Airbnb deck (2008)
Slide 2 states the problem in three sentences. Price is a concern for people booking travel online, hotels leave you disconnected from the city, and there is no easy way to book a room with a local or become a host. There is no story and no buildup. Slide 3 then answers each line with a matching benefit, which are save money, make money, and share culture.
I think that Slide 4 is the smartest slide in the deck. They didn’t have any traction at this point, so they borrowed proof from elsewhere, showing 660,000 Couchsurfing users and 50,000 Craigslist temporary housing listings a week in the U.S. (validation of problem!) The behavior was there.
Slide 5 presents a funnel rather than a single number for the market size, moving from 2B trips booked worldwide to 560M budget and online trips, to 84M trips with AB&B. Slide 7 turns that into revenue by applying a $25 average fee at a 10% commission, which gives $2.1 billion!!
What an investor would ask that the deck does not answer? Some thoughts I had: where does 15% of the serviceable market come from because nothing on slide 5 justifies that jump?? And what is the traction today given that slide 14 asks for $500K to reach 80,000 transactions but never states the current number, so there is no growth rate to judge? There was also nothing on the estimated cost needed to acquire a guest or a host and nothing on trust and safety. This would be the obvious objection to letting strangers sleep in your house.
For my presentation, I also want a three line problem slide with no preamble so its punchy and straight to the point. And I want a market size slide built as a funnel that lands on a revenue number.
