all I know about pitch decks by reading HN's favorite financial columnist, Matt Levine. He writes a column for Bloomberg you can subscribe to for free somehow or other. I mean, most of the time he's writing about other things, like Elon Musk and bond liquidity, but now and then he mentions pitch decks.
sergiomattei 4y ago
I can’t imagine an entrepreneur that can’t be bothered to write their own pitch deck…
- saliagato 4y ago
  there is nothing wrong with getting help from professional. Especially if that means saving time on something that is not product-related.
  - xhkkffbf 4y ago
    I actually think there is. It's a bit like getting someone else to write your college application essay. The details from the pitch deck reflect the founders and it helps the investors understand the personalities of the person with whom they're dealing. For me, I even think there's information contained in the font choices. To me, if the pitch deck looks too good, that's a red flag.
    - fakedang 4y ago
      That's exactly what I thought when going through the website. If you can't be arsed to build your own pitch deck, then I can't be arsed to listen to your pitch either. That being said, a number of startup founders, especially technical folks, don't know WHAT to put on a pitch deck, so if this were some kind of service which would provide hints and guidelines to startup founders building pitch decks, then it would be a lot more interesting.
IsaacL 4y ago
It's a cool idea, but I strongly suggest you guys find a good ex-IB/consulting person who you really trust to give you some ideas of what an A-tier startup pitch deck looks like. Ideally, this person should have experience with startups as well -- you want someone with both tech/startup savvy and finance/investing savvy, who has a deep understanding of startups and also knows how investors think. You want one of two people. The first is the scrappy 24-year-old ex Goldman/McK/BCG/whatever analyst who can come on board as a potential cofounder. This person will have spent 100 hours a week for 3 years building slide decks, knows the rudiments of effective selling to buy-side people and (more crucially) can happily spam 50-100 people in their extended network for feedback on any given deck. The other option is to find some age 40+ experienced entrepreneur or finance guy/lady to come on board as a mentor, talk to you for 2 or 3 hours a month, and consistently give you steady but firm nudges in the right direction. This person will give you insights like "you guys know how to design but you need to learn about topics X, Y and Z or you're dead in the water, please read these books/articles ASAP". With the help of such a person you'll be able to shift from "we're a bunch of guys who build decks" (commodity) to "we're a small team of business and technology specialists who can help turn your fledgling startup into a serious investment prospect" (unique specialists). You mention UpWork: UpWork is for commodity work, you don't want to do commodity work. And you don't want customers who are even thinking of hiring commodity outsourcers; someone who'd hire an UpWork freelancer to build their startup pitch deck is just dumb. You want founders who are smart enough to know your value. Your decks look nice, but even speaking as a relative outsider to the startup funding ecosystem the content looks unsophisticated and a bit amateurish. Every VC and angel is constantly pitched by newbie founders chasing the currently hot ideas. Everyone reads the same blog posts and pitches the same metrics. To stand out a startup really has to either explain how they've found a strategic edge (the Bezos approach) or tell a bold narrative about how they can build something truly outstanding (the Jobs approach). Hiring a freelancer makes sense for polishing slide designs (which is one of your options at the bottom) but the real money will be made working with founders to figure out their pitch from start to finish. Good founders should understand their technology and target markets, and you should be able to help them understand 1) investor decision-making and 2) effective sales/story-telling. Maybe you already know those things but nothing on your site says that you do. I know this is a lot of unsolicited advice, but I think there's a promising business here; however, you have to know what you're doing to avoid falling into the commodity trap I mentioned above.
skyyler 4y ago
When I open the page I'm greeted with a large deviantart quality anime drawing. I closed the window immediately, what a strange mascot. Is this style of art more popular than I expect or something?
- devwastaken 4y ago
  That's effective customer selection. I'd rather work with people whom have a personality than stick in the muds. :)
- saliagato 4y ago
  You made my day lol! Decided to take inspiration from another website actually, I don't think it's a new trend. (yet ;)) Thanks for the feedback though.
  - skyyler 4y ago
    The anime mascot to cover up whitespace in the gutter is a pretty classic look, but it's not particularly professional. It's great for adding personality to a personal project, but for something you're trying to sell...? I like the new graphics a lot more.
  - robswc 4y ago
    Do you have a picture of the old site? Dying to see it now, lol
- jamestimmins 4y ago
  I had a similar reaction
- mirrormere 4y ago
  Archive link from before it was updated for anyone wondering what the drawing was: https://web.archive.org/web/20221010134422/https://deckly.co/ https://web.archive.org/web/20221010134422/https://deckly.co...
ianbutler 4y ago
The idea is very interesting, but I'm with the people suggesting the style of the site was a big turn off. I watch anime but I'd never dream of inserting something like that into my business site unless I was selling anime subscriptions or something. I think it may be a disconnect between generations/cultures. I get the feeling this style is more popular with Zoomers, not derogatorily or anything just a difference in style.
Qtips87 4y ago
If I am an investor, I would mandate all words and chart be written on an 8.5" x 11" white paper. Pitch should be about idea and not fancy graphics and design.
- saliagato 4y ago
  why not both? One doesn't exclude the other.
  - Qtips87 4y ago
    Because I don't want my judgement to be tainted by fancy graphics and design.
    - intelVISA 4y ago
      I'm surprised you'd opt to read words and allow yourself to be tainted by semantic concepts at all.
- voakbasda 4y ago
  Hand written. In ink.
  - alvarlagerlof 4y ago
    If you don't want to be able to read it
- nullc 4y ago
  IETF standard presentation.
LegitShady 4y ago
"trust the core ideas of your company, with a random company whose product is slideshows, but because we say pitch decks instead of slideshows, we can charge c-suite rates." If you can't come up with your own pitch deck how do you expect to actually deal with investors? Or learn to communicate your businesses concepts yourself? Making the slideshow is part of the work. Like writing is part of the work of having novel ideas. Maybe you can get someone else to write it up, but the act of writing it up teaches you things about your idea and how you communicate. But if you want to trust this company and pay for their slideshows I guess your time is too valuable to spend on your core messaging, and you should chuck that money away to these nobodies for a slideshow.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
gunapologist99 4y ago
Is this kinda like Slide Bean?
dcj4 4y ago
When i opened the website, my screen turned bright yellow despite my darkreader extension. If your website is bright by default and doesn't work with some very basic dark mode extension, i won't bother checking it unless it's super important to me. Make websites dark by default if you're not able to make a clean website that can be manipulated by the user to their basic requirements.

