4 ms·

Ask HN: Review our online pitch deck

5 points by geoffsanders 15y ago

http://invest.fangible.com Hi guys, today we put up an online version of our pitch deck and I wanted to get some feedback from those in the know. This is the first pitch deck I've created and I was actually surprised how challenging it was to try and get everything across as needed. Our financing section is a little weak since this is geared towards seed funding rather than a Series A. Anyway, I'd appreciate any useful or constructive feedback. Thanks! http://invest.fangible.com

il 15y ago
Looked great until the marketing slide. Are you saying the size of your market is 23.7 billion users?
- adityar 15y ago
  people can subscribe to more than one channel so it's more like 23.7B subscriptions (of course you have to figure out how many are willing to pay for the privilege).
  - geoffsanders 15y ago
    Correct, I'm talking about total reach because as adityar said, people have multiple subscriptions (as demonstrated by Facebook Pages with an average of 624 fans per page)
staunch 15y ago
Paid online "fan clubs" + Sexy Lady + Playboy quote = self-serve porn hosting. If that's your plan you will probably have to rely on bootstrapping or non-startup investors. VCs don't invest in porn or largely porn-related businesses generally. And if that's not your plan I would generally think the idea is unlikely to work. Paid non-porn fan clubs seems like an exceedingly small niche (in the US). I doubt I know anyone who has a paid subscription to anything like this.
- geoffsanders 15y ago
  While your eyes may have found themselves eyeing the model and Playboy quote, that is by no means "our plan." Anyone can have fans, as is represented by the 38,000,000 active fan pages on Facebook (34 million of which aren't businesses or brands). Unless there are 34 million porn stars looking for fan clubs, clearly our business wouldn't be solely based on sex. Then again, I'm sure Tumblr thought the same thing... they're majority porn. Thank you for your feedback though.
  - staunch 15y ago
    The problem is that (if I understand you) you're making it so people can start web sites, host content, and charge a monthly subscription fee for access to that content. That is the definition of a porn site and little else. Your market size is not the number of people who have fan pages on Facebook. Your market size is the number of people who want paid subscription fan clubs off Facebook. That's a very much smaller number. I would recommend not using the FB number because no intelligent investor will buy it. You will have to prove there's demand, that isn't porn, for VCs to be interested. If you think there is non-porn demand I would highly recommend swapping out the sexy model for a more "family friendly" example.
    - geoffsanders 15y ago
      Let me get this straight - You think any site that hosts content, whereby the owner can sell recurring memberships for access, is a porn site? Sorry, but the porn industry can't (nor does it) claim ownership to the concepts of (1) content publishing (2) hosting or (3) subscription billing. Perhaps if you looked at the competitors slide, you would see that such an idea is already being used by people like Ning and Kajabi, and no one is calling them "porn" sites.
ianpurton 15y ago
It's a great pitch. My one question is what will you do with the 125k ?
- geoffsanders 15y ago
  Thank you, I wasn't sure how detailed we were supposed to be with that, do you recommend on breaking expenses down on that slide? And how detailed should one be with the breakdown?
geoffsanders 15y ago
Just updated the pitch deck today with a bunch of edits and a few new slides. Thanks for the feedback again!
paulsutter 15y ago
The deck is visually good. The kiss fan club anecdote is great. The following conclusions I drew from the deck are probably false, but I convey them because most investors skim through once with a skeptical eye and could reach similar conclusions. - The first time through the deck I thought you'd already built the product, so I was looking for the adoption ramp. - When I finally figured out that you haven't built it, I looked at the timeline and cant tell whether the two of you talking is the only event to take place before raising the seed. - Then I looked at your bios, and thought that you guys must not have jobs right now which is the real reason for needing a seed. I don't mean to be negative, I'm just telling you what went through my mind as I read it. One last note: "advertising reach" is the wrong term to use because it couldn't be 23B without some mad hyperspace technology and the existence of alien empires. I spent years working with ad guys and they get bent out of shape when terms get used loosely. I say, just build it. You didn't starve in the past 6 months so you're unlikely to starve in the next 6 months. You may be able to build it more easily than raise money.

