Pitch Deck Guide › Competition Slide
Competition Slide
Learn how to build a winning competition slide for your pitch deck with this step-by-step guide.
Table of Contents
- What is an competition slide?
- How to create an competition slide
- Examples of real competition slides
Prefer watching over reading? Watch the video below for a guided tutorial from a VC-backed founder.
As a rule, every startup must have some form of competition. Even if your startup is pioneering an entirely novel category or targeting an unfilled gap in the market, your customers are likely already using some alternative or combination of point solutions to solve the same pain points. If there’s a viable market for your product / service, chances are some form of point solutions are already serving that segment. The competition slide serves to demonstrate how existing systems fall short, or why the status quo is inefficient or outdated.
Instead of thinking of competitors as a hurdle, founders should perceive them as an opportunity to showcase differentiation. Hotels and resorts were a billion-dollar industry when Airbnb launched its services in 2008, yet they disrupted the whole category. Uber did the same for taxi cabs and ridesharing.
A good example of a competition slide is Airbnb‘s “magic quadrant” diagram, shown below: the axes are labelled based on the two most valuable propositions for the business’s end-users, with logos of several competing companies plotted within the quadrants.
Another common alternative is to group your competitors and list their comparative disadvantages in a simple columnar layout (as seen below from our Hardware pitch deck template).
Regardless of the visualization you choose, the first step to securing funding for your startup is to convince investors you have a real edge over your competitors.
Use our proven pitch deck template, crafted by the pros.
Instructions
How to create a competition slide for your pitch deck
Follow along with this brief guide for what you should include in your pitch deck’s competition slide:
1. Content of the competition slide
- List of direct (and indirect) competitors, or comparable successes
- The unique selling proposition (USP) for end-users & customers
- How your startup is differentiated (competitive advantage)
- (Optional): Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats (SWOT analysis)
2. Questions the competition slide should address
- Who are your competitors?
- Even if you don’t have direct competitors, how do customers currently solve the problem? What are the old-school / ineffective solutions?
- How is your solution superior? What are your differentiators?
- Why would customers choose your solution over competitors?
- What is your startup’s unique selling proposition(s) and competitive advantages?
3. Common competition slide blunders
- Stating there is no competition (any successful business will have competitors: ie. Uber vs. taxis, Airbnb vs. hotels)
- Oversimplified or over-optimistic analysis (ie. magic quadrant with no competitors in the top-right)
- Failing to present compelling differentiators and advantages to existing solutions
- Ignoring how your startup will acquire customer more effectively than larger incumbents
4. Design tips for competition slides
- Use logos instead of text for competitor names, grayscale or black-and-white (to avoid color conflicts)
- Leverage checklists & diagrams to showcase your differentiators
- Choose clear, readable fonts and colors
- Keep it concise & to-the-point (see Guy Kawasaki‘s 10/20/30 rule)
Inspiration from the experts
Example pitch deck competition slides from Airbnb, Uber, Bolt & more
An effective competition slide should present all the information about your competition in an easy-to-understand visual format to convince investors why you have an edge. Whether you choose a tried-and-true visualization (such as the magic quadrant or petal diagram) or stick to a simple columnar layout or features table, the key is to make your advantage obvious & compelling.
At the same time, founders should avoid the urge to oversimplify: an over-optimistic competition slide can detract more than it adds to your pitch.
Below are some examples of winning competition slides from pitch decks for household names like Airbnb, Uber, and Sequoia Capital:
AirBnB Competition Slide: Airbnb raised $600K in pre-seed funding with this deck. Their competition slide used a simple 4-quadrant diagram to show how Airbnb stood out from other hotels and hostels by combining affordability with online booking.
Authoritive Competition Slide: Using a simple 4-petal diagram, Authoritive’s competition slide shows how it combines four key elements of the creator economy in one platform. Their deck helped the startup raise $5M in seed funding.
Trym Competition Slide: Cannabis farm management software company, Trym, closed a $3.1M seed round using this pitch deck. Their competition slide uses a 4-quadrant diagram to show its unique position in the market.
Origyn Competition Slide: Origyn raised $20M in its first funding round. Their competition slide uses a simple graph to position the company as the leader in secure transactions and traceability.
Bolt Competition Slide: Bolt used this pitch deck to raise $393M in Series D funding for their innovative payment processing company. Their competition slide includes a single comparison chart highlight Bolt’s advantages.
Copy.ai Competition Slide: Copy.ai raised $11M in Series A funding using this pitch deck. Their competition slide shows how their product supports users across the entire business journey.
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