For many startups and small businesses, creating the perfect pitch deck can feel like an overwhelming challenge. Each investor seems to want something slightly different, and keeping track of all those customisations becomes a major headache.
Enter deckr – a tool designed to streamline the pitch deck creation process. Gone are the days of juggling multiple presentations and second-guessing what resonates with different investors.
deckr’s modular design allows users to seamlessly personalise and share their decks via unique URLs. Plus, the built-in analytics provide valuable insights into viewer engagement. This means founders no longer have to rely on guesswork – they can take a data-driven approach to their presentations.
Curious about how deckr’s team turned their challenges into a streamlined solution? We did an interview to find out.
What is deckr?
deckr is a platform designed to help startups and small businesses create customised pitch decks with ease. By utilising a modular approach, users can upload their PDF presentations and personalise them for various investors. This feature significantly simplifies the often laborious task of tailoring messages for different audiences, allowing you to focus on what truly matters—building relationships and securing funding.
Targeting startups facing challenges in optimising their presentations, deckr addresses the frustration of managing multiple versions of pitch decks. As a user, you can easily customise slides for each recipient and share them via unique URLs. This eliminates the stress of losing track of edits and ensures that each presentation aligns with the recipient’s interests.
What sets deckr apart is its integration of detailed analytics that track viewer engagement. You are provided insights into how long recipients spend on each slide and their viewing order. This information is crucial for refining your approach, allowing you to enhance future presentations by focusing on what resonates most with your audience. The platform’s combination of user-friendly design and actionable data makes it a valuable tool for anyone seeking to make an impact with their pitches.
deckr Founders
Saul Lotzof, the CEO of deckr, leads a founding team that encapsulates a remarkable blend of expertise essential for revolutionising pitch deck creation. With a background steeped in business development, Saul’s innate ability to pinpoint market demands and sculpt actionable strategies has propelled deckr’s vision. His knack for innovative technological solutions fuels the strategic direction of the company, ensuring it remains a competitor in the ever-changing landscape of presentation tools.
His co-founder, Josh Wise, serves as the Chief Operating Officer. With extensive experience in operations management, Josh brings a keen focus on refining internal processes to boost overall productivity. His meticulous approach to efficiency allows deckr to operate like a well-oiled machine. He ensures that the daily operations not only run seamlessly but also support scalability, which is vital for a startup navigating the challenges of early growth.
Completing the trio is Guy Nehushtan, the Chief Technology Officer, whose technical prowess drives the platform’s continuous innovation. Guy’s background in software engineering, particularly in AI and cloud computing, guarantees that deckr’s technological foundations are robust. He oversees the development of the platform, ensuring it is not only secure and reliable but also user-friendly, thereby keeping the needs of the end-users at the forefront of design.
Reflecting on the early days of deckr provides insight into the team’s tenacity. The journey began when Saul and his fellow founders faced a significant hurdle while developing the AI features of the platform. Intended to personalise content for various pitch decks, the AI instead generated irrelevant information, complicating the user experience. Their commitment to excellence kept them immersed in trial and error, pushing them to refine their approaches and prompts. This dedication resulted in a breakthrough—an AI capable of delivering precise, relevant content tailored for individual users, reinforcing the team’s spirit of innovation.
The conception of deckr stemmed from a common struggle experienced by the founding trio. Each grappled with the frustration of customising investor decks during their initial fundraising efforts. The arduous task of managing different deck configurations not only wasted time but also led to confusion. This shared pain point crystallised into a vision for deckr—a solution that would enable effortless customisation and insightful analytics, turning the pitch deck process into a streamlined experience that fosters genuine connections with investors.
Interview with Saul Lotzof, CEO of deckr
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Saul Lotzof, the CEO of deckr, to discuss the innovative platform and its journey so far. Here’s what he had to say:
Q: Can you introduce yourself and your role at deckr?
A: I am Saul Lotzof, and I represent deckr as the CEO.
Q: What does deckr do?