5 points by geoffsanders 15y ago

il 15y ago

Looked great until the marketing slide. Are you saying the size of your market is 23.7 billion users?

adityar 15y ago
people can subscribe to more than one channel so it's more like 23.7B subscriptions (of course you have to figure out how many are willing to pay for the privilege).
- geoffsanders 15y ago
  Correct, I'm talking about total reach because as adityar said, people have multiple subscriptions (as demonstrated by Facebook Pages with an average of 624 fans per page)

staunch 15y ago

Paid online "fan clubs" + Sexy Lady + Playboy quote = self-serve porn hosting. If that's your plan you will probably have to rely on bootstrapping or non-startup investors. VCs don't invest in porn or largely porn-related businesses generally. And if that's not your plan I would generally think the idea is unlikely to work. Paid non-porn fan clubs seems like an exceedingly small niche (in the US). I doubt I know anyone who has a paid subscription to anything like this.

geoffsanders 15y ago
While your eyes may have found themselves eyeing the model and Playboy quote, that is by no means "our plan." Anyone can have fans, as is represented by the 38,000,000 active fan pages on Facebook (34 million of which aren't businesses or brands). Unless there are 34 million porn stars looking for fan clubs, clearly our business wouldn't be solely based on sex. Then again, I'm sure Tumblr thought the same thing... they're majority porn. Thank you for your feedback though.
- staunch 15y ago
  The problem is that (if I understand you) you're making it so people can start web sites, host content, and charge a monthly subscription fee for access to that content. That is the definition of a porn site and little else. Your market size is not the number of people who have fan pages on Facebook. Your market size is the number of people who want paid subscription fan clubs off Facebook. That's a very much smaller number. I would recommend not using the FB number because no intelligent investor will buy it. You will have to prove there's demand, that isn't porn, for VCs to be interested. If you think there is non-porn demand I would highly recommend swapping out the sexy model for a more "family friendly" example.
  - geoffsanders 15y ago
    Let me get this straight - You think any site that hosts content, whereby the owner can sell recurring memberships for access, is a porn site? Sorry, but the porn industry can't (nor does it) claim ownership to the concepts of (1) content publishing (2) hosting or (3) subscription billing. Perhaps if you looked at the competitors slide, you would see that such an idea is already being used by people like Ning and Kajabi, and no one is calling them "porn" sites.

ianpurton 15y ago

It's a great pitch. My one question is what will you do with the 125k ?

geoffsanders 15y ago
Thank you, I wasn't sure how detailed we were supposed to be with that, do you recommend on breaking expenses down on that slide? And how detailed should one be with the breakdown?

geoffsanders 15y ago

Just updated the pitch deck today with a bunch of edits and a few new slides. Thanks for the feedback again!

paulsutter 15y ago

The deck is visually good. The kiss fan club anecdote is great. The following conclusions I drew from the deck are probably false, but I convey them because most investors skim through once with a skeptical eye and could reach similar conclusions. - The first time through the deck I thought you'd already built the product, so I was looking for the adoption ramp. - When I finally figured out that you haven't built it, I looked at the timeline and cant tell whether the two of you talking is the only event to take place before raising the seed. - Then I looked at your bios, and thought that you guys must not have jobs right now which is the real reason for needing a seed. I don't mean to be negative, I'm just telling you what went through my mind as I read it. One last note: "advertising reach" is the wrong term to use because it couldn't be 23B without some mad hyperspace technology and the existence of alien empires. I spent years working with ad guys and they get bent out of shape when terms get used loosely. I say, just build it. You didn't starve in the past 6 months so you're unlikely to starve in the next 6 months. You may be able to build it more easily than raise money.