Pitch Deck Teardown: The Equivalent of a $16M Series A Deck

It’s a rare startup that makes it out own pitch deck, but exactly the same done after It raised $16 million in Series A round, Equals’ mission is not to replace spreadsheets, but to ensure that a spreadsheet can do everything its users want it to do. As an avid spreadsheet user, this is an approach I can take – I’ve built entire software solutions with extremely complex spreadsheets as the back end.

Plus, as a pitch deck connoisseur, I can also vouch for the bright and bold design of the Equals deck.

I particularly enjoyed a take I don’t often see in deck design, which is breaking the deck into two separate sections: a pitch deck and a data deck. The latter provides an overview of the company’s financial condition in seven slides, showing ARR, lead-to-customer conversion rates, churn, and other statistics. This is a good idea: I often advise startups to tell the story with words, then tell the same story with numbers.

Let’s see what else there is to like about this deck.

---

We’re looking for more unique pitch decks to break out, so if you want to submit your own, Here’s how you can do that,

---

slide into this deck

The data from two traction slides was modified, and a separate data deck contains a lot of the (redacted) data. There is no slide on market size and go-to-market, but we’ll get to that later.

1. cover slide
2. opening statement
3. mission slide
4. problem slide
5. Solution/Mission Slide
6. product(“meet equal”)
7. product demo slide
8. Product Verification Slide
9. traction slide
10. traction 2 slide
11. Product Highlights Slide
12. product roadmap slide
13. team slide
14. Ask and Slide Fund Access
15. closing slide

three things to love

I’ve already given similar praise for the design, but this deck is so impressive that it’s worth mentioning again: this is a good looking deck. Here are some other things I came across:

make it real

For a while, it seemed like the easiest way to build a successful software startup was to find something that people use Excel for, then create a tool that was better, more focused, and easier to use. It has worked well for countless businesses, so taking Excel to its home turf by replacing spreadsheets is a bold undertaking. , , A spreadsheet. Airtable has had some success in this area, so the first thing that comes to mind is whether there is room for another company in this area.

Equals makes a comprehensive and compelling argument for a resounding yes to that question by listing several use cases for its software:

The problem seems quite real, but it seems to be largely related to the origin of the data and data analysis/algorithms. And of course, Excel files Can be challenging, but Excel now also has a relatively robust online solution (so the statement “Excel doesn’t have it” seems a bit hyperbolic). We also have Google Sheets, Airtable, and many other potential competitors in this space.

Still, in the dry and boring world of spreadsheets, this is probably the most fun way to outline the problem you’re trying to solve. I like this!

So it’s Excel, but more online

Founders, especially tech founders, often face a tremendous challenge when they try to explain in simple terms what their startup does. I’m really impressed that the team at Equals managed to transform the product into something so simple: spreadsheets, but with database connections and collaboration. This very simple statement hides a lot of technical complexities and would have been an absolute nightmare of an integration challenge.

But hiding the complexity is a good idea: end users don’t want to wonder why their spreadsheet won’t connect to a Stripe data source. They just need it to function.

quite beautiful. very well done.

This is how you pave the way for the future!

Investors rarely care about this level of detail in your product roadmap, but don’t curious, You know? This is a big rough overview of what you care about and doesn’t go into detail about the nuts and bolts of what the engineering team will build.

Even though the scheme is quite technical, I’m impressed by the team’s ability to resist the temptation to try too hard here. I don’t know what they’re going to add Command + K to, but it doesn’t really matter – it’s a great top-level view that will let you have board-level conversations about next product priorities. Year.

Equals has also done some clever work with the previous slides: Slide 11 shows features that have already been created, which then allows the narrative to flow similarly to this slide (existing features are now shown in grey). is highlighted in). This lets you have a two-step conversation about the product: talk about everything you’ve made, then talk about everything else you’re going to make and how that product will help your target audience. Helps become more relevant to the audience – and maybe expand the potential user base too.

