We’ve seen attempts when collecting all cards (credit, debit, loyalty, etc.) in one before, but Blank card claims to have a fresh take on the concept and closed just shy of half a million in angel investments with a very elegant deck. The company gets a few parts of the slide deck right that we rarely see right, so that’s wonderfully refreshing. Let’s dive right in!
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Slides into this deck
Card Blanch’s deck is just 12 slides, and the team tells us it’s pitched exactly that way with no redactions.
- Cover slide
- Problem slide
- Market size slide
- Solution slide
- Product slide
- Slide “How it works”.
- Competition slide
- Revenue model dia
- Market opportunity slide
- “Next Steps” – the question slide
- “Your entire wallet on one card” – value slider
- “Complete spend analysis in one place” – overview slide
Three things to love
The graphic designers at Card Blanch deserve a raise; this is one of the best designed decks i’ve seen in a hot minute. Let’s take a look at the highlights:
Well, that’s a big enough market
[Slide 3] Of course there is a huge market size… Image credits: Blank card
I don’t think anyone would argue with the number of cards in circulation and use in the US, and perhaps I would have liked to see more of a “what’s the market we’re looking for?” type of approach, but as far as market size slides are concerned, this is hard to argue with.
Store cards, loyalty cards, credit cards – they all have different benefits (otherwise the average American wouldn’t carry six cards at all times). I love how this slide presents the data simply and neatly. And the “text flows behind the person” design is a very nice touch indeed.
If your market is huge and obvious, you can get away with a market shift like this. One thing though, this is probably a very mature and rather flat market. I doubt there is one lot achieve more growth in this sector. That means that to really stand out, you need to offer a huge customer benefit. Can Card Blanch pull that off?
Great “question” slide
[Slide 10] This is a good “question” slide. In fact, it’s so good that we added it to our article focusing on that same slide. Image credits: Blank card
OK, so this isn’t a complete slam dunk like a “question” slide, but at least it has a certain amount of money being raised, and it has some goals that will be in the next period of the company’s existence to be realised. .
I wish the slide used SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based – goals. This list is great, but none of the milestones are specifically measurable (product development will never be completed; go-to-market will never be complete; “aggressive” means nothing without numbers, etc.) or have specific deadlines attached. Still – it’s rare that I see slides that are even this good, so I thought I’d celebrate anyway.
So easy to understand
[Slide 11] Really good product-driven storytelling. Image credits: Blank card
If your potential investors go through your stack to see if you’re trying to cheat them, it’s not a good first impression.
What Card Blanch really masters is telling its story through design mockups. The full story of how the product works – pay with the right card in the right place to maximize card benefits – fits into four elegant screenshots. (Slide 12 contains the rest.)
It’s a really good storytelling tool because the founders can provide a voiceover of how it all works. Or will work?
That’s a quirk about this pitch deck: nowhere in the deck does it say how much of this was actually built and how many are mock-ups and good ideas. To be clear, that’s not uncommon in pre-seed/angel stage pitch decks, but in a world where investors are trying to determine how much risk is in the startup, it would be helpful to provide an update on what’s up to done so far.
In the rest of this teardown, we take a look at three things Card Blanch could have improved or done differently, along with the full pitch deck!
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