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Pitch Deck

Pitch Deck

By Nick Telson

Pitch Deck is hosted by Nick Telson, founder of DesignMyNight, that he sold for over $30m in 2020. He is now co-founder at Horseplay Ventures; a startup playground.

A startup founder has 5 minutes to pitch their business to Nick and guest Angel Investors/Mentors. They then all discuss the pitch and the business itself, asking questions an Investor would ask in a real pitch. The guest Angel and Nick then discuss what they make of the business and investment opportunity.

🌐 Top 5 Global Business Podcast
🚀 Top 3 UK Business Podcast
🧠 Top 3 UK Entrepreneurial Podcast

@pitchdeckpod
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Series 3 Trailer

Pitch DeckApr 29, 2021

00:00
01:33
Something new coming soon...
Nov 22, 202300:47
S5 Ep19 - Jay Radia - Mega Founder & Angel Investor
Mar 16, 202327:41
S5 Ep18 - Reece Chowdhry - Founding Partner Concept Ventures
Mar 08, 202325:42
S5 Ep17 - Christer Holloman - Angel / Founder Dividio & EIR at HSBC
Feb 22, 202317:53
S5 Ep16 - Amory Pouldon - Double Down Ventures
Feb 15, 202318:02
S5 Ep15 - Novo Constare - Exited Founder & Angel Investor
Dec 14, 202216:17
S5 Ep14 - Henry De Zoete - Exited Founder, Dragon's Den Alumni, 50+ Angel Deals
Nov 24, 202219:11
S5 Ep13 - Rupa Popat - Prolific Angel and Entrepreneur

S5 Ep13 - Rupa Popat - Prolific Angel and Entrepreneur

Rupa is an entrepreneur, angel investor and senior advisor to corporates, government and private equity.

She has started several businesses over the last decade across the property, media and technology industries.

She is an active angel investor in under-represented founders with 24+ company investments and an LP in five venture capital funds run by diverse partners.

She was recognised in 2021 as Top 20 Female Angel Investors in the U.K. by the Angel Business Association and is also a board advisor for several early-stage VCs, a board member of YPO, a founding member of the Guild of Entrepreneurs and a mentor on the Mayor of London's Business Growth Programme.

Nov 16, 202221:58
Summer Break

Summer Break

I'll be taking a quick summer break and will be back in September with some more great guests.

Jul 29, 202200:18
S5 Ep12 - Eamonn Carey - Tera Ventures
Jul 07, 202220:56
S5 Ep11 - Hannah Seal - Index Ventures
Jun 30, 202219:10
S5 Ep10 - Dan Murray-Serter - Angel Investor/Founder Heights
Jun 09, 202223:32
S5 Ep9 - Millen Wolde-Selassie - Octopus Ventures
Jun 02, 202221:22
S5 Ep8 - Alex Macdonald - Angel Investor / Founder Velocity Black
May 19, 202220:00
S5 Ep7 - Gemma Bloemen - Creandum
May 12, 202220:38
S5 Ep6 - Saasha Celestial-One - Angel Investor/Founder Olio
May 05, 202219:31
S5 Ep5 - Maya Moufarek - Angel Investor/Marketing Cube/Xoogler
Apr 28, 202222:34
S5 Ep4 - Pietro Invernizzi - Stride VC
Apr 21, 202222:38
S5 Ep3 - Matt Smith - Angel Investor/Professional Footballer
Apr 19, 202218:41
S5 Ep2 - Nikhil Shah - Angel Investor/Founder Mixcloud
Apr 14, 202221:43
S5 Ep1 - Deepali Nangia - Speedinvest
Apr 12, 202216:03
Series 5 - Intro to new format

Series 5 - Intro to new format

Nick has taken a far too long hiatus but is back for Series 5! Here he reveals a new format for Series 5 which will give listeners a tonne of bite-sized, useful takeaways from leading angel investors and early-stage VCs. The plan for this series is to pump out a lot more content but in smaller chunks; 15-20 minutes per episode.

Series 5 sponsored by trumpet - https://www.sendtrumpet.com/

Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/

Jan 25, 202201:09
#26 Circl - Social betting experience for everyone

#26 Circl - Social betting experience for everyone

I was joined by the inspirational Andrew Wilkinson, founder of Tiny; he started product and branding agency Meta Lab in 2006 and was responsible for some of our most-loved and used companies such as Slack, UberEats, Coinbase, Pinterest and Headspace, to name a few. He then used MetaLab's profits to purchase other companies that have solid revenues, are designed well, have a great culture, and are profitable, which he knew he could rocket ship. Tiny now owns circa 30 companies, the likes of designer platform dribbble and the largest remote work community in the world, WeWork Remotely. Tiny has never relied on outside funding until recently where it launched a $150m fund to buy more businesses and for their own company WeCommerce, which has raised $60m, which is now on the Canadian stock exchange with a market cap of circa $1bn - WeCommerce buys and builds businesses that sit solely on the Shopify ecosystem.

