It’s a rare startup that tears down its own pitch deck, but that’s exactly what Equals did after it raised a $16 million Series A round. Equals’ mission is not to replace the spreadsheet, but to ensure that a spreadsheet can do whatever its users throw at it. As an inveterate spreadsheet user, this is an approach that I can get behind — I’ve built entire software solutions with extremely complex spreadsheets as the back end.
Furthermore, as a pitch deck connoisseur, I can also get behind the bright and bold design of Equals’ deck.
I particularly enjoyed a take I’ve not often seen in deck design, which is breaking down the deck into two different sections: a pitch deck and a data deck. The latter provides a breakdown of the company’s financials over seven slides, showing ARR, lead-to-customer conversion rates, churn, and other figures. It’s a good idea: I often advise startups to tell the story with words, then tell the same story with numbers.
Let’s see what else there is to love about this deck.