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It’s uncommon that I come throughout a pitch deck that ticks nearly all of the containers. It’s so good, actually, that I fed Plantee’s deck into an AI device I constructed, and it decided there was a 97.7% probability that Plantee would elevate cash. This device typically determines that solely about 7.5% of all pitch decks are as much as scratch, so Plantee’s is positively off the charts.
What the robots didn’t choose up, nonetheless, was that Plantee’s Kickstarter marketing campaign was canceled earlier than it was accomplished, and there are a couple of different complicated bits as nicely. Let’s dive in to see what works, and what might be improved.
We’re in search of extra distinctive pitch decks to tear down, so if you wish to submit your personal, right here’s how you are able to do that.
Slides on this deck
- Cowl slide
- Abstract slide
- Workforce slide
- Advisers and traders slide
- Mission slide
- Market validation slide
- Drawback slide
- Answer slide
- Product slide
- Aggressive panorama slide
- Traction slide
- Goal buyer slide
- Market measurement slide
- GTM slide
- Pricing & unit economics slide
- Imaginative and prescient slide
- Ask and Use of Funds slide
- Working plan slide
- Closing slide
- Appendix slide I: Merchandise in improvement
- Appendix slide II: Sources and references
Three issues to like about Plantee’s pitch deck
It seems that Plantee’s workforce has been studying my Pitch Deck Teardowns very fastidiously certainly, and it reveals. The corporate contains tons of particulars in its deck.
That’s the way you do an introduction!
Slides 1 and a couple of collectively (Slide 1 is on the high of the article) set the stage for an investor to 100% perceive the what, why and the way of the corporate:
[Slide 2] A one-page abstract to applaud. Picture Credit: Plantee
The opening slides of Plantee Improvements’ pitch deck are rock strong. Between the 2 slides, the founders supply a transparent and interesting introduction to what the corporate stands for and goals to attain. The succinct overview captures the viewers’s consideration proper from the beginning but additionally serves a twin objective of effectively level-setting for traders and filtering curiosity based mostly on funding thesis alignment. The duvet slide contains “IoT Sensible Dwelling / B2C Client Electronics / AgriTech / Elevating $1.7M” — it’s mainly key phrase bingo that helps traders resolve whether or not to lean in or whether or not to trash the deck immediately. That’s a great factor: If this firm isn’t a great match with traders, they’ll transfer on immediately.
Gotta love a great tech resolution
I’ll be the primary to confess that I’m a raging nerd, and I like a great gadget. I additionally love crops; I’ve dozens throughout my residence, and I can hold most of them alive. As outlined, I like Plantee’s method to foolproofing plant parenthood.
[Slide 8] Expertise, AI and glad crops. Picture Credit: Plantee
I’d hazard a guess that the majority plant house owners take into consideration gentle precisely as soon as: after they first carry the plant into the home. They’ll consider watering as usually as they’ll, hopefully earlier than the crops are a dry, crispy, unhappy mess on the nook of the dresser. I’m glad there’s an AI caring for all the opposite stuff, as a result of I had no thought crops wanted a lot!
On the one hand, that’s a reduction. On the opposite, maybe I’m only a naive and novice plant daddy, nevertheless it left me a bit of confused. I’ve by no means heard anybody point out air humidification and soil heating. I might be persuaded that this stuff make a distinction, positive, however I’m positively curious to what diploma it’s value worrying about.
A very good aggressive panorama
This can be a market that doesn’t have many rivals. Seen by one lens, that’s a great factor: It signifies that there’s a thriving market, and Plantee can see what its rivals are doing nicely or poorly and place itself accordingly.
[Slide 10] That’s numerous rivals. Picture Credit: Plantee
As a aggressive overview slide, that is fairly complete. It separates the aggressive panorama into “exhausting to develop” and “straightforward to develop” and specialist (e.g., mushroom/avocado growers) versus generalist growers. That each one is sensible, however there’s nonetheless a bit of piece of the puzzle lacking right here: The one actual exit on this house that I’m conscious of is ScottsMiracle-Gro’s acquisition of AeroGarden, for round $50 million. Not the world’s smallest acquisition, however not wildly encouraging, both.
The opposite query I’ve is whether or not this dichotomy even is sensible. If somebody crops a bonsai — a particular use case pitched by the Plantee workforce — they’re most likely not going to repot the plant, which is an attention-grabbing problem. If you happen to’re positioning your self out there as a “you may develop something,” I’d assume that you simply’d need to replant sometimes. The little bonsai tree, nonetheless, can develop as much as 800 years, so it’s exhausting to say that the “grows all crops” argument is that sturdy of a promoting level.
