Originally a Facebook the group started during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown where people used to cook healthy meals for others nearby, HomeCooks it has now evolved into a comprehensive marketplace for chefs. It facilitates the entire process for its chefs, from cooking to delivery, and offers over 200 meal options. The company recently raised $3.2 million in crowdfunding on Seedrs.
Positioning itself as the ‘Etsy of food’, HomeCooks has grown rapidly and today serves around 7,000 customers. Let’s see how she told her crowdfunding campaign story.
Quick spoiler alert here: At 25 slides, this deck is pretty big, but it’s also one of the best pitch decks I’ve seen in a hot minute.
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It slides into this deck
The company shared its 25-slide deck in its entirety, with no corrections or edits. Here’s how it gets away:
- Cover transparency
- Shipping transparency
- “The Etsy of Food” slide.
- How it works for eaters transparency
- How it works for transparent food creators
- Revenue and traction metrics are falling
- Interstitial transparency problem
- Problem for transparency of eaters
- A problem for the transparency of food creators
- Solution transparency for food creators
- Market size transparency
- Competitive transparency
- Competitive advantage transparency
- Food residue transparency
- Business model transparency for food creators
- Food creator development transparency
- Business model transparency
- Product transparency
- User acquisition transparency
- Group transparency
- Transparency of plan/use of funds
- Declining revenue growth and expansion plan
- Close interstitial slide
- Social impact transparency
- Close slide
Three things to love
This isn’t a perfect pitch deck, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t incredibly good. Here are some of the highlights:
Threading the market needle
There are So many reasons why purchases are exhaustingly difficult to recover. First and foremost, markets require a large number of buyers and sellers to be successful. However, attracting sellers without a substantial buyer base, and vice versa, is a significant challenge best described as a “chicken and egg” problem. Also, managing the balance between supply and demand can be difficult: Too much supply can lead to low prices and unhappy sellers, while too little can frustrate buyers. This balance must be constantly monitored and managed.
In this deck, HomeCooks shows they’ve figured out how to make this work.
[Slide 17] HomeCooks argues that audiences scale with supply. Normally, I’d call BS, but the numbers back up their claims. Image credits: HomeCooks
A sustainability angle
Well, OK…
[Slide 14] Yass! Image credits: HomeCooks
Just a few weeks ago, I talked about how the founders don’t seem to feel like emphasizing sustainability in their pitch decks, which is why I was so happy to see HomeCooks take another turn.
I’m not 100% sure really believe These claims – home cooks are often quite wasteful and 5% doesn’t really sound like much that a lot of waste. Beyond that, I loved how the company effortlessly weaves a sustainability story into its fundraising narrative.
One hell of a team
Buried all the way back on slide 20, the company pulls a surprise out of the hat:
[Slide 20] Good . . . Dime! This is impressive! Image credit: HomeCooks
Founder-market fit is the name of the game here. Because it is you the right team to make this happen? This is what it looks like in action: A founder backed by a team with in-depth experience of relevant industries, as well as advisors and investors who really understand the market.
Well done.
In the rest of this teardown, we’ll take a look at three things HomeCooks could have improved or done differently, along with their full pitch deck!