42 points by saliagato 4y ago

dannyw 4y ago

I imagine there's a market for this, but this feels unethical.

saliagato 4y ago
Why? Genuinely curious
qwerty456127 4y ago
Everything that can be outsourced to a specialist should be (unless you have serious reasons not to), shouldn't it?
- saliagato 4y ago
  I agree. Unless a start-up is short on cash I don't see why it shouldn't outsource a service like this. Thinking of solving the problem for start-ups on budget, maybe by offering a plan with a % of what they raise instead of a flat fee.
bobro 4y ago
Seems categorically similar to having someone write your college admission application or your cover letter for a job application. Paying for an advantage where the established system is assuming you’re doing the work yourself and judging you on your ability to do so.

gnrlst 4y ago

Shouldn't you put your company info on the website? especially if it's a company registered in Italy? (i.e. partita iva & ragione sociale)

saliagato 4y ago
Just started out. Taking advantage of a 30 day policy law.

casey2 4y ago

booi 4y ago
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not..
saliagato 4y ago
got you bro. https://deckly.co/blog/what-is-a-pitch-deck-and-how-to-make-one https://deckly.co/blog/what-is-a-pitch-deck-and-how-to-make-...
intelVISA 4y ago
it's a money hack
halfmatthalfcat 4y ago
It’s basically like a take-home code challenge where you’re doing work for someone more rich with little chance of getting the job.
silisili 4y ago
New name for powerpoint presentation, it would seem.
ShivShankaran 4y ago
it's a free money glitch for smooth talkers and charmers.
vba616 4y ago
I learned all I know about pitch decks by reading HN's favorite financial columnist, Matt Levine. He writes a column for Bloomberg you can subscribe to for free somehow or other. I mean, most of the time he's writing about other things, like Elon Musk and bond liquidity, but now and then he mentions pitch decks.

sergiomattei 4y ago

I can’t imagine an entrepreneur that can’t be bothered to write their own pitch deck…

saliagato 4y ago
there is nothing wrong with getting help from professional. Especially if that means saving time on something that is not product-related.
- xhkkffbf 4y ago
  I actually think there is. It's a bit like getting someone else to write your college application essay. The details from the pitch deck reflect the founders and it helps the investors understand the personalities of the person with whom they're dealing. For me, I even think there's information contained in the font choices. To me, if the pitch deck looks too good, that's a red flag.
  - fakedang 4y ago
    That's exactly what I thought when going through the website. If you can't be arsed to build your own pitch deck, then I can't be arsed to listen to your pitch either. That being said, a number of startup founders, especially technical folks, don't know WHAT to put on a pitch deck, so if this were some kind of service which would provide hints and guidelines to startup founders building pitch decks, then it would be a lot more interesting.

