Sweaty palms. Nervous tingles. Closed throat.
If the thought of creating a pitch deck brings up all those emotions for you, you’re not alone. But pitching is essential if you want to get funding from great investors and grow fast.
In this article, I’ll share the components of a winning pitch deck (with a shortcut!) and 20 examples of pitch decks for your inspiration.
{toc}
How to build a winning pitch deck (and how to take AI’s help)
A pitch deck should effectively communicate all the information investors need to feel confident about investing in your business. Bad pitch decks mean you don’t raise the money you need, and you waste a ton of time and resources preparing your pitch deck.
Here are the common, wallet-opening components all the A+ pitching decks contain:
1. They clearly state the problem the business is trying to solve
2. They showcase the market gap and opportunity and how the brand is a unique solution
3. They display all the traction and progress that the business has already made — customers, revenue, users, etc.
4. They have a solid, believable business model
5. They contain attractive financial projections and plans for future growth
6. They showcase your skilled and ambitious team members
7. They clearly ask how much money they need and display what the business can achieve if they get that money
All the pitching decks below follow the above formula.
💡 Note: If you want to learn more in-depth info about each slide, hear straight from the horse’s mouth: YC has an article on how to build your pitch deck for a Seed round, and the template’s not all that different for Series A. Nextview also has a pitch deck template that’s short, efficient, and discussion-based.
The problem? Combining all the above aspects and then editing your slides, designing them well, screening for typos, etc., is incredibly taxing and time-consuming. My advice would be to focus on the things you can do best — shaping the overall narrative, working with your customers, and building your business. Leave the rest to AI presentation makers like Plus AI. It can help you cut your pitch deck creation time by a lot.
- You can generate full-blown presentations or just a single slide
- You can reformat your existing slides to match your brand design
- It’s a Google Slides add-on, so it’s compatible with your existing content
%20end%20to%20end%20file%20upload%20demo%201.gif)
Whether for a startup pitch deck or a webinar deck, Plus AI is the perfect choice to fast-track your work and create impeccable slides. Try creating one pitch deck for free and see for yourself.
Next, let’s look at 20 successful pitch deck examples and see what you and I can learn from them about crafting slides that give the moolah.
The TL;DR of pitch deck key takeaways
Here are the key takeaways from each of the pitch deck examples below.
If you want all the best of the best pitch deck slides in one presentation, you can download it here.
20 best pitch deck examples (with key takeaways)
Think of the 20 examples below as the Pinterest board for your pitch decks. Pick what you like from their slides and tweak it for your own presentations.
1: Airbnb
Best example of a business model slide
Airbnb’s pitch deck is a great example of a short, quick, and effective presentation. In only 14 slides, the company manages to get their point across and pack a lot of information.
Industry: Hospitality
Year: 2008
Stage: Seed
Amount: $600K
Key takeaway: My favorite part about Airbnb’s slide is how simple and elegantly they explain their business model. The design and visuals make it easy to understand how Airbnb plans to earn money, the impact they can create, and what profits they project. If you can, simplify your business model similarly and supplement it with your presentation pointers.
2: Uber
Best example of a market gap slide
Uber’s pitch deck has aged like fine wine. The company used to be called UberCab and this is an early stage example of their presentation to investors.
Industry: Transportation
Year: 2008
Stage: Seed
Amount: $200K
Key takeaway: Uber doesn’t focus a lot on design in this pitch deck, but they do manage to convince the investors of a large market gap. The slide about how Uber is the middle ground between cabs and car services is a great example of how you should approach the same slide.
3: Tinder
Best example of a story-driven presentation
Tinder’s pitch deck is an instant right swipe for investors due to its captivating storytelling. The design doesn’t age well with 2024, but the concept stands the test of time.
Industry: Online dating
Year: 2016
Stage: Seed
Amount: $50M
Key takeaway: Despite the Internet Explorer-style designs, Tinder’s pitch deck is a good inspiration for pairing your product with a story. The company takes a story-driven approach and introduces a “Matt” character who instantly helps investors understand the problem and visualize their app as the solution.
4: Buffer
Best example of a traction slide
Buffer’s pitch deck is a chef’s kiss in keeping things simple and uncomplicated. One of the pioneers in social media management tools, the company managed to get its point across in as few slides as possible.
