

Show HN: My First Product for Founders and Startup Teams - vasylslobodian
http://basetemplates.com/

======
onion2k
Congratulations on launching, and having the confidence to put your product
out there in front of potential customers. You're already farther along than
about 80% of other startups.

Positives - You have a nice website and a good looking product, your message
is clear, and there's no reason why startups, especially those that aren't
'design lead', won't buy. With more templates for different verticals you
could build something big.

Negatives - Your first target market is poor and has _relatively_ few
customers. I would _highly_ recommend considering a tiny pivot to aim more at
middle managers who are presenting but want something better than powerpoint's
builtin templates. There are tens of thousands of those presentations
happening daily. I reckon there's a massive opportunity there.

Also ... I was extremely fortunate to attend a workshop by Nancy Duarte
([http://www.duarte.com](http://www.duarte.com)) once - I would _really_
recommend looking through her portfolio and reading things she's written about
presentation design. My pitch decks are about 1000* better now.

~~~
vasylslobodian
Hey, thanks a lot for your feedback! You just putted a big smile on my face=)
Yes, you're right - The Presentation Market itself really big nowadays (I
simply know this by working as a Presentation Designer=)). The reasons I post
my product to NH: a) Feedback: do my landing page deliver sale message in a
clear and actionable way? b) Audience. I know that most people here are more
interested in "hardware" and "hacking" types of news. But I was also hoping to
find some present and future Founders / Startup Team Members, that are in need
of Pitch Deck Design service (and I actually see a little traction. Just a
little, but some interest anyway=))

p.s. Duarte is a Queen regarding Presentation Design and Speech. You're lucky
to attend at their workshop! I'll definitely do the same when will have a
chance! Thanks again for comments regarding Target Market!

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vasylslobodian
Hey, Vasyl is here, founder of Pitch Deck template. Over the last 3 years I
have helped more than 30 startups to get “Visual Power” for their investor
decks. During my work I have noticed that because of “money saving mode”, most
founders / startup team can’t afford great graphic designers. They’re looking
for graphic work help on their pitch deck with a maximum budget of $150, while
professional designer will charge $400-$500 for work on 10-15 pitch deck.
That’s why I created Pitch Deck - a presentation template that helps founders
to create a visually impressive and effective pitch deck quickly and easily.
Template has up to 5 different slide layouts in each of the following
categories: Title, Problem, Solution, Product, Market, Competition, Traction,
Business Model, Acquisition, Milestones, Team, Financials, The Ask and
Contact. Tool is fully and easily editable. To create your own pitch deck all
you need to do is: 1) have content, 2) PowerPoint on your computer with a
basic knowledge of using it. Price for Regular Template is $29, and we will
charge $49 if you want to get template with your own color palette. All
options include free lifetime updates. We are also offering unique Custom Work
for your pitch deck.

This is my first entrepreneurial attempt and I would really appreciate any
feedback from you, guys. First 20 people can get our Regular or Custom
template for FREE by using the following code: 644601f7f6. To all other folks
from HN community we provide 30% off discount with code “HN30".

~~~
ArekDymalski
After a quick glance at your project I have one suggestion regarding the main
value of PitchDeck. IMHO the most valuable aspect isn't the visual design of
the deck, but the (battle tested I assume) structure to prepare the
presentation.

I think that's the point were most people struggle: which content do I need?
Which should I omit? What content do i need to produce? How to structure all
of this into clear, powerful presentation? After finding the answers for all
these questions, comes the time for graphical design, typography etc.

So, your product seems to have a potential to be more a guide than a template.
And that's something worth emphasizing. Not to mention, that it opens new
possibilities for you to monetize different services.

~~~
allendoerfer
This. You just described the reason why companies buy from Oracle and SAP.
They want the software, but they pay for the knowledge of how it is done
properly.

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zer00eyz
Its interesting.

Would I buy this, no, probably not, and I am in your target market.

Does that mean no one will buy this? Well there are a lot of start ups out
there, and its cheep as chips (one time cost) so someone is going to give you
some money.

Do I think you can recover costs on building and then marketing this, maybe.

If this is a side project, and your doing this as something low key or for
extra cash its probably going to keep you in beer at LEAST.

I have to ask, is it your intent to make this one part of a more robust
offering for folks at the early stage? If it is going to be part of a "larger
offering" then by all means you should pursue that. A basket of 10 tools would
give you more appeal and make it easier to market.

