According to PitchBook, there was more venture capital invested in the first six months of 2018 in the United States than any other six-month period in recent history.
If you’re looking to raise funding from venture capitalists (VCs) for your startup, the first step is to create a pitch deck, which is a brief presentation providing investors with an overview of your business. Those who are trying to come up with the best idea for a startup funded by VCs, may want to consider which business models have been the most successful.
Airbnb
Airbnb is a two-sided online platform that’s community-based. It helps to facilitate booking accommodation for travelers in private homes or other dwellings by allowing owners to list their space and earn rental money. For example, if you purchased one of the Colorado Springs homes for sale, you might use one of the bedrooms as a rental for Airbnb travelers, or if it’s a second home, rent out the entire place as a vacation rental on Airbnb. On the other end of the spectrum, it allows travelers to have more choices for accommodation, providing easy access to renting private rooms or homes.
Airbnb is considered as one of the greatest startup success stories in history, with its pitch deck a popular reference for entrepreneurs across the globe. The biggest takeaway when it comes to what it does right is hooking the audience by describing it in as few words as possible. Can you explain to a six-year-old what your business is about? If not, you should probably rethink your intro to investors.
LinkedIn has been around for over 15 years now and is the top business-related social networking program. It connects users to other professionals as well as with recruiters and companies, uniquely positioning itself as the only platform worthy of professional networking. Its pitch touts the value the network brings and how it stands out from other social networks. Its pitch deck offers an elaborate analogy showcasing to investors just what it is, for example, talking about how LinkedIn is “Networking Businesses 2.0,” compared to Google, which was “Search 2.0” and Alta Vista, “Search 1.0.”
Square
Square is a company that allows merchants to accept mobile credit card payments through a dongle. It’s quickly grown into one of the largest payment processing companies in the U.S. In 2013, it launched its peer-to-peer payment service called Square Cash — as of August 2018, the Cash App created by Square had been downloaded 33.5 million times. In this case, what Square seems to have done right is its powerful management team made up of former PayPal, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter employees. Its detailed pitch deck outlines the company’s business model and a simple financial model portraying its annual revenue and five-year growth rate.