50 Best Pitch Deck Examples from YC & 500 Startups
Content:
- Best Pitch Decks
- Superside Pitch Deck Design
- About Y Combinator & 500 Startups
At Superside, we have a long history with pitch decks, from our humble beginnings of preparing our own for Superside (formerly known as Konsus) at YC Winter 2016 to now having created hundreds of successful pitch deck designs for entrepreneurs across the world, we’ve come a long way! However, with the ever-evolving world of business, we are still learning every day.
Therefore, we decided to take a deep dive and look at how the most successful pitch decks are looking like in 2018. We have curated the best pitch decks from startups that presented at Y Combinator and 500 Startups. Hopefully, you can get some inspiration for your own.
Best Startup Pitch Decks
1) Front
Front delivers a shared inbox solution for teams by creating one collaborative workspace where you will find all your apps, emails, and teammates.
What we love about the Front pitch deck template is how clean and visual it is. The structure is easy to follow, as it starts by presenting their value proposition, shares customer data and growth through graphics and statistics, and is very transparent about their financials, which helps investors better visualize their business plan. The Front investor pitch deck is one of the most talked about lately, and it was featured on Inc. and Business Insider, as it managed to raise $66 million in VC funding. Download Here
2) Copper Cow Coffee
Copper Cow Coffee uses innovative, 100% biodegradable pour over technology to bring specialty Vietnamese coffee to your office, home and adventure.
What we love about this 500 Startups pitch deck is that even without being too text heavy, they manage to convey a lot of relevant information that will help angel investors create an opinion on the potential of the business, as well as the expansion opportunities. Download Here
3) Lexop
Lexop is a company that has developed a Certified Email solution to replace the traditional paper notices with emails. Their solution uses real-time tracking and instant legal proof-of-delivery.
What we love about their presentation template for 500 Startups demo day is how it captures the essential information and ends with a slide presenting the managing team and advisors, which offers authority, and a slide repeating the most relevant numbers, so this information sticks in the investors’ mind. Download Here
4) Reflect
Reflect is a mental health startup aiming to transform in-person therapy to be more accessible and effective. They use data-driven matching to increase engagement and outcomes.
What we love about this pitch deck is how clean and clear it is, presenting relevant information in an easy-to-follow manner. Download Here
5) Purple Go
Purple Go is a mobile app for better customer experience. It supplies in-store mobile technology, enabling traditional retailers to modernize and connect online.
What we love about this pitch deck is how, from a visual point of view, it keeps the same line with their website. Their main promise is to help traditional retailers and offer 10x the retail experience. This piece of information is mentioned several times throughout the deck, and on the last slide, so the audience stays once the presentation is over. Download Here
6) Salusive Health
Salusive Health is a solution that helps physicians improve patient outcome by offering streamlined documentation, health data aggregation, and an intelligent dashboard.
What we love about the presentation is that it is not text heavy and presents the essential numbers in an eye-catching manner. Since the slides are not too crowded, investors can focus on the founders and their oral presentation, while having the possibility to look at the numbers. Download Here
7) Yaydoo
Yaydoo is an easy solution that enables users to buy everything for their office, saving them both money and time.
What we love about the Yaydoo presentation is how it presents what they do from the very first slide. It clearly explains what they do, how they do it, who their clients are, and who their current investors are. Download Here
8) Backstartup
Backstartup is a new accounting, legal, and payroll solution.
What we love about their slide deck is how easy they make it for others to understand what their purpose is, how they do it, and what makes them different from the traditional services on the market. Download Here
9) Lexyom
Lexyom is an online platform that uses artificial intelligence to provide users with smart, automated legal services.
What we love about their 500 Startups pitch deck is how complete it is; it presents an overview on the legal marketplace, the online marketplace, their business model, and more, all in just nine slides. Download Here
10) Harmonica
Harmonica is a mobile dating application for conservative cultures, like Egypt. It helps users find the right life partner in a safe environment, by using a scientific approach.
What we love about this presentation is how it emphasizes how they are different and how their solution is a trustworthy one, suitable for conservative millennials. Download Here
11) Orchard
Orchard is a solution that helps enterprises improve security in personal smartphones used for work.
