Intercom pitch deck (2011)
Intercom's 2011 pitch deck is the first deck Eoghan McCabe used for Intercom, an eight-slide draft asking for a $600K convertible note. Intercom went on to announce a $1M seed round in January 2012, and McCabe published the deck in 2016, the day after a $50M round. Founders study the Intercom pitch deck because it shows how little a seed deck needs when the team and the problem are clear.
- Company
- Intercom
- Year
- 2011
- Round
- Seed
- Raised
- $1M
- Slides
- 8
Deck © Intercom. Shared for learning, credited to intercom.com.
What's in the Intercom pitch deck
All 8 slides, in order.
Slide 2 · The team
Eoghan McCabe, Des Traynor, Ciaran Lee and David Barrett, who ran the design consultancy Contrast for four years, blog and speak about software, and launched Qwitter and Exceptional, both acquired.
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Slide 3 · The problem
Building real relationships with customers is hard or impossible for SaaS companies, current tools are complex and not built for SaaS, and even email fails because it is out of context.
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Slide 4 · The solution
Intercom installs like Google Analytics and lets you browse your customers, research each one, message them inside your app, and track which relationships need attention.
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Slide 5 · The market
SaaS providers now, a $21 billion market growing to $93 billion in 2016 according to Forrester, and mobile and desktop apps later.
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Slide 6 · Landscape and competitors
Tools grouped by job, social media management, customer feedback and support, email campaigns, in-app messages and user analytics, from Zendesk and MailChimp to KISSmetrics and Mixpanel.
Slide 7 · Progress
In development and testing since January, ready for public beta, with private beta testers keen on the product.
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Slide 8 · What we're looking for
A $600K convertible note for 18 months of runway to work on product-market fit, customer development, early marketing and profitability, with a further round planned in 12 to 18 months.
What the Intercom deck does well
- Slide 2 opens with the team and gives proof they can ship, two products that were acquired, which matters most for a company with no traction yet.
- Slide 4 explains the product as a list of things a SaaS founder can do with it, starting with an install as simple as Google Analytics.
- Slide 8 ties the $600K to 18 months of runway and four named goals, so investors know what the money is for.
What founders can learn from it
- If your team is your strongest proof, put it first, the way Intercom did on slide 2.
- Describe your product in the buyer's words, like browse customers who signed up today, instead of abstract features.
- A short deck is fine at the earliest stage. Intercom's first deck had eight slides and was still marked DRAFT.
Questions about the Intercom pitch deck
- How much did Intercom raise with this deck?
- The deck asks for a $600K convertible note. In January 2012 Intercom announced it had raised $1M from 14 angel investors, including Biz Stone and Dan Martell, plus 500 Startups and Digital Garage.
- How many slides are in the Intercom pitch deck?
- The first Intercom pitch deck has 8 slides.
- Is the Intercom pitch deck real?
- Yes. Co-founder Eoghan McCabe published it on Intercom's blog and his SlideShare account in April 2016, describing it as the first pitch deck he used for Intercom, from late 2011.
- What problem did the Intercom pitch deck describe?
- It said SaaS companies find it hard to build real relationships with their customers, because the existing tools were complex, not built for SaaS, and email campaigns had poor engagement.
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