Through the years, Mike Butcher has lined Hour One quite a lot of occasions right here on TechCrunch. The corporate is utilizing AI to create text-to-video options with realistic-looking human avatars. The area appears to be exploding, and Hour One has been on fairly the trajectory. The corporate raised $5 million again in 2020, was taking over the language studying vertical and raised one other $20 million in a spherical that closed in April of this yr.
I’m fairly excited to take a better take a look at the deck Hour One used to lift its most up-to-date spherical, so let’s dive proper in!
We’re on the lookout for extra distinctive pitch decks to tear down, so if you wish to submit your personal, right here’s how you are able to do that.
Slides on this deck
Hour One raised its $20 million spherical with a decent 11-slide deck. The corporate shared its deck, dated November 2021, in full, with out edits or redactions, so we will see what the traders noticed as they had been reaching for his or her checkbooks.
Cowl slide
“At a look” abstract slide
Resolution slide
Market dimension slide
Worth proposition slide
Product slide 1
Product slide 2
Audience slide
Case examine slide
Workforce slide
Closing slide
Three issues to like
I really like a deck that is ready to distill its story to the naked necessities. Many of the decks I’m seeing nowadays, each by way of my consulting apply and thru the pitches submitted to TechCrunch, are loads longer than the 11 slides Hour One used right here. The query is … did they go too far into sparsity? Let’s discover out!
Love the “at a look” strategy!
[Slide 2] This can be a nice strategy to get all people on the identical web page. Picture Credit: Hour One
Let’s admit it: One of many primary causes startup founders want a deck within the first place is to assist potential traders work out whether or not they wish to take a gathering with you. Having a abstract slide may help traders work out if you’re in the appropriate vertical and firm stage — in different phrases, you may assist them resolve in the event you match their funding thesis. This slide will get a number of of these issues proper.
By main with traction (characters and movies produced), clients and funding historical past, together with a screenshot displaying how the interface works, this slide goes a great distance towards setting the stage. Personally, I’d have added a few extra factors:
A one-line abstract about what the corporate does (“Human-like AI character movies on the click on of a button” may work.)
Make specific the enterprise mannequin (B2B SaaS).
Make specific how a lot cash you’re elevating (“Elevating $20 million Collection A”).
The lesson right here is to incorporate all of the pertinent details about your organization in a single place, as early within the story as potential.
Nice product abstract
[Slide 6] That is the way you do a product abstract. Picture Credit: Hour One
Other than the good pun within the title for its product, this slide is jam full of actually good content material, providing a very clear abstract of the product complexity Hour One has already constructed by way of a easy, user-focused story. To make this slide even higher, I’d have most popular that the story was advantages pushed reasonably than characteristic pushed, nevertheless it does lots of heavy lifting as-is.
The explanation why benefit-driven product tales work higher is clear: You assist the investor join the dots. It isn’t about what the person can do, however about why they could do these items to avoid wasting time, cash and frustration. Right here’s how that may have regarded:
No code required –> “Anybody could make AI character movies.”
Voices and languages –> “Join together with your viewers of their language.”
Characters –> “Embrace range by selecting from greater than 100 presenters.”
Information enter –> “Personalized content material on the fly by simply pulling in knowledge from exterior sources.”
By the way, I’m confused about this slide: On the abstract slide, we’re speaking about 150+ characters, and on this slide, it’s 100 presenters. Are presenters and characters completely different? In that case, how? And if not, why are the numbers completely different? I presume that the founders would be capable to speak about this extra as they pitch the story, however it might have been higher if it had been extra apparent why there’s a distinction right here.
A wide range of goal clients
The perfect firms create a product that works nicely for one set of goal customers, after which broaden the person base to seize a broader market share. Hour One tells that a part of the story on its eighth slide:
[Slide 8] Goal audiences. Picture Credit: Hour One
What actually works about this slide is that Hour One is ready to present the breadth of its enchantment; every of those classes could possibly be sufficiently big to construct a profitable firm, however by being vertical agnostic, Hour One is ready to construct up somewhat worry of lacking out (FOMO) in me as an investor: I can simply see how the corporate could possibly be on a unprecedented progress trajectory.
Apparently, I’m in a nitpicking temper right now, and nearly as good and as clear as this slide is, I believe it might be even higher in the event that they mixed the goal clients with their outcomes. Think about how a lot stronger this a part of the presentation would have been if the corporate had used precise case research for every of those classes.
Right here’s how that may look:
E-commerce firms: +15% common basket worth.
Actual property: +19% of inquiries.
Language studying: +40% vocab retention.
Clearly, I’m making up the numbers right here, however as a founder, these are the sorts of slides the place you may actually showcase how deep your market understanding is. One other strategy could be to make it extra advantages pushed, connecting the purchasers with the use instances. “E-commerce makes use of Hour One to attach with clients” and “CFOs use Hour One to make their monetary experiences come to life.”
For a gold star, mix them for even deeper narratives: “Firm X makes use of Hour One to make its inside coaching applications, leading to a 35% enhance in completion of latest coaching initiatives.”
As a startup founder, what you may be taught from this slide is to all the time be looking out for tactics you could present the depth of your data, each by way of area experience and market context. Understanding your clients deeply and that your product solves actual issues for them is a sign that there’s one thing particular about you and your group; being uniquely positioned to resolve an issue turns into a part of your “moat” — the explanation why no person else could possibly be doing what you might be doing.
In the remainder of this teardown, we’ll check out three issues Hour One may have improved or performed in another way, together with its full pitch deck!
