Queerie is a courting app aimed particularly at LGBTQIA+ people. It’s a really early-stage firm that’s elevating simply $300,000 — a spherical dimension that usually falls into the “family and friends” class.
Relationship is a fiercely aggressive area, and there’s been a good quantity of M&A exercise over time, so I used to be wanting to take a better look.
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Slides on this deck
Queerie shared its full, unredacted, 13-slide pitch deck with TechCrunch.
- Cowl slide
- Cowl slide half 2
- Mission slide
- Drawback slide
- Answer slide
- Market dimension slide
- The way it works slide
- Traction slide
- Competitors slide
- Workforce slide
- Ask and Use of Funds slide
- 6-year (!) financials
- Contact slide
A few issues to like about Queerie’s pitch deck
The very first thing that struck me about Queerie’s deck is that it feels recent and enjoyable. The usage of language and graphics is clear, easy and interesting. A terrific start line for a client model!
Lead with the mission
[Slide 3] I like a great rallying cry. Picture Credit: Queerie
If you happen to’re attempting to make the world a greater place, you’re most likely going to draw mission-aligned buyers. So why not spell out your mission entrance and middle? It’s a robust storytelling method that’s properly executed within the Queerie deck.
Speak about a hard-hitting drawback
[Slide 4] That’s actually an issue value fixing. Picture Credit: Queerie
This drawback slide gave me pause: It stood as a reminder that in quite a lot of locations, isolation and psychological well being challenges are rife in queer areas.
The corporate is positioning itself much less as a courting app and extra as an answer for loneliness. Whether or not buyers will purchase it and whether or not this app is the suitable resolution to the issues the corporate identifies are separate questions. What is definite, nonetheless, is that the issue Queerie outlines is one value fixing.
4 issues that Queerie might have improved
I really need Queerie to exist, so it pains me to see that the best way the corporate is pitching makes it primarily unfundable.
Is that this the suitable staff?
I see a minimum of one courting app pitched each month, which is sensible: Relationship and discovering the suitable companion(s) is a crucial a part of many individuals’s lives, and it looks like such a straightforward factor to do higher than what’s at present on the market. The upshot is that many of those startups have founders with a lot of expertise within the courting world.
[Slide 10] Good day Quuties. Picture Credit: Queerie
However the place are the ladies? For a corporation that’s constructing an “inclusivity-designed platform,” that looks like a little bit of an oversight.
There’s some attention-grabbing expertise right here, however most people appear virtually too senior for this startup. I do know that’s a uncommon factor to complain about, however one of many CTOs has been a website reliability engineer at Google for 18 years. That’s a really specialised job, and whereas scaling an app like Queerie goes to be necessary, I’m discovering myself doubting how a lot overlap there may be between scaling Google’s infrastructure and scaling a website like Queerie.
Total, from studying the staff’s LinkedIn profiles and what’s on this slide, I discover myself concluding that they could be capable to construct a very good, well-functioning app with a fantastic person expertise — however that isn’t sufficient to construct a profitable firm. There’s a large hole on the gross sales and advertising and marketing aspect, and there’s not quite a lot of startup expertise throughout the staff both. If this slide might add a seasoned marketeer with client advertising and marketing app expertise, I feel the staff could be extra plausible proper out of the gate.
That is simply describing a courting app
I actually don’t perceive what this slide is attempting to perform:
[Slide 7] Sure, that’s a courting app. Picture Credit: Queerie
This slide is a little bit of a waste. It doesn’t present any of the key sauce for why Queerie goes to achieve success the place others have failed; there’s nothing new or modern right here.
Slides in a pitch deck ought to assist an investor resolve to take a position. If somebody reads the slide and it’s more likely to be impartial (and even unfavorable), it’s greatest omitted.
That’s not traction
[Slide 8] This isn’t actually exhibiting traction. Picture Credit: Queerie
The corporate says it has a “closed model of the cell app,” however this 13-slide deck doesn’t embrace a single screenshot of the app. The corporate says it has 95 beta testers, which is nice, however that isn’t actually “traction.” Traction could be how these beta testers are interacting with the platform. Are they paying? What are the DAU/MAU (every day/month-to-month energetic customers) stats?
I’m penning this on March 31, which is the final day of Q1 2024, so I’m confused why the corporate says it surveyed 3,000 folks in Q2 of 2024? The corporate additionally says it’s planning to develop the preliminary person base with “sturdy development” in Q3, however then says it’s launching the app in June, which is in Q2. This isn’t an enormous deal, however it’s a little complicated.
Essentially not enterprise scale
This slide, which describes how rapidly the corporate desires to develop, raises some pink flags.
[Slide 12] This isn’t a startup. Picture Credit: Queerie
After the primary 12 months, the corporate is simply planning to spend $40,000 per 12 months on app growth. That doesn’t even get a half-decent part-time developer. For a corporation that’s a tech startup, that’s a terrifying oversight: Is the corporate not planning to proceed to develop its apps?
The expansion right here is approach, approach too sluggish. Elsewhere within the deck the corporate says it is going to purchase 1,000 customers within the first half of 2024, however then it’s going to hit 20,000 month-to-month energetic customers by the tip of the 12 months. Then instantly the expansion drops to “merely” doubling in 2025, and doubling once more in 2026. For a hypergrowth early-stage startup, these numbers are terrible. Startups usually need to be rising 10% week-over-week within the early levels. If you happen to begin with 1,000 customers, after a 12 months of 10% week-on-week development, try to be at round 130,000 customers:
10% week-on-week development with a 1,000 person foundation seems like this. Picture Credit: TechCrunch / Haje Kamps
Even worse, nonetheless, with the present six-year financials, Queerie is planning on doing just below $10 million of income in 2029. That’s fairly dismal and signifies that the founders don’t have a very aggressive development plan in place. Its personal numbers present that it solely expects about 15% of its prospects to be paying $8 per 30 days.
Elsewhere within the deck, the corporate says, “Our cell app will permit us to increase to extra cities as we elevate extra capital,” which is superior, however the monetary overview doesn’t present extra fundraising taking place within the enterprise, so it’s unclear when or how a lot the corporate is planning to boost.
In a nutshell, this slide exhibits that Queerie might be a reasonably profitable life-style enterprise, however I worry that no buyers would go anyplace close to this as an funding; it’s too unambitious, and it exhibits that the corporate’s founders don’t perceive what is anticipated of them as startup founders.
The complete pitch deck
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