PowerPoint Makeovers: The Peloton Pitch Deck

Kickstarter has helped launch more than 150,000 businesses, but how many reached an $8 billion valuation within just eight years of their campaigns? Peloton achieved that benchmark thanks to the runaway success of its internet-connected exercise bikes.

Called the “Netflix for fitness,” the Peloton stationary bike offers consumers the chance to participate in instructor-led workouts with fitness personalities like Jess King and Robin Arzon, now made famous by the platform. Each exercise bike features an HD multitouch screen that connects to home WiFi to deliver on-demand studio cycling classes at any time, helping to socialize the at-home workout.

Founded in 2012,  the company launched with the help of its Kickstarter campaign in 2013, and it’s enjoyed a meteoric rise to success ever since— surprising for a product that comes with a $2,200 price tag and a $39 monthly subscription fee. Last year, Peloton went public with an $8 billion valuation.

Of course, no company achieves $8 billion worth of success strictly from even the most successful Kickstarter campaign. In addition to sales, six rounds of funding helped Peloton along the way, including a series F round that raised $550 million in 2018, placing the business at a $4.1 billion valuation. That pivotal investment was at least in part thanks to a 23-slide pitch deck presented to venture-capital firm TCV.

The 2018 Peloton pitch deck is one of the better presentations we’ve seen companies develop. The slides feature vivid photos, a common theme and informative infographics to help tell the company’s story. Still, we wonder if Peloton might have raised even more with a beautiful presentation based on the best principles of good design recommended by the pros?

We redesigned the Peloton pitch deck with Beautiful.ai’s PowerPoint alternative presentation software. Our revised pitch deck template incorporates professionally recommended design principles with a customized theme and updated infographics. We also condensed the overall presentation to just 17 slides and added a variety of animations to keep audiences entranced from start to finish.

What do you think about our redesigned pitch deck? Is it the perfect presentation for potential investors?

Download the customizable template here

Slide 1: Peloton Title

The title slide draws in audiences and gives the presenter a chance to grab their attention from the start. Peloton chose an intriguing image of a woman biking at the end of a workout using the product along with the presentation’s title and company brand. We created a similar title slide and set it off with a larger logo we pulled form Beautiful.ai’s free logo search tool.

We also customized the theme for our slide deck template. We selected the color scheme that will automatically be applied to our slides, as well as the fonts for headers, titles and body text. We also set a footer for our slides, selecting the Peloton logo to automatically appear on all of our slides moving forward.

Slide 2: Contents

Peloton’s second slide featured the contents of the presentation. We recreated this slide using our Agenda template, and we were able to link each line item to its corresponding slide from the deck. Since we’d already set the theme for the presentation, the colors, fonts and the slide’s footer were automatically applied to the slide, which makes creating a presentation all the faster and easier.

Slides 3-4: Target Consumer

Peloton’s next slide included a lot of information, so we split it into two slides in our presentation redesign. We selected the Icons with Text slide template, and we chose images from Beautiful.ai’s image library featuring millions of free stock photos. Adding the text was a breeze since we’d already customized the fonts and colors when we set up the presentation’s theme.

On Slide 4, we added some pizazz to the Icons with Text template with a shaded sidebar containing facts about Peloton’s target customer. Making the adjustment was simple with Beautiful.ai’s smart slide templates. We just adjusted the slide’s layout, and the slide automatically adapted as we added the additional details.

Slides 5-6: Consumer Promise

We also split Peloton’s next slide into two when we redesigned its pitch deck. In Slide 5, we chose our Headline slide template, and chose a corresponding image along with an impact statement.

For Slide 6, we added Peloton’s three customer promises into a process diagram using the smart slide template of the same name. We just added the content into each step of the diagram, and then we animated the slide so each automatically builds upon the next. We spiced up the slide by adjusting its layout, adding another image to one side.

Slide 7-8: Who We Are

Peloton told potential investors exactly who the company is and is not in its next slides, and we simply recreated its list using Beautiful.ai’s Two Image smart slide template with text for Slide 7. Then, we redesigned Slide 8 with our popular Icons with Text slide. This time, we animated the slide, so each icon and corresponding text appears in consecutive order.

Slide 9: Storytelling

Peloton’s 2018 pitch deck featured a slide communicating the brand’s journey through product and emotional storytelling. We simplified this slide in our redesign using Beautiful.ai’s Timeline smart template. All we had to do was add text to each milestone on the timeline, and the slide automatically adjusted based on the principles of good design recommended by professionals. It’s clear, concise and simple to create. We added some animation to make the slide stand out to audiences. 

Slide 10: Brand Wheel

Peloton featured a unique slide in its presentation, which it called its brand wheel. The brand’s functional and emotional marketing points are presented in a target infographic. Beautiful.ai’s presentation software also features a Target slide, so all we had to do was fill in the details and watch the smart template automatically adjust. Creating an infographic has never been easier, plus the colors and fonts are already set, so we don’t waste time customizing the design details.

Slide 11-12: Functional Benefits

The pitch deck that won Peloton that pivotal 2018 investment featured four slides highlighting the product’s functional benefits, but neither included all that much information. We consolidated these into two Icons with Text slide templates. We just chose some images, added the corresponding text, and we were good to go, lickety-split! We livened up the slides by adding another animation, so the slides build before audiences’ eyes.

Slides 13-15: Emotional Benefits

We redesigned Peloton’s slides detailing its emotional benefits by using Beautiful.ai’s Photo Grid and Icons with Text smart templates. Instead of adding photos to the grids, however, we added logos which we easily found using our free image library, with text below each. Similarly we used icons to portray how the brand made customers feel in slide 15.

Slide 16: Recap

Peloton’s final slide featured a recap of the entire presentation. It had a lot of information and the slide layout was a total snooze fest—just a long, numbered list. Boring! It wasn’t even symmetric. We transformed this slide into a dynamic infographic using Beautiful.ai’s Hub and Spoke smart template. Just like with the previous slides, we simply added the content into each element of the infographic, and the slide automatically adjusted to accommodate the details. We added emphasis to each hub with a corresponding icon from the library of stock images.

Slide 17: Conclusion

We felt like Peloton’s pitch deck ended rather abruptly, so we added a concluding slide to our redesign. An image of Peloton’s team smiling at potential investors leaves them with a positive feeling about the company as the presenter makes any closing remarks. Of course, we couldn’t forget to brand this concluding slide. Beautiful.ai’s Image slide let us insert the Pelton logo atop of the image with ease.

What did you think of our redesign? Was it worth more than half a billion bucks?

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