VUE Pitch Deck

Seed Funding Pitch Deck

Nov 11th, 2019

Using Technology To Push Real Estate Marketing Forward

VUE is a startup real estate & rental marketplace focusing on using technology to push the industry forward. With advanced 360 degree image and video technology we can bring virtual environments of existing spaces to the consumer in an approachable and engaging manner.

No longer do consumers need to thumb through select still images of prospective properties. With VUE, buyers can walk through properties digitally on their mobile phone, tablet, desktop computers and VR headsets. Imagine sitting at your desk in Dallas walking through that new ski chalet without having to get on a plane.

Opportunity Advantage

Bring Residential Architecture To The 21st Century

In the current marketplace there are two ways a prospective buyer of real estate can view the property: 1) Look at still images & 2) Visit the property. What if the buyer can visit and walk the property without ever leaving home? VUE makes this possible.

No longer do consumers have to settle for pre-selected images, scheduling walk-throughs with realtors, or waiting for an open house. With VUE we provide the ability to do end-to-end virtual walkthroughs of properties accessible from all digital platforms: Mobile, Tablet, Desktop & VR.

Experience That Elevates

The current market leaders in real estate marketing focus on harnassing data to educate consumers about their purchases. In today’s world the ability to harnass data is no longer an advantage, is commonplace. A search for real estate online brings you to many different sites, all of which essentially provide the same thing: still images, the MLS listing info, and data. All three of these are essentially public record in today’s day.

VUE intends to focus on what these sites lack: an ability to visually communicate the properties to the client in a convenient manner using virtual technologies that are approachable to the masses. Consumers use VUE because they get what they can’t get elsewhere: an actual understanding of what the property looks like.

Demo

Slideshow like video:

Show what the design process looks like now, what it can look like with us. 2d plans, static 3d images, etc… to virtual walkthroughs, 360 images, 360 image tours, BIM…

There are three questions that you can answer in a demo: what, how, and why. Don’t waste time on “why.” You should have answered this already with your Overview and Problem/Opportunity slides.

You need to focus on “what” and “how.” Whether you emphasize “what” versus “how” depends on your product. Generally, if you do something that’s never (or seldom) been done before, then focus on “what.” If you do something that has been done before, but you do it much easier, faster, or cheaper, then focus on “how”

Marketing Competition

Marketing

Google Ads, Houzz, Existing Contacts, Physical Mailers, Educational Material, SEO Optimization, Industry Events, Social Media Accounts

Sales and Marketing. Let’s say that people are salivating so much after your demo that they’re choking on their spit. Now you have to answer the question, “In a world of TVs, telephones, websites, blogs, social media, and smartphones, how are you going to roll out your product and ‘make a dent in the universe?’”

Again, investors want to believe—you just have to give them something believable. What is believable? Your established contacts with the buyers of large companies—that is, circling back to the Unfair Advantages slide. Investors love it when they hear that you have already lined up brand name, referenceable customers or partners. Other believable means: an email database that your founders have compiled throughout their careers, a successful pitch to SXSW for a panel, 50,000 Twitter followers, and 50,000 Google Plus followers.

Competition

Colorado: Bhh, ALlen-GUerra, Kens firm in Frisco, Other one stop guys, Aspen, etc..

Wisconsin:

Competition. Most entrepreneurs put up a slide that says that there is no competition or that the competition is feeble. The problem with the former is that that lack of competition indicates that you are either addressing a market that doesn’t exist or you don’t know how to search the internet.

The problem with the latter is that the competition probably isn’t feeble if you’re going after a meaningful market. And your competition’s competition slide probably says you’re feeble, but I digress.

You want competition. It shows, though it doesn’t necessarily “prove,” that the market is attractive. Your task with this slide is to show how and why you can beat the competition—that is, what you can do that it can’t. You also want to provide information about your weaknesses vis-à-vis the competitions. There are three reasons to do this.

First, it shows that you know how to use the internet, and you’ve done your research about the capabilities of the competition. Second, it shows that you’re intellectually honest—or at least not delusional. Third, if you tell people what you cannot do, they’ll believe you when you tell them what you can do.