What we love about their pitch deck is how it clearly presents the problem, their solution, and how this can be a huge opportunity. The presentation holds lots of essential information, without being too text heavy. Download Here
12) Contentools
Contentools is an all-in-one platform that lets users keep track of all their content marketing operations.
What we love about their pitch deck is that is to the point, it presents the current problem it aims to solve, how it approaches it, and also presents a growth and customers overview, and the team. Download Here
13) Home61
Home61 is an online real estate company that makes rentals and sales much easier. Some of its best features include a dedicated Personal Assistant, advanced filtering options, and a dedicated agent, as soon as one decides to see a home.
What we love about this pitch deck is that in 18 slides it manages to take the audience beyond the numbers, and offers an overview of the market, its flaws, and how they do things differently. The last two slides are meant to build trust, by listing earlier investors, but also show that the founders have done their homework and already have a plan for future investments. Download Here
14) Finova Financial
Finova Financial is a socially-responsible online lender transforming the FinTech industry.
What we love about their 500 Startups pitch deck is how it manages to gain credibility and build trust right from the beginning, as it starts with mentions of Finova Financial in the press. Download Here
15) Worthix
Worthix is a tech company that analyzes customers’ decisions and measures the “why” behind buying decisions, with the help of AI.
What we love about this pitch deck is how it catches the audience’s attention from the beginning, as it starts by saying the solution they offer. It then lists their customers, helping build credibility and trust. The presentation also offers financial data, which is essential in any successful pitch deck. Download Here
16) We Are Onyx
This startup pitch deck showcases a company which is the first all-in-one beauty destination dedicated to Black Women.
What we love about their presentation was the upfront statistic of 43% month over month growth; it was a definite attention grabber. A clear market potential ($17.5 billion) also potentially excited investors. Download Here
17) Crema
Crema delivers roasted-to-order high-quality coffee for caffeine enthusiasts.
What we love about their startup pitch presentation was the use of “Social Proof” by putting logos of well-known brands right at the start, which increased their credibility and trustworthiness. Download Here
18) Park Evergreen
Park Evergreen is a parking management software that runs entire parking facilities without relying on humans or hardware.
What we love was their showcase of experienced experts in their startup pitch deck. Presenting a dedicated team with cumulative years of experience will increase the willingness of investors to get involved. Download Here
19) Sick Weather
Sick Weather has created a software that helps to forecast sicknesses that revolutionize the healthcare industry. This startup by far has one of the best pitch decks.
What we love is their real-life successful case studies, among many other important things. Many startups did not show any results even after a prototype has been launched. These guys stood out. Download Here
20) IDWall
Another great startup pitch deck is from IDWall, which supplies business security through reliable and automated (1) document validation (2) identity verification and (3) background checks.
What we love is when they shared their tangible growth target ($400,000 by end of April 2017). Many startups avoid sharing ambitious financial targets. When you present your company’s vision, it instills a confidence in the investors which IDwall did successfully. Download Here
21) Almabase
Almabase helps schools to engage with all their alumni.
What we love was their impressive start to getting 1 million users onboard within 8 months which was clearly displayed in the pitch deck. This shows the immense potential that can be achieved with this software just by impressions or engaging their big pool of users. Download Here
22) Baloonr
Baloonr helps big companies such as Disney and Microsoft to remove bias from group work and perform optimized decision-making.
What we love about the startup pitch deck was really the smooth delivery of information. Remember, less is more. What made this pitch deck example a delight was the sole use of visuals and metaphors at the beginning to engage the audience, and effective storytelling to share their solution. Download Here
23) Fingertip Labs
Fingertip Labs aims to create an eyes-free controller for your Music & Apps that can be used while you are driving.
What we love was their introduction using stats which highlighted the market’s problem before sharing how their product is the solution. Supplying context to your audience is important; a good start is half the battle won. Download Here
24) Open Door
Open Door revolutionizes co-living spaces for millennials in cities using a cost-efficient layout that provides communal spaces, but also privacy.