We listened to the pitch from Will, founder of Circl, which is looking to bring the concept of social betting to the masses. The concept being a group of friends form a Circl, put money in the pot then dependent on what happens in a sports match, the pot moves around the Circl...eg. A throw in, the pot moves clockwise two steps, a red card the pot moves anti-clockwise 4 steps etc...whoever has the pot at the end of the match takes it all. Circl is looking to bring the fun back into betting and make it a social activity, rather than something that's done in isolation and in excess. 

Andrew and I dug down on go-to-market strategy, where the concept could go beyond sport, the complications of the betting market and the team around Will. 


Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/
Circl - https://www.playcircl.com/
Tiny - https://www.tinycapital.com/



Jul 14, 202152:08
#25 Vesta Kids - Changing the way children engage online

#25 Vesta Kids - Changing the way children engage online

I was joined by Gemma Bloemen; Gemma was the Chief Operating Officer at Elder Technologies, a Series B health tech startup for the past 3.5 years, where she helped the company scale from 20 to 120 people and raise a series B in 2019. She has been an angel investor for the past two years and is very interested in Healthtech, Marketplaces, Agetech, Silver economy and Sustainability. 80% of her investments have been in female founders. Previously, Gemma was a senior manager at Uber in the UK where she co-chaired Women of Uber in 2017, and before that she was a consultant at McKinsey. Gemma left Elder this summer and has joined Creandum as an investment principal. Creandum is a pan European early-stage VC fund, having invested in companies like Spotify, Trade Republic and Depop. Gemma covers the London market and is focused on both B2C and B2B technology businesses.

Pitching to us was Charlotte Melia, founder of Vesta Kids, a B2B2C subscription web platform and app providing educational, safe & active content for working parents and their wider families. Looking to sell the platform as a "perk" to companies to be able to provide their employees with kids with a video library and live, high-production content that they can get active with, learn and have fun. There is also a large emphasis on producing content that allows neuro-diverse children and neuro-typical children to play and learn together rather than being segregated. The founding team already have a successful events business that puts on bespoke events for the super-rich, so they come with a lot of expertise in production.

We dug down on competing with big boys such as Netflix and Disney, being able to keep production values high, will online learning remain the norm post covid and the B2B2C vs B2C model. 

Jul 07, 202147:39
#24 GoCaptain - Fintech helping Gen Z to learn to drive

#24 GoCaptain - Fintech helping Gen Z to learn to drive

Please Note: The brand name has changed since recording from Captain Compare to GoCaptain

I'm joined by Chris Smith, Managing Partner at Playfair Capital. He focuses his investing activities on seed (and pre-seed) deals in the UK and Israel. Chris is particularly interested in autonomous transportation, business and industrial automation, HealthTech and B2B SaaS. He loves finding companies operating in unloved/overlooked sectors that are ripe for disruption.

Prior to joining Playfair, Chris held senior roles at plan.com including Sales Director, Head of Tech/BI and Head of Product Development. Revenues 

Playfair was founded in 2013 and has made 78 investments with 4 exits to date. Since Chris joined in November 2018, he has led 9 new investments, 3 of which have gone on to raise subsequent rounds so far, and we actually have one investment together into Heka a B2B employee well-being saas product and marketplace.

We listened to the pitch from Abraham Sillah, co-founder of GoCaptain, which is looking to help GenZ pay for driving lessons and get them to pass the test quicker: Get driving lesson finance without affecting the applicants credit score enabling them to learn to drive much quicker than the average learner, by booking an intensive driving course with an instructor and learn to drive under 7/14 days.

We really dug deep on the go-to-market strategy, proving the real need for the business, early startup team structures and understanding your numbers.


Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/
GoCaptain - https://www.gocaptain.co.uk/
Playfair Capital - https://playfaircapital.com/

Jun 30, 202143:04
#23 Fugo - The future of managing digital screens

#23 Fugo - The future of managing digital screens

I'm joined by Timothy Armoo, who is the CEO/Founder of Fanbytes and recently named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for his achievements in Media and Marketing; making the front cover no less! Timo has also been voted the Huffington Post Entrepreneur of the Year and most “Influential person in advertising” from the Evening Standard. Fanbytes is recognised as the leading GenZ marketing agency with over 60 employees and working with the likes of the Government, on some corona campaigns, Deliveroo, McDonalds and Nike. Huffington Post saying that he is creating the WPP of GenZ. Timo has also used his influence to build the Fanbytes fund which invests and funds influencer campaigns for black businesses, which aims to shine a light on, and act on, a lack of support and funding for black-owned businesses.

We listened to the pitch from Camilla Chesham, co-founder of Fugo, who are looking to disrupt the content management solutions for digital screens. Think of all the digital screens you come across in your daily life...in restaurants, shop windows, hotel receptions, public attractions...the list goes on. Fugo is looking to replace the archaic way of managing these, which in a lot of cases is still a USB stick. Fugo content management system allows central head office to create and push relevant content to the relevant screens at the right times; all managed centrally.

We really dug on go to market strategies, focus as founders, focus when selling and future opportunities

Jun 23, 202150:22
#22 Nuw - Tokenisation of swapping pre-loved clothes

#22 Nuw - Tokenisation of swapping pre-loved clothes

I was thrilled to be joined by guest investor, Alex Dunsdon. Alex was previously head of central strategy and business development director for M&C Saatchi. He was also co-founder of thebakery.com from Dec 2012 to Jan 2020, which enables corporates to drive meaningful innovation, as well as creating partnerships with startups. Alex moved on to be chief of staff at Redbrain, one of Europe's fastest-growing companies, helping them transform from startup to scaleup. Currently, Alex set up, and is partner at, Saatchi invest and is LP for Potential Climate Ventures who want to have a global scale impact on the climate - currently invested in and advising over 130 companies. Alex also set up Potential, which is set up to help the 7bn people in the world who have talent but no opportunity. Their mission is to find, foster and fund crazy, unusual, and innovative startups. Alex was also a seed cheque investor into Citymapper, Farewill and Ometria, as well as circa 20 other companies.

Alex is also very keen on cryptocurrency so we bent his year at the start of the episode on all things Bitcoin and beyond.

We listened to the pitch from Aisling Byrne, founder of Nuw, who are looking to help their users reduce the environmental impact of fashion, and gain unlimited access to the community’s shared wardrobe. While there are other fashion swapping/2nd hand fashion sites out there, Nuw have used a unique token system to ensure users trade the same quality of clothes, while taking money out of the whole equation. They have some very positive early traction including high repeat usage rates and are raising funds to help scale the product and market with the aim of having 12m active users over the next 3-5 years. 

We dug deep on scaling a marketplace, the revenue model, subscriptions, competition and feasibility of scaling the userbase so quickly.


Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/
Nuw - https://www.thenuwardrobe.com/
Alex Dunsdon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexdunsdon/


Jun 16, 202146:21
#21 Kalda - Mental well-being app solely for LGBT+ community

#21 Kalda - Mental well-being app solely for LGBT+ community

I'm joined by legendary west coast angel investor, Zach Coelius. Zach is a 4-time entrepreneur and his last company, Triggit was acquired by Gravity4 in 2015. From then on, Zach has become one of the most revered angel investors in the US with circa 50 investments to his name and 80 invested in total. He currently invests $200K-$1m cheques into early-stage companies and $2-$5m cheques into later-stage ones. Zach uses 3 vehicles for investing; a $45m fund with Industry Ventures as the sole LP; a friends and family Rolling Fund that invests alongside the main fund; and his own syndicate on Angel List that has over 3000 members and was actually the first syndicate on Angel List to get a billion-dollar exit when General Motors bought Cruise Automation in 2016. The syndicate has had 6 exits in total including Hello Sign who were acquired by Dropbox in 2019 for $230m.

We listened to the pitch from Daniel Botcherby, co-founder of Kalda; the world's first mental well-being app specifically for the LGBT+ community. In Beta stage, Kalda is looking to bring together members of the LGBT+ community who are struggling with their mental health and provide group therapy sessions, daily check-ins, peer support as well as fixed courses people can go on. 1 in 2 people in the LGBT+ community have suffered some form of anxiety/depression in the last year, 3x the general population. Due to NHS wait times, high prices for individual therapy and stigma that LGBT+ people feel from a therapist not from their community, Kalda is looking to bring people together and at the same time democratise mental health services, making it affordable, easy to access, instant and being surrounded by peers and therapists from the same community. 