Industry: Social Media
Year: 2013
Stage: Seed from Angel Investors
Amount: $500K
Key takeaway: The traction slide is the best slide of Buffer’s pitch deck. Confidence in investors increases when they see how Buffer’s already succeeding and rapidly growing. The founders share more about why any new startup founder should focus on gaining traction before raising funds in their essay.
5: LinkedIn
Best example of a contextual slide
LinkedIn’s pitch deck is a great target to aspire for if you want your presentations to be highly detailed.
Industry: Technology
Year: 2004
Stage: Series B
Amount: $10M
Key takeaway: The best part about LinkedIn’s pitch deck is its awareness of the financial environment, investor objections, and rising market trends. The presentation tackles it head-on and even uses many analogies to showcase the company's aspirations. The co-founder also shared this advice (along with a ton of valuable others!), if you’d like to get an in-depth insight into each slide.
6: Mixpanel
Best example of an expansion plan slide
Mixpanel’s pitch deck is equal parts detailed and succinct. Some slides go into an exploration of the topic while others share the solution simply. If you want to strike a balance between detail and tightness, this pitch is the best example.
Industry: Business Intelligence
Year: 2014
Stage: Series B
Amount: $65M
Key takeaway: The expansion plan slide is one of the most detailed ones in this pitch deck and for good reason: Mixpanel lays out the specifics of what they’re forecasting for the future and their gameplan to achieve it. Investors love time-bound, clear projections that help them understand the direction a company’s taking. Learn more from Mixpanel’s experience in their essay.
7: Intercom
Best example of a ‘what we’re looking for’ slide
When Intercom raised $50M, the co-founder released the pitch deck that they used when they wanted to raise $600K.
Industry: SaaS, Customer Messaging
Year: 2011
Stage: Seed
Amount: $600K
Key takeaway: The power of Intercom’s pitch deck is in its simple messaging. They’re sure about what they do, where they stand in the market, and thus crystal clear about what they need from investors. Determine what you need from your investors and create a slide around what their investment will help you achieve.
8: BuzzFeed
Best example of showing your product in presentations
BuzzFeed’s pitch deck is a good example of getting to the point, fast. The company gets straight to the point in their presentation — showing current progress and where they want to go next.
Industry: Digital Media
Year: 2008
Stage: Series A
Amount: $3.5M
Key takeaway: BuzzFeed does an excellent job of “showing” what changes they’re planning with their product and what it’s going to look like. If you can incorporate visual elements in your pitch deck similarly, it’s a great idea to steal.
9: Beehiiv
Best example of a competitor analysis slide
Beehiiv’s pitch deck is one of the more recent and fresh examples of how to do presentations right.
Industry: SaaS
Year: 2021
Stage: Seed
Amount: $2.6M
Key takeaway: Beehiiv nailed the market gap and competitor analysis section. The best part is they backed everything they claimed with tweets from real potential customers. They supplemented industry data with real stories to give that final punch of why they can become a market leader.
10: Yac
Best example of a data-driven slide
Yac’s pitch deck has one of the smoothest designs I’ve seen. The asynchronous communication app used this presentation to raise money for their Series A round.
Industry: SaaS, Communication
Year: 2021
Stage: Series A
Amount: $7.5M
Key takeaway: Yac’s data-backed analysis of how much time they save for businesses is perfect to help investors understand what impact the company’s truly making. If you can collate similar data points for your business, definitely do it.
11: Front
Best example of a ‘show me the progress’ slide
Front’s pitch deck is an excellent example of how to keep your presentations interesting. With visuals, designs, and charts, the pitch deck keeps any interested party hooked the whole time.
Industry: SaaS, Customer Service
Year: 2018
Stage: Series B
Amount: $66M
Key takeaway: The standout feature in Front’s pitch deck is how they show their growth. It takes into account all the nuances — churn, user base, revenue growth, and an expanding team. The co-founder talked about how having these metrics helped her answer investor questions easily in her essay. If you’re interested in what the co-founder learned from making her Series A pitch deck, there’s an essay from her on that, too.
12: Dropbox
Best example of a time-sensitive slide
Dropbox’s pitch deck is worth its weight in gold. The idea itself was ahead of its time, that’s for sure, but the presentation managed to convince investors to put $1.2M on the line.
Industry: Cloud Storage
Year: 2007
Stage: Pre-Seed
Amount: $1.2M
Key takeaway: What’s excellent about Dropbox’s pitch deck is the “why now” slide. It puts the situation into context and explains why their product makes sense to launch, grow, and market at this moment.
