PitchMagic

Buffer pitch deck (2011)

Buffer's 2011 pitch deck is the 13-slide deck Joel Gascoigne and Leo Widrich used to raise a $450K seed round from 18 investors, published by Buffer in 2013. It pitches a simple tool to queue social media posts, backed by early revenue. Founders study the Buffer pitch deck because first-time founders with no network raised on one thing, a strong traction slide.

Company
Buffer
Year
2011
Round
Seed
Raised
$450K
Slides
13
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Deck © Buffer. Shared for learning, credited to buffer.com.

What's in the Buffer pitch deck

All 13 slides, in order.

  1. Buffer pitch deck, slide 1: Cover

    Slide 1 · Cover

    The Buffer logo on a dark background.

    How to write this slide
  2. Buffer pitch deck, slide 2: Social, the most important trend

    Slide 2 · Social, the most important trend

    Zuckerberg's Law, that people share twice as much as a year ago, next to a photo of the talk, and a quote that social media marketing will soon pass SEO.

  3. Buffer pitch deck, slide 3: The question

    Slide 3 · The question

    How do you use social to drive traffic?

  4. Buffer pitch deck, slide 4: Queue your updates

    Slide 4 · Queue your updates

    A screenshot of the Buffer queue, with posts lined up by day and time.

  5. Buffer pitch deck, slide 5: Traction

    Slide 5 · Traction

    800 paying users, a $150,000 annual revenue run rate, 97% margins, 55,000 users growing 40% per month, and 1.5 million updates sent through Buffer.

    How to write this slide
  6. Buffer pitch deck, slide 6: Milestones

    Slide 6 · Milestones

    Web app launched in January 2011, 55,000 users and $150K revenue by October 2011, then targets of 100,000 users by January 2012 and 1 million users with $3.6M revenue by January 2013.

  7. Buffer pitch deck, slide 7: Business Model

    Slide 7 · Business Model

    Freemium with a steady 2% conversion to paid, 5% churn giving a $240 lifetime value, up to $5 to acquire a free user, and $3.6M projected revenue at 1 million users.

    How to write this slide
  8. Buffer pitch deck, slide 8: Social Media Landscape

    Slide 8 · Social Media Landscape

    55% of 200 million daily tweets contain links, 4 billion items are shared on Facebook a day, and social traffic is about to pass search.

  9. Buffer pitch deck, slide 9: The effect of Buffering

    Slide 9 · The effect of Buffering

    A ReadWriteWeb headline, Buffer finds tweet scheduling can increase clicks by 200%.

  10. Buffer pitch deck, slide 10: A sharing standard

    Slide 10 · A sharing standard

    6 integrations so far, talks with Reeder, Pocket and Feedly, and a plan to become the default sharing option in any app, shown on a phone share menu.

  11. Buffer pitch deck, slide 11: Competitive Landscape

    Slide 11 · Competitive Landscape

    Four groups of competitors, social media dashboards, intelligent sharing, sharing platforms and scheduling apps, with Buffer placed in two of them.

    How to write this slide
  12. Buffer pitch deck, slide 12: Team

    Slide 12 · Team

    Joel Gascoigne, who took the idea to revenue in 7 weeks, Leo Widrich, who grew Buffer from 200 to 55,000 users, advisors Guy Kawasaki and Hiten Shah, and earlier backers AngelPad, Inspiration, Sierra Ventures and InterWest.

    How to write this slide
  13. Buffer pitch deck, slide 13: Contact

    Slide 13 · Contact

    The founders' email address.

What the Buffer deck does well

  • Slide 5 puts paying users, revenue run rate, margins and monthly growth on one slide, which Leo Widrich called the most important slide for first-time founders.
  • Slide 7 shows the unit economics in three lines, 2% conversion, $240 lifetime value and a $5 ceiling to acquire a user, so investors can check the math themselves.
  • Slide 11 sorts a crowded market into four groups, which Buffer simplified after the question aren't there lots of apps doing this kept stalling meetings.

What founders can learn from it

  • If you are a first-time founder, lead with traction. Buffer had no track record, so slide 5 did the work.
  • Find the question that derails your meetings and answer it with a slide, the way Buffer rebuilt its competition slide.
  • Expect a numbers game. Buffer contacted about 200 investors, met around 50 and closed 18.

Questions about the Buffer pitch deck

How much did Buffer raise with this deck?
Buffer raised a $450K seed round in 2011 from 18 investors. The blog post sharing the deck rounds it to half a million dollars.
How many slides are in the Buffer pitch deck?
The Buffer pitch deck has 13 slides.
Is the Buffer pitch deck real?
Yes. Buffer co-founder Leo Widrich published it on Buffer's blog and SlideShare account in May 2013.
What was Buffer's traction when it raised?
Slide 5 lists 800 paying users, a $150,000 annual revenue run rate, 97% margins and 55,000 users growing 40% a month.

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