Mattermark Pitch Deck Breakdown [Let's Explore in Detail]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- 18 hours ago
- 7 min read
Cara, one of our clients, asked us a very sharp question while we were building her pitch deck. She said,
“I saw the Mattermark pitch deck, and isn’t it too long? I’ve always read that a pitch deck should be less than 15 slides.”
Our Creative Director replied,
“There’s no thumb rule to storytelling, and hence there’s no thumb rule to the number of slides.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on many pitch decks throughout the year. And in the process, we’ve observed one common challenge: founders often obsess over the slide count rather than the story.
So, in this blog, we’ll break down the Mattermark pitch deck in detail to see what actually works, what doesn’t, and what you can take away for your own deck.
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.
Why Study the Mattermark Pitch Deck
If you’ve been following the startup world for a while, you’ve probably heard people obsess over “perfect” pitch deck formulas. Ten slides. Twelve slides. The magic structure that guarantees funding. The truth? None of that matters if you don’t get the fundamentals right. And that’s exactly why the Mattermark pitch deck is worth dissecting.
First, it’s long. Thirty slides long.
By conventional wisdom, that should be a red flag. Investors are busy. Attention spans are short. Everyone repeats the mantra of “keep it short.” Yet Mattermark broke that rule unapologetically and still managed to raise millions.
Second, it’s not a conventional deck.
Instead of a tidy flow of problem, solution, and traction, it reads more like a detailed narrative. The kind of story that pulls you in even if you weren’t looking for it. That’s gutsy. And it worked.
Third, it has a lot of information.
Not the throwaway kind of information you’d dump in an appendix, but meaningful data and context. Somehow, they managed to present it in a way that didn’t feel overwhelming. That’s rare, and it’s something every founder can learn from.
And finally, let’s talk about the design.
To be blunt, it’s not good. The slides look dated, the layouts feel crowded, and there’s nothing “slick” about it. But here’s the kicker: it didn’t matter. The deck still did its job because the story was compelling enough to push design flaws into the background.
It challenges everything you’ve been told about pitch decks and forces you to look at what actually matters. That makes the Mattermark pitch deck a fascinating case study.
Mattermark Pitch Deck Breakdown
Here's the Mattermark Pitch Deck for your reference...
The Mattermark pitch deck is the kind of presentation that forces you to rethink the rules. At thirty slides long, it’s unapologetically data heavy and text loaded. In theory, this should have been a recipe for disaster. Yet somehow, it worked. And not just worked, it worked well enough to help them raise millions. Let’s walk through how they pulled it off, slide by slide, and why their choices mattered.
The Setup: A Clear Value Proposition
The very first slide sets the tone with minimalism. Just the logo and a single line: “Organizing the world’s business information.” That’s it. No fluff, no long-winded vision statements, no clever taglines. It’s a clean start that tells you what Mattermark exists to do in its simplest form.
The second slide builds on this by adding just enough detail: “Organizing the world’s business information to answer questions about the companies you want to do business with.” See the shift?
The first slide was about ambition. The second slide grounds that ambition into utility. They are not just organizing information for the sake of it; they are helping you make business decisions. That two-step introduction already gives clarity.
Positioning with a Bold Analogy
Next, the deck makes a confident move: “Mattermark is Google for business people.” Bold comparisons like this are risky, but when done right, they stick. You immediately know where they want to sit in your mental map. Google for consumers, Mattermark for professionals. It’s a smart play because it rides on an existing habit everyone understands — searching for information.
They back this claim with numbers: “250M+ companies, 1000s of markets, billions of people.” Big data points, big credibility. They’re not just talking vision, they’re hinting at scale.
The Problem, Framed with Precision
Then comes the problem slide. It’s clear and blunt: “There is no effective, reliable way for professionals to ask business questions and get credible intelligence supported by data.” That’s a strong statement. And because it’s so strong, they cushion it with context.
Five supporting points soften the edges. “99% of knowledge workers can’t afford consultants.” “When you buy a CRM it comes empty.” These aren’t throwaway lines. They are the kind of everyday frustrations professionals feel, and when you hear them listed like this, the problem feels relatable.
To drive the problem home, they add three screenshots of Google search results gone wrong. Queries that don’t match what you need, results that are off. Simple, visual, and it does the job: search isn’t built for business intelligence.
