The Alan Pitch Deck [Analysis + What Worked]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Aug 25, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Feb 8
Ariel, one of our clients, asked us an interesting question while we were working on her pitch deck:
“Why did Alan’s pitch deck get so much attention from investors?”
Our Creative Director answered instantly:
“Because it told the story investors wanted to hear without wasting a second.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on many pitch decks throughout the year and in the process, we’ve observed one common challenge: most founders struggle to balance vision with simplicity. They either get too dreamy or too data-heavy, and in both cases, the message gets lost.
So, in this blog we’ll talk about what made Alan’s pitch deck stand out, why it worked, and the lessons you can borrow for your own fundraising story.
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
Here's the Alan Pitch Deck for your reference...
Let's Breakdown and Explore What Worked in the Alan Pitch Deck
The Cover Slide That Set the Tone
Alan didn’t bother dressing things up. Their cover slide was straightforward: logo, tagline, and a simple note at the bottom — Investor Deck, November 2017. That’s it.
If you’ve seen enough pitch decks, you know this is rare. Too many founders treat the cover slide like the front page of a glossy magazine. They cram it with images, add a cryptic tagline, or worse, leave it blank because they “want to surprise the audience later.” Alan didn’t play that game. They knew the first impression wasn’t about looking fancy, it was about setting the tone.
And that tone was clarity.
The Bold Opening Statement
The very next slide hit investors with one crisp line:
We are Alan. Health insurance made simple.
That’s it. Seven words. But in those seven words, they did something most founders struggle with — they told you exactly what they do and why it matters.
Here’s why that worked. Investors get pitched dozens of times a week. Their mental bandwidth is thin. The moment your opening line sounds like a riddle, they tune out. Alan went the opposite way.
Instead of trying to be clever, they went straight for clarity. They didn’t claim to be “transforming the future of holistic health ecosystems.” They said they were making health insurance simple. Investors immediately understood the product category (health insurance) and the differentiator (simplicity).
That opening line was the anchor for the rest of the story.
Credibility in One Breath
Now, a bold claim only works if you back it up. Alan did exactly that in the next breath:
First digital health insurance in Europe.
First independent insurer licensed in France since 1986.
Those two bullets gave the story instant credibility. Investors didn’t just hear about a shiny new app. They heard about a regulated, conservative industry that hadn’t seen new players in decades — and Alan had already broken through the wall.
This is a lesson many founders need to absorb. It’s not enough to say what you do. You need to immediately show why it’s hard and why you’ve already done something rare. Alan didn’t just claim innovation. They proved they were operating in a space where few startups even get to enter. That proof builds trust from slide one.
Why They Were Raising Series A
After establishing who they were and why they mattered, Alan went into the purpose of the raise. Here’s what they outlined:
Become the leader in France for SMBs and freelancers.
Expand into Europe, with two new countries before 2020.
Build a healthcare platform with features that make healthcare management simple, transparent, and differentiated.
Again, notice the clarity. This wasn’t the vague “we want to scale and disrupt healthcare” type of pitch you often hear. It was specific. Three sharp goals: dominate France, expand internationally, and evolve into a broader platform.
This worked because it gave investors a roadmap. They could visualize where their money would go. Too many decks fail here. They ask for money to “grow the team” or “improve the product,” which sounds more like housekeeping than vision. Alan showed ambition tied to concrete milestones.
Investors could already see how the company would look 12, 24, 36 months later.
Showing the Product in Action
Next came the product slides. And this is where Alan showed they understood storytelling better than most.
Instead of writing paragraphs about their features, they showed the product. Clean mockups on mobile and desktop. Nothing overwhelming, just enough to let investors imagine using it.
The messaging repeated one key idea: sign up in five minutes. Employers sign up in five minutes.
Employees sign up in five minutes. That phrase was repeated deliberately. Why? Because repetition anchors an idea. Health insurance is notorious for being slow, bureaucratic, and paper-heavy. By hammering “five minutes,” Alan redefined what health insurance could feel like.
This is a subtle lesson in storytelling. Don’t just tell people your product is simple. Show them, and then repeat the experience until it sticks. By the time investors flipped past those slides, “five minutes” was burned into their brains.
The Employer and Employee Flow
Alan laid out the flow for both employers and employees.
For employers:
Create an account with basic details.
Enter trade register and collective agreement.
Set the employer contribution percentage (minimum 50%, up to 100%).
Add IBAN number for monthly payments.
Sign the contract online.
For employees:
Create an account with basic details.
Add IBAN number for reimbursements.
Provide social security number and address.
Receive the Alan card.
That’s it. Both journeys fit on a single slide each. Clean, step by step, with zero clutter.
Here’s the genius part: they didn’t over-explain. They didn’t drown investors in back-end workflows or insurance compliance details. They simply said, “This is how it works for the user.” That’s the perspective investors care about at this stage.
It’s easy for founders to get lost in the weeds of how clever their tech is. But investors aren’t engineers in this moment, they’re decision-makers asking, “Will customers actually use this?” Alan made it impossible to say no.
Tackling the Employer Pain Point
Next, Alan addressed the pain point head-on: admin work. Employers usually waste hours dealing with insurance paperwork. Alan showed how their dashboard made all of that vanish.
Invite employees in a few clicks.
Track who signed up.
Manage employee lists in real time.
Integrate with payroll systems like PayFit.
The language was again simple. No jargon, no “next-gen HR SaaS solution” kind of phrases. Just plain English that mapped directly to employer headaches.
This is what storytelling in pitch decks really means. You don’t just talk about your product. You frame it in the problems your audience already feels. An investor sitting in that room didn’t need to stretch their imagination — they probably already knew how broken health insurance admin was. And now they were seeing a clean fix.
Smart Sequencing of the Story
If you step back and look at this sequence, it’s masterful.
Start with identity and vision (who we are, what we do, why we matter).
Add instant credibility (first license in decades).
Lay out specific goals for the raise (leader in France, expand, platform).
Show the product in action (mockups, simple flows).
Prove the customer journey is painless (five minutes each).
Address the admin pain point (employer tools).
By the time investors reached the next slides — pricing, benefits, the Alan card — they were already sold on the fundamentals. The first part of the deck wasn’t just an intro. It was a carefully structured setup that made every next claim believable.
And that’s what most founders miss. They think storytelling is about big words or flashy slides. In reality, it’s about sequence. Each slide should answer the next question in your audience’s mind. Alan did this brilliantly. They didn’t rush into financials or market size. They built the story block by block, until it was hard to poke holes in it.
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