It's a rare startup that destroys companies. Own Pitch deck, but that's exactly what Equals did after raising $16 million in a Series A round. Equals' mission is not to replace spreadsheets, but to ensure that whatever you throw at them, it runs. As an avid spreadsheet user, this is an approach I can support. I built an entire software solution using a very complex spreadsheet as the backend.
Additionally, as a pitch deck enthusiast, I can also appreciate the bright and bold design of Equals' decks.
What I particularly liked was that it split the deck into two different sections (the pitch deck and the data deck), something I haven't seen very often in deck design. The latter provides a breakdown of the company's financials across seven slides, showing ARR, lead-to-customer conversion rate, churn, and other numbers. this is a good idea. I often advise startups to tell a story in words and then tell that same story in numbers.
Let's take a look at what else this deck has to offer.
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This deck slide
The two traction slide diagrams have been edited and there is a lot of (edited) data in a separate data deck. There are also no market size or go-to-market slides, but more on that later.
- cover slide
- opening statement
- mission slide
- problem slide
- Solution/Mission Slide
- Product (“Meet Equals”)
- Product demo slides
- Product verification slide
- traction slide
- traction 2 slide
- Product highlight slide
- Product roadmap slides
- team slide
- Funds questions and usage slides
- end slide
3 things to love
I've already praised Equals' design, but this deck is impressive enough that it's worth mentioning again. This is a great looking deck. There are a few other things that stood out to me.
make it real
For a while now, it's been as if the easiest way to build a successful software startup was to find out what people use Excel for and build better, more focused, easier-to-use tools. It seemed to me. It's worked well for countless companies, so it's a bold move to challenge Excel's stronghold by replacing spreadsheets with . . . Spreadsheet. Since Airtable has had some success in this space, the first thing that comes to mind is whether there is room for another company to enter this space.
Equals makes a comprehensive and convincing argument for a clear yes to that question by listing numerous use cases for their software.
[Slide 4] Here are the slides in question. . . image credits: equal
This problem seems real enough, but it seems to be mostly related to data provenance and data analysis/algorithms.And of course, Excel File As difficult as it may be, Excel itself now has a relatively robust online solution (so “it doesn't exist in Excel” feels like a bit of an exaggeration). There are also many potential competitors in this space such as Google Sheets, Airtable, and others.
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 that!
This is Excel, but more online
[Slide 6] This is where the magic happens. image credits: equal
Founders, especially tech founders, often face a huge challenge when trying to explain in simple terms what their startup does. I'm really impressed with how the team at Equals was able to distill this product down to something as simple as a spreadsheet, with database connectivity and collaboration. This very simple statement hides a lot of technical complexity and what could have been an absolute nightmare of integration challenges.
But hiding complexity is a great idea. The end user doesn't want to know why the spreadsheet can't connect to her Stripe data source. They are just needed for it to work.
It's very elegant. You did very well.
By doing so, you can chart a path to the future.
[Slide 12] A great way to draw a map of your near future. Image credits: equal
Investors rarely care about this level of granularity in product roadmaps, but this is not the case. lack of curiosity, You know? This is a very high-level overview of what you're interested in and doesn't go into the nuts and bolts of what the engineering team will build.
This plan is quite technical, but I'm impressed by the team's ability to resist the temptation to go too deep here. I don't know what Command + K is linked to, but it doesn't really matter. This is a great top-level view that allows for board-level conversations about next product priorities. Year.
I don't know what Command + K is linked to, but it doesn't really matter.
Equals also did something clever in the previous slide. Slide 11 shows the functionality that has already been built so that the explanation flows evenly onto this slide (existing functionality is highlighted in gray). This allows him to have a two-step conversation about the product. We talk about everything we've built so far, and then everything we'll build next and how it will make our products more relevant to our target users and expand our possibilities. Talk about how it helps. User base too.
As a startup, this slide shows that you shouldn't spend too much time on your product. These two slides are great examples of how to cleverly work around this 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.
3 things you can improve
There's more than just rainbows and unicorns on the Equals deck. . .
pay attention to the audience
A very common problem with pitch decks is that it can be difficult to determine if the founder understands who they are talking to. Check out this customer testimonial slide.
[Slide 8] Yes, but will investors care? image credits: equal
There is no doubt that this is a powerful slide to use when talking to new customers in your company's sales activities. But I don't know how effective that would be as part of an investment pitch.
I see some issues here.
- I don't know what those logos are. got it. I recognized Notion, but I have no idea what Levity is or what it does. It also doesn't recognize the V logo. This means that two of the three logos on this slide won't help convince me to invest. So why use them?
- Two quotes and one unqualified set of statements doesn't really work as a particularly strong testimony.
- The last line in the testimony, “I don't think things will go well right away,'' is easily misunderstood. I think the person was trying to say that their product is here to stay, but that's not 100% clear from the quote.
- It is bad form to quote something without properly attributing it to someone else. Who said such a good thing? If it's her CTO of a company, you should definitely emphasize that point. Think of it this way. Would it be a good thing if we attributed “this is a really good product” to “Apple employees”? If Tim Cook said it, that would be great. If a random salesperson at an Apple Store said that. . . You know what I mean?
Overall, this slide appears to be neutral at best, at least in terms of convincing investors to invest. Therefore, it's probably safe to leave it out of your deck completely.
So. . . How big is this market?
Perhaps I'm having trouble here. Any investor should ask, “If I could steal his 30% of Excel's business, would the market be big enough?” Chances are, you'll get a great buy-in.
The problem is that this deck also lacks a go-to-market slide. This means Equals is missing out on two opportunities to tell investors what it thinks about its market. Who are the customers? How many of them are there? What are the value props? How do you approach these customers? How do you convince them to stay? Successful fundraising requires answering that executive's questions, but that's a little sparse in this deck.
What is the goal anyway?
[Slide 14] Yes, but this is too vague. image credits: equal
Investors aren't looking for hard numbers or vague plans for how startups will use the money they raise. A well-crafted “Use of Funds” slide does more than just list your expenses. It builds trust. By being transparent about your financial needs and how they align with your business goals, you can show potential investors that you're more than just a startup looking to burn cash. Masu. No, you are a serious entrepreneur with growth plans and a clear vision for the future.
I know many founders stumble on this important slide. Flashy but unnecessary expenses, a nebulous abyss of “other” costs, and vague explanations of how the funds will be used are just some of the common pitfalls that can turn investors away. Equals falls into 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 for what purpose?
- “Success at scale”: Yes, but what is the goal? How do I know I’m successful?
- “Accelerate the pace”: Yeah, but if you can write 10 new pieces before you get the funding and manage 11 pieces afterwards, you've accomplished that goal.
Please be specific. Make good use of the “Use of Funds” slide. This is not a time for abstraction, but for bold, concrete, quantified audacity. This slide details your vision in dollars and cents. If done correctly, investors will begin to realize that their future is aligned with yours here.
Importantly, a well-designed 'Use of Funds' slide will help you map out your plan. Next funding round. Will you be able to raise the Series B if you achieve all the goals? wonderful! Are your plans set for success? Great!
This slide is of little use and is very disappointing.If the accuracy here is high, it will be possible to raise funds. So It's much easier.
full pitch deck
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