As a startup, you can learn from this slide that you should not spend too much time on your product. These two slides are a great example of how you can cleverly overcome that problem.

In the rest of this teardown, we’ll take a look at three things Equals could have improved or done differently, as well as its full pitch deck!

Three things that can be improved

It’s not all rainbows and unicorns in the Equals deck. , ,

Be mindful of your audience

A very common problem with pitch decks is that sometimes it’s hard to tell if the founders understand who they’re talking to. Check out this testimonial slide:

I have no doubt that this is a powerful slide to use in a company’s sales operations when talking to new customers. But I’m not sure how effective it is as part of an investment pitch.

I can see several issues here:

• I don’t know what any of those logos are. OK, I recognize the Notion, but I don’t know what Levity is or does, and I don’t recognize the V logo. That means two of the three logos on this slide aren’t going to help convince me to invest. So why use them?
• An uncredited set of two quotes and statements doesn’t exactly serve as a particularly strong set of testimonials.
• In the final testimonial, the line “I don’t see it going anywhere in the near future” can be easily misinterpreted. I’m assuming what the person meant was that their product is here to stay, but it’s not 100% clear from the quote.
• Placing a quote without properly attributing it to someone is bad form. Who said these nice things? If it were a CTO of a company, you should definitely highlight it. Think about it this way: If you attribute “this is a really cool product” to “an Apple employee”, would that be a good thing? If Tim Cook said this, that would be awesome. So it was said if some random sale broke out in an Apple Store. , , You know what I’m getting at.

Overall, this decline seems most likely neutral – at least when it comes to convincing an investor to invest. So it’s probably safe to leave it off the deck altogether.

so . , , How big is this market?

Maybe I’m picking nits here. Ask any investor, “If I can steal 30% of Excel’s business, is the market big enough?” And you’ll probably get a resounding yes.

The thing is, this deck also lacks a go-to-market slide. This means Equals is missing two opportunities to tell investors what it is thinking about its market. Who are the customers? How many of them are there? What is a value prop? How do you reach these customers? How do you convince them to stay? You’ll need to answer that set of questions to successfully raise money – and the ground is a little thin in this deck.

However, what are the goals?!

When it comes to how your startup will use the funds raised, investors aren’t looking for clear figures or a vague plan. A well-crafted “Use of Funds” slide does more than simply list expenses; It builds trust. By being transparent about your financial needs and how they align with your business goals, you’re showing potential investors that you’re not just another startup looking to waste cash. No, instead, you are a serious entrepreneur with a plan for growth and a clear vision for the future.

I know many founders have faced this serious pitfall. Glamorous but unnecessary expenses, a vague breakdown of “miscellaneous” costs, and vague descriptions of how the funds will be used are some of the common pitfalls that may put investors off. Equals falls victim to such a trap: none of these goals are specific enough. Slides should be as clear and detailed as possible, avoid generalizations and focus on specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) goals.

• “Scale Marketing”:Sure, but from whom?
• “measure of success”: Yes, but what is the goal? How do you know you are successful?
• “Speed ​​up”: Well, yes, but if you wrote 10 new pieces before the fundraiser and managed 11 afterward, you’ve achieved that goal.

be specific. Use your “Use of Funds” slide well. This is not a time for abstraction, but for bold, specific, quantified audacity. This slide is where you lay out your vision in dollars and cents, and if you do it correctly, this is where investors will start to see their future aligning with yours.

Importantly, a well-designed “Uses of Funds” slide helps paint the picture for you. next Funding round. If you hit all the goals, can you raise a Series B? Great! Does your plan set you up for success? fantastic!

This slide is almost useless, which is a shame. Here money can be raised with more precision so Very easy.

full pitch deck

---

If you’d like to have your own pitch deck teardown featured on TechCrunch, There is more information here, Also, check All our pitch deck teardowns All collected in one convenient place for you!