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When new employees start at Slack, I share with them the presentation (Slack’s Original Pitch Deck) that we gave to our investors before we started development, Slack's CEO Butterfield told Business Insider — An American financial & business news website
Slack Technologies that developed Slack — a workplace communication tool — is the fastest growing SaaS company. They attained this feat in merely five years.
In the first eight months itself, Slack acclaimed the mark of $1 billion without spending a cent on hardcore advertising.
Today, Slack is an internal communication and collaboration platform having the trust of approx. 77% of the Fortune 100 companies.
The Story Behind Slack
Slack was born out of a gaming company, the Tiny Speck.
The CEO and co-founder of Slack, Stewart Butterfield — an American entrepreneur & technology leader — and its team originally had no plans to develop a SaaS product. Slack was meant for uninterrupted communication within their organization.
Later they realized Slack’s commercial potential.
Five years from now, everyone will be using Slack or something like it, the CEO of Slack said.
In Four Years — From 2009 to 2013 — Big Things Happened for Slack
- In 2010, they raised funds of $5 million through a Series A round, led by Accel Partners.
- Then, in 2011, the company Tiny Speck raised $10.7 million through a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Accel Partners.
- Later that year, on 27th Sept, the gaming software Glitch was unrevealed. And, in November, Glitch again reverted to the Beta Status for fixing bugs and enhancing user experience.
- The year 2012 was known as the death of Glitch, as it could not make any significant gains.
- Finally, in 2013, the birth of Slack as Tiny Speck decided to build Slack as a commercial product. Initially, a preview version was launched to figure out how the tool was working and whether it could succeed. By May, around forty-five companies were using Slack. They released slack for iOS, Android, and desktop versions by year-end.
The closure of Glitch led to the emergence of the Slack collaboration platform. The company raised funds of $17 million from Social Capital, Andreessen, Accel, and Horowitz.
After the successful launch of Slack, Tiny Speck renamed itself to Slack Technologies in August 2014.
What Has Been the Biggest Takeaway from Slack’s Success Story?
Failures in the context of work really sting and you want to come up with some narrative around them about why they're not failures. But if you try to learn from them you can turn losses into successes, the CEO of Slack said.
The answer is “Funds,” which made the transition from Glitch to Slack smooth. They persuaded their investors that the new SaaS product would be the next big thing in the corporate world.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to regain investors' trust when one of their products is struggling to make a mark in the market. What they did is truly commendable.
Today, we are going to showcase one of their investor decks that were their critical fundraiser weapon.
What's in Slack’s Original Pitch Deck?
Slack’s investor deck is an amalgam of graphics and data that have the uncanny ability to win investors.
The information is introduced in a digestible and percussive way to ensure that the audience doesn’t lose attention during the meeting.
The investor deck is straightforward and interesting, with enough slides to keep the audience hooked and close investor deals.
The slides are in sync, with relevant connectivity for hosting a powerful presentation.
The pictures, graphs, and other visual stuff bring the story to life, making it both captivating and memorable.
Let’s scroll down as we’ve rounded up the top ten slides that hold the key in Slack’s original pitch deck.
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Slide 1: The Cover Slide
Slack's original pitch deck has a striking cover slide. It includes the logo on the right-hand upper corner and the presentation's title "Slack Pitch Deck" and "Company Name" on the slide.
Slack's first slide doesn't have much information, because otherwise the audience may get bewildered and lose their attention right away.
The cover slide in the background allows the presentation host to introduce himself/herself to the prospective investors.
Download Original Slack Pitch Deck
Slide 2: Table of Contents Slide
The second slide we have is the Table of Contents. Slack has made the Table of Contents slide audience-friendly.
The points are easy to read and understand from a 20ft distance.
Download Original Slack Pitch Deck
Slide 3: The Company Overview Slide
If you are pitching your idea to an investor, it is of substantial importance to let them know about your company. After all, how would they be able to give a thought to investing in your business or product prospect? Thus, a professional overview of the business as presented in this Slack’s pitch deck is required.
The comprehensive design of the Slack company overview slide is gripping with data presented in a convened manner. The graphic icons are catchy and attractive.
The slide outlines the elementary details of the business. These include when the company was founded? How many employees are there? Is it a public or private company?