Shaping the Contrast: Today vs. Future
Mattermark then draws a line in the sand. “Market research today = Google + spreadsheet. Market research of the future = data-driven answers, delivered in a format professionals can use to G.S.D.”
Notice what’s happening here. They’re not only identifying the pain, they’re showing you the upgrade. It’s an old storytelling trick: show the before, then the after. By contrasting today’s clunky tools with tomorrow’s streamlined vision, they make the need for their solution feel inevitable.
Expanding the Market Narrative
The next slide asks: “Who needs a B2B search engine?” The answer? Practically everyone who works with information. They list it out in a timeline:
First 6 months: venture capitalists, angel investors, founders.
Today: sales, marketing, business development professionals.
Tomorrow: management consultants, analysts, researchers.
Someday: investment bankers, executives, knowledge workers.
What this does is expand their addressable market step by step. It’s not just about who uses it now. It’s about how this product grows into more verticals over time. For investors, this is catnip.
They back this up with specifics. “Prospecting and lead qualification” is broken down into actual market sizes: “30,000 VC and private equity professionals, 568,000 sales managers and professionals, $3 billion revenue opportunity in existing verticals.” It’s not vague talk. It’s numbers you can run with.
Traction Through Data
If there’s one thing investors love, it’s traction. Mattermark dedicates multiple slides to proving they have it.
They show monthly recurring revenue (MRR) growth with a chart. On top of it, they highlight $125K MRR with a staggering 377% CAGR. That’s the kind of stat that grabs attention immediately.
The next slide sets an ambitious goal: $10M ARR at a 13.5% monthly growth rate. Again, backed by a chart. Then they dive into revenue by use case and highlight that business development revenue is growing two to three times faster. Instead of hiding behind averages, they’re showing how different revenue streams behave. That depth adds credibility.
Keeping the Story Fresh with Section Breaks
At this point, the deck has thrown a lot of data at you. To avoid overwhelming the audience, they use section breaks. For example, a slide titled “Core questions to answer” resets the flow. Then they move into examples of how those questions get answered.
They use paired slides effectively. One asks, “How do we optimize our supply chain?” The next answers, “Suppliers, manufacturers, distributors.” Another asks, “Who do we need to hire or acquire to build it?” The following answers, “M&A recruiting.” That continuity makes the flow easy to follow.
Not every slide shines, though. One slide literally just says “Who needs it” in the center, surrounded by use cases like management consulting, investment banking, and R&D. The layout is messy, the background cluttered. Yet, the content still lands because it connects back to the big theme: this tool is for business people.
They even double down on that with a minimalist slide that says only: “a.k.a Business People.” At first glance, it feels like wasted real estate. But in storytelling, pauses matter. That slide acts as a beat in the narrative, giving the audience a moment to absorb before moving on.
Scaling the Data Story
To reinforce momentum, they show a chart with the headline “500K+ companies currently tracked by Mattermark.” Then another section break: “We found a way to go faster.”
The follow-up chart shows rapid growth: “Pace: 3M companies by September 2015.” The message is simple — not only do they have data, but they’re scaling at speed. This reassures investors that the product is compounding in value.
Humanizing with the Team
After all the data, Mattermark shifts gears. A slide says “Leadership Team,” followed by six slides packed with details on the founding team and leadership. Normally, we’d say six slides on team is overkill. But in this case, it works because the earlier slides were so product and data focused. The team section balances the deck by proving there are capable people behind the vision.
Why It Works Despite Its Flaws
So, what makes this thirty-slide, text-heavy, design-weak deck succeed? Three things.
Clarity of story.
Every slide builds on the last. Even when the design is clunky, the flow of the narrative keeps you engaged.
Evidence everywhere.
They didn’t just make claims. They backed every big statement with data, charts, or relatable examples.
Courage to break rules.
Instead of cutting down their story to fit a formula, they expanded it to the length it deserved. That boldness gave investors the full picture.
The Mattermark pitch deck is proof that rules are guidelines, not laws. Thirty slides didn’t stop them. Bad design didn’t stop them. The strength of the story carried it through. And that’s the real lesson for anyone building a pitch deck today.
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If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.