Saturday, October 12, 2024

Pitch Deck Teardown: Protecto’s $4M seed deck


In an period the place information is king and its quantity and complexity are exploding, Protecto goals to get rid of the long-standing dilemma companies face between leveraging AI’s energy whereas making certain information privateness. Because the adoption of generative AI instruments like ChatGPT skyrockets, wayward information turns into simpler to seek out, course of and do naughty issues with. Protecto’s APIs are designed to guard delicate information throughout the AI life cycle whereas sustaining its utility.

The corporate introduced it raised a $4 million seed funding spherical led by Collectively Fund, with contributions from Higher Capital, FortyTwo VC, Arali Ventures and Speciale Make investments. This spherical boosts Protecto’s whole funding to $5 million.


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Slides on this deck

Protecto made redactions to the short-term and five-year targets and to particular particulars of the near-term product roadmap earlier than submitting its deck to TechCrunch. The timeline for the targets and milestones associated to the seed funding spherical was additionally redacted. Nonetheless, there’s a lot to be taught from the 14-slide deck:

  1. Cowl slide
  2. Downside slide
  3. Urgency slide
  4. Platform interstitial slide
  5. Know-how overview slide
  6. Outcomes slide
  7. Resolution slide
  8. Case research slide 1
  9. Case research slide 2
  10.  Aggressive alternate options slide
  11.  Staff slide
  12.  Go to market slide
  13.  Roadmap slide
  14.  Ask and use of funds slide

Three issues to like about Protecto’s pitch deck

There’s a lot lacking from this deck, however there are some good issues to spotlight, too.

Aggressive alternate options

This slide doesn’t discuss direct rivals (there are one or two). However the firm does a very good job displaying this data anyway:

[Slide 10] Aggressive alternate options are a good way to look into aggressive landscapes. Picture Credit: Protecto

Aggressive alternate options are companies, strategies or approaches which might be totally different from yours however that fulfill the identical buyer wants or remedy the identical issues. As an illustration, in the event you run a espresso store, a direct competitor could be one other espresso store, whereas a aggressive various is likely to be a teahouse or a fast-food restaurant that additionally sells espresso amongst different drinks. These rivals matter as a result of they symbolize various options in your prospects, highlighting the significance of understanding broader market dynamics and buyer preferences.

Understanding and analyzing these aggressive alternate options may be highly effective as a further layer of perception, uncovering potential alternatives for differentiation and serving to to establish unmet buyer wants. Having stated all of that, Protecto ought to have included direct rivals, however this slide continues to be an excellent instance of how a startup can discover its place available in the market.

Helloooo, group

This group slide is so stable — the one draw back is that they put it because the eleventh slide:

[Slide 11] A rock-solid group slide. Picture Credit: Protecto

To face out in a abruptly crowded AI area, you’d greatest carry receipts that present you’ve bought the chops to tug it off. The left-hand facet of the slide has an excessive amount of data (why are funding, product and prospects on the group slide?) however the half on the correct has a ton of nice data.

In response to his LinkedIn, CEO Amar Kanagaraj spent nearly eight years at Microsoft, together with a stint in search and AI. CTO Baskaran Alagarsamy spent seven years as a “supervisor” at Apple India. I’d have beloved to see extra element on precisely what he was managing there (and why this slide says 18 years, whereas his LinkedIn says seven years), however that is the start of a extremely stable group. If I have been investing on this area, a group of this caliber would pique my curiosity and I might in all probability arrange a gathering.

A chic answer

Privateness and AI can get brain-achingly sophisticated, quick. I admire Protecto’s efforts to simplify it to some extent the place most individuals can fathom what’s occurring within the tech.

[Slide 5] Take delicate, personal information. Substitute with comparable, pretend information. Is smart to me. Picture Credit: Protecto

Three issues that Protecto may have improved

Pitch deck design isn’t normally that necessary, however the design of this deck is especially unhealthy. There are additionally way more severe flaws hidden amongst these pages.

These case research aren’t case research

In a 14-slide deck, Protecto wastes slide 4 as an interstitial (it simply says “our platform”). It then wastes two slides with the title “case research.” Nevertheless, a extra correct time period could be “use circumstances.”

[Slide 8] That’s not a case research. Picture Credit: Protecto

A full case research would come with much more details about how profitable it was (did the product reach eradicating all of the confidential information? How was that measured?), how lengthy it took to combine, and the way completely happy the client was with the answer. Slide 9 is one other “case research” that’s comparable: a use case, not a case research.

The headline of a slide is a promise the remainder of the slide has to meet. On this case, I used to be let down each instances, anticipating one sort of data and getting one other. Correct case research would have been actually useful in telling the story right here.

Not an excellent “use of funds” slide

Redactions apart, there’s not a lot right here.

[Slide 14] Nearly fully irrelevant data. Picture Credit: Protecto

The corporate got down to elevate $3 million. The usage of funds, nonetheless, is so fluffy; each bullet level right here makes me need to ask: “However how have you learnt it’s working?”

  • Increase engineering: Sure, however why, with what aim, and the way a lot?
  • Drive advertising and marketing: Sure, however with what targets? By when? How a lot development?
  • Construct channel gross sales: Sure, however which channels are you going after first? Why?
  • Drive developer evangelism: What does that even imply?
  • Outline the class: ???

Mainly, all of that is simply corporate-grade jargon. Even when the founders themselves purchase it, buyers in all probability received’t.

Sure, it’s scary to get predictive and particular. What in the event you fail? All plans and projections are predictions. We all know. The buyers know. The purpose is to indicate the way you’re considering by way of these predictions; buyers can be taught loads about you as a founder. That’s extraordinarily invaluable — and never non-obligatory.

It is a brainstorm, not a plan

[Slide 12] This go-to-market is just too imprecise. Picture Credit: Protecto

There’s quite a lot of issues with this slide. The corporate is arguing it’s going to develop by way of product-led development. That’s nice and all, however that not often works in isolation — it must be accomplished together with different advertising and marketing channels. “In case you construct it, they may come” just isn’t a factor within the crowded startup ecosystem.

I might need to know what these integrations really imply, and the way prospects discover them. I’d like to grasp how Snowflake and Databricks play into this plan. And what it’s imagining with “answer integrators”?

This slide is a pile of phrases on a web page, not an actionable, measurable go-to-market plan.

After which there’s all of the stuff lacking from the deck general …

  • How massive is the marketplace for this type of factor?
  • What traction do it’s a must to date? Did the “case research” pay? If sure, how a lot? Did they proceed to make use of the product?
  • There’s nothing in regards to the enterprise mannequin: How will they cost? How a lot?
  • How is that this defendable? Does the corporate have patents? Is there some type of particular magic sauce?

The issue with this deck general is that it doesn’t clarify why this downside is tough to unravel and why this firm is the one to unravel it. Possibly it’s overly simplified within the deck, however simply primarily based on what’s right here, I believe I may spherical up a handful of builders and construct most of this product over the span of a pair weeks. That can not be true, can it? As a result of if that’s the case, there’s nothing right here. However since that’s in all probability not the case, it signifies that there’s merely an issue with the storytelling. Sure, this can be a massive downside; now clarify why it’s a hard-to-solve downside.

The complete pitch deck


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