Square’s pitch deck does a pretty good job of showing how something as simple as accepting credit cards could actually be a huge problem for small businesses. What I liked about the deck is that it doesn’t try to make the problem sound more complicated than it is. Traditional card readers were expensive, inconvenient, and not particularly accessible to smaller merchants. Square’s solution was straightforward: a free card reader, a phone, and a flat 2.75% transaction fee.
The market slide (slide 4) was interesting because it projected mobile payments growing from $16 billion in 2010 to $214 billion in 2015. That’s a huge opportunity, but I think there’s a difference between showing that an industry is growing and proving that your specific customers will adopt your product. The customer acquisition slide (slide 7) helps a little by identifying small businesses and independent workers, but I would have liked more evidence of their actual frustrations.
If I were an investor, I’d want to know how many merchants were actively using Square rather than just signing up. I’d also ask whether the low transaction fees were sustainable and what would stop larger payment companies from copying the product.
For our Sanity Check pitch, I’d definitely borrow Square’s approach of making the problem and solution easy to understand. But I’d also want to go a step further by including actual customer interview insights, especially since we’ve spent time in class learning how important it is to identify underserved customer needs.
Slide 4 – Market Size: Square uses the projected growth of mobile payments to show investors how big the opportunity could become. However, a growing market doesn’t necessarily mean customers will choose Square.
Slide 6 – Value to User: I liked how Square directly compares its solution with existing payment options. It makes the value of the product easy to understand without needing too much explanation.
Slide 7 – Customer Acquisition: Square identifies small businesses and independent workers as its target customers, but I would have liked to see more evidence of their actual pain points and why they would switch to Square.
