Cleary Deck Breakdown

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Slide 1: Introduction

This intro slide is a bit busier than I’d normally recommend, but its because it combines a regular intro slide with a perspective framer. The second paragraph explains the perspective at a high level so that investors can understand the first few slides.

Slide 2: Traction

Especially in a deck that you are sending by email, you want to give investors a reason to care as early as possible. Given how long this company takes to get through their problem/solution, it makes sense that they moved this to the second slide so that investors don’t give up before realizing that this isn’t just an idea but a company with strong traction, used by great companies.

• Pouring Profits: Why whiskey as an asset class.

• American Single Malt is a brand new classification of whiskey, created by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau in the summer of 2022. The new classification now allows US whiskey brands to market themselves as competitors to Scotch. 

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Slide 3: The Problem (1/4)

Rule of three is used again here on the problem slide as we’ve seen with many of the best decks (Dropbox, Airbnb, Open Forest). This is just the first of 4 problem slides.

Remember: Nobody cares about a solution without a problem. The more people care about the problem, the more they care about the solution. A hero is measured by the strength of the villain they defeat. Learn from Cleary and take your time explaining the problem. Never jump straight to talking about your solution, product or features.

Slide 4: Problem (2/4)

This slide accomplishes two things:

1. It shows the best alternative to what they currently have; companies building their own in-house solution

2. Showcases why this is the best team to change that mode; they have build this for Twitter before.

Slide 5: Problem (3/4)

Slide 6: Problem (4/4)

On this last “Problem” slide we can see the story they have told about how work is changing. They started with “Work has fundamentally changed” and finished with “Onboarding is changing”.

This follows the advice I’ve given you all to start with a big social problem (pain), then narrow it down to a specific problem (diagnosis), and then pitch the solution.

If you have only the high-level pain, then your pitch seems like a crazy idea. If you have the diagnosis only, most people won’t care. Would you have read further if the third slide said “Onboarding is changing” instead of “Work is changing”?

Slide 7: Solution

Again, Slide 7 is where the solution comes in. Doesn’t make the top 5.

This is an 18-slide deck and there wasn’t really much more of a note throughout the deck that I needed to address. So if you are curious, the rest of the deck is linked below. But the learnings are all above!

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