Pitch Deck Teardown: Wilco’s $7 million seed deck

What’s a poor, freshly minted developer to do after they’re out of coding boot camp however don’t have any real-life expertise? You step into the world of simulation. That’s the fundamental premise of what Wilco presents. Final week, I covered the company’s $7 million seed funding round, and the corporate’s CEO, On Freund, was gracious sufficient to let me use the deck the corporate created to shut that spherical for my Pitch Deck Teardown series.

One of many issues I really like, love, love concerning the deck is that it — like the corporate’s total design model — makes use of the Sierra-era video games look. Particularly, it harkens again to the previous Nineteen Eighties and ’90s Area Quest video games, and the corporate itself, Wilco, is outwardly named after Space Quest’s main protagonist, Roger Wilco.

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It’s a very becoming identify, on condition that Roger, within the Area Quest collection, is a hapless however well-meaning “sanitation engineer” (i.e., janitor) who, kind of accidentally, finally ends up rescuing the world time and time once more. If you wish to really deep rabbit-hole into retro-tasticness, take a look at the wonderful Space Quest Historian podcast. As a result of after all there’s a podcast concerning the historical past of Area Quest.

Aaaanyway — sorry, my 8-bit nerd is exhibiting, and nostalgia does often get the higher of me. The place had been we? Oh, yeah, pitch decks and the tearing down thereof.

I’m at all times looking out for extra pitch decks we are able to share with our TechCrunch readers.
We even put collectively a submission means of kinds. Here’s some more info about how to get involved. 

Slides on this deck

Wilco’s seed deck is a 19-slide deck that ticks all the bins. The ink on the funding spherical article isn’t even dry but, so the unredacted deck can be stuffed with a variety of business-sensitive info; the Wilco workforce identified that it has made a couple of redactions for them to be snug sharing the deck. I’ve famous them within the checklist of slides under.

1. Cowl slide
2. Crew slide
3. Drawback slide
4. “What’s taking place immediately?” — Drawback context slide
5. Mission slide
6. “Who’re we” — Worth proposition slide
7. Resolution slide
8. “Wilco’s resolution is customizable & adapts and connects to widespread instruments” — Product slide
9. “Scale vs. Customization” — Beachhead go-to-market slide
10.   “The Wilco Impact” — Product advantages slide
11.   “Product Expertise” — Product screenshot (and demo, probably?)
12.   Go-to-market slide
13.   Traction slide — Redacted: Month-to-month lively customers (graph of customers over time)
14.   Traction slide — Redacted: Buyer logos eliminated
15.   Traction slide — Redacted: Content material associate/buyer logos eliminated
16.   “What clients are saying about us” — Testimonial slide
17.   Competitors slide
18.   The Ask slide — Redacted: Some numbers eliminated
19.   “Let’s speak!” — Contact information slide

Three issues to like

I’ve already gushed about Wilco’s expertise for graphics, however it appears as if the corporate’s expertise goes deeper than that. The deck makes use of nice storytelling craftsmanship. Listed here are a couple of highlights:

Advantages over options

[Slide 10] By breaking down the advantages to every person, Wilco explains its raison d’être. Picture Credit: Wilco

Numerous startups, and particularly ones with technical founders, fall into the lure of focusing an excessive amount of on the options of a product, fairly than its advantages. You see that in all kinds of locations, however right here’s an instance: No person really cares {that a} automobile has 400 miles of vary; that’s only a quantity. Shoppers (and, sure, buyers, too) care how far you possibly can go. In different phrases: The automobile can get you from Los Angeles to San Francisco with out having to cease to cost or refuel. That’s benefits-driven storytelling, and it connects together with your viewers much better than whether or not a automobile has 380 or 420 miles of vary.

On Slide 10, Wilco does an unimaginable job of simply this; they name it “the Wilco impact,” however realistically, it’s advantages. Junior engineers get sensible expertise, senior engineers get extra time again, administration will get visibility into its human useful resource improvement and higher management over coaching, and the broader neighborhood advantages in quite a few methods.

