There are two industries that make a lot of money, but have traditionally been largely ignored by venture capital — movies and gaming. This comes as a bit of a surprise to many: Venture capitalists are known for their keen eye for high-growth opportunities, primarily banking on technology startups, healthcare innovations and the next big thing in the digital realm. But Deadline reports that Movies grossed $33.9 billion last yearand Global gaming revenue was $184 billion, according to Newzoo. However, the proposition of investing in movies introduces venture capitalists into a landscape far removed from the quantifiable metrics of SaaS platforms or the relatively predictable risk of biotech.
Games and movies are hit or miss, and that’s the kind of unpredictability rarely embraced by traditional venture capital theses.
I’m always particularly curious about pitch decks in the gaming industry, so when SuperScale threw his hat in the ring, I was thrilled. The company promises to make marketing for games easier, and since great marketing is one of the critical differences between a good result and a great success, it tickled my curiosity nerve in the most pleasant way.
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It slides into this deck
The company submitted a 22-slide deck, but “details of customers and customer case studies where we did not receive approval for distribution have been redacted,” according to the company.
- Cover transparency
- Problematic transparency
- Solution transparency
- Macro market size forecast transparency
- Market size forecast transparency
- Market Size Transparency (2027)
- Targeted customer transparency
- Intermediate platform transparency
- How transparency works
- Market segmentation transparency
- Business model transparency
- Transparency of case studies
- Competitive landscape slide
- Business plan slide
- 5-year program summary slide
- The Ask slide
- Fund utilization summary slide
- Summary slide
- Group transparency
- Appendix slide
- Transparency about company history
- Closure/contact transparency
Three things to love about SuperScale’s pitch deck
The SuperScale has an incredibly sleek look that gets to the point. Twenty-two slides might seem like a lot (the optimal length for a slide deck is about 16 slides these days), but there are a few interstitial slides and an appendix in it, and those don’t really count.
Let’s take a look at some of the things that actually work.
Making your own market
[Slide 5] This will definitely catch the eye of investors. Image Credits: SuperScale
Gaming is a huge market and investors need no convincing. The question, then, is how to get a slice of this very tasty digital pie. SuperScale makes some interesting leaps of faith here: The numbers are predictions for 2027, rather than talking about the numbers today. But that slide comes on deck early. If SuperScale can make a strong case for how it will be part of the machine that increases games by 10%, that is very interesting indeed.
It is bold and brazen storytelling. Of course, the company is now preparing to have to share a plan and show revenue, but it’s a good way to get investors interested right away.
A new lease on life
[Slide 7] SuperScale promises to go after two markets. Image credits: SuperScale
As a game optimization company, SuperScale has an interesting approach, and this simple slide makes a smart promise: What if we could massively increase the profitability of a game that’s already out there? SuperScale’s model aims, in part, to breathe new life into these games at a stage in the game release cycle where every dollar that comes in is basically a bonus. The deck doesn’t make a big deal out of it, but I can see it being a really powerful sales technique for game studios — and if it’s successful with legacy games (essentially risk-free), wouldn’t it be smart to incorporate SuperScale into new games as well?
It’s extremely smart, and investors will be able to see that too.
This is how you make a summary
Aside from the design and almost unreadable text, the content of this slide is great:
[Slide 18] Absolutely yes. Image credits: SuperScale
I love a good summary slide. Give investors all the thinking and talking points they need to get excited about an investment. It’s a great approach.
Three things SuperScale could have improved
Overall, this is one of the best pitch decks I’ve seen, but there are a few things that made me go “hmm”.
Wait, how big is your team?
When a company raises around $5 million, I usually expect a team of 10 to 15. This team slide was a bit of a surprise:
[Slide 19] This is a great group. Image credits: SuperScale
Putting this slide at the end of the deck makes me question the seriousness of this startup. If he has five business units and 70+ team members, he discards the remaining deck members. There is a transparency of questions, but no fixed use of funds. You can’t sustain a team of 70 people without making a significant income. The company spends so much time talking about 2027 and its five-year plans, yet it completely discloses how much money it makes.
There is some information about revenue, but only in the form of case studies:
[Slide 12] Blink and you’ll miss it, but this slide includes some critical business metrics. Image credits: SuperScale
Did you spot it? SuperScale won $6 million from EA, Zynga and Fingersoft. And an additional $1.5 million from NimbleBit.
This is impressive, but it is a terrible way to demonstrate this level of grip. A proper traction slide will show these numbers not as totals, but as revenue graphs that show how much and how fast revenue is growing over time.
Why is SuperScale fundraising?
It’s confusing because the company rakes in about $5 million when it gets its revenue numbers right.
[Slide 16] What? Image credits: SuperScale
This slide makes almost no sense. On slide 12, the company noted that it had $7.5 million worth of revenue from case study customers alone. How many customers are there? We do not know. How much is the total revenue? I have no idea. And what does he plan to do with the money? Well, there’s a slide for that:
[Slide 17] An increase for a five-year catwalk? Image credits: SuperScale
This slide has no value. The company says it’s building an M&A engine, suggesting it plans to acquire the rights to legacy games and possibly develop them. That’s great and all, but there has to be a specific plan for it.
There are also internal inconsistencies here: It says it needs $5 million to hit the targets, but then says it will have “followed organic investment” through reinvesting profits.
In the M&A space, $5 million is hardly any money, so now I’m very curious as to what the acquisition targets would be and how the company assumes these acquisitions will work towards its ultimate path.
Tell a coherent story!
SuperScale, upon first reading, seemed like such a fantastic investment opportunity, but as I started pushing and shoving through the deck, it made less and less sense to me. The company seems to want to acquire other companies (or are they toys?). It has 70 people on staff but only raises $5 million. She doesn’t share her past successes, nor how she plans to find the future success she needs.
I think a much better way to tell this story, overall, would be to have an end-to-end story, told consistently:
- We bought game A for $B.
- We invested C$ in development infrastructure for the game.
- We invested $D in marketing for the game.
- Revenue for the game went from $E to $F after only investing $C+D.
- As you can see, we made $X on this project and we predict that this book will work on games that have this specific profile.
- We want to build a portfolio of 30 games, so we raise 30*($B+$C+$C), after that it becomes a self-sustaining business with a repeatable playbook and business model.
That The story would make sense to investors.
The full field
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