Analyzing pitch decks from 5 popular companies right now

Published: 03/03/2026
6 minutes read

Analyzing pitch decks from 5 popular companies right now

Published: 03/03/2026
6 minutes read

Writing pitch decks requires a deep understanding of storytelling. Without a good story, the whole idea is dead in the water.

A good story needs to impress. To inspire. Or to identify a core problem almost no one has seen before. But when you start talking about it, suddenly it all makes sense.

So, how do you make a story good? There are rules to it, but rules can often be broken if the result is better than what you’ll get with rules. How can you know that? Easy; if the story you’re telling makes people listen to you, you may have struck gold.

So, the first obstacle – make people listen. The easiest way to do this is to have a great hook that reels people in. Here are hooks from today’s popular companies and what they said first to make investors listen.

ElevenLabs - the Problem-Agitation-Solution formula done right

ElevenLabs is a company that offers AI text-to-speech dubbing software. Their pitch deck captures attention instantly because they start with the problem first:

People want to listen to and watch content in their native language.

Then, the deck switches to emphasize how hard it is to have content made in the native language. They explain the dubbing process and the associated costs.

The solution is implied in the next slide:

There are no affordable tools to make content watchable in any language with high quality. (Until now)

The deck then explains how ElevenLabs works, why their tool will be great, and how they’ll solve existing problems with dubbed content. But the hook is what got the attention first.

SpaceX - perfecting the biggest and the boldest idea

SpaceX was founded in 2002. Its mission is to revolutionize space technology and interplanetary travel, mainly between Earth and Mars. The pitch deck is a fascinating read about how the company planned to achieve this feat. It showcases the tech they were developing and explains how they planned to get to Mars. The deck was published in 2017, and by 2024, SpaceX should have achieved its first planned crew missions to Mars. Of course, we know that didn’t happen.

However, their pitch deck is fascinating. Right at the beginning, there is a visual hook – launching a space exploration rocket. But, there is also the headline:

Becoming a multiplanet species.

This hook is one of the boldest statements a company like SpaceX can make. It invites imagination (what is a multiplanet species?), courage (what do we need to do to become that?), and long-term thinking (the Becoming word is almost palpable and clearly states that it’s both a process and a goal).

Sometimes, you don’t have to follow a formula to explain what you’re doing. Sometimes, all the motivation, drive, and vision behind what you’re doing can be condensed into one sentence. Or, even one word.

Perplexity - identifying annoyance and providing a solution

Perplexity is an “answer engine,” and a direct answer to Google’s decaying search engine quality. Once a reliable source of information, Google’s search engine became filled with irrelevant results and sponsored links. Perplexity successfully identified that people were getting annoyed by being unable to find the information they needed, so they developed an AI-based “answer engine”.

And that is how Perplexity starts its pitch deck – by introducing themselves as:

The Future of Search.

Then, they immediately switch to the proven Problem-Agitation-Solution copywriting formula.

We were tired of search engines filled with sponsored links, and search engine-optimized content…when what we really wanted was an answer.

Build the world’s best research assistant, directly answer any question.

This Problem-Agitation-Solution formula worked well; people who were ready to give up on Google switched to Perplexity and were amazed by the results. Google replied by releasing Gemini within its Search engine and is slowly regaining the advantage.

Revolut - the answer to hidden charges and fees

In 2015, when Revolut was starting out, international money transfers were expensive. Having identified a problem many international travellers faced, Revolut seized the opportunity to help by removing hidden charges and fees.

The pitch starts by presenting the problem immediately:

Spending and sending money abroad sucks.

Then, they emphasize why this particular problem “sucks”:

Expensive. Inconvenient. Sneaky.

After a small aside explaining the market size and their target, they propose a solution – an app that will help users exchange, send, and spend money without having to use expensive banking services.

This is another Problem-Agitation-Solution example which worked particularly well, allowing Revolut to position itself as a value-providing alternative to traditional banks. It also positioned Revolut as a future market disruptor and, in time, a market leader.

Anthropic - the mission is the hook

Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is at the forefront of AI research and safety today. When training their models, the company follows a set of principles to ensure the output is honest, helpful, and harmless.

Anthropic’s pitch deck doesn’t follow a set copywriting formula. Instead, they rely on the mission statement:

Building reliable, steerable, interpretable AI systems.

However, the pitch deck immediately goes into achievements, allowing facts to tell the story, and positioning Anthropic at “the cutting edge”. The mission statement, combined with its market positioning, allows this deck to impress the target audience without sounding overly boastful. And they succeeded; Anthropic now holds around 32% of the enterprise LLM share and is valued at USD180 billion.

Visionary or straight-to-the-point - the people still listen

The above pitch decks provide only a glimpse into how storytelling is important to make the audience listen. Each of the companies mentioned in this article had successful investment rounds. Some of them, like SpaceX, had amazing visionary ideas that are so groundbreaking that the audience is instantly hooked. Others, like ElevenLabs, are hyper-focused on solving one particular problem. But both companies raised capital because people believed in their stories.