Zach prefers to engage in a more general conversation, rather than a grilling, so we had a chat more broadly about the market in general, expansion plans, future product roadmap and aspirations, competitors and the merits/risks of going after a niche. Some super insightful things highlighted by Zach as well as a very competent founder in Daniel. 


Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/
Kalda - https://kalda.co/
Zach Twitter - https://twitter.com/zachcoelius


Jun 09, 202153:43
#20 Hello Lamp Post - Would you talk to a bus stop or park bench?

#20 Hello Lamp Post - Would you talk to a bus stop or park bench?

I'm joined by Pietro Invernizzi, first cheque investor at Stride.VC, who recently closed their second $138m seed fund and have recently officially launched the First Check Programme, where they are looking to back up to 20 teams straight out the gate as their first supporter, regardless of how early they are.

Pietro started his career as an investment banking analyst in London before moving into the startup world where he joined The Family, the "coolest" place if you want to build a startup in France. Whilst there, he spent a ton of time working really closely with founders, helping them with all the 100s of questions they ask themselves when building a company, particularly around fundraising. In this context, he started 'angel investing'  into the founders he was most excited by. He quickly realised that investing was his passion and so decided to join the now notorious Stride VC in June 2020, focusing on their early-stage investment.

We listened to the pitch from Tiernan Mines, founder of Hello Lamp Post - looking to reimagine how local governments and councils engage with their community for feedback and ideas. By turning inanimate objects like bus stops, lamp posts and park benches into an engaging SMS conversation, the council can ask for, gather and analyse feedback from locals. The same can go for real estate developers, museums, stadia etc...any public space that wants to engage with its customers or locals.

We dug down on the "why", the importance of their own tech, their true moat as a business and defining a true market opportunity. 

Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/
Hello Lamp Post - https://www.hlp.city/
Stride.VC - https://stride.vc/

Jun 02, 202145:28
#19 Salmo - Digitising the visa application process

#19 Salmo - Digitising the visa application process

I'm joined by legendary investor and Forbes acclaimed, "Queen of UK VC", Eileen Burbidge. Eileen is a Partner at Passion Capital, the legendary early-stage tech venture fund with the likes of Monzo, Tide, Nested, Butternut Box & Marshmallow under their belts and is actually a Board Director with Monzo as well as being super involved with a lot of the other portfolio companies too.

Eileen started her career in Silicon Valley, working for the likes of Apple, Yahoo!, and Sun Microsystems. In 2004 she moved to London to become one of Skype’s earliest employees. In 2011, Eileen became founding partner of Passion.

She is also a member of the board of Dixons Carphone, and awarded an MBE in 2015 for services to Business.

We listened to the pitch from Amber Perng, founder of Salmo - looking to digitise, speed up and make cheaper the visa application process, of which there are 1.5m a year in the UK. Based on her own experience having to get a visa after studying in the UK, Amber realised lawyers were charging £4K to fill out forms on your behalf and not much else...it could be better. 

We really dug on the tech importance of a business such as this, the genuine TAM, reaching that target market, the potential to sell more products to the visa customers and whether they are the team to execute. It also brought up an interesting parallel between Eileen (VC) and my (Angel) take on the investment prospects.

Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/
Salmo - https://www.salmo.uk/
Playfair Capital - https://www.passioncapital.com/

May 26, 202148:37
Series 3 Trailer

Series 3 Trailer

Super excited to announce that Series 3 will be launching soon. Series 3 is going to be the biggest yet, with some of the world's biggest and most renowned Angel Investors, VCs and Mentors, listening to pitches from some incredibly exciting startups. Listen to the trailer for Series 3 to see who we have lined up...it's going to be a banger of a Series! 

Apr 29, 202101:33
#18 The Bunch - From professional rugby player to shared accommodation software

#18 The Bunch - From professional rugby player to shared accommodation software

Jan 12, 202143:48
#17 Mini Mealtimes - A dietician in your pocket
Jan 05, 202143:23
#16 Chatable - The future of focused hearing?

#16 Chatable - The future of focused hearing?

Guest Angel is Saloni Bhojwani who has moved from operator to investor. Saloni was a management consultant at Deloitte for 3 years followed by doing an MBA at London Business School to then being a strategy lead at startup Zebra Fuel. She has since moved into the world of angel investing independently as well as at Founders Factory. Saloni is also recently the founder of Sie; a capital platform that supports the most promising female founders on their fundraising journey. Their ultimate goal is to close the gender funding gap by providing female founders with better access to capital, network, and support.