Three issues that Plantee might have improved
On first impression, the Plantee deck is fairly extraordinary, and the AI device gave it a 97% probability of success. As a human investor, I’m much less satisfied, and I disagree with the AI for a couple of essential causes.
Does it make sense as a product?
I like a great indoor rising system, and there have been many that attempted (and failed) on this house. GROW raised $2.4 million again in 2017, earlier than it will definitely floor to a halt. I reviewed the $1,000 Abby a pair years in the past, which, like Plantee, had pre-sold $100,000 value of merchandise on Kickstarter, and it was fairly terrible. I’ve additionally constructed my very own hydroponics system for beneath $150, which is clearly much more work, nevertheless it reveals that a lot of these methods don’t must be costly.
Plantee is up in opposition to some fairly formidable competitors. On the low finish, for simply $40 you may choose up a pod-based hydroponic system. If you wish to spend a bit extra, Click on & Develop has your again. Rise Gardens not too long ago raised a $9 million spherical. Folks kill home crops on a regular basis, however most of them are fairly straightforward to deal with. If you happen to want some assist, a fast Google seek for “AI plant rising app” provides you dozens of choices, most of them free.
My greatest problem with the Plantee deck isn’t what’s there, nevertheless it’s what’s lacking: wider context. If you happen to take all the corporate’s claims at face worth, it’s a unprecedented alternative. Nonetheless, zoom out a bit of, and speak to some plant lovers, and also you understand that maybe there isn’t as huge a niche out there as one may assume. Plainly the inherent assumption within the Plantee story is that people who find themselves unhealthy at crops will spend $1,400 on a elaborate computerized plant pot.
I’d argue that’s a fallacy and that people who find themselves unhealthy at crops as an alternative get a kitten, or take up watercolors, or get a plastic plant, earlier than they’re wiling to take a position 4 months of automotive funds on a elaborate piece of tech.
So what occurred to that Kickstarter marketing campaign?
[Slide 11] Plantee is arguing entrance and middle that its Kickstarter marketing campaign is a part of the market validation. However there’s a catch. Picture Credit: Plantee
Plantee did, actually, persuade 109 backers to pledge simply over $100,000 for its product. The marketing campaign was absolutely funded in lower than eight hours however was canceled just below a month later.
What occurred? Picture Credit: Screenshot from Kickstarter
That places the Plantee workforce in an odd place: It claims that the Kickstarter marketing campaign proves market validation. And that could be true: The corporate says it was in a position to appeal to its preorder prospects for a CAC of $275. By promoting 109 items, primary math dictates that the corporate spent about $30,000 to make $100,000 value of gross sales. That’s not too shabby, assuming that there’s sufficient margin within the product to make that buyer acquisition price make sense.
The issue, nonetheless, is that the corporate doesn’t point out wherever within the pitch deck that the marketing campaign was canceled, and it doesn’t focus on why it was canceled. It might argue that it by no means supposed to ship on the Kickstarter marketing campaign and that it was only a advertising take a look at to assist verify whether or not there was a marketplace for this form of factor.
I’m undecided that is sensible. Earlier than Plantee’s marketing campaign, EcoQube ($300,000 funded in 2019), GroBox ($70,000 funded in 2019), Herbert ($280,000 funded in 2019) and dozens of others had already been profitable, and it’s not absolutely clear what Plantee discovered from this train. Since then, a bunch of others have run profitable Kickstarter campaigns (Herbstation, MarsPlanter, GrowChef).
Put merely, I’m struggling to determine how the Kickstarter marketing campaign suits into the general narrative, and by seeming to skirt the difficulty throughout the deck, Plantee isn’t doing itself any favors. Maybe I’m being painfully delicate after one in all my very own Kickstarter campaigns went down in flames a decade in the past, and ultimately took the entire firm with it, however personally, I’d embrace a “so, what occurred with the Kickstarter” slide within the appendix to get forward of that a part of the story. Unhealthy information ought to journey quick.
A little bit on the dramatic aspect
I like some good storytelling, don’t get me fallacious, however components of this pitch deck appear to have misplaced all perspective. Phrases like “by no means lose one other inexperienced youngster,” “It began when my good buddy died,” and “stress affecting the psychological well being of growers” are undoubtedly highly effective and emotionally charged, however to these of us who’ve misplaced a great buddy, had severe psychological well being challenges, or really misplaced a human youngster, it appears fairly tasteless to check the huge and nearly insufferable ache of that with shedding a home plant.
[Slide 5] I’m sorry on your loss, Ondra, however that is bordering on unhealthy style. Picture Credit: Plantee.
The total pitch deck
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