In case you’ve ever needed to plan a big infrastructure mission — like constructing a brand new part of a metropolis or attempting to determine how a lot water and wastewater you want in a sure space — you’ve in all probability run into just a few issues alongside the way in which. “However modeling and planning,” I hear you cry. “Isn’t that what computer systems are supposed to be good at?”
Properly, sure. No marvel, then, that Transcend scooped up a $20 million Sequence B spherical from Autodesk, amongst others.
It’s a courageous new world of design that, frankly, I don’t know all that a lot about. However $20 million doesn’t lie, so let’s see the place Transcend, er, transcends and the place it stays painfully mortal.
We’re in search of extra distinctive pitch decks to tear down, so if you wish to submit your individual, right here’s how you are able to do that.
Slides on this deck
The Transcend workforce shared its deck with us in a considerably redacted state. I’m often not an enormous fan of that, however the workforce included as a lot of the deck because it might, with solely minor edits. The redactions are as follows:
- Slide 11: Proprietary provide chain information level
- Slide 13: Product roadmap and monetary initiatives per vertical
- Slide 14: Buyer title, mission names, income numbers and sale dates for OEM use case
- Slide 16: Monetary goals, together with internet income retention projections, CARR projections, ARR projections, money move margin projections and complete capital projections
Aside from the above, the deck is as-pitched, so it is best to nonetheless be capable to get a reasonably good thought of the move of the corporate’s narrative. That is the total breakdown of the slides within the deck:
- Cowl slide
- Abstract slide
- Drawback and Answer slide
- Product slide
- Traction slide
- Advantages slide
- Digital demo (video) slide
- Firm/product historical past
- Differentiation slide
- Buyer phase slide
- Worth proposition per buyer phase slide
- Market alternative slide
- Product roadmap slide [redacted]
- Buyer case examine slide
- Group slide
- Use of funds slide
- Closing slide
Three issues to like
The Transcend deck has lots of actually good examples. Listed here are my prime three:
You spin me proper out, child, proper out
It isn’t precisely uncommon for a startup to be spun out from one other enterprise, however telling the story of how and why that occurred could be fairly tough. However Transcend does it notably properly:
[Slide 8] An in a single day success, 10 years later. Picture Credit: Transcend
There’s often a reasonably good purpose for a startup to spin out of an organization. On this case, the device on the heart of Transcend is one which was constructed internally, earlier than the corporate originating the device realized that it is likely to be helpful for others. From product to product/market match, by way of industrial validation, to a spinout that will get to construct its personal buyer base could be an arduous path. The nice factor, on this case, is that the spin-out was accomplished 4 years in the past. A lot of the chance related to that a part of the method ought to now have been resolved, however the advantages from being a 10-year-old product, quite than an lively four-year-old must also be seen. Having this slide within the deck helps place the corporate in time and area (and solutions the “why now?” query) .
Very properly accomplished!
Similar device, completely different advantages
Instruments can be utilized for all kinds of issues — that’s the fantastic thing about a device — however it’s troublesome to clarify that completely different goal audiences can discover worth for various use circumstances.
[Slide 11] The design is giving me a cluster headache — however the info conveyed is nice. Picture Credit: Transcend
Let’s say little or no in regards to the design of this slide and give attention to the content material. Transcend does a very good job exhibiting how the completely different buyer classes have completely different facets of the enterprise. Out there sizing slide, the corporate doubles down on how it’ll promote to all of those classes of shoppers; beginning the dialog with what the advantages are is an effective way to construct a multilayered story.
Watch out, although: It’s nice to have a number of classes of shoppers, however it’s straightforward for a startup to appear unfocused. Promoting to varsities is completely different from promoting to hospitals or governments, and also you typically want completely different gross sales methods for every. On this case, I’ll let Transcend off the hook; the variety of organizations which have a necessity for infrastructure-scale design might be restricted, so outlining how the corporate can promote to a number of verticals directly helps inform the “Hey, the market measurement is completely cheap” a part of the story.
Apropos market measurement
[Slide 12] Helloooo, market measurement(s). Picture Credit: Transcend.
It’s a little bit odd to have a graph that appears to go up and to the fitting; you’d anticipate the Y axis to be “time.” That isn’t the case; this graph describes the assorted industries. Transcend focuses on three of them (sewer/wastewater, water, and energy) and reveals that it would probably broaden to others sooner or later.
Graphic and knowledge design apart, I like that this slide provides a really clear indication of how massive the chance is in the present day, and the way massive it might develop if the corporate added extra verticals to its focus listing. I don’t know this business properly sufficient to know whether or not the $100 billion+ spent on design work is a quantity that Transcend might realistically go after (in different phrases, if it sucks up the entire market share, would Transcend be a $100 billion per 12 months firm? That appears a bit formidable, however I’m not really positive easy methods to sense-check that). Presumably, traders who’re energetic on this area would instantly be capable to know whether or not that is sensible.
As a startup, what you’ll be able to be taught right here is to understand that vertical expansions can provide enormous alternatives. If related to your organization, paint the image — it could possibly assist illustrate the dimensions of your ambition, and, finally, the chance to the traders.
In the remainder of this teardown, we’ll have a look at three issues Transcend might have improved or accomplished in another way, together with its full pitch deck!