You, as a startup, need growth and for growth you need funding. That is when the entire concept of pitch deck comes into play. When you have a winning pitch deck, it becomes a lot easier to convince your investors to give you a try and a plausible ladder to boost up your growth. In this post, we will delve into the top 15 winning pitch decks from SaaS unicorn startups and see what has made them seal the deal. Bring on a new business partner, win over new clients, and leverage to attract investor dollars, all at once. Without any further ado, let us get started with the pitch decks right away.

Foursquare Pitch Deck

The best part about Foursquare Pitch Deck is that you get to find everything information in big, bold bullets which makes it easier for you to apprehend and collect information. On top of that, you will not just find mobile device mockups but also real screenshots on how the app actually functions. The screenshots visualize every single functionality, yet keep things real. There are no huge growth charts or high-pitched dream ideas. This pitch deck has done a good job of growing into a huge enterprise and it all began in the era of this pitch deck. For more information, hop on here.

Mattermark Pitch Deck

Mattermark is best known for creating a data-driven search engine that aids in keeping SaaS businesses informed about other companies, named Google for business. By using multi-tinted charts to compare and analyze important data, it leads to better business decisions and improved market research. To present the problem they aimed to solve, they relied on a flowing arrow diagram to visualize the outcome. As the slides progress, information is added on to create a comprehensive message. All the while keeping the deck super visual and less on the text-heavy side. For more information, hop on here.

BuzzFeed Pitch Deck

Of the many companies who pitched the idea of advertisement for their pitch decks, BuzzFeed was one on the list. It pitched the concept of advertisement as content in lieu of using content and advertisement as two different entities, which was the general norm then. If you’re in the SaaS business, visualizing your concept using actual screenshots of your product, actually helps. In the pitch deck, BuzzFeed’s founders exactly portrayed how their idea worked and how it would look online. They also visualized exactly how the “advertisement as content” idea would benefit them, including screenshots of the actual website. For more information, hop on here.

Bliss Pitch Deck

If your SaaS company or product is more from a technical point of view, it is always way better to explain what it is and how it works before anything else. Talking about traction and clients won’t do you much good if your investors are still trying to figure out what you do. And this is exactly what Bliss did in its pitch deck. Further, Bliss’s pitch deck has a clean and professional design, which is in line with their business idea and brand voice. The deck is pretty decent and covers all key points. For more information, hop on here.

Cubeit Pitch Deck

The best part about Cubeit’s pitch deck is that it has made good usage of visualizations and even includes a video demo. They start strong, and have also included a customer profile in one of their slides, which shows they’ve done their research and that they know who their product is for. In a SaaS business, it is always better to put up a video demo of your product and make your customer understand your product in a useful manner. For more information, hop on here.

Launchrock Pitch Deck

The Launchrock brand is minimalistic, bold, and to the point, and so is their pitch deck. The information on each slide might look minimal to some, but precise. The data flows from one slide to the next in a simple storytelling format. To top it off, this pitch deck uses social proof and a sense of community to get the message across to the right audience. For more information, hop on here.

Intercom Pitch Deck

Not only does this keep the pitch deck on brand, it also brings in a great dose of personality. It shows investors that the Intercom company is simple, but not unpolished whatsoever. Adding the font shows off the fun, human side of the brand. Not only is this pitch deck is calm and reassuring but they used a simple font for the text, adding only some bold styling to reinforce the message. For more information, hop on here.

Buffer Pitch Deck

As a SaaS company, you need to be completely transparent with your customers. The company is one of the first to release their pitch deck publicly, not only helping others with their decks but illustrating goodwill. Transparency is something that both customers and investors appreciate. It reinforces your honesty and trustworthiness and helps them better understand how your product works. For more information, hop on here.

Moz Pitch Deck

Moz’s pitch deck shows an interesting mascot that is on all of their slides and colorful blocks and charts that illustrate their points. Their later slides are packed with fun images, such as cartoon character Calvin (from Calvin and Hobbes) rampaging through a city. What they believe in is doing something different and entertaining, while still offering the information you need to get your point across. SEOmoz does this admirably in their pitch deck. For more information, hop on here.

Front Pitch Deck

Colors always have a greater impact on your audience. Front establishes some of this color scheme early on, with the title page in deep blue with white font. Colorful confetti shapes litter the background, hinting at the “fun” feel the pink would later give. For more information, hop on here.