A: deckr is designed to simplify the creation and customisation of pitch decks for startups and small businesses. We focus on solving the problem of data analytics and pitch deck optimisation. Users can upload their PDF presentations, customise them for different recipients, and share them via unique URLs. deckr then tracks viewer engagement, providing insights on slide views and time spent, helping users refine their presentations for maximum impact.
Q: Who is your target audience, and what primary problem does deckr solve for them?
A: Our target audience includes startups and small businesses that need to send off pitch decks. The primary problem we address is the hassle of sending different decks to different investors. Our platform combines a modular approach to deck-making with detailed analytics, showing users what works and what doesn’t.
Q: Can you tell us about the founding team of deckr?
A: deckr’s founding team is a dynamic trio, each bringing unique skills and experiences to drive the company’s success:
- Saul Lotzof – CEO: As the visionary behind deckr, I oversee the company’s strategic direction and growth, identifying market needs and translating them into actionable plans.
- Josh Wise – COO: Josh focuses on refining our internal processes to enhance productivity, ensuring day-to-day operations run smoothly and support scalability.
- Guy Nehushtan – CTO: Guy leads our technological advancements, ensuring our platform is secure, reliable, and user-friendly, leveraging his expertise in AI and cloud computing.
Q: What inspired you to venture into this industry?
A: Making decks for different investors was a headache during our first round of fundraising. We often lost track of the various configurations sent to different people. There was nothing that allowed for quick individualised deck creation and provided useful analytics, so we built deckr.
Q: Can you share some details about the early days of the startup?
A: During the development of one of deckr’s advanced features, we faced significant challenges with AI hallucinations. Our AI was supposed to generate personalised content for each deck but kept producing irrelevant information. After countless hours of testing and refining, we discovered a prompt structure that significantly improved the AI’s performance. This breakthrough highlighted our commitment to overcoming obstacles and delivering top-quality solutions.
Q: How does deckr differentiate itself from competitors?
A: What sets deckr apart is our unique approach to personalising and sharing presentation decks. We offer seamless customisation, allowing users to effortlessly personalise their PDF presentations for different recipients. Our AI enhances content personalisation and provides intelligent recommendations for improving presentation effectiveness. Additionally, our comprehensive analytics track viewer engagement in detail, empowering users to refine their presentations for maximum impact.
Q: What are deckr’s future plans?
A: deckr has exciting plans for the future, including developing advanced AI-driven tools for more personalised content recommendations and design enhancements. We plan to expand our analytics capabilities, offering deeper insights into audience behaviour. We are also working on integrating collaborative features for real-time team work on presentations. Additionally, we aim to enter new markets globally and explore partnerships and integrations with other productivity and communication tools.
Q: What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to start their own business?
A: Here are three key pieces of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:
- Embrace Resilience: Stay persistent and view each obstacle as a learning opportunity. Resilience and a positive mindset will help you navigate through tough times.
- Focus on Your Customers: Understand your target audience and their needs. Build your product or service around solving their problems and adding value to their lives.
- Build a Strong Team: Surround yourself with people who complement your skills and share your vision. A strong, dedicated team can propel your business forward and help you overcome challenges more effectively.
Feedough’s Take on deckr
In the dynamic startup ecosystem, deckr stands out as a game-changer for pitch deck creation. This platform promises a substantial decrease in the time and effort traditionally required, which is a significant boon for entrepreneurs focused on efficiency and effectiveness. The real-time analytics feature serves as its crown jewel, giving users a strategic advantage by understanding investor behaviour more deeply.
Looking ahead, deckr has the potential to disrupt traditional pitch-making entirely, especially with its innovative use of AI and a strong focus on user engagement. The challenge will be scaling while maintaining service quality, especially across diverse markets with different needs.
On the positive side, deckr’s approach could set a new standard in how startups engage with investors. In the future, expect this tool to evolve further, possibly incorporating more AI enhancements and expanding into new functionalities that streamline the early stages of startup funding. Deckr seems poised for success, provided they continue to adapt and innovate in the fast-paced tech landscape.
A startup consultant, digital marketer, traveller, and philomath. Aashish has worked with over 20 startups and successfully helped them ideate, raise money, and succeed. When not working, he can be found hiking, camping, and stargazing.