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Queerie is a courting app aimed particularly at LGBTQIA+ of us. It’s a really early-stage firm that’s elevating simply $300,000 — a spherical measurement that usually falls into the “family and friends” class.
Courting is a fiercely aggressive area, and there’s been a good quantity of M&A exercise through the years, so I used to be desperate to take a better look.
We’re on the lookout for extra distinctive pitch decks to tear down, so if you wish to submit your personal, right here’s how you are able to do that.
Slides on this deck
Queerie shared its full, unredacted, 13-slide pitch deck with TechCrunch.
- Cowl slide
- Cowl slide half 2
- Mission slide
- Downside slide
- Answer slide
- Market measurement slide
- The way it works slide
- Traction slide
- Competitors slide
- Crew slide
- Ask and Use of Funds slide
- 6-year (!) financials
- Contact slide
A few issues to like about Queerie’s pitch deck
The very first thing that struck me about Queerie’s deck is that it feels contemporary and enjoyable. The usage of language and graphics is clear, easy and interesting. An amazing start line for a shopper model!
Lead with the mission
[Slide 3] I really like a very good rallying cry. Picture Credit: Queerie
In case you’re attempting to make the world a greater place, you’re in all probability going to draw mission-aligned buyers. So why not spell out your mission entrance and middle? It’s a robust storytelling method that’s properly executed within the Queerie deck.
Discuss a hard-hitting downside
[Slide 4] That’s actually an issue value fixing. Picture Credit: Queerie
This downside slide gave me pause: It stood as a reminder that in numerous locations, isolation and psychological well being challenges are rife in queer areas.
The corporate is positioning itself much less as a courting app and extra as an answer for loneliness. Whether or not buyers will purchase it and whether or not this app is the fitting answer to the issues the corporate identifies are separate questions. What is definite, nonetheless, is that the issue Queerie outlines is one value fixing.
4 issues that Queerie might have improved
I actually need Queerie to exist, so it pains me to see that the way in which the corporate is pitching makes it basically unfundable.
Is that this the fitting crew?
I see no less than one courting app pitched each month, which is smart: Courting and discovering the fitting companion(s) is a crucial a part of many individuals’s lives, and it looks like such a straightforward factor to do higher than what’s presently on the market. The upshot is that many of those startups have founders with a lot of expertise within the courting world.
[Slide 10] Hi there Quuties. Picture Credit: Queerie
However the place are the ladies? For a corporation that’s constructing an “inclusivity-designed platform,” that looks like a little bit of an oversight.
There’s some fascinating expertise right here, however most people appear nearly too senior for this startup. I do know that’s a uncommon factor to complain about, however one of many CTOs has been a website reliability engineer at Google for 18 years. That’s a really specialised job, and whereas scaling an app like Queerie goes to be vital, I’m discovering myself doubting how a lot overlap there may be between scaling Google’s infrastructure and scaling a website like Queerie.
General, from studying the crew’s LinkedIn profiles and what’s on this slide, I discover myself concluding that they could be capable of construct a very good, well-functioning app with an amazing consumer expertise — however that isn’t sufficient to construct a profitable firm. There’s a large hole on the gross sales and advertising and marketing aspect, and there’s not numerous startup expertise throughout the crew both. If this slide might add a seasoned marketeer with shopper advertising and marketing app expertise, I feel the crew can be extra plausible proper out of the gate.
That is simply describing a courting app
I actually don’t perceive what this slide is attempting to perform:
[Slide 7] Sure, that’s a courting app. Picture Credit: Queerie
This slide is a little bit of a waste. It doesn’t present any of the key sauce for why Queerie goes to achieve success the place others have failed; there’s nothing new or modern right here.
Slides in a pitch deck ought to assist an investor resolve to speculate. If somebody reads the slide and it’s prone to be impartial (and even unfavourable), it’s finest overlooked.
That’s not traction
[Slide 8] This isn’t actually exhibiting traction. Picture Credit: Queerie
The corporate says it has a “closed model of the cell app,” however this 13-slide deck doesn’t embrace a single screenshot of the app. The corporate says it has 95 beta testers, which is nice, however that isn’t actually “traction.” Traction can be how these beta testers are interacting with the platform. Are they paying? What are the DAU/MAU (day by day/month-to-month lively customers) stats?
I’m scripting this on March 31, which is the final day of Q1 2024, so I’m confused why the corporate says it surveyed 3,000 folks in Q2 of 2024? The corporate additionally says it’s planning to develop the preliminary consumer base with “robust progress” in Q3, however then says it’s launching the app in June, which is in Q2. This isn’t an enormous deal, however it’s a little complicated.
Essentially not enterprise scale
This slide, which describes how shortly the corporate needs to develop, raises some pink flags.
[Slide 12] This isn’t a startup. Picture Credit: Queerie
After the primary yr, the corporate is just planning to spend $40,000 per yr on app improvement. That doesn’t even get a half-decent part-time developer. For a corporation that’s a tech startup, that’s a terrifying oversight: Is the corporate not planning to proceed to develop its apps?
The expansion right here is approach, approach too gradual. Elsewhere within the deck the corporate says it’s going to purchase 1,000 customers within the first half of 2024, however then it’s going to hit 20,000 month-to-month lively customers by the top of the yr. Then immediately the expansion drops to “merely” doubling in 2025, and doubling once more in 2026. For a hypergrowth early-stage startup, these numbers are terrible. Startups usually need to be rising 10% week-over-week within the early phases. In case you begin with 1,000 customers, after a yr of 10% week-on-week progress, you ought to be at round 130,000 customers:
10% week-on-week progress with a 1,000 consumer foundation seems like this. Picture Credit: TechCrunch / Haje Kamps
Even worse, nonetheless, with the present six-year financials, Queerie is planning on doing slightly below $10 million of income in 2029. That’s fairly dismal and signifies that the founders don’t have a very aggressive progress plan in place. Its personal numbers present that it solely expects about 15% of its prospects to be paying $8 monthly.
Elsewhere within the deck, the corporate says, “Our cell app will enable us to broaden to extra cities as we increase extra capital,” which is superior, however the monetary overview doesn’t present extra fundraising taking place within the enterprise, so it’s unclear when or how a lot the corporate is planning to boost.
In a nutshell, this slide exhibits that Queerie may very well be a fairly profitable life-style enterprise, however I worry that no buyers would go anyplace close to this as an funding; it’s too unambitious, and it exhibits that the corporate’s founders don’t perceive what is anticipated of them as startup founders.
The complete pitch deck
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