In an era where data is king and its volume and complexity are exploding, Protecto aims to solve the age-old dilemma businesses face between ensuring data privacy and harnessing the power of AI. That's what I'm aiming for. As the adoption of generative AI tools like ChatGPT proliferates, it becomes easier to find, manipulate, and play tricks on wayward data. Protecto's APIs are designed to protect sensitive data throughout the AI lifecycle while maintaining its usefulness.
The company announced it has raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by Together Fund with contributions from Better Capital, FortyTwo VC, Alari Ventures, and Speciale Invest. This round increases Protecto's total funding to his $5 million.
We're looking for more unique proposal decks, so if you'd like to submit your own, you can do so in the following ways:
This deck slide
Protecto compiled short-term and five-year goals, as well as specific details of its near-term product roadmap, before submitting the material to TechCrunch. A schedule of goals and milestones related to the seed funding round was also compiled. Still, there's a lot to learn from those 14 slides.
Cover slide Issue slide Urgency slide Platform middle slide Technology overview slide Results slide Solution slide Case study slide 1 Case study slide 2 Competitor slide Team slide Go to market slide Roadmap slide Funding slide Questions and usage slides
3 things I love about Protecto's pitch deck
There's a lot missing from this deck, but there are also some good points worth highlighting.
competitive alternatives
This slide does not discuss your direct competitors (there are one or two). But the company does a good job of displaying this information anyway.
[Slide 10] Competitive alternatives are a great way to examine the competitive environment.Image credit: Protect
A competitor is a business, method, or approach that is different from yours, but that meets the same customer needs or solves the same problem. For example, if you own a coffee shop, your direct competitor might be another coffee shop, but your competitive substitute might be a coffee shop or a fast-food restaurant that sells coffee in addition to other beverages. . These competitors are important because they represent alternative solutions for customers, highlighting the importance of understanding broader market trends and customer preferences.
Understanding and analyzing these competitors is a powerful additional layer of insight, helping you uncover potential differentiation opportunities and identify unmet customer needs. That said, although Protecto should have direct competitors, this slide is still a good example of how a startup can explore its position in the market.
hello team
This team slide is very solid. The only drawback is that it is placed as his 11th slide.
[Slide 11] A solid team slide.Image credit: Protect
To stand out in the suddenly crowded AI field, it's best to bring receipts that show you have the talent to get it done. While there is too much information on the left side of the slide (why does the team slide include funds, products, and customers?), the right side contains a ton of great information.
CEO Amal Kanagaraj spent nearly eight years at Microsoft, including stints in search and AI, according to LinkedIn. CTO Baskaran Alagarsamy spent seven years as a 'manager' at Apple India. I would have liked to know more about what exactly he managed there (and why on his LinkedIn it says he's 7 years but on this slide he says 18 years) This is the beginning of a really solid team. If I were to invest in this space, I would be intrigued by such a talented team and would probably set up a meeting.
elegant solution
Privacy and AI can be mind-bogglingly complex and rapidly changing. I appreciate his Protecto efforts to simplify what's going on in technology to a level that most people can understand.
[Slide 5] Obtain sensitive personal data. Replace with similar fake data. Makes sense to me.Image credit: Protect
Three things Protecto could have done better
Pitch deck design isn't usually that important, but this deck's design is especially awful. These pages also hide deeper flaws.
These case studies are not case studies
In a 14-slide deck, Protecto wastes slide 4 as an interstitial (it just says “Our Platform”). And his two slides titled “Case Study” go to waste. However, a more accurate term is “use case”.
[Slide 8] It's not a case study.Image credit: Protect
A complete case study will include the degree of success (was the product successful in removing all sensitive data? How was it measured?), how long did the integration take, and how the customer Contains more information about how satisfied you are with. . Slide 9 is another similar “case study”. It's a use case, not a case study.
A slide heading is a promise that the rest of the slide must fulfill. In this case, I was expecting one kind of information and got another, and both were disappointed. A good case study would have been very helpful to tell the story here.
Not so good “How to use funds” slides
Editing aside, there's not much here.
[Slide 14] This is almost completely unrelated information.Image credit: Protect
The company set out to raise $3 million. However, how the funds will be used is very vague. All of the bullet points here make you want to ask, “But how do I know it's working?” Augmented Engineering: Yes, but why, what goals, and how much? Marketing Driving: Yes. But what are your goals? By when? How much growth? Building channel sales: Yes. But which channel should you target first and why? Fostering developer evangelism: What does that even mean? Define the category: ???
Basically, all of this is just corporate jargon. Even if the founders themselves bought, investors probably won't.
Yes, it's scary to be predictive and specific. What if I fail? All plans and forecasts are forecasts. we know. Investors know. The important thing is to show how you think about these predictions. Investors can learn a lot about you as a founder. This is very valuable and not optional.
This is a brainstorm, not a plan
[Slide 12] This market entry is too vague.Image credit: Protect
There are many problems with this slide. The company claims to grow through product-led growth. That's great, but it rarely works on its own and needs to be done in conjunction with other marketing channels. “If you build it, they will come” is not a crowded startup ecosystem.
We want to know what these integrations actually mean and how customers are finding them. I would like to understand how Snowflake and Databricks are involved in this plan. And what do you imagine a “solution integrator” to be?
This slide is a pile of words on a page, not an actionable and measurable go-to-market plan.
And there's everything missing from the entire deck…
How big is this kind of market? What kind of traction has it had so far? Was the “case study” effective? If yes, how much? Did they continue using the product? Nothing about the business model. How do we charge? How much? How can this be defended? Does the company have a patent? Is there some special magic sauce?
The problem with this whole deck is that it doesn't explain why this problem is so hard to solve or why this company can solve it. This deck may be an oversimplification, but based on what's presented here, I think you could get a few developers together and build the bulk of this product over a few weeks. That can't happen, right? Because if so, there's nothing here. But that's probably not the case, so there's simply a problem with the storytelling. Yes, this is a big problem. So let me explain why this is such a difficult problem to solve.
full pitch deck
If you'd like to have your own pitch deck deconstructed featured on TechCrunch, learn more here. Also, be sure to check out all the proposal deck teardowns in one place.