IsaacL 4y ago

It's a cool idea, but I strongly suggest you guys find a good ex-IB/consulting person who you really trust to give you some ideas of what an A-tier startup pitch deck looks like. Ideally, this person should have experience with startups as well -- you want someone with both tech/startup savvy and finance/investing savvy, who has a deep understanding of startups and also knows how investors think. You want one of two people. The first is the scrappy 24-year-old ex Goldman/McK/BCG/whatever analyst who can come on board as a potential cofounder. This person will have spent 100 hours a week for 3 years building slide decks, knows the rudiments of effective selling to buy-side people and (more crucially) can happily spam 50-100 people in their extended network for feedback on any given deck. The other option is to find some age 40+ experienced entrepreneur or finance guy/lady to come on board as a mentor, talk to you for 2 or 3 hours a month, and consistently give you steady but firm nudges in the right direction. This person will give you insights like "you guys know how to design but you need to learn about topics X, Y and Z or you're dead in the water, please read these books/articles ASAP". With the help of such a person you'll be able to shift from "we're a bunch of guys who build decks" (commodity) to "we're a small team of business and technology specialists who can help turn your fledgling startup into a serious investment prospect" (unique specialists). You mention UpWork: UpWork is for commodity work, you don't want to do commodity work. And you don't want customers who are even thinking of hiring commodity outsourcers; someone who'd hire an UpWork freelancer to build their startup pitch deck is just dumb. You want founders who are smart enough to know your value. Your decks look nice, but even speaking as a relative outsider to the startup funding ecosystem the content looks unsophisticated and a bit amateurish. Every VC and angel is constantly pitched by newbie founders chasing the currently hot ideas. Everyone reads the same blog posts and pitches the same metrics. To stand out a startup really has to either explain how they've found a strategic edge (the Bezos approach) or tell a bold narrative about how they can build something truly outstanding (the Jobs approach). Hiring a freelancer makes sense for polishing slide designs (which is one of your options at the bottom) but the real money will be made working with founders to figure out their pitch from start to finish. Good founders should understand their technology and target markets, and you should be able to help them understand 1) investor decision-making and 2) effective sales/story-telling. Maybe you already know those things but nothing on your site says that you do. I know this is a lot of unsolicited advice, but I think there's a promising business here; however, you have to know what you're doing to avoid falling into the commodity trap I mentioned above.

skyyler 4y ago

When I open the page I'm greeted with a large deviantart quality anime drawing. I closed the window immediately, what a strange mascot. Is this style of art more popular than I expect or something?

devwastaken 4y ago
That's effective customer selection. I'd rather work with people whom have a personality than stick in the muds. :)
saliagato 4y ago
You made my day lol! Decided to take inspiration from another website actually, I don't think it's a new trend. (yet ;)) Thanks for the feedback though.
- skyyler 4y ago
  The anime mascot to cover up whitespace in the gutter is a pretty classic look, but it's not particularly professional. It's great for adding personality to a personal project, but for something you're trying to sell...? I like the new graphics a lot more.
- robswc 4y ago
  Do you have a picture of the old site? Dying to see it now, lol
jamestimmins 4y ago
I had a similar reaction
mirrormere 4y ago
Archive link from before it was updated for anyone wondering what the drawing was: https://web.archive.org/web/20221010134422/https://deckly.co/ https://web.archive.org/web/20221010134422/https://deckly.co...

ianbutler 4y ago

The idea is very interesting, but I'm with the people suggesting the style of the site was a big turn off. I watch anime but I'd never dream of inserting something like that into my business site unless I was selling anime subscriptions or something. I think it may be a disconnect between generations/cultures. I get the feeling this style is more popular with Zoomers, not derogatorily or anything just a difference in style.

Qtips87 4y ago

If I am an investor, I would mandate all words and chart be written on an 8.5" x 11" white paper. Pitch should be about idea and not fancy graphics and design.

saliagato 4y ago
why not both? One doesn't exclude the other.
- Qtips87 4y ago
  Because I don't want my judgement to be tainted by fancy graphics and design.
  - intelVISA 4y ago
    I'm surprised you'd opt to read words and allow yourself to be tainted by semantic concepts at all.
voakbasda 4y ago
Hand written. In ink.
- alvarlagerlof 4y ago
  If you don't want to be able to read it
nullc 4y ago
IETF standard presentation.

LegitShady 4y ago

"trust the core ideas of your company, with a random company whose product is slideshows, but because we say pitch decks instead of slideshows, we can charge c-suite rates." If you can't come up with your own pitch deck how do you expect to actually deal with investors? Or learn to communicate your businesses concepts yourself? Making the slideshow is part of the work. Like writing is part of the work of having novel ideas. Maybe you can get someone else to write it up, but the act of writing it up teaches you things about your idea and how you communicate. But if you want to trust this company and pay for their slideshows I guess your time is too valuable to spend on your core messaging, and you should chuck that money away to these nobodies for a slideshow.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

gunapologist99 4y ago

Is this kinda like Slide Bean?

dcj4 4y ago

When i opened the website, my screen turned bright yellow despite my darkreader extension. If your website is bright by default and doesn't work with some very basic dark mode extension, i won't bother checking it unless it's super important to me. Make websites dark by default if you're not able to make a clean website that can be manipulated by the user to their basic requirements.