~~~
vasylslobodian
Hey man, thanks for your feedback! Yes, it's kind of side project (but I spent
a good chunk of time to build it). If project goes well (and I see at least
minimum interest to it), I have some space to scale product: templates for
other business needs (conference, small business, real estate maybe); more Pro
service like: Business Plan writing, Market Research, etc.

------
azinman2
The rendering experience on my iPhone 6 (safari) was quite poor. Lots of text
rendering over itself, things off the screen, etc.

Hard to evaluate the product, but personally I would write/iterate on the deck
myself.

~~~
vasylslobodian
hey, thanks for a feedback!

~~~
hanniabu
Using Chrome on Android and idk if paying is messed up or it's supposed to be
like this but the "Base" right up to wrapping "templates" starts right at the
beginning of the page, it would look better if there was even the slightest
padding. Also, the laptop slider is only about 85%on the screen with the right
15% cut off. Again, not sure if this is a bug or planned but those 2 things
make the site look funky in my eyes. Once I scroll past that everything else
looks solid though.

~~~
vasylslobodian
hey, thanks for testing! Regarding 85% of the laptop - the landing page was
specially designed with such cropped layout. Regarding first "bug" \- would it
be possible to screenshot it?

~~~
resu_nimda
The fist bug is just that (on iPhone 6 chrome, for me) your logo is smashed to
the top of the page with no space above it - add some margin/padding.

Also the laptop slider does look strange on the phone (portrait mode) - IMO it
doesn't look intentionally offset, it just looks cut off.

Also the double carousel of slide previews was confusing and didn't seem to
work for me (iPhone 6 chrome). Consider not using a carousel there.
[http://shouldiuseacarousel.com](http://shouldiuseacarousel.com)

~~~
vasylslobodian
thanks, will consider that info!

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jiten_bansal
Its good to see your product, really useful for me and new startups for who
first time approaching to investors. Show your product to
[http://betapage.co](http://betapage.co)

~~~
vasylslobodian
Thanks! Really glad you like it=)

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shivang
I am not sure if i will use this or not. But anyways Congrats on the release
of the product.

What i did not get from the site is sneak peek into the design. Do you have a
link or something where we can see a demo template design.

~~~
vasylslobodian
Thanks for a comment, this is really valuable for me. So to present my
template on a landing page I and my developer created this slide carousel:
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/u1g6io7gxzuq44u/Screen%20Shot%2020...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/u1g6io7gxzuq44u/Screen%20Shot%202015-08-25%20at%2011.23.44.png?dl=0)

But as I understand, you want to see all slides in one document, am I right?
Perhaps a PDF version of template may work here. What do you think?

~~~
shivang
Yes, something on the sort of where i can see a demo pitch. PDF will also be
fine.

~~~
vasylslobodian
get you, thanks. Will add this function

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itaysk
Just an idea: If your business is to help startups raise money, maybe offer
paid coaching\consulting services along with the deck, and then maybe even
make the decks free as a marketing tool.

~~~
itaysk
And I liked your idea and product :)

~~~
vasylslobodian
Thank you! Your idea can really work here, I just need to find relevant
professionals in this field.

------
kumarski
Going head to head with Sketchdeck?

~~~
vasylslobodian
hey, no. For now I'm just sell template and Custom Design option. Sketchdeck
is more "design-agency" oriented service.

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flipp3r
So basically you're selling $25 copies of a powerpoint file?

~~~
mryan
What is your goal with this comment? I'm genuinely curious - so many ShowHNs
result in a vapid comment such as this, and I always wonder what the person
was hoping to achieve.

vasylslobodian - congrats on shipping, good luck with it!

~~~
flipp3r
What I mean is that the value or whatever of what vasylslobodian is selling is
completely nullified as soon as someone uploads a copy to the internet, for
free. Maybe I don't understand the business model, but to me it's the same as
selling music, you might as well give it away for free and offer custom
services around it.

~~~
vijayr
The same can be said of any downloadable thing - music, templates, ebooks,
wordpress plugins etc. And yet, there are many businesses thriving selling
these.

Not everyone is a pirate on the internet