It Also Sheds Light on the Performance Metrics of the Company, and These Are:
- Total active daily users.
- Many fortune organizations are using the product.
- A number of paid customers.
- Several countries with active numbers.
On the right-hand side, there is a column for additional company details.
Download Original Slack Pitch Deck
Slide 4: Problems Faced by the Companies Slide
It's less (about) features that are ahead of where the users are and trying to understand, the need of the customers, the CEO of Slack said
Slack's problem slide is pretty straightforward yet seems authoritative.
The problems faced by the companies with regards to internal communication are highlighted with immense industry research, such as "Trouble in Keeping the Team Synchronized."
Be it a startup or a large enterprise, keeping distributed teams in sync is the biggest challenge. The problems are relatable to the target audience in the case of Slack.
Download Original Slack Pitch Deck
Slide 5: The Solution Slide
The real show-stealer in Slack’s pitch deck is its well-defined solution slide. The structure makes great sense, as the solutions for each industry are mentioned, spanning from the IT sector, human resources to marketing. Each subheading under every department solves the customer’s pain points.
These points convey to the investors that the product is viable. And, to ensure that these crucial points don’t get lost, they haven’t added any redundant graphics on this slide.
Download Original Slack Pitch Deck
Slide 6: User Growth Slide
A business that isn’t growing is heading towards its end. Therefore user growth numbers are important for an IT product.
The user growth showcases that the number of users of the products is soaring, like Slack exhibits through its graphs that their users have rapidly increased from 2017 to 2021.
Slack user growth slide has two graphs. One is the Active Daily Users and Paid Users. Both these graphs portray the tremendous success of Slack.
On the left-hand side, there is a column that round-up critical insights deduced from these graphs.
Download Original Slack Pitch Deck
Slide 7: Business Model Slide
Every IT product needs a well-researched business model, where the packages are competitively drawn up.
In the case of Slack, the business model is broken down into three packages.
One is FREE, and the other is Standard and the Plus plan.
The FREE plan is best suited for small teams. However, the features are limited.
The Standard plan costing is apt for SMEs.
And, finally, the Plus plan for businesses that need compliance exports with guaranteed uptime.
The slide is 100% editable; you can update the package details according to your product.
Download Original Slack Pitch Deck
Slide 8: Financial Projections Slide
What are the future projections of the company? Every investor wants to know about these forecasts.
The projections communicate your mega plan, such as Slack is planning to go Public. The future projection slide also includes the valuation number, $7 billion for Slack.
There’s a slide about the problems, solutions, and business model, but what matters to investors are the financial projections — and often, they go a mile wide and an inch deep.
Download Original Slack Pitch Deck
Slide 9: Secret Sauce Slide
What is the Secret Sauce recipe for your IT product?
The chief ingredients for Slack have been centralized communication, integrative API, and an intelligent bot system. In a nutshell, all these unify as the USP of Slack.
So, when building your brand’s secret sauce slide, make sure you know the key aspects that make your brand stand out in today’s fiercely competitive IT industry, especially the flourishing SaaS market.
You can use Slack’s secret sauce slide design and edit it to list down your ingredients.
Download Original Slack Pitch Deck
Slide 10: Customer Testimonials Slide
Last but not least, we have the customer testimonial slide in Slack’s original pitch deck.
As your prospective investors haven’t used your product, how would they be convinced that it’s worth a subscription? The answer is customer testimonials, the positive feedback that demonstrates how your product is solving unique problems.
The customer testimonials are pivotal to strengthening, building identity in the market, eventually boosting sales, and driving funds.
To make the customer testimonials slide, intriguing Slack has incorporated the profile picture of each customer with their review. Also, they have mentioned their designation.
Download Original Slack Pitch Deck
Download Original Slack Investor Deck
Get this Slack’s original pitch deck template; 100% compatible with Google Slides.
The pitch deck has a splendid cover slide, the problems are introduced engagingly, the solution slide has a definite structure, and the other slides are sewn to tell the story.
Take the membership plan, starting only at $49.99, and have access to ten customizable presentations of your choice.
We can also design a presentation tailor-made to your specific prerequisites. To know more, connect with one out of designers at 408-659-4170 or Inbox your query at [email protected] — we guarantee a response within twelve hours.
We are also ready to present a Product Demo.
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