Creating a pitch deck for social networks can be quite difficult and is unlike creating a pitch deck for any other vertical.
There has to be put a lot of effort into slides like the traction slide, the business model slide, and slides that show how your customers act on your website. You can imagine that the avg. duration on your website, the avg. clicks or interaction per session is highly interesting to know for a potential investor.
With this how-to site, we want to help you create the best social network pitch deck you can imagine.
Which slides to include?
As with any other pitch deck, the pitch deck of a social network startup needs to include a couple of elementary slides. We had to build a hand full of social pitch decks over the last two years and have encountered a recurring pattern of slides that should be included, which let these decks be successful.
Title Slide
The title slide should be used to present your name, logo, and a picture if needed. The picture can help to set the right mood and drag your potential investors into your universe. Make sure to evoke emotions with this picture, otherwise, it may appear to be just a placeholder.
Problem Slide
Start the pitch deck off by explaining which problem you have encountered. The problem is the only reason why you have founded a startup: to find a perfect solution which people are going to love. This solution is explained in the next slide.
Solution Slide:
After everybody has understood what the problem is you encountered, it is now your turn to present the solution you came up with. Try to keep this slide as simple as possible to not distract your audience from the main content of this slide. Try to explain what your solution is within one sentence, this will guarantee a lot of things: You can easily create great marketing content if you can explain your solution within one sentence. Additionally, the chances are high that many people will be able to identify with your solution. Your goal is to let your investors and future customers think: "oh, this is a plain and simple solution which works"!
Business Model Slide:
Many social networks earn their money through selling advertising spaces. The business model slide is your space to present to your investors how you will generate revenue with your solution. Do not be afraid to present your payment models including all your numbers. You have to understand, that your investors need to get an idea of how much revenue you will be able to generate. And the business model is one of the most important parts of the "revenue" equation!
Market Slide / Competition:
The second part of the revenue-equation is the size of your target market. Now you have to present who your customer is, that is going to generate the revenue. On a second level, by presenting your target market, you show your investors that you know what you are doing and that you have done your homework.
CAC Slide:
Finding customers that will join your social network can be tough. There are hundreds of social networks for all different kinds of communities. You can use the CAC slide to explain how you are acquiring user/customer (e.G. the different channels) and in the best case you can also show your current CAC and how it will grow/decline in the future.
âTraction / Metric Slide:
Have you already done an alpha test? Are there already any users in your social network? If yes, now is the time to show your investors how much traction you have created over the past months/years. This slide has the target to convince your investors that your userbase will grow.
âTeam:
The team is the most relevant factor for every investor. Use the slide to show your amazing social network team. You can do that by showing the previous experience of your key team members and any critical skills that are essential to the business.
Ask:
Building a social network will cost a lot of money. You know that, and your investors know that. Do not hold back with how much funds you need to build a successful social network. Explain how you will spend the funds and how these actions will help you to reach your goals.
Contact
The final slide of your pitch deck should include a direct call to action and several contact options so that the investor can take action right away.
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Key Questions to answer
It is important to know which questions you should answer with your social network pitch deck. We collected the 10 main questions that we found over the analysis of 15+ of social network pitch decks.
- What is the reason that justifies building your social network?
- How do you acquire users for your network?
- What is your pricing and business model?
- What is your traction?
- Which are your main KPIs?
- How big is your churn?
- What is the USP of your social network?
- Why are you looking for an investment?
- How will the funds be spent?
- What are you going to accomplish with the investment?
Social Network Metrics
- CAC
- Number of Customers
- Booked advertising panel slots
- Churn
- MRR / ARR
- CLTV
- Customer Retention Rate
Design Tips
- Use a clear and quickly readable font style
- Make sure to use high-resolution pictures
- Keep the design simple
Example Social Network Pitch Decks:
We will keep it short this time: This is Facebook's 2004 media kit that helped Mark Zuckerberg build an empire.
14 funding rounds later, Facebook has raised a total of $2.3B in funding.
LinkedIn is the social network for job seekers, professionals, and businesses.
In 2004 LinkedIn has raised $10M in funding from Greylock Partners in a Series-B investment round.
The latest funding round of LinkedIn was its Post-IPO Equity round in 2016. Up to this date, LinkedIn has raised a total of $154.8M in funding.
Yammer
Yammer is an enterprise social network that has been acquired by Microsoft.
However, in 2013 Yammer was able to raise $85M in funding with the help of this pitch deck.
This round was by far the largest of all 5 rounds (total of $142M in funding).