The “how” can be essential however dangers the temptation of entering into extra element than what’s essential for a pitch deck. The “what” is just too tactical; for this a part of the story, it doesn’t actually matter what customers have to do to achieve these advantages. Specializing in the “why” is why this slide is so highly effective; it opens the door to extra in-depth conversations if wanted, however the groundwork is there. I want extra startups acquired this proper!

A superbly crisp ask

[Slide 18] The redactions take away the specifics, however the story is strong. Picture Credit: Wilco (opens in a brand new window)

It’s excruciatingly uncommon to search out an ask slide that really does what it must do. After I noticed this one — regardless of the redactions — I knew I needed to function Wilco, as a result of it’s such an excellent instance of how you can do a fantastic ask.

Within the first field, the corporate talks about releasing a “neighborhood version” that permits (not “permits,” however I most likely care more about that than I ought to) builders to play and create quests. It isn’t specified wherever within the deck what the function set is right here, so I’d anticipate there to be an appendix slide that reveals a product street map of kinds. Nonetheless, it’s a transparent purpose.

Within the second field, the corporate outlines its hiring plan. In fact, “robust workforce” is a bit fuzzy; I’d have beloved to see some numbers right here, however it works.

Within the third field, Wilco will get issues ever so very proper. “Get to X WAUs and Y weekly quests performed” is a brilliant clear SMART goal: It’s particular and measurable; there’s little question whether or not the purpose has been hit or not. The numbers are lined, so I’ve no manner of understanding whether or not it’s achievable, however that’s the promise the corporate is making to its buyers: Give us $6 million, and we’ll get it carried out. It’s related: Hitting that purpose will unlock the following spherical of funding. And it’s time-bound, presumably “within the subsequent 18 months” — extra about that in only a second. Sensible. Daring. Sure. Extra of this — particular, clear, plausible targets for what you’re going to realize together with your investments will go a good distance towards securing religion in how your organization goes to do between this fundraising spherical and the following.

Within the fourth field, the corporate is setting some particular targets round its progress trajectory, with quite a few partnerships it must land to be able to facilitate future progress, expressed as a SMART purpose.

I’ve one minor level that I’d like to have seen carried out in a different way right here. I don’t know what number of months of runway the corporate is elevating for right here, however I’d be keen to guess cash that the crimson field covers the quantity 18. Why? Effectively, that’s just about the usual for a fundraise today: You increase for 18 months and restart fundraising when there are six months of runway left.

A lot lower than 18 months and also you don’t have sufficient time to get significant work carried out. Far more than that and also you’re making an attempt clairvoyance right into a timeline that could be a little unrealistic. In addition to, a variety of startups intention for 18 months, however then go hell for leather-based to attempt to hit the milestones earlier.

In a nutshell, you don’t increase cash since you are working out of cash as deliberate. You increase cash since you’ve efficiently delivered on the milestones and also you want extra money to go after your subsequent set of milestones. In brief: Don’t fear about placing the period of time in your slide deck wherever; it isn’t useful, and it’ll present up as a part of your working plan and monetary plans anyway. 

Clearly framed downside

I normally simply share one slide right here, however slides three and 4 go collectively, so right here’s a twofer for you:

[Slide 3] Drawback proposition. Picture Credit: Wilco (opens in a brand new window)

[Slide 4] How firms remedy it immediately. Picture Credit: Wilco (opens in a brand new window)

Did I point out that individuals have a temptation to get too technical and too nitty-gritty concerning the product of their slide decks? Sure, sure I did, within the first a part of this teardown. Effectively, right here’s one other instance of how Wilco completely dialed in. In slides three and 4, the corporate is ready to clarify the issue in a succinct and clear manner. The corporate highlights the shortcomings of theoretical schooling and explains what the impacts are throughout the enterprise. In a world the place builders are up there with a few of the most costly human assets, any bump in effectivity is an issue. Traders know this greater than most; they see the budgets throughout their portfolios.

Even for somebody who isn’t intimately aware of the ins and outs of working a development-forward group, Wilco’s worth proposition is evident and simple to know. Tremendous spectacular, given what number of methods the corporate might have gotten this horribly flawed.

In the remainder of this teardown, we’ll check out three issues Wilco might have improved or carried out in a different way, together with its full pitch deck!