13: EquityBee
Best example of a company history slide
EquityBee’s pitch deck is brief, but effective. The ideas are clear and the company makes use of visuals to showcase their data well.
Industry: Financial Services
Year: 2018
Stage: Seed
Amount: $1.7M
Key takeaway: The company history slide is excellent, especially if you serve various markets in different locations. The sticky visual design helps investors quickly understand the company’s background and history.
14: Shopify
Best example of a business concept slide
Shopify’s pitch deck is detailed, but informative. If you have a lot of numbers to show, this presentation is a good example.
Industry: E-commerce
Year: 2016
Stage: Late stage
Amount: $66M
Key takeaway: Shopify’s pitch deck explains the concept of their product with a great visual analogy. If you can do something similar — especially if your product is complex — it will help investors instantly understand what your product does.
15: Thrive Global
Best example of a ‘who’s on our team’ slide
Thrive Global’s pitch deck isn’t the best in design, but its content is one you can learn a lot from.
Industry: Productivity
Year: 2016
Stage: Series A
Amount: $7M
Key takeaway: The “Board of Directors” is the slide that displays trusted names in the industry who are a part of the company — making Thrive Global instantly credible. If you have the backing of industry leaders, use it for your pitch decks. And adding faces to names is also a great idea to humanize your brand.
16: Paddle
Best example of before-after slides
Paddle’s pitch deck is one of the most recent examples to make it on this list. They have an engaging, modern design and a quick presentation.
Industry: B2B SaaS
Year: 2022
Stage: Series D
Amount: $200M
Key takeaway: There are two slides — Paddle Today and Paddle Tomorrow — that make a flawless before-after structure for showing future projections of your business in an interesting way.
17: Snapchat
Best example of a target audience slide
Snapchat’s pitch deck isn’t the most fancy presentations out there, but it gets the job done in a few slides. If your goal is to make something quick and efficient and supplement it with a conversation, it’s a great example.
Industry: Social Media
Year: 2013
Stage: Pre-Seed
Amount: $50M
Key takeaway: Snapchat focuses on its target audience because it knows there are only a few competitors in the market with these user demographics. Lean into your unique selling point to help investors understand what you can offer that no one else can.
18: EVERY
Best example of a summary slide
EVERY’s pitch deck is short, but full of engaging visuals and fun puns. If your chosen route isn’t strictly the elbow-patches professional, EVERY might be a great example to check out.
Industry: Biotechnology
Year: 2021
Stage: Series C
Amount: $175M
Key takeaway: EVERY’s best slide is one of the first ones that present the summary of their pitch in a few sentences and visuals. It’s a great idea to show the contents of your presentation and share the key takeaways at the same time.
19: Supliful
Best example of a case study slide
Supliful’s pitch deck isn’t a real one. Techcrunch partnered with Trulywell to improve upon the original presentation.
Industry: B2B
Year: 2022
Stage: Pre-Seed
Amount: $1.1M
Key takeaway: Supliful has a lot of great slides, but if I had to choose one, it’d be the case study slide. It works excellently to display how Supliful works and gives the social proof needed to convince investors.
20: Perplexity AI
Best example of a video slide
Perplexity AI’s pitch deck is last, but certainly not the least. They raised funding this year itself and their presentation aces using video in slides.
Industry: Artificial Intelligence
Year: 2024
Stage: Series B
Amount: $73.6M
Key takeaway: Perplexity AI used video in its pitch deck to “show” how their product works. This also helps investors immediately see the value of the tool and what it looks like in action. If you’re selling something that’s a digital experience, don’t miss out on including video in your slides, too.
The best pitch deck isn’t enough (+ more resources)
Creating a pitch deck is the easy part. What’s difficult is finding the right investors who are interested in your market, selling the idea to them, and answering their questions well. So, while creating a pitch deck is extremely important to refine your ideas and make a good first impression, remember you also have to prepare for other things to wow investors.
To save time, use tools like Plus AI to speed up the presentation creation time. This way, you can distribute your focus on the whole picture instead of getting bogged down in creating the perfect-looking slide.
Here are some more resources on creating winning pitch decks:
- Daniel Li has a great list of questions VCs will ask you
- HBR has an excellent article on how VCs assess a pitch to help you prepare
- TechCrunch has a “Pitch Deck Teardown” series to help you analyze more examples