Airbnb Pitch Deck

Airbnb is the world’s most popular accommodation listing and finding tool for hosts across the country. The company raised $600,000 from Sequoia Capital and Y Ventures in a seed round in 2009. Airbnb looks to solve major problems of inflated costs, lack of options, cultural connection issues, and complex booking structures. The company has become an icon of sorts in the travel industry. The founders Nathan Blecharczyk, Brian Chesky, and Joe Gebbia summarized the company’s vision and opportunity in a successful manner.

Airbnb offers a solution for how users can save money, make money, or share culture. The pitch deck validated the market size and its potential. Their business model slide explained the whole idea in a single line- we take a 10% commission on every transaction.

Airbnb is now available in more than 200 countries and is used by more than 60 million users (about twice the population of Texas). For more information, hop on here.

LinkedIn Pitch Deck

When Reid Hoffman showed his pitch deck for LinkedIn, it was a masterclass for every learner. He displayed LinkedIn’s fundraising pitch in 2004. LinkedIn’s pitch deck consists of 37 pages and has quite a lot of information. There are graphs, quotes, pie charts, examples, comparisons, timelines, and a bunch of numbers. The LinkedIn pitch deck starts with the business model to show how the company will generate revenue. You can also address the people directly with the problems. This is also matched to the revenue aspect. The deck labelled LinkedIn as ‘professional people search 2.0’ and put revenue as the major priority. LinkedIn looked at establishing people’s networks as the priority and considered it an advantage. The LinkedIn pitch deck also talks about PayPal and its network arrangement.

LinkedIn continued to chart history and was acquired by Microsoft in 2016 for $26.2 billion (about $81 per person in the US). For more information, hop on here.

WeWork Pitch Deck

WeWork is a growing startup that has caught the eyes of everyone in the last decade. WeWork raised from Goldman Sachs, Wellington Management, and T. Rowe Price a whooping sum of $355 million (about $1 per person in the US) in 2014. WeWork creates places for professionals to work and co-create.

The founders of WeWork kept their unique backgrounds as part of the experience. This became the founding theme of WeWork- Together, one is less alone. The coworking space startup is growing 100% continuously and has over 15,000 employees.

WeWork’s pitch deck has more than just bullet points. It is a stylish presentation of the business and its proceedings. The pitch deck has modern fonts, good images, charts, icons, pictures, office images, etc. The pitch deck also has the value proposition included in it. Their space as a service part of the pitch includes what they do as a firm and how it is necessary for millennials. For more information, hop on here.

Facebook Pitch Deck

Facebook raised $500K in their angel funding round, and its pitch deck spoke about their plan, user engagement, and more. While the tech revolutionary company did not have its revenue yet, it managed to weave their story on customer growth, and customer engagement. They used their timeline concept to tell a story about their company. These timelines spoke the story of how they started and how much revenue and users they got over a period of time.

One thing all companies can learn from the Facebook pitch deck is how it did not manipulate figures to show a lot of revenue. It chose to stick to the real story about the company. Facebook displayed the various schools they are a part of and their incredible stories. The pitch also includes a list of future launch programs. For more information, hop on here.

Dwolla Pitch Deck

Dwolla started to deal with the problem of paying huge credit card fees. Their pitch deck is a simple representation of how they got where they are. The deck has pictures of the founder and the COO. Once the story of the company is clear, it is easier to pitch to the audience. Talk about the company in the initial few slides of the pitch. Show how the company is growing rapidly and the main vision of the company.

Make the pitch visually exciting and interesting. This is helpful since no one wants to see a boring pitch. Visual elements will illustrate the pain points, the solutions, and your presentation as well. One thing Dwolla does is create user personas to define and talk about users. This helps you show how the real process works. For more information, hop on here.

Parting Thoughts

You are never too late to pull out a great pitch deck for your SaaS company. It is all about being creative and delivering the right message to your customers. Remember; the key is to stay true to your message, stay true to your brand, be honest, and show results.

While startup pitch decks are important for learning about the company, they also give us an insight into the finance, technology, and customer aspects of the company. This helps evaluate how they choose to define themselves in the longer run. Keeping the pitch deck simple, clean, and to the point will help chalk the success story while demonstrating to investors.

---