Investors can be invaluable for startups. But before receiving funding, you need to prepare your pitch. Slidebean provides both the tools and knowledge necessary to get successfully funded. Learn about the company and how the founder reaches millions of startups in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.
What the Business Does
Helps startups pitch investors.
Co-founder and CEO Jose ‘Caya’ Cayasso told Small Business Trends, “The company started as a simple presentation platform, but we quickly found a fit with entrepreneurs preparing their investor decks. Since then, Slidebean evolved from just a presentation builder into a suite of tools for fundraising: an investor finder and a CRM, financial modeling, legal document templates, a network of experts, startup deals, and educational content.”
Business Niche
An active YouTube channel.
Caya says, “We have 300K+ subscribers, and we get close to 1M monthly organic views on our videos, which puts us as one of the largest startup-focused channels on YouTube.”
How the Business Got Started
After poor experiences with other presentation tools.
Caya explains, “We [the co-founders] found common ground on our disappointing experience with presentation software, and set ourselves a goal to evolve it, especially considering the lack of options back then.”
Biggest Win
Creating a solid content marketing strategy.
Caya adds, “We mentioned the YouTube channel. But beyond that, our website gets 300K+ monthly visitors, which translates into 40,000+ leads every month.”
Biggest Risk
Changing business models.
Caya explains, “In 2017, after struggling with high churn for years, we tried pivoting from a SaaS business model to a per-presentation purchase model. The lack of recurring revenue almost killed our company.”
Lesson Learned
Keep revenue in mind.
Caya adds, “Ignore free users. Charge more.”
Team Building Exercise
Trips to NYC.
Caya explains, “Our team has two offices: one in NYC and one in Costa Rica. While the bigger team is in Costa Rica, we have a permanent apartment in New York where CR team members often stay. We do these trips so that teams more closely integrate with each other, and so Costa Ricans can experience New York life. However, one of the bigger benefits in these trips is the relationship that gets forged between teammates, who essentially become roommates for a month.”
Favorite Quote
“Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?” “Because it’s there.” -George Mallory.
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Image: Slidebean, Caya
This article, “Spotlight: Slidebean Uses YouTube Fame to Help Startups Pitch Investors” was first published on Small Business Trends