Business Model Forecast

Business Model

Design Contracts: % of construction or $/sf

Construction Management Contracts:

Implementation Contracts:

Real Estate Marketing:

Business Model. Investors are not your friends or your soul mates, so they want to know how you’ll make money—and therefore how you’ll make them money. The key to this slide is simplicity: show that you rely on simple, proven business models, not a new technique that has never been done before. These kinds of business models include sales, licensing, advertising, sponsorship, affiliate fees, digital bling, and upgrades to additional features and services.

Pick one or two and stick with them until you need to try another one or two. Many entrepreneurs throw up (in more ways than one) multiple models because they think several revenue streams will make investors believe that the company is more attractive. However, it’s far better to have one business model that prints money than several that don’t.

In fact, you could purposely exclude an obvious additional revenue stream. Then when an investor has an aha! moment and shows off his brilliant business strategy mind by mentioning it, you could flatter him by adding it to your plans and exclaim, “Wow, this is why we need a seasoned investor like you.” Then, theoretically, the brilliant investor has a psychic investment in your success.

Forecast

First Year Revenue by Category

And then growth by percentage year over year.

The first two rows of the forecast are windows into the soul of your company because it reveals how many customers and employees you need. If you need an ungodly high number of customers to make your sales numbers, you’ll discourage investors. If you need an unrealistically low number of customers, investors will think you’re clueless.

Funding Milestones

Funding

8-10k for 10%

Funding. How much are you raising and how are you going to use the money? To grow a team, to support overhead, to expand? How much have you raised thus far and from whom?

Financing: Describe how much you are raising, and what milestones you will achieve with the money. Good milestones are growth milestones like revenue, customers and users. Each financing is done to get you to either profitability or, more likely, another financing. This is why it is important to get the milestones right. Read this post for more details.

Milestones

Product R&D

WI Real Estate Marketing Website & Marketing Launch

Architecture & Construction Website & Marketing Launch

Status and Milestones. The purpose of this slide is to “tie a bow on the present.” You recap where you are in terms of delivery of your product or service, how customers are reacting to it and what the next major milestones are. A word about milestones: these are events that are so big that you’d call your spouse up to tell him/her that it occurred. For example, printed stationary isn’t a milestone. A milestone is an event such as shipping, first sale to a customer, website launch, or profitability.

Milestones. What is your vision for the future, measured in milestones for the next 3 years? Note that in our board meetings, we will evaluate your progress against these milestones.

Team Legal

Team

Team. This the infamous team slide. You may wonder why it’s not earlier in the pitch. After all, you’ve heard and read that investors invest in teams, not simply products, services, or markets. The problem is that at the point of investment, it’s hard to truly “know” that a team is good. If this was possible, then investors would only back good teams, and every investment would pan out.

The fact is that your team isn’t proven or complete—this is why you’re raising money. If you were Steve Jobs, John Chambers, Steve Case, Larry Ellison, Howard Schultz, Jeff Bezos, or Bill Gates, you (a) wouldn’t need outside money and (b) you could simply make one or two phone calls to get it. You certainly wouldn’t be reading about how to make a good PowerPoint pitch.

The most likely case is that you can show that your backgrounds are relevant to the market that you’re serving and the technology that’s necessary to build. For example, it’s a stretch to think that a bunch of friends from Home Depot are going to find the cure for cancer. But it is believable that they could create a DIY advice site sponsored by Home Depot with ads from Orchard Supply with a freemium model that requires membership to receive answers to questions.

Don’t let this depress you. The people who founded the great tech successes—Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Cisco, YouTube, and so on—were hardly proven entrepreneurs. In fact, you could make the case that these companies represent unproven teams in unproven markets with unproven technology. In other words, they were zero for three according to what “professional” investors say they are looking for.

This is why the Demo slide is earlier in the presentation than the Team slide. A mind-blowing demo makes up for a lot of shortcomings and objections. I’d rather see a great demo than a great presentation. Ideally, you’ll have both.

Legal

Business Organization. CO, WI & Future expansion.

Architect and others ownership to be determined on a state by state basis. No guarantee on work in states out of CO and WI yet.