We listened to the pitch by Giles from Chatable Apps; previously an app that, via Bluetooth to your headphones, helped those with hearing loss or hearing difficulties especially in busy environments, that has now pivoted to help those with learning/concentration difficulties including autism and ADD including an actual wearable to be offered via national health services. 

This episode is a super interesting deep dive into understanding/judging a pitch where the Angels don't have much knowledge, wearable hardware vs app subscription, the risk/reward of relying on health services as your go-to market strategy and different pricing models. A really interesting vertical, a well-informed founder and some brilliant Angel questions. 

Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/
Chatable - https://chatableapps.com/
Sie - https://www.sie.ventures/

Dec 22, 202042:60
#15 Kieka - Beat the crowds and beat the queues
Dec 15, 202054:35
#14 Othership/WeCoffee - The future of remote working

#14 Othership/WeCoffee - The future of remote working

Guest Angel, Alex Macdonald is founder of Velocity Black, the leading global digital concierge service. Velocity Black is now on Series C, operates in 70+ countries and has been one of the fastest-growing companies in the UK over the last few years. Alex made his first angel investment 5 years ago that exited last year for a 26x return and now reinvests the gains in early-stage, seed and pre-seed tech investments, with a particular interest in marketplaces. 

Alex joins me to listen to, and question, Benjamin's pitch, Othership; previously called WeCoffee. Set up well before the Corona pandemic, Othership aimed to help freelancers find workspaces wherever they may be; in unused spaces such as hotels, pubs, restaurants, event spaces etc...for a small monthly fee they could get access to this large vetted marketplace across the UK. Corona and the boom of working from home has come at a good time for Othership as they accelerate growth, redefine their business model, take advantage of multiple new opportunities and build a strong community. With other competitors out there, both indirect and direct, are Othership the ones to steal this space? We really drill down on the marketplace model, how tricky it can be to master, and different business model directions. With Alex's wealth of experience in this field and myself building and selling a marketplace startup, this episode is a must for you marketplace founders (and beyond).

Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/
Othership - https://othership.com/
Velocity Black - https://velocity.black/

Dec 08, 202050:38
#13 Oja - Just Eat for ethnic food supermarkets
Dec 02, 202046:47
#12 Send Music - Radio 1 Producer spots a pain point
Dec 02, 202039:18
Series 2 Intro & Release Date
Nov 30, 202000:58
Did they raise their round? Summary Episode #1

Did they raise their round? Summary Episode #1

In this short episode we look back at 4 of the startups that featured in Series 1, to see:

- Did they raise their round?

- Did Horseplay Ventures invest in their round?

- How has the company been progressing?

- Is there anything the Pitch Deck community can do to help them?


The startups featured in this episode are:

👶 Mamamade - D2C baby food brand

🧠 Heights - D2C brain supplement brand

🛴 Zwings - B2B/B2G turnkey e-mobility solution

💳 Mintago - B2B financial well-being platform


Oct 13, 202008:08
#11 Honest Mobile - The Bulb/Monzo of phone companies
Sep 21, 202041:08
#10 Just Wears - D2C Underwear brand with balls
Sep 14, 202040:31
#9 Wholey Moly - The first ever healthy cookie
Aug 31, 202035:25
#8 Vibio - Bringing Sex Toys into the 21st Century
Aug 25, 202040:02
#7 Sellar - B2B software, selling craft drinks into hospitality
Aug 17, 202038:34
#6 Wayfare - The Klarna of Travel
Aug 11, 202050:04
#5 Zwings - B2B & B2G E-Scooter/Bike Brand
Aug 03, 202052:28
#4 Mintago - SaaS Employee Financial Well-Being
Jul 27, 202046:27
#3 Mamamade - D2C Baby Food Brand

#3 Mamamade - D2C Baby Food Brand

Guest Angel Henry Allan, UK GM of mega D2C brand Hims, joins me to listen to and question Sophie Baron's pitch, Mamamade. Sophie was disenchanted with the quality and convenience of good baby food available so she decided to hit the kitchen and experiment. Selling her meals to friends and family, Sophie then decided to take it to the masses. Already growing to over £100K revenue a year, having spent zero money, Sophie is raising her first round looking to grow the brand and presence of Mamamade. Can she compete with other huge brands such as Allplants or is her niche and community within the baby good sector her moat? With the expertise of Henry, this is a great deep-dive into D2C branding, KPI measures and how to market a new D2C brand. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Mamamade - https://mamamadefood.com/ Hims - https://www.forhims.com/

Jul 20, 202047:09
#2 Lirica - Learning Languages With Pop Songs
Jul 13, 202044:43