What we love inside their pitch deck was the slide that explained the traditional model vs their new model. Having a side-by-side comparison is very visually compelling. Download Here
25) Pluto AI
This company supplies analytics for smart water management.
What we love was the fact that Pluto AI’s startup pitch presentation began with the main problem and went “full circle” by reminding the audience the same info at the end of the presentation, making it memorable and capture attention. Download Here
26) iControl
iControl replaces paper with an iPad at construction projects for efficient documentation.
What we love was the interactivity of this startup pitch deck. The slide that shared the problem of too many documents all over the place was shown with many paper images populating all over the slide... brilliant! Download Here
27) Claim Compass
Claim Compass helps users get compensation from airlines seamlessly.
What we love from this pitch deck example was their first slide. They said their value proposition in very few words and used the word “you,” to at once involve the audience. Download Here
28) Owlr
Owlr supplies a software that companies can integrate to make their cameras smarter, simpler, and more secure.
What we love is the slide that presented the tremendous improvement of consumer ratings after their clients have used Owlr. Without a doubt, this was one of the best pitch decks. Download Here
29) EventXtra
EvenXtra is a one-stop event management platform for companies.
What we love the most about their pitch deck is that they asked the audience to guess their impact. That pause created an excitement and made the results feel even more compelling by cutting down 15 minutes waiting time to 15 seconds. We’re sold. Download Here
30) Card Life
Card Life’s mission is to help teams take control of their subscriptions so they can kick ass at work.
What we love was the achievement they shared, “Top 5 SaaS Product” as listed by Product Hunt in their amazing startup pitch deck. In short, a validation from a trusted third-party name will make your startup’s worth more than if you were to shout it out by yourself. Download Here
31) Kompyte
Kompyte help companies track their competitors real-time.
What we love about this startup pitch presentation was the smooth delivery from the start to the finish. Their demo about ‘how the product works’ was extremely easy to understand! Download Here
32) ChangeJar
ChangeJar is a secure mobile cash terminal that cuts transaction fees for retail merchants.
What we love from this pitch deck was when the CEO said, “no other payment app can make that claim” because that meant that the company has done their research thoroughly, and has a clear value proposition for their customers. Amazing! Download Here
33) DataTron
This superb startup found a way to increase data transfer speed by 100x more than the typical enterprise solution in the market.
What we love was exactly that slide which presented their ground-breaking solution, making this one of the best pitch decks to follow. To be honest, VC’s just need that 1 slide which hits the nail on the head! Download Here
34) StreamLoan
This startup helps consumers get home mortgages easily.
What we love was the delivery of the information. The speaker used his startup pitch presentation to support his verbal communication, rather than just repeating or reading off the slides. As simple as it sounds, few speakers can do this, so Kudos to him! Download Here
35) Codec
Codec helps brands know what content their consumers want before they spend time and resources building them.
What we love was the use of icons and minimal text in their pitch deck example. Text-heavy startup pitch presentations tend to look cluttered and confusing, so using visuals promote audiences’ quick comprehension. Download Here
36) Trym
Trym is a micro business insurance company that offers its services to SMEs.
What we love was the step-by-step overview demo they used that was easy-to-understand, despite having a complex product (underwriting services), making this one of the best pitch decks. Download Here
37) Usetrace*
Usetrace* is an artificial software tester.
What we love was that the startup seems funny... but they are serious. The use of hand-drawn comical illustration and style is refreshing when everyone else was using a professional look-and-feel. You do need to think out of the box to stand out! Download Here
38) BigControls
This startup helps companies minimize their compliance risk exposure and stop wasting millions of dollars.
What we love from this wonderful startup pitch deck was the use of consistent, professional illustrations across every slide. Audiences know when you have invested in design (and when have not). Download Here
39) Voxeet
Voxeet helps companies experience free high-quality audio conference calling across devices.
What we love: Interactivity. They started off with a video! Interactivity is the in thing this year (2017) because it captures attention unlike anything else, just like how Voxeet’s startup pitch presentation did it. Download Here
40) Melodics
Melodics is an app that adapts to consumers’ abilities and musical tastes to help them get better at pad drumming, faster.
