I went through Airbnb’s pitch deck and noticed how each slide served a specific purpose. Slide 2 demonstrates the problem by listing three pain points: price, hotels that keep travelers disconnected from the city, and no easy way to book a room with a local. The next slide proposes a solution for each one directly: save money, make money, and share culture.
After presenting the problem and solution, Slide 4 points to Couchsurfing’s 660,000 users and Craigslist’s 50,000 weekly housing listings to show that people are already renting and sharing space instead of staying in hotels. The testimonials and press quotes highlight that both users and hosts benefit from the service.
In terms of market size, the deck narrows from 2 billion trips, to 560 million budget and online trips, to 84 million with Airbnb. These numbers represent the TAM, SAM, and SOM, respectively.
As an investor, I would still have a few questions the deck doesn’t answer:
- Why would strangers trust each other with their homes?
- What stops people from skipping the 10% fee after meeting once?
For my Sanity Check pitch, I would steal the structure of stating the problem, proposing a solution, and backing it up with data showing the problem is real. I would also include quotes to make it feel grounded.
