Looking through Coinbase’s seed round pitch deck, what stands out is that the slides are very minimal, but the business opportunity presented is clear. The problem that Bitcoin wallets are too difficult to use is presented by showing screenshots of the competitors directly, allowing a viewer to confirm for themselves how the current state of products isn’t up to par with what users need. The solution is also framed in a “the X for Y” format, using the analogy that Coinbase is to Bitcoin what iTunes was to MP3, mapping the problem that Coinbase solves to what iTunes solved in another market.
Rather than showing direct market numbers, the founders sized the market by naming the diverse applications and user groups that a hosted bitcoin wallet could serve, from games to the developing world to e-commerce, and showed a graph of the Bitcoin market growing every day in transaction volume.
Because they already had users, the problem was validated by showing a chart of their user base increasing rapidly, suggesting that they had built something that served an unmet need in high demand.
With this slide deck, follow-up questions an investor might have include what the main differentiator between their hosted bitcoin wallet is with alternatives (first hosted wallet ever? ease-of-use? mobile-friendly?) and how volatility in the cryptocurrency market would affect their strategy in the future. Elements I’d like to bring into our pitch this week include an analogy to another product to make a short and punchy argument; keeping slides free of text and focusing on effective visuals; and leading with what is exciting and compelling about entering our market.
