There are two industries that make a ton of cash however they’re historically largely ignored by enterprise capital — films and gaming. That comes as a little bit of a shock to many: Enterprise capitalists are identified for his or her eager eye on high-growth alternatives, predominantly casting their lot with tech startups, healthcare improvements, and the subsequent huge factor within the digital sphere. However Deadline experiences that movies made $33.9 billion last year, and global gaming revenue was $184 billion, in response to Newzoo. Nonetheless, the proposition of investing in films introduces enterprise capitalists to a panorama far faraway from the calculable metrics of SaaS platforms or the comparatively predictable danger of biotech.
Gaming and films are extraordinarily hit and miss, and that’s the form of unpredictability that’s seldom embraced by traditional venture capital investment theses.
I’m all the time notably interested in pitch decks within the gaming business, so when SuperScale threw its hat within the ring, I used to be excited. The corporate is promising to make advertising for video games simpler, and on condition that nice advertising is likely one of the essential variations between an okay final result and a smash-hit success, it tickled my curiosity nerve in a most pleasant manner.
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Slides on this deck
The corporate submitted a 22-slide deck, however “particulars of shoppers and buyer case research the place we didn’t get approval for distribution are redacted,” in response to the corporate.
- Cowl slide
- Downside slide
- Answer slide
- Macro market measurement prediction slide
- Market measurement prediction slide
- Market measurement slide (2027)
- Goal buyer slide
- Platform interstitial slide
- The way it works slide
- Market segmentation slide
- Enterprise mannequin slide
- Case research slide
- Aggressive panorama slide
- Marketing strategy interstitial slide
- 5-year plan abstract slide
- The Ask slide
- Use of Funds abstract slide
- Abstract slide
- Crew slide
- Appendix interstitial slide
- Firm historical past slide
- Closing/contact slide
Three issues to like about SuperScale’s pitch deck
SuperScale has an extremely slick-looking deck that will get proper to the purpose. Twenty-two slides may appear to be too many (the optimum size for a slide deck is around 16 slides as of late), however there are some interstitial slides and an appendix on this one, and people don’t really matter.
Let’s check out a few of the issues that actually work.
Making your individual market
Gaming is a large market, and traders don’t have to be satisfied of that. The query, then, is how you can get a slice of that very tasty digital pie. SuperScale is taking some fascinating leaps of religion right here: The numbers are projections for 2027, reasonably than speaking concerning the numbers as we speak. However this slide comes early within the deck; if SuperScale could make a stable argument for the way will probably be a part of the machine that grows gaming by 10%, that’s very fascinating certainly.
It’s daring and brazen storytelling. In fact, the corporate is now setting itself up for having to share a plan and present the receipts, however it’s a great way to get traders proper off the bat.
A brand new lease on life
As a video games optimization firm, SuperScale has an fascinating method, and this straightforward slide holds a sensible promise: What if we are able to massively improve the profitability of a sport that’s already on the market? SuperScale’s mannequin goals, partly, to provide these video games a brand new lease on life at a stage of the video games publishing cycle the place each greenback that is available in is principally a bonus. The deck isn’t making an enormous deal out of this, however I can see that being a very highly effective gross sales approach to video games studios — and if it’s profitable with legacy video games (at primarily no danger), wouldn’t it’s good to combine SuperScale on new video games, too?
It’s extraordinarily good, and traders will have the ability to see that, too.
That’s the way you do a abstract
Design and almost-unreadable textual content apart, the content material on this slide is nice:
I like a very good abstract slide. Give the traders all of the pondering and speaking factors they should get enthusiastic about an funding. It’s an important method.
Three issues that SuperScale might have improved
General, this is likely one of the higher pitch decks I’ve seen, however there are some things that made me go “hmm.”
Wait, how huge is your staff?
When an organization raises round $5 million, I sometimes count on a staff of 10 to fifteen. This staff slide got here as a little bit of a shock:
Placing this slide on the finish of the deck makes me marvel concerning the seriousness of this startup. If it has 5 enterprise items and 70+ staff members, it throws the remainder of the deck out of whack. There’s an ask slide, however no stable use of funds. You’ll be able to’t maintain a 70-person staff with out having vital income. The corporate is spending a lot time speaking about 2027 and its five-year plans, but it completely glosses over how a lot cash it’s making.
There’s some information about income, however solely within the type of case research:
Did you notice it? SuperScale made $6 million from EA, Zynga and Fingersoft. And an extra $1.5 million from NimbleBit.
That’s spectacular, however it’s a horrible manner of exhibiting off this degree of traction. A correct traction slide would show these numbers not as totals, however as income graphs that present how a lot and how briskly income is rising over time.
Why is SuperScale elevating cash?
It’s complicated why the corporate is elevating round $5 million when it’s making correct income numbers.
This slide makes virtually no sense in any respect. On slide 12, the corporate famous it had $7.5 million price of income from simply its case examine shoppers. What number of shoppers are there? We don’t know. How a lot income is there in whole? No concept. And what’s it planning on doing with the cash? Properly, there’s a slide for that:
This slide is nugatory. The corporate says it’s constructing an M&A machine, suggesting it’s planning to accumulate the rights to legacy video games and presumably develop them. That’s superior and all, however there must be a particular plan for that.
There’s additionally the inner inconsistencies right here: It says it wants $5 million to realize targets, however then says it is going to have “observe on natural funding” via reinvesting income.
Within the M&An area, $5 million is sort of no cash in any respect, so now I’m very interested in who the acquisition targets can be, and the way the corporate presumes these acquisitions will work towards its backside line.
Inform a coherent story!
SuperScale, on first read-through, appeared like such a improbable funding alternative, however as I began poking and prodding on the deck, it made much less and fewer sense. The corporate appears to need to purchase different corporations (or is it video games?). It has 70 folks on employees, however it’s solely elevating $5 million. It doesn’t share its previous successes, nor how it’s planning to search out the longer term success it wants.
I feel a significantly better manner of telling this story, general, can be to have an end-to-end story, advised persistently:
- We purchased sport A for $B.
- We invested $C into progress infrastructure for the sport.
- We invested $D into advertising for the sport.
- Income for the sport went from $E to $F, after solely investing $C+D.
- As you may see, we made revenue of $X on this mission, and we predict this playbook will work on video games which have this specific profile.
- We need to construct a portfolio of 30 video games, which is why we’re elevating 30*($B+$C+$C), after which this turns into a self-sustainable enterprise with a repeatable playbook and enterprise mannequin.
That story would make sense to traders.
The total pitch deck
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