What we love: the use of familiar associations. Melodics’ use of popular celebrities was basically a way for them to speak in a voice and use examples that their audience can relate to. Download Here
41) Unicorn
Unicorn sells skincare for men (like a kick-ass butt mask) and is booming all over Asia.
What we love were two things. Firstly, when they showed their amazing growth in their first year, and secondly when they showed their main product. Showing how your product can be used is a neat trick in a startup pitch presentation. Download Here
42) Kiband
Kiband helps parents track their children so that they can explore but not get lost.
What we love was how the CEO made the audience experience (or imagine) why someone would need their product. This technique increases relevance, making it a great pitch deck example. Download Here
43) Mojilala
Mojilala is an enabler for artists to distribute their emojis to a global audience.
What we love was the insane amount of growth they had and how they have multiplied their user base with a $0 marketing spend. Investors love to see the ROI, and this startup pitch deck did just that. Download Here
44) Pawprint
Pawprint helps pet-owners know information about vets for their pet’s care.
What we love was the visual in their pitch deck to show how 15% vets in the US trusted them. Although the number is not huge, it presents the potential and how their brand has a nationwide presence. Download Here
45) Lighthouse
Lighthouse helps Managers become better Managers.
What we love in this startup pitch deck was the success story of a manager they shared that was relatable and effective. Sharing a real testimony will get your investors listening. Download Here
46) BeaconsInSpace
BeaconsInSpace helps brands to add a revenue stream from their mobile users without affecting user experience.
What we love from the CEO’s startup pitch presentation was when he shared what they have achieved (how many apps installed, what kind of customers have used them etc.) to show that they are onto something great. Download Here
47) Printify
This startup helps entrepreneurs and brands create custom products to sell in their store.
What we love was how effortless it felt for us to understand their business model. Their use of flowchart and icons make it one of the best pitch decks available.
48) TRACEAIR
TRACE AIR is a drone data software that helps to verify construction site work.
What we love is the sharing of epic fail real-life photographs that the speaker shared. Humor is effective in making startup pitch presentations memorable, which makes this a delightful pitch deck example! Download Here
49) Cladwell
Cladwell helps millennials keep track of the clothing they have and helps them to buy less.
What we love is that they embraced a new market trend. While other startup pitch decks try to penetrate existing market with newer solutions, Cladwell is not intimidated by emerging changes but provides a new app with great MoM growth. Download Here
50) StudySoup
StudySoup helps students get high-quality study materials.
What we love from this fantastic startup pitch deck is really their clear strategy and plan to achieve their ‘$90 million’ goal. Many startups have dreams, but no concrete plans as to how they will achieve it. Download Here
Concisely: There are many tips and tricks you can learn from this list of amazing 500 Startups and Y Combinator pitch deck examples. To conclude, here is what we recommend:
- Nail your financials: ROI, MoM growth, and potential market size.
- Do not be afraid to share your vision: But with a clear business plan behind it.
- Share success stories: Show prototypes, and compelling testimonials.
- Inject humor: Make them remember you.
- Use visual aids: Flowcharts, icons, and infographics help investors to digest data faster
- Create a story: Share the problem, and tell them why your startup is the solution
- Build credibility: Showcase your team of experts’, your experience and background
- Give yourself an edge: Add a little flavor, that makes the brand, product or service “Uniquely Yours”
Superside Pitch Deck Design
If you feel like you need a professional’s touch on your pitch decks, our project managers are available 24/7 to help you out and pair you with the best powerpoint design team that will craft your successful pitch deck as soon as 12 hours.
About the Incubators
Founded by entrepreneur and angel investor Dave McClure, 500 Startups is a global community of investors, founders, and mentors who are committed to helping new businesses thrive. Up until now, they have changed the trajectory of over 2,000 companies in over 60 countries all over the world. They invest in all kinds of businesses, from blockchain and online video to food tech, consumer commerce, education, and many more.
Y Combinator not only helps companies pay their expenses while getting started by supplying seed funding, but they do much more than that. They work with startups on their ideas and help them deal with investors by teaching founders how to pitch their startups. The goal behind Y Combinator is creating an environment where founders can focus exclusively on building their products and talking to their users.
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