Collecting factors is a way of life for a lot of. Getting nice offers on flights, for instance, by fastidiously amassing and spending factors could make the distinction between slumming it in cattle class or dwelling it up, pinky-out in nice luxurious up entrance.
Last yr, we coated real-time flight rewards search engine Point.me’s $2 million spherical, and in the beginning of this month, the corporate raised a further $10 million. Today, I’m placing the deck that the corporate used to boost its new spherical beneath the loupe to search out out if the startup missed the purpose(s) or if it’s hovering to nice heights.
When I came upon what the corporate does, I used to be instantly curious the way it was going to inform its story in a approach that evokes urgency. I like airline factors flight simply as a lot because the fuzzy feeling you get from figuring out you’ve “beaten the system,” however is that this a product that solves a “real” drawback? Or is it a disposable luxurious good? Let’s dive in and discover out.
We’re searching for extra distinctive pitch decks to tear down, so if you wish to submit your individual, right here’s how you are able to do that.
Slides on this deck
Point.me used a 16-slide deck to boost its $10 million:
- Cover slide
- Problem slide
- Problem influence slide
- “How it’s currently solved” slide
- Solution slide
- Value Proposition slide
- Product advantages slide
- Product slide
- Product supply slide
- Product screenshots slide
- Traction slide
- Press clippings slide
- Moat slide
- Team slide
- Past buyers slide
- Closing slide
Three issues to like
Point.me will get loads of issues proper on this deck. It’s apparent that it has honed its buyer messaging lots over its existence.
Great consumer-focused messaging
[Slide 16] There is an effective quantity of nice messaging within the deck, however the closing slide is correctly ChefsKiss.gif. Image Credits: Point.me
As you may see from the “slides in this deck” overview, Point.me spends fairly a little bit of time on the product. That’s typically a cranberry-colored flag in my guide, however I can’t actually fault it that a lot. The firm did get me curious sufficient to go take a look at its pricing web page, which signifies that they nearly had me.
Some hard-hitting details
[Slide 2] The story opens with some hard-hitting details. Image Credits: Point.me
This slide is de facto attention-grabbing for a lot of causes. For one, I had no thought how massive the airline factors economic system was, nor what a unbelievable software it’s for airways. Issuing $48 billion value of factors after which having a 3rd of them go unredeemed is a hell of a enterprise mannequin. It solely will get worse: The founders inform me that these numbers have been appropriate after they went to boost cash final time, however they declare that the worth of unredeemed factors and miles per yr is now nearer to $30 billion, not $16 billion.
Of course, that is constructed into the airline card fashions. It’s very low-cost to difficulty factors if you already know that a lot of them gained’t be redeemed, particularly if these factors ultimately expire.
The economist in me sees this as a danger to Point.me, nonetheless: It’s a harmful place to function in. The extra profitable you get, the extra incentive there may be for the folks whose product you might be augmenting to close you down or not less than make your life tougher.
Still, in the event you’re making hay whereas the solar shines, this appears fairly compelling.
Two courses of shoppers
[Slide 9] Two choices. Image Credits: Point.me
Point.me is particularly helpful to individuals who have many airline factors, and such folks are likely to journey lots. That makes for an attention-grabbing audience: If you journey a bunch, it means you’re on the street typically, in all probability for work. That means you seemingly have even much less time than most to determine your factors state of affairs.
This firm units itself up for fulfillment in two methods: It gives a concierge resolution for people who find themselves prepared to pay a price to have somebody determine how one can make one of the best of their saved-up factors, and a self-serve platform for people who find themselves prepared to do this work themselves.
On the draw back, this slide is basically a gross sales slide geared toward prospects. Now, many VCs do journey lots, so I’m not giving Point.me too onerous of a ribbing for it, however normally, do not forget that the “product” you might be promoting to the VC isn’t the product you’re promoting to your prospects. A VC is focused on shares in your organization, so the gross sales patter will likely be completely different.
In the remainder of this teardown, we’ll check out three issues Point.me may have improved or completed in a different way, together with its full pitch deck.